The 30th United Nations climate conference, COP30, currently under way in Belém, Brazil, shows that the climate crisis continues unabated. The crisis is unfolding amid wars and rising hardship in France and around the world.

Just as we cannot count on state leaders to put an end to wars, exploitation or poverty, it would be suicidal to rely on them to combat global warming.

“Suicidal” is the right word because global warming is ultimately a matter of life or death for humanity. Rising temperatures of the Earth, its oceans and its atmosphere can very well set off a series of irreversible chain reactions making the planet simply uninhabitable.

Torrential downpours, floods, heatwaves, devastating wildfires, droughts, cracked buildings, threatened crops… we are already suffering from global warming. The situation is worse in poor countries where rising temperatures result in famine and force millions of women and men to migrate.

Combating global warming should be a given for any responsible leader with even the slightest conscience. But the leaders of this capitalist society are accountable only to shareholders and the rich.

Thirty years have passed since the first COP. For thirty years scientists have been sounding the alarm and proposing technical solutions to combat global warming; for thirty years, governments have been claiming to take the problem seriously; and for thirty years greenhouse gas emissions have been constantly rising — so much so that we are on the point of reaching the 1.5°C increase that was originally projected for… 2100!

Their alleged fight against global warming has failed. Who could be surprised? Those in charge aren’t even capable of solving such basic problems as making sure every human being has access to food, drinking water, housing and education.

The reason they are so incapable is because the goal of the capitalist class isn’t to satisfy people’s needs. Its priority is to make profits by selling anything and everything. Just like the orchestra in the Titanic continued to play while the ship was sinking, the bourgeoisie continues to do business as if nothing were happening.

Trump ran his campaign with the slogan “Drill, baby, drill” to promote American oil and now he wants to dig up the ocean floor. Musk alone would have the means to transition the economy towards renewable energy but he couldn’t care less — instead he promises to revolutionize the world by flooding the market with humanoid robots. At least, they won’t have respiratory problems!

Various governments’ failure to act on climate change is covered up by the progress made in terms of renewable energy. They have encouraged capitalists to install wind turbines and solar panels by giving them subsidies. But public money has its limits and the pace at which investments are made barely keeps up with the growing demand in energy. Ultimately, oil and natural gas consumption continues to increase. Even in China, where there has been a surge in renewable energy, coal consumption continues to grow steadily.

Today, the capitalist class and the politicians at its service don’t even pretend to mobilize for the climate anymore. In the United States, Trump calls global warming a “hoax” and major corporations no longer have to bother cultivating an environmentally-friendly image: so long as profits are being made, pollution and global warming are of no concern! ArcelorMittal has already abandoned plans to invest in decarbonized steel in Dunkirk, bluntly explaining that it isn’t profitable.

The priority of all government leaders is trade war, remaining competitive on the market and rearming. Electric batteries are no longer the hype — army tanks, missiles and drones are. Trump has even announced he intends to resume nuclear bomb testing, an idea also adopted by Putin.

If the capitalists and their political lackeys march in the same direction on a global scale, they do so in a headlong rush to get their share of the market, natural resources and profits and by using their military force to intimidate their competitors.

As long as the accumulation of private wealth and the race for profits are the only things that guide society and as long as competition and borders reign instead of international solidarity, humanity will remain prisoner to exploitation, war and environmental crises. To give all of humanity a different future, the capitalist class and its crazy system must be overthrown.

Nathalie Arthaud