2019 United Nations Climate Change Summit: Concerns and Commitments

Late last month, world leaders of several UN member states had gathered for five days at the UN headquarters to express their views on the most crucial issues of the world today from climate change and balanced development to regional crises in West Asia, Kashmir, Hong Kong and promotion of peace in Afghanistan.

The following is a report in this regard titled: “2019 United Nations Climate Change Summit: Concerns and Commitments”.

The 5-day summit started at the UN General Assembly on Monday September 23, with the participation of representatives of member states, who reviewed global climatic issue from 2015 to 2019.

On the eve of the UN General Assembly session, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) released a report regarding the climate changes between the years 2015 to 2019. The report studied the signs and impacts of the issue of climate change such as rise in sea level, glacial melting and intense typhoons in various parts of the world.

It said, the past five years have been the warmest since the recording of global temperatures started in 1850, and as a result, greenhouse gases have risen to alarming levels throughout the world. The report said the average global temperature has increased 1.1 degree compared to the pre-industrial era, while the increase compared to a similar report between the years 2011 and 2015 has been 0.2 degree.  

The crisis of rise in the global temperature could be more tangible when we know that the basic goal of the Paris Climate Agreement, signed by almost 200 countries in 2015, has been to reduce the increase in global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels. Therefore, the 0.2°C increase in less than 5 years after signing this accord throws the basic goal of the agreement in jeopardy. This is while the long term goal of the said agreement has been to limit the increase to 1.5 °C, more than pre industrial era.

Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres confirmed this fact and said in an interview: “Global emissions are reaching record levels and show no sign of reduction. The last four years were the four hottest on record, and winter temperatures in the Arctic have risen by 3°C since 1990. Sea levels are rising, coral reefs are dying, and we are starting to see the life-threatening impact of climate change on health, through air pollution, heat waves and risks to food security.”

The impacts of climate change are being felt everywhere and are having very real consequences on people’s lives. Climate change is disrupting national economies, costing us dearly today with the situation to become more alarming tomorrow. But there is a growing recognition that affordable, scalable solutions are available now that will enable us all to strive towards cleaner, more resilient economies.

The latest analysis shows that if we take action now, we can reduce carbon emissions within 12 years and control the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C, and even to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

Concerns over the issue of climate change have led to huge demonstrations across the world concurrent with the World Action Summit at the UN. Millions of people across the world have taken to the streets, protesting the governments' negligence with regard to the issue of Global Warming. Demonstrators urge the governments to take due measures to control the various factors leading to global warming, such as toxic waste in South Africa, air pollution and plastic waste in India and coal proliferation in Australia. The core message of protesters was cutting the production of Greenhouse gases and stabilizing climate worldwide.

According to London’s Guardian newspaper, in addition to ordinary people, trade unions representing hundreds of millions around the world mobilized support and joined ranks with the peaceful demonstrators. Employees left their workplaces, doctors and nurses marched, and workers at firms like Amazon, Google, Twitter and Facebook walked out to join the climate strikes in different U.S. cities, such as New York, San Francisco, San Jose and elsewhere.

UN Secretary General Guterres had earlier explicitly told member states not to attend the New York Summit, if they have no plan regarding the issue of climate change.

Worldwide reactions to global warming had started at the Rio Summit of Brazil in 1992. It was in this summit that United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was passed, based on which 160 states were deemed committed to stop the global warming process. However, it was during the Paris Summit of 2015 that world countries for the first time in 20 years, agreed to combat climate change by inking an accord, according to which, the global average temperature was predicted and planned to rise less than 2 degrees by the year 2050.

At the Paris Summit, pressure mounted by the world public opinion compelled the then U.S. president Barak Obama accept reductions in the Greenhouse gases released in the atmosphere by the U.S. and agree with the clauses of the conventions. Admitting that the United States is chiefly responsible for global warming, Obama said: “I’ve come here personally, as the leader of the world’s largest economy and the second largest emitter, to say that the United States of America not only recognizes our role in creating this problem, we embrace our responsibility to do something about it.”

He also vowed to provide poor countries with financial assistance to combat this global problem.

Unfortunately, when President Donald Trump took power in 2017, he unilaterally left the Paris Agreement, ignoring the fact that the United States is one of the biggest Greenhouse gas emitters in the world. He claimed that this agreement will make 6.5 million Americans loose million jobs resulting in a 3 trillion-dollar reduction of the GDP.

Trump’s breach of the agreement and his lame pretexts were strongly criticized by other signatories of the accord, followed by huge protests from environmental activists worldwide. Sierra Club which is an environmental organization in the United States, attacked this measure of the US president and said: “Since the Agreement came into force and Trump began to waver, dozens of countries have reaffirmed their commitment. Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement threatens to isolate and impoverish America.”

As the result of such decision, the world is facing more and more challenges with regard to the global warming and climate change. The latest report of The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has emphasized and referred to the continuation of the increase of greenhouse gasses, explaining that over the past 5 years, the world has witnessed 20 percent increase in CO2, adding that this number will go even higher till the end of the year 2019.

According to the mentioned report, melting glaciers in Antarctica and Greenland have not only made sea levels rise, but have led to natural disasters such as tropical storms and draught which resulted in irreparable damages to the ecology. More than 90 percent of natural disasters are related to the climate change, among which typhoons and floods are the most rampant. The heat wave and draught have not only been the reason of human casualties but have also caused various forest fires and destruction of agricultural products. According to WMO, heat wave during the years 2015-2019 has been among the deadliest methodological phenomena. Almost every study of a significant heat wave since 2015 has found the trace of climate change.

Hurricane Harvey in the United States in 2017 as one of the most devastating hurricanes on record caused more than US $125 billion in losses, while massive tropical cyclones in Mozambique during March and April of 2019 are just a few examples which led to widespread, unprecedented destructions and casualties.

According to experts, there should be an immediate solution for the climate change problem. The latest analyses show that if proper measures are taken now, we will be able to decrease CO2 emission in 12 years and also keep the increase in global average temperature to below 2 °C. In this regard, the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on all the attendees of the New York summit to make concrete, realistic plans to enhance their nationally determined contributions by 2020, in line with reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 45 per cent over the next decade, and to zero emissions by 2050. He added that: “To be effective and credible, these plans cannot address mitigation alone: they must show the way toward a full transformation of economies in line with sustainable development goals. They should not create winners and losers or add to economic inequality.”

Gutterres hoped the UN Summit will bring together governments, the private sector, civil society, local authorities and international organizations to work out ambitious solutions in six areas: a global transition to renewable energy; sustainable and resilient infrastructures and cities; sustainable agriculture and management of forests and oceans; resilience and adaptation to climate impacts; and alignment of public and private finance with a net zero economy. Speedy climate solutions can strengthen our economies and create jobs, while bringing cleaner air, preserving natural habitats and biodiversity, and protecting our environment. However, reaching this end is only possible if the world powers take a step back from their vested interests.

MG/AS/MG