Bharat, since time immemorial, has been a believer of harmonious conjoint co-existence. Using as much as is needed—enough for one’s need, but not about satiating one’s greed. One of the shlokas in Sanskrit provides the context of Bhartiya Sanatan thinking.
“शाश्वतम्, प्रकृति-मानव-सङ्गतम्, सङ्गतं खलु शाश्वतम्।
तत्त्व-सर्वं धारकं , सत्त्व-पालन-कारकं, वारि-वायु-व्योम-वह्नि-ज्या-गतम्।
शाश्वतम्, प्रकृति-मानव-सङ्गतम्।।“
Meaning: The relationship between nature and man (human beings) is eternal, boundless and constant. This relationship is ever-lasting, infinite and interminable.
The five elements of nature—water, air, sky, fire and earth—are the ones that the human body is composed of and thus nature is the ultimate caretaker of humans.
What this verse echoes is a sentiment that humans are made of elements of nature and thus are a subset of nature; hence, nature is like a mother to humans, and it takes care of them.
Mother provides constantly and consistently for the well-being of her children, even at the cost of herself, but when the need turns into greed, then to bring equilibrium, harmony, and balance back in ecology, nature acts and reacts.
Climate change and increasing climate catastrophes are an outcome of such indifference, irresponsibility, and disdain towards Mother Nature.
The number of climate refugees (People who have lost their land, livelihood, or resources to sustain themselves due to climate change) is increasing by the year and is putting pressure on the Global North, or the conglomerate of the developed world who exploited and abused resources so much that such an alarming situation has emerged.
The Past, the History, the Context
In 1992, the world realised the urgency of taking action to protect the future of Earth, the house for humans, and thus, at the Earth Summit, or the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, 154 countries came together and agreed and sign a document called the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and that document subsequently came into force in 1994.
Since then, it has been decided that a meeting of all the parties should be held every year to review the work, unless the parties think otherwise, and thus it was given the name of COP, or Conference of Parties.
The core agenda of the meeting is to figure out how one can deal with and negate the destructive impact of climate change.
The tangible, monitorable goal set by COP is to limit the rise in temperature of the planet up to 1.5 degrees Celsius as compared to the temperature of the late 19th century, and it was called the 1.5-degree Pathway.
Further leeway was given up to a 2-degree Celsius rise in global temperature, which the world can live with and was called a Two-degree pathway. In other words, from the Pre-industrialisation era of the mid to late-19th century, when most of the West got rapidly industrialised and expanded its colonisation policy till 2100 AD, the rise in temperature of the earth should not move beyond 2 degrees.
In 2015, Under the Paris, Accord – COP 21, 200 countries pledged to control greenhouse gas emissions to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius by 2100 from pre-industrial levels, aiming to keep warming at or below 1.5 degrees celcius.
Further, it was concluded that $100 billion, from public and private sources, must be mobilised each year from 2020 to 2025 to fund projects, help developing countries implement their greenhouse gas emission reductions, and adapt to the impacts of climate change, for example, rising sea levels and drought. However, the accord failed miserably as it didn’t address the switch or the end of the era of fossil fuels, those were controlled and operated by Developed World directly or indirectly.
The Present Day and Now
When COP 28 began on November 30, 2023 for a fortnight ending on December 12, 2023, the expectations were high and the agenda set was
- Fast-tracking the energy transition and slashing emissions before 2030
- Transforming climate finance, by delivering on old promises and setting the framework for a new deal on finance
- Putting nature, people, lives, and livelihoods at the heart of climate action; and
- Mobilizing for the most inclusive COP ever.
This was the polished way of communication, however, the underlying need was only two
Phasing Out of Fossil Fuel
2023 has been recorded as the hottest year ever with global temperatures rising to 1.46 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial levels.
It needs to be recalled at this juncture that, COP is expected to have + 1.5 degrees till 2100 and this is inches away from the present rise in temperature. Furthermore, the expectation of completely phasing out fossil fuel is 2050 when most developed countries become NET ZERO may be achieved, but surely it will create higher temperatures in future.
Explaining Net ZERO
Net Zero means cutting greenhouse gas emissions to as close to zero as possible without any remaining emissions being reabsorbed from the atmosphere, by oceans and forests. Or cutting the carbon dioxide emissions in the land, buildings, transport, cities, and global net-human emissions to zero.
At the moment, approx. 12000 million metric tonnes of oil is used by the world annually, and that is valued at 105 trillion dollars. (All fossil fuels have been converted into Oil and valuation is done accordingly.
Each million metric tonnes of oil costs ~ 9 billion USD. (To give a perspective, how big is fossil fuel energy production, it is almost equivalent to the size of the World Economy, which stands at ~ 106 trillion USD)
The global military expenditure in 2020 the year of Covid – 2020 was $1.981 trillion, thus, if every country in the world stopped buying weapons and instead started using the money to build clean electricity generation sources, it would take about 53 years to complete the job and shift completely to renewable energy.
Who will pay for the Climate Crisis?
Last year, a report by 55 vulnerable countries estimated that their losses on account of climate change over just the last two decades were estimated at 525 billion USD or 20 per cent of the collective GDP of such 55 countries.
A few more independent researchers predict that by 2030, these losses will reach 580 billion USD every year. Some suggest that if Carbon emissions peak out by 2025 -2026, then these losses can be curtailed to 400 billion per year by 2030. The numbers are so mammoth that any contribution from the developed World looks tiny compared to the ask.
As of now, the developed world has committed a contribution of ~400 million USD to the Loss and Damage Fund to compensate countries that are impacted due to Climate Change.
Germany and the hosts of COP 28, UAE have assured an amount of USD 100 million each, the UK has allocated USD 40 million to the Fund and 20 million Pound for other funding arrangements for loss and damage and the US has allocated USD 17million to the fund whilst Japan has allocated USD 10 million.
These are paltry sums, keeping in mind the potential losses that developing are going to face and are presently facing. Nonetheless, these funds will be managed and will work under the guidance of the World Bank which will also act as the custodian of these funds.
The Hit, the challenge, the blow
Due to climate change an estimated 1.6 trillion USD loss of GDP is anticipated and most of it will be hit to the countries that belong to Global South.
Bharat has also been impacted adversely due to Climate Change. Last calendar year, 2022, it’s been estimated that Bharat’s GDP reduced by 8% of the achieved number on account of Climate Change.
Bharat has committed to be Net ZERO by 2070 but it continues to face the heat of climate change due to the rapid industrialization of the West in the last century. Floods, Earth Moving, untimely rains, and erratic Weather are severely impacting Bharat and its citizens.
Bharat has a large population and to meet the economic expectations of its citizens it is finding a fine balance between Ecology and economy.
Prudence, Recycling, Non- materialistic orientation have been part of Sanatan Dharma for the last 5000 years plus and what the world today needs is self-restraint on demands from senses more than anything else to prevent damage and protect Mother Earth.
The World’s Drama will continue for yet another 13 days, with another COP session, with one more lack of consensus between 198 countries. Another event will be hosted like COP 28 where consenting to the word “phasing out” and accepting “Transitioning” will be treated as their victory with limited action.
The sad news is that the West is reeling under the weight of rising food inflation, rising interest costs and rising energy expenses and thus they have limited resources for now to think of Global Warming or compensating the Global South for the deeds of their own Past.
Finally, the lead has been taken and will continue to be taken by Bharat collecting the Global South to take steps to protect Mother Earth, ultimately for humans, for now, this is the only place they can call home.
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