Act now on global warming

The Katowice meet must force the pace on Green Climate Fund

That the combat against global warming is making no headway and the consequential changes in climate may accentuate with time is clear from reports released ahead of the two-week United Nations (UN) climate summit (COP 24) beginning at Katowice (Poland) from Sunday. The latest Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Bulletin of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) says the level of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, notably the most potent carbon dioxide, hit a new record in 2017. More worrisome is the assertion that there are no signs of reversals in this trend and that the window of opportunity for action is almost closed. Climate change will, thus, have increasingly destructive and irreversible impacts on life on earth.

Articulating similar views, a US Congress-mandated report generated by 13 government agencies has warned of dreadful consequences of continued growth in emissions. It maintains that global warming will undermine human health, damage infrastructure, limit water availability, alter coastlines and push up costs in industries, farming, fisheries and energy sectors. Regrettably, the White House has rubbished this report, reflecting President Donald Trump’s disdain for climate change. Little wonder, the Trump administration continues to roll back the Obama-era climate amelioration initiatives besides encouraging the production and use of fossil fuels. The US, notably, is also seeking to dilute the financial obligations of the developed nations to sustain the global struggle against rapidly altering climate.

On the domestic front, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has shed its earlier diffidence to recognise climate change and now concedes that the weather-related normals have changed. The meteorological data since 1951 shows an increasing frequency of extremely heavy rainfall and rainless days and diminishing incidence of light to moderate rainfall. The IMD has also attributed the recent unprecedented deluge in Kerala and similar events elsewhere earlier to climate change. This aside, studies have revealed a perceptible rise in the surface water temperature in the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal, boding ill for aquatic biodiversity.

The underlying message of these reports is that climate change can no longer be wished away. The man will have to learn to live with it. Adaptation is, therefore, as important as mitigation though it has received meagre attention till now. Agriculture, being the most weather-dependent sector, can thrive only if it manages to adjust to the emerging weather trends through climate resilient technologies and crop varieties. Water conservation as well as drainage will need to be improved to contain the impact of droughts and floods. Similar well-judged measures will be imperative to protect flora and fauna against various kinds of threats. The economic cost of such adaptation strategies can run into billions of dollars which the resource-starved countries may find hard to afford without external assistance. Though the Cancun 2010 climate summit had decided to create a Green Climate Fund with annual donations amounting to $100 billion by 2022, the money has not been forthcoming for this purpose. The Katowice meet will, therefore, do well to deliberate on this issue and get the Fund going to shield this planet from the wrath of the climate change.