Globally Facilitated Climate Action Now
Brynn Hopper, Writer
January 24th, 2019
The forest fires currently burning in Australia are just one example of what disasters are to come with increasing global temperatures. We are in the midst of a climate crisis. Our planet is dying, and this is just the beginning in a cumulative process that threatens our existence.
The planet’s temperature has increased as a result of human activity since the mid-20th century and continues to do so at an unprecedented rate. Industrialization, deforestation, and large-scale agriculture production has caused the planet’s surface temperature to increase 0.9 degrees Celsius. This change in global climate patterns is attributed to the growing levels of carbon dioxide retained in the atmosphere largely due to the burning of fossil fuels.
In the past two decades, one billion people have risen out of poverty propelled by the use of fossil fuels such as oil, gas, and coal. Atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases are 40 percent higher than at the start of the industrial revolution. As global populations and economies continue to increase, so do cumulative levels of greenhouse gas emissions.
Scientific literature predicts that the future impacts of rising global temperatures will only worsen. Consequences include unpredictable weather patterns and severe storms; rising sea levels that make coastal cities uninhabitable; increased drought that disrupts agriculture and catalyzes mass migration; heat stress related illnesses such as stroke and dehydration that increase mortality rates; a shift in agricultural productivity; the complete disappearance of Arctic ice; significant species extinction and disruptions of the Earth's ecosystems.
This environmental degradation is interconnected with human security concerns. Climate change intensifies vulnerabilities by impacting access to basic necessities such as food, energy, and water. As the threat multiplies, global inequalities and political instabilities will be exacerbated by the disproportionate burden placed on small coastal nations and developing nations without the adequate means to adapt. Inevitably, these impacted populations will have to seek resettlement, leading to mass global migration. The unprecedented influx of climate refugees will likely create conflict between nations unable to support their populations under the stresses of global resource shortages.
Addressing climate change requires collective action. Although all states have an interest in solving the crisis, diverging economic agendas and beliefs prevent the implementation of policies aggressive enough to effectively prevent the acceleration of a changing climate. In attempting to facilitate global coordinated climate change, there exist a number of impediments to success.
The most predominant of such is summarized within the UNFCC resolution document which maintains that “states have, in accordance with the charter of the United Nations and the principles of international law, the sovereign right to exploit their own resources pursuant of their own environmental and development policies…”. A sovereign state has the right to self-determination and the capacity to choose what environmental legislation it implements or rejects. The democratic nature of international institutions such as the United Nations respects sovereignty and lacks the hard power to enforce measures on signatories, even if it is to the detriment of long-term human security goals.
In 2016, the Paris Agreement explicitly placed 5-year timelines on nations to voluntarily implement domestic climate policies. However, voluntary domestic policy under time constraint is subjected to changing power dynamics that may not favour long term emission reduction trajectories nor be combative enough to ensure the planet’s temperature does not increase by 1.5 degrees Celsius. The United States for example, a major carbon emission contributor, withdrew from the agreement in 2017. This confirms how the short-term mindset that preoccupies political systems fail long term international commitments to environmental policy.
International emissions reduction would require a drastic modification to current patterns of consumption and production. This suggests the need for a much larger socio economic mindset alongside efforts at global policy. Fossil fuels must be replaced by efficient energy mechanism and carbon sequestration. International governments have the capacity to facilitate this change through deploying new technologies and policies on emissions, consequently accelerating a shift to a low carbon trajectory in key economic sectors such as agriculture, transportation, construction, forestry and energy.
This realization of urgency should transcend political affiliation. No nation on earth is immune to climate change. Without mindful regulation, we have and will continue to, destroy our environment. The crisis occurring in Australia is not the first nor the last symptom of climate change. This is why it is all the more imperative that long standing policy is enacted by world leaders to ensure that future generations don’t suffer at the hands of a shortsighted political system. Successfully addressing climate change requires coordinated, voluntary and joint action of all nations which cannot occur until the environment is prioritized over short term economic agendas.