Hundreds of thousands of activists took to the streets in nearly hundred cities around the world on September 21 to express their anxiety over the deteriorating situation characterising climate change. They included about 400,000 persons in New York. They did so under the banner of "People's Climate March" and ahead of a gathering of 120 world leaders, including the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, on September 23 in the United Nations Headquarters in New York. The summit was convened by Mr. Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary General of the United Nations, with the specific purpose of not only identifying the evolving challenges within this matrix but also discovering possible common ground on how to tackle and overcome these problems.
This effort has been going on for quite some time but has seen very little success. It started with the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992 and has since travelled a circuitous route through Kyoto and Copenhagen to New York. But the crisis has continued to grow. One may recall in this regard the great hype that was associated with the meeting in Copenhagen in 2009 and the expectations that were generated with regard to unified steps that could be undertaken for possible reining in of greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately, that meeting ended in disarray as countries failed to agree on a timetable to reduce long-term emissions. Very little has happened since then. In the meantime, global emissions reached an all-time high last year and this year's summer in most countries, has recorded consistently very high temperatures and aberrations in the context of rainfall.
BUILD MOMENTUM: Analysts have monitored this latest climate summit very carefully. They have come to the conclusion that the meeting was called more to build momentum ahead of the next Climate Summit to be held in Paris in 2015 rather than to reach concrete achievements. The UN Secretary General apparently took this initiative to set the tone for the Conference scheduled for next year.
It may be mentioned here that till now, in concrete terms, France and Germany are the two countries that have each promised US$ 1.0 billion to the Green Climate Fund aimed at helping the worst-hit countries being affected by climate variability. A total of US$ 2.3 billion has been pledged till now, well below the $10 billion aimed for by year end - or the target of US$ 100 billion a year set for 2020 to help poor nations cope with rising temperatures and disasters. This trend of response has been severely criticised by Oxfam and Action Aid who have described this as vague and piecemeal.
This time round, French President Francois Hollande, speaking in New York, reiterated French commitment towards the containment of the deteriorating scenario and urged all participating countries to agree on the need to deliver a 'global and ambitious' deal ahead of the Paris Summit so that climate change does not emerge as a threat to 'world peace and security'.
US President Barack Obama, addressing the Summit hours after ordering strikes on Syria and areas occupied by the ISIL group, said that there was the 'urgent and growing threat of climate change' and that this could ultimately 'define the contours of this century more dramatically than any other issue'. He noted that 'we know what we have to do to avoid irreparable harm. We have to cut carbon pollution in our own countries to prevent the worst effects of climate change'. In this regard, Obama also realistically called for an 'ambitious' but also 'flexible' agreement. This reference to flexibility has been interpreted as the requirement that his Administration will need to have to take on the US Congress in case of the USA having to enter treaty binding provisions related to restricting gas emissions and introducing renewable energy options. Obama also informed the audience that the USA intends to reduce carbon emissions in the range of 17 per cent below 2005 levels by the year 2020.
It was interesting that China, one of the world's two largest economies, was represented in the New York discussions not by their President but a relatively junior political leader Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli. He acknowledged that Chinese efforts towards greater industrial growth had also contributed towards a massive increase in carbon emissions. He indicated that, being aware of this, China was now trying to contain further growth in emissions and was also taking steps that would eventually lead to reduction of harmful carbon emission and greenhouse gases.
COORDINATED ACTION: In this context, some scientists and members of civil society from North America and the European Union have stated that if coordinated action can be undertaken, everything is possible. They have in this regard referred to the beneficial effects that have accrued after the adoption of the 1987 Montreal Protocol which helped to phase down the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in the compressors of air conditioners and refrigerators after it was agreed that this was harmful for the Earth's ozone layer.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in her address in the meeting demanded more commitment from the developed countries in addressing the impact being created by climate change. She drew the attention of other leaders not only to the different challenges being faced by vulnerable, densely populated Bangladesh in adapting and tackling the harmful aftereffects of climate variability but also how it was impacting on the country's agriculture. She particularly highlighted the adversities being faced by millions of Bangladeshis living in the coastal areas due to frequency of flooding, storm surge, salinity intrusion caused by rising sea water levels during high tides. Bangladesh, she pointed out, as a responsible member of the international community had chosen a low-carbon, climate-resilient development path. She outlined in this context that consistent with this approach, over the last four years, 3.2 million solar home systems had been installed in rural Bangladesh and efforts were also underway to take advantage of other sources of renewable energy like bio-gas and bio fuel.
It was also underlined by Bangladesh and some other vulnerable island countries that it was extremely difficult for them to successfully engage with the evolving challenging scenario unless they received responsible predictable support from governments of the developed world with regard to finance, technology development and transfer and capacity building in a transparent manner. This, Hasina correctly pointed out, was a must because private climate sector finance can only be complementary for mitigation and adaptation planning.
It would be worthwhile to mention here that the World Bank appears to have taken a more pro-active stance for the first time with regard to the climate change issue and the consequent vulnerabilities. World Bank President, Jim Yong Kim, has drawn the attention of the world leadership that 73 countries representing more than half the world's economy had finally endorsed putting a price on carbon emissions. Mentioning that more than 1,000 businesses worldwide, including over 300 institutional investors, had endorsed carbon pricing schemes, he called for an international deal on policy changes to address the financial threat of climate change. This is required to dissuade companies from continuing business practices that do not contribute to a carbon-free vision.
This momentum is encouraging. It should contribute eventually towards nations taking a low carbon growth path. Nevertheless, despite this optimism, one needs to note here that the United States has not as yet formally signed on to such an initiative despite Obama being a supporter of this scheme. Large US oil companies like ExxonMobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips also have not accepted this initiative.
IDENTIFYING LEAST COMMON DENOMINATORS: One thing is, however, clear. Science, politics, law and diplomacy have to come together and identify least common denominators to fight this phenomenon. We have to understand that fragmented and piece-meal efforts will be less effective in reaching our goal of reducing emissions. Mindy Looper of Ceres has significantly noted that this dynamics will really work only when investors, businesses, communities and all sectors that make up society realise that climate change is as real an economic threat as inflation.
It would, however, be important to note here that while States and major Corporations try to move into renewable energy, policy makers should address the issue of creating more sustainable practices connected with renewable energy. That includes ways for bringing down the prices of renewable energy for consumers. Green banks providing financing at low rates could be the answer. A 'ground-up approach', according to Andy Darrell, Chief of Strategy for US Climate and Energy at the Environmental Defence Fund, could be the solution. Such a collaborative effort seems to be working very well in New York where they are trying to displace coal with solar and wind and the internal combustion engine with plug-in hybrids and electric cars. They are hoping that as a result of this, nearly a third of US coal power plants might be retired by end 2015. The rest of the world could learn from this.
Muhammad Zamir, a former Ambassador, is an analyst specialised in foreign affairs, right to information and good governance. mzamir@dhaka.net