Developed countries must give to the environment that they have taken from it; they must help developing nations create environment infrastructure
The latest UN climate summit, COP 28, delivered only partially. It was held in a state whose economy is heavily dependent on oil and gas—the United Arab Emirates. COP 27 did make substantial progress towards the commitment to phasing out fossil fuel, however, COP 28 skipped the word ‘phasing out’ and instead used the phrase ‘transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy’. The text represents a significant regression from previous versions, as this version deliberately kept the language vague. It spoke about how it will “reduce both consumption and production by 2050”. it has dropped explicit language on phasing out fossil fuels and instead used vague language to 'reduce both consumption and production' by 2050
Was it that the president of the summit, who is also the head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, played a role in diluting the earlier commitment? Or is it the collective wisdom of developing nations to gradually transition from fossil fuels rather than phasing them out? Can we phase out fossil fuels within a decade or so or is it a mere facade of the developed nations? Has the importance of fossil fuels gone down in the last two years? Is humanity serious about environment conservation? Is the world concerned about climate change? The answer to all these questions has not been answered by the text of COP 28.
Most of the countries including India spoke about striking a balance between ecology and economy. Some of the countries tried to impress upon how they were doing more than the others, however, very few came up with a concrete plan to address the problem of climate change. The developed countries are reluctant to give money to the developing countries to transition to renewable energy and developing countries are reluctant to transition anyway. So, the stalemate continues and the environment keeps suffering.
COP 28 brought representatives from 197 countries together, marking the first formal assessment of progress under the 2015 Paris climate agreement. Discussions on adaptation and mitigation efforts to achieve positive outcomes in the coming years, particularly for vulnerable countries and fragile ecosystems like the Himalayan Mountain range in Asia were carried out in detail. Commitment to assess the vulnerability of the Indian Himalayan region, due to climate change because of anthropogenic emissions and developmental pathways was made however no concrete road map seems to have been developed for the same.
What is being referred to as Global Stocktake, in which nearly 200 countries pledged to move away from fossil fuels, and avoided calling for the “phase out” of coal, oil and gas, as many would have hoped? But it did stipulate the tripling of new investments in renewable energy and the “transitioning away” from fossil fuels in power systems. With no real timeframe given for ‘transitioning away’, fear of COP 28 only remaining a photo opportunity for world leaders remains. According to the Emissions Gap Report, fossil fuel emissions must be cut by 42 per cent by 2030 to limit the warming of the earth to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Towards this end, only 27 countries pledged to the Buildings Breakthrough, and merely 60 countries joined the Global Cooling Pledge and Global Methane Pledge. In light of such a slow movement towards compliance with the Emissions Gap Report, the gap concerning meeting emission cut targets is further going to increase. Developed countries must give to the environment that they have taken from it, and that is the environmental balance. The only way to do that is a firm commitment towards spending on infrastructure related to renewable energy in developing nations. Such a firm commitment looks only like a piper's dream as of now. Developed nations too need to show the urgency and willingness to change to a fossil fuel lifestyle without finding excuses, it's about time. Such urgency also seems to be missing from people and leaders of developing nations.
A year has gone by, It's time we went green no matter what the cost or the inconvenience. The younger you are the more you will pay for the delay. We must say no to carbon emissions if we need to have a healthy life for ourselves and our future generations. COP 28 did not show this kind of war-like urgency, all they could muster was a lethargic acknowledgement that we had a problem on our hands.
(The writer is expert on geopolitics and international affairs. The views expressed are personal)
