COP26
COP26
The Conference of Parties (COP) is the decision-making body responsible for monitoring and reviewing UNFCCC recommendations on global warming and climate change.reviewing UNFCCC recommendations on global warming and climate change.
International Efforts:
Last 25 COPs since 1995, have failed to limit the Global Warming.
The Global Leadership is yet to provide a clear direction for mitigating Climate Change impacts.
COP-26 starting from 31 Oct 2021 could be the last chance for Humanity to avoid catastrophic decline.
The Main themes of COP 26:
- Limiting warming to 1.5 degrees
- Global emissions must halve by 2030
- Globally reach ‘net-zero’ by 2050
- Mobilize Climate Finance
COP 21 at Paris in 2015 saw over 195 countries pledging NDCs to reduce CO2 emissions, But post- pandemic Economic recovery is seeing large rebound to Coal & Oil use with 2nd largest annual increase in CO2 emissions in the History
Will COP 26 be hijacked by finance issues, without committing emission reductions?
Taken from: CCP New Bulletin October 2021 https://www.climatecollectivepune.org/
The ‘net-zero’ greenwash ASHISH KOTHARI 13 JULY 2021 https://wsimag.com/economy-and-politics/66356-the-net-zero-greenwash Climate crisis and biodiversity loss are becoming impossible to ignore
Net-zero is part of the discussions around the Post-2020 Biodiversity Framework that is being negotiated under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)...For biodiversity, the equivalent is ‘no-net-loss’, which means that the loss of an ecosystem or species somewhere is compensated by regenerating or protecting anew a similar ecosystem or that species somewhere else.
Firstly, a mindset that equates pollution emitted or forest cut in one place to pollution absorbed or afforestation done elsewhere, is ecologically and socially ignorant (or willfully negligent)
Second, as a recent civil society report exposing the net-zero scam points out, many of the proposals for achieving this target are based on unrealistic projections of land available, or technologies that are not yet viable.
Third, the common experience with all such approaches is that the targets are hardly ever met. Inefficiency, corruption, and other all-too-frequent bugbears of the governmental or corporate system play their own part in this failure of implementation.
Fourth, net-zero approaches do not take into consideration social, economic, and cultural impacts, both of the activities that are causing emissions or biodiversity loss as also of the compensatory activities. If a forest or wetland on which a local community is dependent is cleared for a mining project, how can afforestation or regeneration of a wetlands elsewhere possibly compensate its loss of livelihoods and cultural-spiritual connections?
Fifth, as the above mentioned civil society report points out, “the vast majority of these (climate-related) plans are centred on a “net zero” by 2050 timeline with little action taken to reduce emissions at source for decades—far too long a timeline for a credible emissions reduction plan that ensures we keep global temperature rise to below 1.5 degrees Celsius.
It is not as if alternatives do not exist. They do, and are proven as viable in initiatives around the world. Decentralised renewable energy such as solar is now financially affordable (in many situations cheaper than fossil fuels). It needs to be accompanied with limits on luxury demand and the redistribution of existing energy to those who still don’t have enough. These are political issues, and require cultural change as well to give a sense of the injustice and unsustainability of demanding more and more energy (even if its ‘renewable’).
What is Net Zero and why is it difficult for India to achieve it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaWR4e8ne3Y Sep 22,2021
UN Climate Change Report Explained In Under 3 Minutes | IPCC Report | The Wire Science Aug 11, 2021
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8CY2TOf5xk
The latest climate report has said that Earth can no longer escape the effects of human-caused climate change. It said that India will experience more rainfall and more frequent heat waves; the increase in rainfall will be more severe over southern India; Glaciers in the Hindu Kush Himalaya will decline by two-thirds; excess rain together with unstable frozen terrains will likely cause disasters like the ice-rock avalanche that struck Chamoli in February. Furthermore, sea levels will continue to rise by 76 cm by the end of the century. The higher seas will expose more than 560 million Indians living along India’s 7,500 km long coastline to many risks – including coastal erosion, flooding and stronger cyclone. Watch the full video to learn more.
