By Don Aguiar
Mumbai, Nov 19, 2021: From the genius of discovering how to use fire to cook food we have ended up cooking the planet. From the wizardry of creating spears to help us survive we now threaten ourselves with nuclear-tipped hypersonic missiles.
It turns out that each of us from birth travels a similar journey. The struggle to survive requires that each of us develops a separate mind with its own ego, and personality. And in the process, we lose touch with that innocent space we once knew. And there is no going back. And more of the same is not an intelligent option. Then?
The climate crisis, is not a looming threat, people are now living with the consequences of centuries of greenhouse gas emissions. A failure to act urgently now will mean a reverse in development gains for the poorest and most vulnerable people in society, an erosion of biodiversity, increasing difficulties in providing food and shelter, as well as the potential loss of entire countries due to the impacts of climate change leading to natural disasters which are the main reasons for the disasters in life.
Around the world, more than 55 million people have already been forced to move from their home communities because of extreme weather, and the climate crisis is expected to displace as many as 1 billion people by 2050. Today, environmental events displace more people than violence and conflict.
Women and girls especially bear the brunt of the climate crises: Chores have become deadlier for women in natural disaster–prone areas, and those fleeing from their homes are struggling to access contraception. Many will likely be forced to sell their bodies as they and their families struggle with extreme weather events that leave them with little more than the clothes on their back.
One family fell on such hard times that when a man showed up and offered to give their 17-year-old daughter a job in the city, they agreed. He offered them money and said, ‘You’re really poor. Let me get her employed and make her life better. The man didn’t tell the family he was taking the girl to a city like Mumbai or Pune, where she’d be forced to work in the sex trade.
Traffickers are “very well clued in” to crises, so they often swoop in and exploit those affected when natural disasters strike.
Severe storms and floods hit almost every year, and at least many months of the year are marked with extreme heat. In regions where many people’s livelihoods rely on agriculture, an industry that suffers whenever floods submerge farmland and compromise soil quality. But since 2018 flooding has become regular and worst water doesn’t drain.
It is taking longer and longer for the water to recede after each flood, the options for the farmers have been shrinking by the year. Experts attribute the flooding to unnatural rains and to the lowland sinking further – the first a consequence of deforestation and the latter a result of raising sea levels.
Environmental issues are adding to the poverty of the already downtrodden… For a person who is a daily cultivator or labourer, if the little bit of land they have is taken away by the sea/flood/drought, then what are they left with?
Years of U.N. climate negotiations to rein in climate-warming carbon emissions and protect the world’s most vulnerable have had little effect. The UN Report places humanity at a tipping point where we can no longer afford to make gradual adjustments but must take action immediately. Particularly for the sake of the world’s children, the most innocent stakeholders, we must work collectively to guarantee a safe and healthy future. The Elders stand firmly behind the goal of limiting climate change to 1.5 degrees.
A recent International Institute for Environment and Development report found that the climate crisis is exacerbating modern slavery, which sometimes includes forced sexual exploitation. Women, children, and the poorest people are the most at risk.
Climate and development policymakers and planners urgently need to recognize that millions of people displaced by climate change are being, and will be, exposed to slavery in the coming decades.
The ambition exhibited by nations at the start of the decade to limit climate change, the latest being last week at an international summit COP26 was another attempt to attempt to limit climate change. The aim is to work together to enable and encourage countries affected by climate change to:
– Protect and restore ecosystems. Build defenses, warning systems and resilient infrastructure and agriculture to avoid loss of homes, livelihoods and even lives.
As world leaders and climate activists negotiate how to save the planet from catastrophic climate change at COP26, the “staggering scale” of climate global heating is affecting every nation on earth. The extent of the impact on the lives and futures of children is unclear, but as climate change phenomena increase in intensity and frequency, prospects are dire.
Emissions are rising, and global temperatures – already 1.1 degree Celsius higher on average than in pre-industrial times – continue to climb. Rich nations that failed to meet a 2020 deadline to extend $100 billion a year in climate finance to poorer nations now say they won’t meet that pledge until 2023.
As the scientific evidence mounts, so too does the need to address the concerns vulnerable countries are raising around loss and damage, and adaptation finance.
With the history of climate diplomacy littered with broken promises, many have asked:
– What needs to change beyond this year’s two-week conference to ensure accountability?
– If climate change summits cannot hold governments accountable, perhaps the ballot box will.
– Is this summit an active choice by the leaders to continue to let the exploitation of people and nature, and the destruction of future and present living conditions, to take place?
There’s a lot of big statements, which don’t have the details underneath: exactly when, how much, who’s going to do what. What can be said pretty confidently though, is that, no, they don’t get us far enough. It’s not going to be keeping us under that 1.5 degrees Celsius global temperature rise.
Although delegates from around the world hammered out a number of agreements in the first week of COP26 and there were a few breakthroughs, some experts warn the deals may not meet the urgency of the moment. Specifically, experts are concerned they won’t get the world closer to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
As a result of pledges made at COP26, we’re now heading for 1.8°C of warming, many onlookers were left somewhat perplexed –
– Have we really jumped from 2.7°C warming just a few weeks ago to 1.8°C now?
– Are we really so tantalisingly close to the Paris goal of 1.5°C?
– Have we really almost cracked it?!
We know full well –
– That there’s a big gap between what countries pledge and the action they take on the ground.
– That collectively, countries are falling short on meeting their NDCs and net-zero pledges
– Under current actual policies we’re looking at warming of around 2.8degrees Celsius.
We have not seen sincerity in the commitments and progress made by developed countries, and have heard far more slogans than practical results keeping in mind the aims of negotiations of COP26 are
That they want the outcome to accelerate action to:
Reduce emission, Strengthen adaptation and resilience to climate impact, Scale up finance and support.
In doing so it should
Protect and restore nature, Follow the best available science and Empower inclusive action.
A just approach to tackling climate change means not only that the most vulnerable are able to participate fully in efforts to address the climate crisis; but that richer countries help poorer countries to adapt to the impacts of climate change, contributing more towards developing low-carbon solutions, and providing funding and access to this technology.
But for many, the ambition exhibited by nations, near the start of a decade is critical to avoid catastrophic climate change, was less than expected and overall disheartening. This COP has yet again failed to deliver real ambitious action and transformation. This is a missed opportunity to change course and reach an inclusive economic system that supports healthy and thriving ecosystems and protects human rights and dignity for all.