Environment, Climate Change and Road to COP 27
A few illustrations of the adverse impact of GHG are Land Degradation, Lower Soil Productivity, Forced Migration, Poverty, Drought, Disruption of Water Cycle, Poor Water Retention, Retention lack of Food Security. Some of the major concerns are Loss of bio-diversity such as, Loss of species, Loss of genetic resources, Agricultural vulnerability, Habitat destruction, Loss of ecosystems. — Dr. Dhanpat Ram Agarwal
The 27thAnnual Conference on Environment and Climate Change, popularly known as COP-27 is going to be held at Sharm-El Sheikh, Egypt on November 6-18 to take the stock of the development and the future commitments for meeting the target of maintaining the Earth temperature at 1.5 degree Celsius as per the decisions taken at the United Nations Framework Conference on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and as agreed by the countries in 2015 as pert he Paris Agreement signed in 2015.The last COP-26 was held in November last year at Glasgow, UK.
The major agenda for the conference is classified in four categories namely, Mitigation, Adaptation, Finance and Collaboration. Mitigation aims at the long term solution to maintain the earth temperature to 1.5 degree Celsius and to take the stock of National Determined Commitments for each member countries. There is no mandatory provision in the Paris Agreement, which was signed in 2015 at the COP-21but each member country is supposed to follow a pattern of CO2 emissions whereby they can achieve the goal of Net-Zero by 2050. India has committed to achieve Net-zero by 2070.Our prime Minister made a declaration in COP-26 that We will generate our electricity to the extent of 50per cent by 2050 through renewal energy or by non-fossil fuel.
The second agenda is for adaptation which means to create infrastructure which is required to adapt to the situation which will be arising or has arose due to the impact of the climate changes. We know that the global surface temperature is rising and the glaciers are melting resulting in rise in sea level and causing dangers for uncertainties in the weather conditions and the threats for droughts, floods and Climate Change due to hole in the ozone layer. According to the IPCC Report, this is largely due to the human induced irrational behaviour for undue exploitation of the natural resources including deforestation. However there is difference of opinion on this issue from some Geologists who believes that there is a law of nature known as thermodynamics which has the cyclical impact on glaciation and deglaciation or the disappearance of ice from the previously glaciated region especially in the polar region.
The third agenda is on finance which is a commitment made by the developed countries for annual contribution of US$ 100 Billion to developing countries for adaptation for relief and rehabilitation work particularly to small island nations and to those who have been affected by the climate change. This commitment was made at a U N Climate summit in Copenhagen in 2009 at COP 15 but very little is being done till date on this account and it is a broken promise.
The McKinsey Report envisages the net-zero transition cost for capital spending on physical assets for energy and land use systems between 2021 to 2050 to the tune of US$275 trillion or about US$ 9.2 trillion per year on average. The decarbonisation process has already started with the renewable energy resources making a headway including green hydrogen, bio-gas, ethanol, solar energy, wind energy. The process of replacing the combustion engine with e-vehicle and several other measures have been undertaken at global level as well as in India. International Solar Alliance is an India initiative. The corporates are required to make additional disclosure about environment and social governance (ESG) in their financial statements.
Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) has published its 6th Assessment Report (AR-6) which says that the problem of global warming and GHG emissionshave become more visible since the industrial revolution in the 19th century and a noticeable change has been found in the temperature from the pre-industrial level of 1850-1900 and thereafter more particularly 2006-2015 during which global average temperature rose by 0.91degree Celsius. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterrshas referred to it as Code Red for humanity.GHG gas mainly comprise of CO2, (74.4%) Methane, (17.3%)Nitrous Oxide N2O (6.2%) and Fluorinated gases namely HFCs, CFCs SF6 (2.1%). The atmosphere has the CO2 emission of about 40Giga Tonnes (Gt CO2). The residual global carbon budget is 400 Billion Tonnes from the start of 2020 till 2030 in order to remain within 1.5 degree Celsius.
The global community is very serious about these changes which are largely due to higher level of CO2 emission which is referred to as Green House Gases (GHG) and several summits and meetings have been organised since 1972 first earth Summit in Stockholm leading to Rio-Declaration, Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement has agreed for a legal framework in the Conference of Parties, COP21 in 2015 for a maximum increase of 1.5 degree Celsius from the pre-industrial level by 2050 and has worked out a plan for sustainable development which includes Convention for Bio-Diversity and Poverty Reduction and several other steps to stop use of fossil fuels.
A few illustrations of the adverse impact of GHG are Land Degradation, Lower Soil Productivity, Forced Migration, Poverty, Drought, Disruption of Water Cycle, Poor Water Retention, Retention lack of Food Security. Some of the major concerns are Loss of bio-diversity such as, Loss of species, Loss of genetic resources, Agricultural vulnerability, Habitat destruction, Loss of ecosystems. Air Pollution is resulting into several infectious diseases, respiratory illness and several other problems. The increase in sea-levels has impacts on coastal areas such as erosion of beaches, inundation of coastal lands.
The biggest contributories to CO2 emission is China 11.68 Gt. followed by USA 4.36 Gt. and India 2.41Gt However in terms of percentage, China emits 32%, USA 12.6% and India 6.5 per cent and when We consider the per capita emission, USA emits 13.68, China 8.2 and India only 1.74 tonne of CO2. However India is very much concerned about the ill effects of climate change and is well aware of the depleting water tables and its negative impact on crop yield.
To conclude some points need special consideration while negotiating at COP 27 and one of the important point is that We are still in the development stage and there has to be a trade-off between climate change perspective as per the Paris Agreement and the ground realities where the actual implementation will take place at State level and City level and also at rural places where the awareness in this field is very low. Secondly the technology transfer for implementation of the commitment is very important along with indigenisation of the technology according to our own needs and the prevailing conditions. Energy security should be given the top priority and therefore lots of research activities have to be undertaken for renewable energy. Forestation and water management is very essential as trees need Carbon and provide oxygen in return. Prevention of single use plastic through legislation has been a bold step but many more legal compliances and policy implementation is the key to success for meeting the challenges of pollution and GHG gas emission. We should also emphasise on the life style issue at the COP 27 as disproportionate consumption and wastage of food and other consumables is a great challenge in the western countries. We should ask Government of India to make 28th August as the national Environment day to commemorate the sacrifices of Amrita Devi to save trees in Jodhpur district of Rajasthan on 28th August 1730.
(The author is a National Co-Convenor, Swadeshi Jagaran Manch & Director, Swadeshi Research Institute, Kolkata)
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