The deadly flash floods in China last week, coming on the heels of similar calamities in Europe and the massive wild fires in the US, all point to the urgency of addressing climate change in a collective way.
The irony is that these calamities are happening just three months before the United Nations' Climate Change Conference 2021, also known as COP26, set to take place in Glasgow, Scotland, between October 31 and November 12.
Coincidentally, in a meeting held in Naples on July 22 in preparation for COP26, the G20 environment ministers issued a communiqué calling for cooperation and collaboration on sustainable water management; protection, conservation, sustainable management and restoration of degraded lands; conservation of oceans and seas; and addressing the impact of marine plastic litter.
“We encourage the provision of financial, technological and capacity-building support to developing countries, especially to the least developed countries, making the best use of existing governance frameworks and working to identify new and innovative solutions,” the communiqué states.
Although the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has already given COP26 a sense of urgency even before the recent spate of calamities, in Asia there seems to be a sense of helplessness that not enough action is being taken to address climate change despite the wave of conferences and meetings dedicated to the topic.
Jairam Ramesh, a former environment minister of India, member of parliament and chair of the parliamentary committee on science, technology and environment, speaking during a webinar sponsored by The Third Pole, a multilingual platform dedicated to promoting information and discussion about the Himalayan watershed and the rivers that originate there, bewailed the fact that not enough has been done in the immediate past to meet the targets that have been set in previous COP meetings.
“The immediate priority is to get countries to act within their borders, to have environmental laws, regulations, standards and institutions,” Ramesh says. “Enforce those laws, enforce those standards and speak from a position of actual implementation. It’s very easy to be part of global meetings without having a track record at home.”
Ramesh’s concern is understandable considering that the Tibetan Plateau, widely known as the Third Pole because its ice fields contain the largest reserve of freshwater outside the polar regions, has been under threat from environmental damage that has accelerated in recent decades because of climate change.
In the rest of Asia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore and South Korea are ranked “highly insufficient” by Climate Action Tracker (CAT), an independent scientific body that tracks the progress countries have made on their Paris agreement commitments.
Only the Philippines ranks in the “compatible” category as the local policies are now keeping the country in line with the more realistic scenario of limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius. The policies, according to CAT, provide room for the Philippines to hit the targets for the optimal scenario set by the Paris agreement.
“However, the rest of the continent has a lot more to do, not only because its reputation is at stake, but because Southeast Asia, in particular, is one of the parts of the world most affected by global warming,” CAT notes. “Unfortunately, the continent doesn’t seem united in its goal to stop global warming. Role models like Myanmar and the Philippines are rare to find in a sea of countries determined to build more coal power.”
Although time may be running out as the world prepares for COP26, there is still a general sense of optimism, based on the language of G20 communiqués, that the race against climate change can be won.
According to the G20 environment ministers: “We are convinced that overcoming these challenges is essential for a healthy planet, which is the prerequisite for human well-being, inclusive and sustainable economies, and sustainable production and consumption.”
