Climate change concerns are particularly real for the developing world. But do we need apocalyptic rhetoric regarding the changing weather patterns; food production; pollution and health hazard? Or do we need to adopt a more structured, solid, well-planned and multipronged long-term strategy?
Human activities are estimated to have espoused approximately 1.0°C of global warming above pre-industrial levels, with a likely range of 0.8°C to 1.2°C.
Moreover, global warming is likely to reach 1.5°C between 2030 and 2052, if it continues increasing at the current rate.
According to the IPCC, the overall impact of global warming by the 2070s will be equivalent to 0.2 to two per cent loss in average income. Well, certainly, there needs to be a careful assessment of the impacts we are facing in terms of economic losses and health care costs. More region-specific mitigation plans need to be developed to ensure all countries can meet the SDG’s targets for 2030 and prioritise our major and more pressing needs, such as water crisis, energy shortages and health care coverage, etc.
Major cities run a high risk due to abrupt changes in weather patterns and pollution. According to Air Visual, an organisation that ranks the world’s cities according to the Air Quality Index (AQI). Lahore is ranked second in the list of cities with the worst air quality in the world with an AQI of 315.
Major cities in China such as Chengdu, Shanghai, and Chongqing are also amongst the worst affected. Climate change will place an even higher premium on municipal capacity and management structures. Existing disaster reduction experience has shown social capital is a critical aspect of all urban communities. Cities with strong social networks often have support systems that can aid in recovery from natural disasters and slower onset challenges, such as rising temperatures, changing weather patterns and water stress.
Governments around the world have placed SDGs at the centre of their sustainable development plans
Cities are complex systems where service delivery mixes with robust infrastructure and social and political factors that determine much of the progress of social and economic development policies. The best way to deal with city complexity in the face of serious climate change challenge is to improve the city’s resilience. For instance, increasing smog incidence in Lahore calls for serious action against vehicle emissions, plantation of trees and preservation of biodiversity.
Secondly, in the context of Pakistan, we see the energy crisis has crippled the prospects for economic opportunities such as the export sector, industries, and businesses. So how do we move towards a more sustainable, clean and low-cost power substitute? What options should we be considering or prioritising in terms of affordable, sustainable energy solutions?
Should developing countries, like Pakistan, completely abandon the use of fossil fuels in the face of complex realities? Indeed, the analysis for the Copenhagen Consensus Center shows that even when accounting for global climate damage developing coal power to drive economic growth in Bangladesh is an effective policy. The cost would be $9.7 billion, including the global, long-term climate costs of $570 million, but the benefits would exceed $250 billion that is equivalent to more than an entire year of Bangladesh’s GDP. We need to devise a plan to overcome the climate change crisis, but we also need to make sure the solution isn’t more excruciating than the problem. A commensurate response would be to deepen the use of technology that renders renewable energy cheaper than fossil fuels, the planting of millions of trees to reverse deforestation, and removing carbon dioxide from the environment. This would ensure a smooth transition that doesn’t slow economies down and hurt the most vulnerable in society. Climate change and environmental degradation represent a parlous threat to poverty alleviation and to achieving the SDGs. They impact health, food security, nutrition, production, and people’s earnings.
A pertinent question then arises; what factors can contribute to enhancing climate change resilience and creating powerful networks and social capital to protect households and save livelihood? The role of supporting women in climate change mitigation is considered to be instrumental. Given their traditional roles in agricultural production, and as the procurers of water, cooking fuel, and other household resources, women are not only well suited to find solutions to prevent further environment catastrophe and adapt to the changing climate they have a vested interest in doing so. The traditional skills and knowledge that women have relating to natural resource management in areas such as innovation, waste and energy are effective tools in climate action strategies. The first step towards allaying the challenges of climate change is empowering women to safeguard the environment.
Secondly, having a multilateral approach would be helpful in effectively managing the complex generational crisis and making real progress on SDGs particularly for developing countries where challenges are much graver and accomplishing the SDG targets would not be possible without adequate external support. The adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015 was certainly one of the greatest feats of multilateralism in modern history. In an unprecedented show of unanimity, all Member States of the United Nations agreed on a common, comprehensive blueprint for eliminating extreme poverty, improving health and education, reducing inequality, and protecting the environment in a rapidly globalizing industrialised world. Four years into this ambitious agenda, collaboration and shared responsibility are at the heart of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda. Governments around the world have placed them at the centre of their sustainable development plans and aligned their policies and institutions with the SDG targets.
The upcoming High-level Political Forum under the General Assembly auspices also known as the SDG Summit will be a critical opportunity to step up ambition for the Sustainable Development Goals. It will allow leaders from Governments, businesses and other sectors to identify how to accelerate action to transform societies and economies to ensure everyone, everywhere can achieve the SDGs by the 2030 deadline. The Secretary-General Antonio Guterres impelled leaders to “come with a plan, not a speech” to rapidly accelerate action in line with the Paris Agreement at the upcoming Climate Action Summit. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has emphasised: “We need to keep the rise of temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius to the end of the century and to be carbon neutral in 2050 and to have a 45 per cent reduction of emissions by 2030.”
The Secretary-General has also expressed concern that with Greenland’s dramatic ice-melting and intense burning from Alaska to the Amazon, “we are much worse than we were during Paris in 2015 when the landmark Paris Climate Change Agreement was reached.” The Amazon basin; home to about three million species of plants and animals, and one million indigenous people is crucial to regulating global warming, with its forests absorbing millions of tons of carbon every year. Achieving the SDGs, including their ambitious targets on climate action, universal healthcare and finance for development, will require stakeholders to work together at all levels in innovative partnerships and initiatives. Only through a renewed multilateralism, that brings together governments, the business sector, civil society and multilateral institutions the world can advance towards a sustainable, peaceful, prosperous and resilient pathway to economic development that leaves no one behind.
The author is a freelance writer and an Economic Analyst based in Lahore