Oil and gas chiefs should be held to account over lack of action on climate warnings

We now know it will be impossible to avoid hitting a global temperature increase of 1.5C above pre-industrial levels regardless of what we do. That target has now slipped from our fingers, and it comes with a heavy price: more deadly weather events; an ice-free Arctic; and annual extreme sea level events that used to occur just once in a century. That’s a bitter pill to swallow.

It will take a lot of effort over the next few years to wrangle our planet away from the cliff-edge of a 2C increase, but there is hope, still, that this is achievable. And hope also that we can reverse some of the damage if we commit to becoming net zero by the middle of the century. This isn’t the end – but it is a warning that we ignore at the cost of our planet, and the future of our species.

Perhaps the most existentially difficult piece of news to grapple with, however, is simply this – while we may be able to reverse some of the effects of climate change and save our planet from the worst of it, we will not see the fruit of the changes we make now. Together, we will live through a time of extreme and violent weather, flooding and drought. We will face the challenges that come with entire coastal communities being obliterated by rising sea levels. We will need to reckon with the extinction of whole species.

READ MORE: Siccar Point Energy: Cambo oil field developer hit with criticism for tax haven status

There is no avoiding the fact that these changes are not for us, but the generations that will come after. You and I will never again know a world that is not devastated by the effects of global climate change.

Doesn’t it compound the injustice of that fact to know that this was a future chosen for us by a small group of powerful and wealthy individuals, who not only contributed to this problem but have, at every step, stymied any and all solutions to it?

The oil and gas industry is not by any means the only contributor to the ecological collapse we are facing, but I do not think any other sector has so systematically hidden the truth from us about just how profoundly their actions would affect us.

Executives at oil and gas giants like Shell and Exxon (now ExxonMobil) had scientific reports in their dirty hands 40 years ago detailing how carbon emissions would affect the planet – and chose to hide that data from the public.

Beyond that, oil and gas companies have spent millions over the past decades trying to obscure and undermine the science around climate change in the face of what their own analysts told them. BP invented terms such as “carbon footprint” to push responsibility for carbon emissions off the industry and on to the shoulders of the public when their respective contributions weren’t even comparable.

At this moment still, while huge swathes of the planet are burning and we are being told that European summers will reach temperatures of 40C degrees within the decade, oil giant Shell is appealing a ruling that requires the company to cut down on its carbon emissions.

That the new Cambo oil field off Shetland is even being considered is mind boggling.

THINK of the technology and world we would have right now had we spent the past 40 years focused on finding clean and green alternatives to fossil fuels while supporting a just transition away from the industry, instead of pointlessly equivocating on whether or not humans were contributing to global warming. How manifestly better would our planet be? And how many lives would have been saved?

According to a recent report, more than five million excess deaths annually could now be attributed to abnormal hot and cold extremes as a result of climate change – a statistic that’s set to get worse as global temperature continues to rise.

By the year 2100, that could be upwards of 83 million future lives lost. And that’s just as a result of extreme heat and cold. Neither deadly fires nor rising sea levels discriminate between wildlife, property and human beings in their impartial destruction.

READ MORE: Boris Johnson has to display some mettle and cancel Cambo oil field plans

The sheer amount of death and loss that we have and will continue to face is almost the equivalent of a Holocaust every single passing year for the next century.

How could we not look at those responsible at enacting this plan, who knew its destination, who have spent millions in ensuring we never wavered from it, and conclude anything other than that we have witnessed crimes against humanity carried out by the boardrooms of these powerful companies?

Every wealthy and powerful executive in the oil and gas industry deserves to face trial at The Hague for their role in the deaths of millions, and for the irreversible damage they have knowingly caused our planet to satiate their own greed.

Simply put, those responsible always knew that their ill-gotten wealth would shield them from the effects of a burning planet – but where is the justice in allowing them to do so while the rest of us deal with the consequences of their apathy?