Adapting without surrendering …. It can be done!

The Paris Agreement adopted in 2015 was a historic celebration! It was the first time, in more than thirty years of climate conferences, that the world community managed to agree on an ambitious and above all binding objective: To reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels (1).

However, Greenhouse Gas(GHG) emissions have continued to rise since the COP, reaching a new all-time high in 2023. Scientists now believe that this trajectory of growth in GHG’s is unsustainable, and above all that it is no longer possible to limit global warming to 1.5°C (2).

The result is that climate change is accelerating at record speed, and the consequences are being felt more and more: heatwaves, forest fires, droughts, heavy rainfall, floods, loss of biodiversity, reduced agricultural yields, etc.

So we need to prepare for, and above all, adapt to climate change because we won’t be able to stop it. But we’ll always be able to mitigate it, now isn’t the time to bury our heads in the sand!

It will not be enough to blindly trust technological progress or to only consume “green”. To have a real impact, we must strengthen the fight against the causes of climate change and, above all, not be afraid to face reality.

The reality is that we’ll have to adapt and reduce our consumption habits – and it can be done! For example, young people who drive less and less, who eat less and less meat and who wear second-hand clothes, etc.

The reality is that we are also going to have to get rid of fossil and nuclear fuels – and it can be done! For example Austria, who today covers 2/3 of its energy needs with renewable energies (3).

Finally, the reality is that we will also have to give up the linear economy – and it’s doable! Esch-sur-Alzette, for example, and its many actors who’ve been working for years on projects that engage the logic of the circular and sharing economy. On the public side : the City of Esch directly, the SIVEC resource center, etc. And on the civil society side : Transition Minett, CIGL Esch, the Formida Center, FerroForum etc.

Proof that we can adapt without capitulating, for and with people, at all levels of society!

Eric Weirich

with the support of Eric Lavillunière