Opportunities Lost
In response to calls from every corner of the world, there is a need for urgent and ambitious climate action.
The success of the July 1972 Stockholm Conference on Human Environment was indeed a landmark achievement for humanity because it kicked off a new era of environmental protection and conservation at the state level, a major shift from purely economy-centric to more humane and environment-centric state policies. For the first time in world history, government and state leaders from 113 countries put their thoughts together for nearly two weeks at the UN level to identify and prioritize environmental issues and find solutions. The Stockholm Declaration identified 26 principles and advised the member states to implement them within their territorial jurisdiction.
In 1983, the UN Secretary General, Javier Peres de Cuellar, invited Norwegian Prime Minister Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland to chair the World Commission on Environment and Development, popularly known as the Brundtland Commission. The Commission was mandated to identify environmental concerns such as population growth, global warming, deforestation, species loss and toxic waste and to develop a model for sustainable development. The World Commission on Environment and Development was dissolved in 1987 after it published its report “Our Common Future” that emphasized the need and importance of “Sustainable Development” at the global level.
Recommendations of the Brundtland Commission were placed before the participants from 172 countries at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. The accomplishments of the Rio Summit include not only ‘Agenda 21’, a model for sustainable development in the 21st century but also achieving global agreement on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as well as Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The convention came into force in March 1994 with the objective to stabilize greenhouse gas emissions at a level that would prevent dangerous human-induced interference with the climate system.
Regular sessions of the COP to the UNFCCC are held annually to manage their affairs, frame policy guidelines, and consider international protocols and agreements for implementation. In December 1997, during the COP3, held in Kyoto, Japan, the Kyoto Protocol was adopted, which binds its Parties to reduce emission targets. However, intense political lobbying against the Kyoto protocol by the US, China, Russian Federation, etc., delayed its enforcement till Feb. 16, 2005, indicating severe disagreement between member states on controlling emissions.
The COP15 held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in Dec. 2009 with participation from 196 countries, turned out be a fruitless exercise as it failed to reach consensus about a binding international agreement for the same reasons that delayed the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol for eight years. However, six years later in Dec. 2015, the Paris Agreement was finally adopted by all parties in COP21, that came into force in November 2016. The treaty was further strengthened during COP24 held in Katowice, Poland, in December 2018.
With this in the backdrop, a world of over seven billion people continues to get repeatedly battered by disasters with ever-increasing intensity. These include heatwaves, wildfires, hurricanes, droughts, flash rains, GLOFs (Glacial Lake Outburst Floods), rapid glacial melting, floods, sea level rise, species extinction and food insecurity and they have all proven to be linked to climate change. The world was yearning to hear good news from Madrid, where COP25 was held in December 2019. The global community was anticipating a unanimous and stronger international commitment on emission control within the timelines identified in the historic Paris Agreement of 2015.
Since 1998, global warming has manifested itself through an upward surge in the mean annual global temperature over land and sea. The hottest years on record have been experienced non-stop from 2013 through 2019. The latest figures suggest 2019 is the new second hottest year after 2016. This steady increase in heat intensity is proportional to the increase in atmospheric concentration of CO2 gas that has increased from 300 to 411 ppm, establishing an undeniable link between carbon emissions, heat intensity and natural disasters. In 2019 alone, extreme weather events have cost the world more than US$ 100 billion worth of damage but the total economic losses during the last two decades go up to US$ 3 trillion.
Contrary to public aspirations, however, the outcomes of the 2019 UN Climate Change Conference are disappointing. Millions of climate activists, scientists, and workers in organizations across the world are completely bewildered at the indifference shown by a small group of rich nations to human suffering and economic losses during the last two decades. In the words of Greta Thunberg, the young climate activist, “the COP seems to have turned into some kind of opportunity for countries to negotiate loopholes.” This indicates the gist of dillydallying tactics adopted by various delegates. The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has also openly expressed his disappointment on the outcomes and termed them a lost opportunity. He asked the participants “Do we really want to be remembered as the generation that buried its head in the sand?”
Apart from organizational matters, the agenda of the 25th Conference of Parties (CoP) included review of reports from subsidiary bodies for scientific, technological advice and implementation, reports from parties to UNFCCC, reports from the Adaptation Committee, matters related to finances, transfer of technology, capacity-building, least developed countries, gender and climate change and proposals to amend articles 4, 7 and 18 of the convention.
In the final analysis, it becomes very clear that the delay in enforcement of the Kyoto Protocol for eight long years, the failure of COP15 at Copenhagen in Dec. 2009, and COP25 at Madrid in Dec. 2019, show complete unanimity on the science of climate change and its consequences but shy away from climate action. It seems so true that “we are living on this planet as if we had another one to go to”. Should this rift continue for just a few more years, the world would turn into a very uncomfortable place to live for humans, especially citizens of the most vulnerable nations and age groups. Notwithstanding any difficulty in reaching the ultimate global consensus on climate action, the UN Secretary General, along with millions of climate activists, would struggle even harder to make the dream come true before the planet Earth is reduced to a place that is habitable only by the rich, technologically resourceful people and nations.
The writer is former Chairman, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Peshawar. He can be reached at |
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