Climate emergency calls for real action, not child's play

With the annual United Nations climate change conference commencing in Belem, Brazil, on Thursday, the global community is once again reminded of the urgency of meaningful and concerted efforts to counter climate change.

But as delegates from around the world convene for COP30 to seek consensus on climate-change solutions, some media outlets in the United States have been speculating that through its decision earlier this year to withdraw from the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement, the US may have handed China a huge victory at the conference in Belem. Their intent is to undermine Beijing's efforts to rally countries to the cause.

The US announced its withdrawal from the Paris Agreement for the second time on Jan 20, following an executive order issued by US President Donald Trump on his first day in office at the commencement of his second presidency. A White House spokeswoman confirmed recently that the US will not send any highlevel representatives to COP30. In the absence of US leadership, the US media concluded, China might take a more leading and direct role in the climate-change negotiations.

I was shocked by such a viewpoint and the mindset behind it. First of all, let us be clear, no country can win in the collective fight against global warming if such a competitive mindset lingers — in fact there will be no winners at all if we fail to adhere to climate multilateralism.

This is a lesson my 7-year-old son learned recently. An avid player of a popular shooter game, he had always approached the game with a single-minded focus: eliminate as many opponents as possible. For him, victory was measured by the number of enemies he could take down. But during his last visit to the gaming arena, something changed. The company that runs the game has introduced a new "capture the flag" challenge, whereby the objective has shifted from the number of kills to the shared goal of seizing or defending the flag. My son and many of his peers have struggled to adapt. They have clung to their old mindset, prioritizing the number of kills over the collective goals. The result? They have lost every game.

The parallels to the climate crisis are striking. For too long, some nations have approached climate action with a competitive mindset, as shown by the divisive speculation of the US media.

Such a mindset puts at risk not just its holders' future but also that of all. Climate change knows no borders, and its impacts — whether rising sea levels, scorching heat waves, devastating hurricanes or crippling droughts — will spare no nation.

The truth is, there is no victory in a world where polar ice caps are melting, ecosystems are collapsing and entire communities are being displaced. The only path forward is one of collaboration, where nations set aside their differences and work toward a common goal.

The capture-the-flag analogy offers a valuable lesson. In that game, success depends on how well you work together to achieve a shared objective. The same is true for climate action. We must move beyond the outdated mindset of competition and embrace cooperation. This means investing in renewable energy, sharing technologies and supporting vulnerable nations in their climate struggles.

As COP30 kicks off, the world must recognize that climate change is not a game. There are no winners or losers, only collective success or collective failure.

My son is still young. He needs time to learn about the ways of the world. But the journalists who wrote those speculative reports and the experts who joined the discussions are not youngsters anymore. They should stop acting like children.