Gravitas: IPCC sounds alarm on climate change https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1y_dKyMMeA Aug 9, 2021
Faye DSouza Climate Crisis - The Whole Story |https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNeIqgGZ898 16 August, 2021
Properly pricing the damage done by emissions raises the cost of energy consumption, squeezing demand and incentivizing alternative supplies. It also creates markets for capital investments in clean energy. But researchers Danny Cullenward and David G. Victor show that the reality is different. ( Making Climate Policy Work).. few carbon-trading systems have been put into effect. In Australia and Canada, carbon markets have been rolled back. Where trading in carbon permits continues, more often than not, it is perfunctory and marred by exemptions and giveaways of free polluting permission. The result is not true market discipline but, as Cullenward and Victor call it, “Potemkin markets.” The only major system of carbon currently in operation is that of the EU. Brussels is now proposing the introduction of a carbon border adjustment mechanism to be phased in between 2023 and 2025. The pressure of carbon pricing will continue, but European industry will be shielded against foreign competition.
The question is whether such tactics will work with the United States. The Biden administration does not like having its arm twisted, especially when it comes to carbon pricing.
Present at the Creation of a Climate Alliance—or Climate Conflict
The United States and Europe are on the brink of decisions that could save the planet—or tear apart the West. https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/08/06/climate-conflict-europe-us-green-trade-war/
What Must Be Done to Avert Climate Catastrophe? New Economic Thinking https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f7ufgv9T1I
Are existing institutions up to the task? Is the nation-state an obstacle, and if so how do we overcome it? What would alternatives look like, and how would we realize them?
Recently, it seems that much of the world has awakened to the imminent threat posed by climate change. Multilateral efforts, especially those led by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, have earned support around the world, but the convention itself is rather toothless. The United States rejoining the UN’s Paris Climate Agreement is an important step forward, but perhaps more important is the announced collaboration between the US and China, for without their partnership much cannot be achieved.
The goals set by the Paris accord are ambitious and require countries to undertake a massive economic transition, but little progress has yet been realized. Shaken by a deadly pandemic, the world now looks ahead to COP26 in Glasgow later this year to avert climate catastrophe.
It begs to wonder: Will meaningful change finally come of these efforts? What has stood in the way until now, and what impediments might derail this shift?
In a series of debates, the Institute for New Economic Thinking examines the role of economics in climate change, the relation between how we think about and govern our economies and the transformation we know is necessary, and the areas where economics can still play a productive role for the good of the climate and society.
Climate hazards are threatening vulnerable migrants in Indian megacities https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-021-01105-7
Rising temperature adversely impacts the agriculture, thereby increasing the vulnerability7,8 of marginalized agriculture-dependent rural populations. Thus, climate change can be a catalyst for such migrants to relocate in search of better living conditions and alternate livelihoods9. Although migration is perceived as an important adaptation mechanism to counteract the negative outcomes of climate change2, climate extremes at the destination location, on the other hand, can have a detrimental effect on these migrants10, as population dynamics and climate change is considered a mutually interacting two-way avenue2. Therefore, an improved and systematic understanding of climate change-induced risks that the migrants face at the destinations, especially in megacities, is of utmost importance.
the emergence of two fundamentally different but equally devastating hazards — heatwaves and floods — can contribute to the vulnerability of migrants at their destination ( mainly Mumbai and Delhi) Delhi has witnessed record summer temperatures for several years in a row, accompanied by higher fatalities and hospitalization.
major hazard is flooding in coastal cities such as Mumbai caused by tropical cyclones and sea-level rise. A substantial rise in the pre-monsoon sea-surface temperature trends across the Northern Indian Ocean, specifically in the Arabian Sea, creates a conducive environment for the genesis and propagation of tropical cyclones. the coastal cities — specifically Mumbai, where the influx of marginal migrants is very high — face immense challenges in managing the increasing hydroclimatic hazards, the consequences of which are experienced by the large vulnerable population and are often met with huge monetary losses