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| Achieving a "Universal Agreement" on Climate!! | | COP 21 CLIMATE CHANGE SUMMIT | | Dr. Pragya Khanna
More than 100
heads of government, 150 nations and 40,000 other attendees met on Nov. 30 for the launch of the two-week long United Nations conference on climate change, formally known as the 21st Conference of Parties (COP 21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to yield the most significant international agreement meant to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, and slow the effect of climate change. COP 21 represents an historic opportunity to put the world on track to meet the climate change challenge. The world needs a new model of growth that is safe, pliant, resilient, favourable and beneficial to all. The purpose of COP21 is to deliver a clear pathway with short and long term targets, and a system to help us gauge and increase progress over time until we get the job done.
The main idea is to cap the rate of global warming at 2 degrees Celsius compared to the current 2.5 to 3.76 degrees Celsius by reducing dependence on fossil fuels and shifting towards cleaner energies such as wind or solar power.
Looking at the current scenario it is pertinent to look at the bigger picture encompassing the past, the present and the future. Global warming has started since the mid-19th Century, when industrial-scale emissions began. Now scientists say even a 2 degrees Celsius rise in global temperature will mean faster melting of glaciers and polar ice caps and a corresponding rise in sea level that will devour the land area. Droughts will be longer and more frequent, and shortage of drinking water will be acute food and water shortages will boost conflict over resources, mass migration and state failure.
Last year, the global carbon emissions were the highest ever. China is considered the biggest polluter, followed by the US, the European Union, India, Russia and Japan. In 1997, Kyoto Protocol, a resolution formed after a climate conference in Japan set requisite goals/targets for carbon emission. However, the US never accepted the Kyoto protocol and several other countries who signed the agreement also pulled out. Since then, developed nations have taken only a few steps to considerably cut carbon emissions.
India says the developed countries must bear a higher burden than developing countries to contain climate change, because they have been largely accountable for pollution over the last 200-odd years, which is logical enough. But the US doesn't agree. It wants India and China to cut emissions sharply. China has set a goal for peaking its emissions by 2030. India, whose emission last year was roughly half of China's, argues that clubbing the two countries and expecting commitments on an equal platform is unfair. India's 25-member delegation focussed on PM Modi's call for 'Climate Justice' and 'common but differentiated responsibilities', despite being under pressure from the developed nations to cut down on emission.
Climate justice includes a focus on the core causes of climate change and making the universal changes that are therefore required, a promise to address the disproportionate and uneven load of the climate crisis on the poor and marginalized, a demand for participatory democracy in changing these systems which require dismantling the fossil fuel corporate power structure, and a commitment to compensation and thus a fair and reasonable distribution and sharing of the world's wealth.
Nowadays, even the movement to fight climate chaos is shifting. Activists are re-defining themselves and changing their strategies. A growing number of people are turning away from the identity of "environmentalist" and instead are identifying as "climate justice activists."
This movement is new, and the concept of "climate justice" remains poorly articulated, while the need for clarity is urgent. What is climate justice? How is it different from environmentalism or social justice? How do climate justice activists understand the operations of power that are creating climate chaos? What are our theories of change in response to that understanding? What therefore is the strategy and trajectory of the climate justice movement?
The Climate Change summit is crucial to save the Earth from the crippling pollution, and other waste material, plus deforestation created by man through industrial activity that are changing the planet in unanticipated ways and may cause innumerable human sufferings in the near future, worst case situation presages famines, floods, cities like Mumbai, New York going underwater as sea levels rise, toxic air and worse.
Indian Govt. set the tone for the summit with his statement that it is the responsibility of all to work against global warming and rising green house gas emissions. Moreover, even more significantly, India has to battle West's demands on countries like India, China and other emerging markets to cut back emissions as this may knock economic growth prospects.
COP 21 comes at a time when scientists are telling us that the substantiation for destructive climate change is greater than ever. Average temperatures reached a record high in 2014, and the U.N. confirmed recently that 2015 would likely be the hottest on record. In the face of those realities, countries like the U.S., China and Canada have shown newfound interest in addressing climate change. Even oil producing countries like Saudi Arabia, which could face unlivable temperatures in the coming century, have submitted plans to address global warming.
Therefore, the governments of the world are being asked to agree on a global treaty that would address several key elements: 1) an ambitious upper limit on the amount of warming that humanity should countenance as acceptable and somehow safe for future generations, 2) a legally binding set of measures that all countries would agree on to achieve that goal, and 3) mobilization of the technical and financial resources to ensure that all countries would have the means to make the transition to a low or zero carbon way of life, and to do so in a way that enables the rapid emergence of the global South from poverty and inequality in the name of social justice.
President Barack Obama has sought to position the U.S. as a global leader on climate, hoping to reverse years of inaction and outright opposition by Washington at past UN climate conferences. Domestically, Obama has instituted a slew of policies to push a decline in greenhouse gas emissions. Chief among them is the Clean Power Plan, which calls for a 32% reduction in carbon emissions from power plants from 2005 levels by 2030. On the international front, Obama has signed up the U.S. for a number of bilateral climate agreements, including joint commitments with China.
In light of the above, today as the climate crisis becomes more horrifying and we come to terms with the fact that what we have been doing so far is not working, it is more imperative than ever to move to that next stage, where "climate justice" becomes a household term like elimination, suffrage or divestment, and everyone knows what the goals of the climate justice movement are. I am hoping to contribute to this process of definition, and would like to hear from others as we move toward more lucidity and a more thorough enunciation of the concept of "climate justice." Lets start the comments rolling! |
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