Hira Bahadur Thapa

When Nasheed Mohammed, former President of the Maldives, argued during climate negotiations that climate catastrophe is not restricted to developing countries, leaders from the advanced nations hardly believed his words. But as events of extreme weather in Western Europe wrought havoc, resulting in deaths of hundreds due to floods in Germany alone it becomes crystal clear that no one in this planet will remain safe if climate crisis is not addressed.
The rising global temperature has already shown its adverse impact on environment seen so evidently last month in the north-western United States, a region famed for its cool foggy weather, where hundreds had died of heat wave. Such wave has led to severe drought affecting agricultural production in the California region of the US and no less is its role in causing massive wildfires that bring huge damage to human lives and materials simultaneously. In Canada, wildfire had burned a village off the map. Moscow recorded unseen high temperatures and there are predictions that northern Rocky Mountains were bracing for yet another heatwave precipitated by wildfires spread across 12 states in the American West.

Wrath
In the analysis of above examples, two facts have emerged. Last week’s events in north Europe and America reveal that even the wealthiest nations with abundant resources to help them mitigate the consequences of climate disaster cannot escape the wrath of climate change. Two essential facts of science and history are clearly manifested in the recent events. The world is not prepared to fight climate change by reining in carbon emissions. Its vulnerability and inescapability are demonstratively exposed. The reality is that the same industrialised countries that achieved their economic growth at the expense of environment by burning coal, gas and oil are now the victims of climate change which gets worsened as the process of slowing down the carbon emissions continues.
The links between extreme weather and climate change are being established as more scientific studies are done. Against this background, the massive floods in Sindhupalchowk district of Nepal in early June when monsoon rarely arrives in that part of the world could be the consequence of rising temperatures and attendant climate change. Thorough scientific assessment of such weather conditions is necessary to ascertain the fact. Now the bigger question is if the mounting disasters in the developed world will have implications on the upcoming Glasgow climate negotiations of member countries of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Everyone will be watching how the world’s most influential countries and companies present themselves in the above Conference of the Parties and commit to reducing emissions of planet-warming gases. A lot depends on them for successful negotiations.
Amidst such gloom comes welcome news from China, the world’s largest carbon emitter, which has recently opened national carbon emissions trading market, a long-awaited step towards curbing climate change. The market turns the power to pollute into an allowance that can be bought and sold. Through a system of carbon trade, the companies are incentivised that reduce carbons, China tries to demonstrate its commitment to significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the coming decades. It has pledged to reach carbon neutrality by 2060. Carbon trading markets work by limiting the amount of carbon dioxide that companies release, creating competition to encourage them to become more energy efficient and adopt clean technology.
Companies that cut their carbon output can sell their unused pollution allowances and earn which is an incentive for them. On the other hand, those companies that exceed emissions allowance may have to buy more permits or pay fines. Thus, polluting companies are punished and dissuaded to release more carbon dioxide into the environment. By auctioning allowances and progressively cutting the volume of pollution that companies are permitted to release, governments can push companies into a race to adopt carbon-cutting technologies.
Carbon trade can place responsibility for containing greenhouse emissions on businesses and can also provide an economic incentive mechanism for carbon mitigation. To make the carbon market work properly, regulators must accurately measure emissions from factories and plants, then ensure that those polluters do not cheat by hiding or manipulating emissions data. Though the initiative like above may play positive role in slashing the carbon emissions but it may be necessary to drastically reduce the consumption of carbon-emitting fossil fuels before catastrophic results may usher in as warned by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2018.

Climate emergency
We are already in the midst of climate emergency backed by the research of Oxfam and Stockholm Environment Institute, according to which between 2015 and 2015, the wealthiest 10 per cent of the world’s population accounted for over half of global greenhouse gas emissions. More interestingly, the richest 1 per cent above was responsible for 15 per cent of emissions during the same time frame — more than twice that of the poorest half of the humanity. Paradoxically, the poor communities are more likely to suffer the worst effects of climate change, including floods, drought, disease, or economic dislocation.
The world is already hotter with global temperatures rising one degree Celsius above preindustrial levels, which is just one-half degree less than the level at which climate scientists calculate that the dramatic environment change will begin to set in. Although the world witnessed a drop in carbon emissions in 2020 because of COVID-19 lockdowns, the same have begun to rebound sharply in 2021.
Despite the fact that developing countries might suffer the worst environmental harms of unchecked climate change, the working and middle-class people in developed states will inevitably face the danger simultaneously. The events in Europe and North America attest to this. Therefore, climate emergency applies to all albeit advance countries’ illusion that they can avoid climate disaster. Global efforts only can protect environment and humanity.

(Thapa was Foreign Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister from 2008-09. thapahira17@gmail.com)