Dr Ashwani Mahajan
Yet again a conference under the aegis of United Nations is scheduled to be held in Paris in the month of October to discuss and solve the problem of climate change or in other words to save life on this earth. Rising pollution and temperature levels is a reality world over, affecting humanity globally and this menace has been endangering the life on this planet. Long summers, deficit and untimely rains, devastating floods etc. present a big danger for the humanity. In cities, pollution has reached at unsustainable level, whereby humans cannot even breathe.
Human Life
There is no doubt that emission of green house gases, which results in rising temperature has been causing melting of glaciers and rising sea levels; which in aggregate is termed as ‘climate change’ has been endangering the existence of humanity. If same conditions persist in future, It may take only a few decades (not centuries) to finish humanity on earth. Humans, especially citizens of developed countries are themselves responsible for this situation that has increased their energy consumption to dangerous levels, taking emission of green house gases to dangerous levels. It is notable that consumption of industrial goods has been rising in leaps and bounds. Rising production of industrial goods has also resulted in peaking emission levels. All this had led to increase in temperature of the earth what we called ‘global warming’.
By 2013, total emission of carbon dioxide had reached record 35.3 billion tonnes and it has been rising continuously. It is estimated that if earth’s temperature is not to be allowed to increase beyond 2 percent from the present level, emission of green house gases will have to be reduced by 3 percent annually. Pollution and other ‘climate change’ statistics are giving alarm bell for the universe. Decimation of humanity is imminent under the circumstances. Fast depleting Antarctic ice cover, constantly rising temperature, rising emissions etc. are all indicating towards, devastation of this universe.
UN Initiative
At the initiative of UN, efforts started toward coping with this menace, United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNCCC) in held every year, which ultimately resulted in Kyoto protocol, adopted unanimously in 1997. According to the agreement so reached at Kyoto (Japan), there was a target to reduce combined emissions to 5 percent below 1990 level.
After the expiry of commitment period of Kyoto Protocol, in 2012, in Doha conference, countries of European Union offered to reduce their emissions, however other developed countries were not supportive of these proposals. Rather they indicated that they were not interested in reducing emission of green house gases.
Failed Talks
Kyoto Agreement perhaps is the only agreement, in which even though USA decided to opt out; most of the other developed countries committed to reduce their emission levels. After the expiry of Kyoto protocol, though it was extended to 2015 at the first instance; however, for extending the same to 2020 is getting very cold response from the developed world. In Doha (Qatar) 2012, Warsaw (Poland) 2013 and Lima (Peru) 2014 Conferences ended almost in fiasco and no encouraging results could be drawn. Discussion about impact of climate change did take place, but without any solid plan to deal with this menace.
In 2013 conference held in Warsaw (Poland), 132 countries walked out in support of their demand that developed countries provide $100 billion annually to developing and underdeveloped countries to compensate them for their losses from global warming and preparing them adopt technology to reduce their emissions levels. Lima (Peru) Conference in 2014, discussed about how to reduce green house gases emissions to such a level that global temperature does not increase by more than 2 degree Celsius by 2050.
100 Billion Dollars Question
Industrialization and constantly increasing consumption of the developed countries and resulting rising global temperature, rising sea level and tinkering with the nature by humans, has been compelling developing countries to demand for funds from the developed countries to deal with climate change and finance requisite technologies to reduce green house gases emissions. Developed countries promised in 2009 that by the year 2020, they will be providing $100 billion annually. However experience so far is that they are getting hardly $20 billion annually which is far less than the target of $100 billion by 2020.
How to raise this amount to $100 billion by 2020, there is neither an agreement on the ‘roadmap’, nor developed countries are ready to make any commitment to this effect. India, Brazil, China, South Africa etc. were never happy with this attitude of developed countries. Developing countries are not very hopeful about the outcome of the next conference proposed in Paris (France), as they feel developed countries have been trying to push this conference to failure. In the meanwhile USA and China have signed agreement to mutually reduce their green house gases emissions, making it further difficult to have a global agreement on climate change.
World GDP is $75,000 billion, 67.8 percent of which is held by rich countries, where only 18.3 percent population lives; and middle-income countries, with 69.7 percent population, get merely 31.4 percent. Poor countries, whose per capita income is less than $ 664; and where 12 percent of the world’s population lives, get poor 0.8 percent of world’s GDP. For rich countries to provide $ 100 billion annually, to poor countries, by 2020 is not a very big deal. Poor countries face the twin challenge of climate change and the development. They need to be supportive in this endeavor to deal with the issue of climate change. However, most unfortunate part of the whole story is that rich countries and the market are both insensitive towards the groan of humanity. If they (rich nations) continue to ignore the issue of climate change and their primary duty to provide support, end of human life is imminent (sooner or later).
(The author is Associate Professor, PGDAV College, University of Delhi).
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