Release Date: Release Date – 12:45 AM, Friday – November 4th
by Tej Singh Kardam
The COP 26 climate summit in Glasgow made some progress in some areas, but not enough. The world remains off track in tackling the climate crisis. Recognizing the urgency of the challenge, member states around the world agreed that they should resubmit stronger 2030 emissions reduction targets next year to close the gap on limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
They also agreed that developed countries should urgently provide more resources to help climate-prone countries adapt to the dangerous and costly consequences of climate change, which they are already experiencing, from crop losses to devastating storms. Countries also pledged to curb methane emissions, achieve net-zero emissions from the financial sector by 2050, accelerate the phase-out of coal, ban a few countries, curb international financing of fossil fuels, halt deforestation/degradation, etc., emphasizing global collective action to address the crisis.
Connected Solutions
The climate crisis is intertwined with other complex issues, so we need multi-pronged and interconnected climate solutions. Forest is one of them. Forests play a vital role in enabling the world to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, including those related to biodiversity conservation, livelihoods, food security, natural risk mitigation, and climate change mitigation and adaptation. The forest, home to 80% of terrestrial wildlife, is at this crossroads. They absorb a net 7.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide each year.
A recent study found that their biophysical aspects tend to cool the planet by an additional 0.5%. Forest conservation and other nature-based solutions can provide up to 37% of the emissions reductions needed to combat climate change. Another study estimated the total annual carbon emissions from tropical tree cover loss between 2015 and 2017 at the equivalent of 4.8 gigatons. This results in annual emissions exceeding that of 85 million vehicles over their lifetime. In 2019, about 34% of net anthropogenic GHG emissions came from the energy sector, 24% from industry, 22% from agriculture, forestry and other land use, 15% from transportation and 6% from buildings.
Emissions gap
The 2022 Emissions Gap Report: Closing the Window, released ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 27) in Egypt, says the international community is still far from meeting the Paris target and there is no reliable way to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius in place. It said India’s per capita greenhouse gas emissions (including land use, land-use change and forestry) were 2.4 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e), well below the 2020 world average of 6.3tCO2e.
The US remains well above this level at 14 tonnes CO2e, followed by Russia at 13 tonnes, China at 9.7, Brazil and Indonesia at 7.5 and the EU at 7.2 tonnes CO2e. Per capita emissions vary widely among G20 member countries. India’s emissions are about half the G20 average, while Saudi Arabia’s emissions are more than double the G20’s, the report said. It mentioned that while all Glasgow countries have decided to strengthen their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and some updates by countries, progress has been severely lacking.
India updated its NDC in August and pledged to reduce its GDP emissions intensity by 45% from 2005 levels by 2030 and achieve about 50% of its cumulative installed electricity capacity from non-fossil fuel sources. The updated NDC reads as follows: To propose and further disseminate healthy and sustainable lifestyles based on traditions and values of conservation and moderation, including through mass movements for life-environmental lifestyles, as key to combating climate change.” Updated The NDC also represents the framework for India’s transition to clean energy over the period 2021-2030.
narrow moment
The world has only a short time to act to avoid the most catastrophic effects of the climate crisis and seize economic opportunity. Critical ecosystems – terrestrial and coastal ecosystems including forests, mangroves, wetlands and grasslands – are biologically rich, vital to humans and serve important carbon sinks; for example, the Amazon forest represents the biodiversity on Earth The most sexual part. In addition to being important carbon sinks, these ecosystems provide a wealth of services to the global population, including providing a source of food and medicine, regulating local temperatures and reducing vulnerability to extreme weather.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations’ State of the World’s Forests 2022, nearly one-third of the Earth’s land has changed over the past 60 years, and nearly 90 percent of deforestation between 2000 and 2019 was related to agriculture. Deforestation Serious threat to biodiversity as it leads to excessive loss of species distribution, increasing the risk of extinction. In some cases deforestation is irreversible, while in others recovery can be very slow, a matter of great concern and underscoring the need to stop deforestation as a means to combat climate change.
Halting deforestation and preventing forest degradation is one of the most important actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. According to the 2019 FAO report, biodiversity is integral to food security, sustainable development and the provision of ecosystem services. WWF’s Living Planet 2022 report sounded alarm bells for the world as it noted that between 1970 and 2018, global wildlife populations declined by 69%. This staggering rate of decline proves once again that our planet is in the throes of a biodiversity crisis. To reverse the trend of biodiversity loss, changes are needed to address its underlying causes – the interconnected economic, sociocultural, demographic, political, institutional and technological drivers.
The world’s forests and forest soils store more than 1 trillion tons of carbon each year, twice the amount of carbon floating in the atmosphere. Deforestation caused by deforestation or fire adds billions of tons of carbon to the atmosphere every year. Forests are intricately linked to climate change, both as a cause and as a solution. Therefore, world leaders should not only commit at COP 27, but also take immediate action to halt deforestation and maintain forest ecosystem services for the benefit of climate, biodiversity, health and long-term food security.
(The author is a retired IFS officer)
