The Australian Bushfire, floods in Indonesia, hurricanes in the United States, volcanic eruption in the Philippines, earthquakes in Turkey, locust swarms in East Africa, parts of India and Asia, Cyclone Amphan in India and Bangladesh, European Windstorm, etc. Raging storms, deadly heat, quite a list…isn’t it? This is a list of the natural calamities which occurred in the year 2020 alone and caused a disastrous loss to life, biodiversity, and the economy.
What did we do to make our dearest Mother Earth retaliate so violently? All of these natural calamities are a direct effect of the climate change that has been occurring over the years. People often use the terms climate change and global warming interchangeably, but global warming is just one facet of climate change.
Christiana Figueres, the Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC says, “We can no longer afford to assume that addressing climate change is the sole responsibility of national or local governments, or corporations or individuals. This is an everyone-everywhere mission in which we all must individually and collectively assume responsibility”.
Causes of Climate change
Climate change has been occurring from the beginning of time, but, the climate warming rate has increased tremendously in the recent past – particularly since the mid-20th century. Natural factors like the intensity of the sun, volcanic eruptions, naturally occurring changes in the greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, etc. were the key climate change influencers, but, today, they play a negligible role in climate change.
The current soaring climate change rates are all an effect of anthropological activities. Excessive greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels for energy, electricity, and transportation top the list. According to the reports from International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere have gone up by 40% as compared to the pre-industrial era [1].
Deforestation is another contributor to the alarming warming rates. Forests and oceans absorb the greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, but their declining population cannot keep up with the increasing greenhouse gas emissions. The oceans absorb around one-quarter of our emissions, which has rendered them 30% more acidic from the preindustrial times [2].
Consequences of Climate change
The current levels of warming are already creating several problems on social, environmental, and economic fronts. Frequent disasters, extreme weather conditions, warmer and more acidic oceans, rising sea levels, jeopardized ecosystems- the list goes on. If the temperature continues to rise at the same pace, we might face more droughts and heatwaves in the future, hurricanes will become stronger and frost-free seasons will lengthen.
Researchers predict that, at this rate, the Arctic is most likely to become ice-free by 2100 and the sea levels might rise by 1-8 feet [3]. An increase in vector-borne and zoonotic diseases was predicted as a consequence of climate change long ago. Many pathogenic bacteria and viruses might still be preserved in the old permafrost layers. Thus, as the permafrost continues melting, chances are that we might face numerous more pandemics in the future.
Course of action
The ill effects of drastic climate change were predicted long ago. Governments worldwide recognized the urgent need to incorporate measures to fight against this problem. In response to this, the first ever conference on climate change was the 1979 World Climate Conference in Geneva conducted by World Meteorological Organization (WMO), in collaboration with UNESCO, WHO, FAO, and UNEP. This was followed by the 1985 Villach Conference, the 1987 WMO Congress, the Toronto Conference, etc. UNEP and WMO jointly established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988 [4]. It gauges the current states of knowledge and the assessments of the scientific basis of climate change, it’s impacts and future risks, and ways for adaptation and mitigation.
The Conference of Parties (COP) is the decision-making authority in UNFCCC. There have been a total of 25 COPs till date, COP 01 being held in Berlin, in 1995. Some of the key COPs include The Earth Summit of 1992, held in Rio, and The Kyoto Protocol adopted in 1997. The 21st COP held at Paris, France led to the adoption of the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement aims at keeping the global temperature below 2˚C for this century. It provides financial, technical, and capacity-building support to the countries who need it. Additionally, it aims at driving efforts to limit this rise to 1.5˚C above the pre-industrial levels [5].
Certain NGOs like Planetary Health Alliance, the EcoHealth Alliance, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, etc. focus on tackling various economic and environmental issues. They aim at achieving greater global cooperation to combat the climate crisis.
Climate change and the Pandemic
Covid-19 has made the fight against climate change more difficult. People who have been suffering from climate-caused disasters, now need to put up with the additional burden of the pandemic as well. The ongoing pandemic has put virtually every country under economic debt which is likely to harm the long-term plans for climate change and other SDGs.
Earlier the previous year, during the lockdown, greenhouse gas emissions fell by approximately 8%, which is slightly higher than what was an expert-recommended 7.6% yearly reduction [6]. Yet, all of this is not a cause of celebration because though nature ended up benefitting, the global economy crippled down. This positive climate change was purely circumstantial and it has started reversing since the start of economic revival.
Conclusion
Adaptive governance is a good practice to be followed to combat climate change. It will help the government as well as the non-governmental groups to adapt and upgrade their approach towards managing climate risks in accordance to evolving conditions, latest stats, and the lessons learned. Decision makers in both public and private sectors should focus on implementing strategies that make profits while contributing to curb climate risk.
The pandemic has given us a chance to reflect upon our actions. Do we wish to continue the way we were previously doing and return to the high carbon economy of yesterday? Or, do we wish to mend our ways and build a healthier, low carbon economy that focuses more on overall wellbeing? After all, “The planet will survive, in changed form no doubt, but it will survive. The question is, will we be here to witness it?”
References:
1) I.C. Prentice, et al. The Carbon Cycle and Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide. Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis, 2001, https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/TAR-03.pdf.
2) “Ocean acidification.” National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, https://www.noaa.gov/education/resource-collections/ocean-coasts/ocean-acidification.
3) Julien Boé, et al. “September sea-ice cover in the Arctic Ocean projected to vanish by 2100.” Nature, 2009, https://www.nature.com/articles/ngeo467.
4) John W. Zillman. “A History of Climate Activities.” World Meteorological Organization, 2009, https://public.wmo.int/en/bulletin/history-climate-activities.
5) UNFCCC. “The Paris Agreement.” United Nations Climate Change, 2015, https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement.
6) Figueres, Christiana. “Covid-19 has given us the chance to build a low-carbon future.” The Guardian, 1 June 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/01/covid-low-carbon-future-lockdown-pandemic-green-economy.
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