Mother Earth facing existential crises

The world is undergoing changes of a scale unseen in a century

The earth is the only home we have. Human beings share a common future in the face of the challenges presented by global climate change, and no country can make itself immune from the impact. Therefore, all countries should strengthen solidarity and cooperation to ensure the survival of humanity on this blue dot in the universe.

Industrial civilization created massive material wealth but also laid bare the growing tensions in the relationship between humans and nature. Mother Nature has nourished us, and we must treat her as our root, respect her, protect her, and follow her laws. Through a sense of responsibility to human civilization, the world must make every effort to fight climate change, build a world that maintains the harmony between humanity and nature, and help foster a new relationship where humanity and nature can coexist or we are on a “highway to hell” as stated by the UN Secretary General in his opening address at COP 27.
Climate change poses a severe threat to the economic and social development of all countries and to peoples, thus our responses affecs the fundamental interests of humanity as a whole. Mitigating and adapting to climate change are essential for increasing the people’s sense of eco-environmental gain, and will provide them with a fairer, more sustainable and safer environment that promotes higher quality and more efficient development. Keeping in mind our responsibility towards the future generations, there is an urgent need to pioneer a joint approach that synergizes the efforts to fight climate change, develop the economy, generate employment, eliminate poverty, and protect the environment. An approach that guarantees and improves people’s wellbeing through development, strives for social equity and justice in the process of green transition, and increases people’s sense of gain, happiness and security.

It is evident that due to ecological and environmental constraints imposed by the industrial structure, and the level of social and economic development, developing countries are generally weaker in terms of their ability to adapt to climate change, and are more vulnerable to its adverse effects as compared to the developed countries. Additionally the developed world is the most responsible for polluting the environment and the responsibility squarely lies on the shoulders of the developed countries to help the developing world cope with the effects of climate change. Therefore, the issue of climate justice is at the heart of the concerns of the developing world
As the world leaders prepared for the 27th Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP 27), in Egypt, the devastating and unprecedented floods which swept through Pakistan this summer, leaving one third of the country inundated and 33 million people affected, reminded the world of the urgency of climate action and climate justice. It took just minutes for residents of flood affected areas across Pakistan to be reduced to helplessness, fending for themselves as flood waters roared from the mountains into the cities, towns and villages.
Political uncertainty and economic meltdown with double digit inflation had already made it hard and in most cases impossible to make ends meet. With the devastation of floods now the people are left with nothing. The devastating floods in Pakistan should be a wakeup call for the world to start focusing very seriously on issues that plague our planet. It is estimated that by 2030, climate change is expected to push an additional 132 million people in the world into extreme poverty — many of them women, girls and marginalized communities. The international community needs to work together to ensure the Paris Agreement delivers steady and lasting results, and make greater contribution to the global response.
As the impact of climate change is beginning to hit the most vulnerable countries one core issue which rightly dominated proceedings of COP 27 was climate Justice, sometimes referred to as “loss and damage” payments. Addressing the issue of climate justice would be the litmus test for the success of COP 27. The conference is being held amid growing calls for rich countries to compensate climate-vulnerable nations as it becomes harder for many people to live safely on a warming planet. As COP 27 nears completion, it is now clear that no consensus was reached on this highly divisive and emotive issue that is seen as a fundamental question of climate justice. Although U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said that Washington would not be “obstructing” talks on loss and damage, nevertheless, neither U.S.A nor Europe agreed to climate the demand for loss and damage.
Pakistan played a high-profile role at the COP 27 summit, serving as one of two co-chairs invited by conference host Egypt, with the other being Norway. Pakistan also represents the G77 umbrella group of developing countries, pushing for a doubling in finance to help poor nations adapt to climate impacts. Pakistan was key to getting the thorny issue of “loss and damage” onto the official U.N. summit agenda – a diplomatic coup after decades of resistance from rich nations. The move opened the door for talks to address vulnerable countries’ demand to be compensated when hit by climate-fueled disasters.
Rich countries, despite accounting for the bulk of historical greenhouse gas emissions, have long opposed the creation of a fund to address loss and damage. At COP 26 last year, high-income nations blocked a proposal for a loss and damage financing body, choosing instead to engage in a new three-year dialogue for funding discussions. The so-called “Glasgow Dialogue” which has been sharply criticized as a program without a clear plan or an intended outcome.

The push for loss and damage payments differs from climate finance directed toward mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation refers to efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are causing global heating by, for instance, transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. Adaptation, meanwhile, means preparing for the adverse effects of the climate crisis by taking action to minimize the damage. These are two established pillars of climate action. Loss and damage funding, meanwhile, is recognized by many as the t. Now Loss and damage funding is by far the most important issue that needs to be discussed and settled or the entire debate on climate change becomes redundant.
Developed countries argue that the money available for climate change needs to go to adaptation, on building resilience and to developing new technologies to counter climate change. Whereas, the developing countries are advocates of loss and damage funding arguing that funds are desperately needed for climate impacts including hurricanes, floods and wildfires or slow-onset impacts such as rising sea levels that countries cannot defend against because the risks are unavoidable or the countries cannot afford it. Looking at loss and damage as a side issue is not acceptable to them and are rightly demanding climate justice and creation of a new system of funding so that vulnerable countries could support people who are facing the climate emergency now.
Countries from the Global South are therefore, looking for reassurance that the $100 billion climate finance pledge by rich nations in 2009 to help low-income nations mitigate and adapt to the climate emergency is going to be met .But unfortunately so far even those pledges have not materialized. So far, only one U.N. member state has pledged to offer loss and damage compensation to the most climate-vulnerable areas. A few hundred million dollars of funding for poorer nations pledged by Germany, Austria, the United States and others, far off the hundreds of billions that vulnerable countries need to cope with escalating droughts, floods and rising seas each year. If vulnerable can’t even get the funding for adaptation and mitigation that has already been promised then that calls into the question the ability to raise additional funds for climate reparations.
Without agreeing on an agreed methodology to implement climate justice, COP 27 is in danger of failing to protect and amplify the voices of the primary victims of climate change. But climate justice not only the right thing to do but is also the most effective measure for building wider societal resilience and achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Effectively addressing climate change is a cause shared by all of humanity. Faced with unprecedented challenges in global climate governance, the international community needs to respond with unprecedented ambition and action. We need to act with a sense of responsibility and unity, take proactive measures, and work together to pursue harmony between humanity and nature.
The world is undergoing changes of a scale unseen in a century, and we are living in an era in which challenges emerge one after another and risks increase with each passing day. Non-conventional security threats including climate change are spreading. No country is immune from such challenges. The whole world needs to work together in solidarity and engage in cooperation. Countries should learn from each other and make common progress in a global effort to combat climate change. We must commit to concrete actions and not just words. The key to addressing climate change lies in action and unfortunately that concrete action did not emerge from COP 27.