Crisis at hand
We may not be inclined to set a process rolling to reverse the climate change that we have been facing over the past several years now. But the harsh reality is that we have a crisis at hand and this needs to be resolved sooner because tomorrow may be too late.
Though things are quite visible and even a place like ours where the environmental degradation was somewhat experienced at a lover measure, climate change is affecting our lives and even may hit us hard if we fail to take measures at an earliest.
The onus of kick-starting a process to reverse the huge impact of climate change falls surely on developed economies and they are the most to leave behind a huge impact on the environment.
Ironically, no country in the world is willing to come forward and help in providing solutions and support to reverse the deep impact environmental degradation has had on the planet.
Even few months back the UN’s framework convention on climate change (UNFCCC) held in Baku, Azerbaijan proved a disappointment. A key failure in Baku was about how much money developing nations will be paid for adaptation projects that help communities and infrastructure withstand the impacts of climate change.
The outcome included US$300 billion for both adaptation and mitigation with no clarity on whether this will be in the form of grants or loans. This falls far short of what developing countries need.
Developed countries met their annual target to channel over US$100 billion to developing countries for the first time in 2022. But this included too many loans and not enough grants. The true value is closer to a quarter of what donors stated they’d given once the cost of repayment is factored in.
The failure to act by the developed world has dented the UNFCCC’s credibility which of course can be restored when countries take responsibility for their actions and deliver the money they promise.
Notably, the Paris agreement on climate change proved a glimmer of hope. It brought 196 countries together around a clear goal. However, the grouping is purely voluntary and lacks legal enforcement and is based on what countries want to do in terms of reducing their own emissions and supporting others to do so.
The world has evolved since 1992 when the UN climate convention was signed. Countries like China, and some other countries that were developing are now large and carbon-intensive economies.
New sources of money and different funders are more important than ever. New money must be additional to the obligations of developed countries and must not make up for their shortfall. Developing countries have long provided climate finance to each other, which has not been acknowledged.
Tackling climate change requires a multi-faceted approach that involves individuals, communities, organizations and the governments working together. The developing world needs to be taken along to help achieve the targets set for the next two decades to control the environmental degradation and set limits for carbon emissions. All this will need long term commitment from the developed world to provide all sort of help and expertise to the developing nations.
