Tackling Climate Change: Easier Said Than Done (Especially When You Get Paid Talking)

It is pretty easy to gather around in an expensive hall and suggest policies and accompanying implementation strategies on pressing issues worldwide, including life-threatening problems like Climate Change.

Especially when you are getting paid for just talking about it. This is why climate change remains the greatest threat to human existence despite decades of brilliant policies and frameworks – the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Since 1992) which is further deepened by the Paris Agreement at COP21 (Conference of Parties). 

We gather periodically to talk about them as long as our salaries keep reflecting. The lack of commitment to implement these policies is appalling. Evident to these claims among others is the recent gathering of world leaders at the Global Center for Adaption (GCA) summit in Rotterdam, where industrialized nations failed to show up. 

At the conference, Senegal's President, Macky Sall, said he was disappointed by how few of their leaders had turned up for the event, "I cannot help but note with some bitterness the absence of leaders from the industrial world," said Sall, who is also chairperson of the African Union. "I think if we made the effort to leave Africa to come to Rotterdam, it would be easier for the Europeans and others to be here because they are the main polluters." 

Perhaps his disappointment was fueled by a statement by the African Development Bank President, Akinwumi Adesina, which suggests that Africa contributes only 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions, but suffers disproportionately from its negative consequences. 

In attendance was the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, the only European leader who attended in person, alongside heads of state from Senegal, Ghana, Gabon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Ethiopia. This unspeakable lack of commitment is a betrayal to global citizens who entrusted their leadership with their lives. 

Is this how we intend to achieve the target? Keeping a global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius. As we gear toward COP27, we must precondition ourselves to walk out with clear-cut resolutions that will influence collective climate action. 

In doing so, we expect our leaders to pay critical attention to 

Mitigation - The Paris Agreement establishes binding commitments by all Parties to prepare, communicate, and maintain their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) and to pursue domestic measures to achieve them. 

To do this, governments should support grassroots actions that seek to among others, preserve the environment, end plastic pollution, and promote responsible consumption while creating an enabling environment for individual actions.  

Adaptation – Governments should strengthen efforts in enhancing adaptive capacity, resilience, and reduction of vulnerability to climate change by increasing climate literacy among citizens. 

Support – developed countries should support the efforts of developing countries to build clean, climate-resilient futures while encouraging voluntary contributions by other Parties.  

Transparency – There should be mechanisms that will facilitate implementation and promote compliance in a non-adversarial and non-punitive manner, and report annually to the COP.  

When the above-stipulated tasks, amongst other things, are carried out, we expect to hear positive outcomes at the global Stocktake in 2023, and every 5 years when countries meet to assess the collective progress towards achieving the purpose of the Paris Agreement. 

This urgent need is aptly captured by Sunita Narain, the director general of India's Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) during a C2GTalk. She stressed, “Countries need to set aside their differences, recognize their interdependence, and negotiate as equals to tackle the climate crisis.”