Of Glasgow pleas and pledges

The Scottish city of Glasgow was at the centre of pleas by world leaders, environmental experts and activists for action to halt the global warming which threatens the future of the planet. It was also witness to a major deal struck by a group of 100 world leaders including UK, US, and China promising to stop deforestation by 2030.

If reports are to be believed the two-day summit at the COP26 ended with big polluters making new commitments but with substantial caveats. And the pledges are expected to allow the planet’s average surface temperature to rise 2.7C this century.

US President Joe Biden restated an earlier pledge to halve emissions by 2030. Britain, the EU and New Zealand have all set a target date of 2050 to reach net zero. Brazil said it would cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2030, upping a previous pledge, and would end illegal deforestation by 2028.

India has set 2070 as a target to reach net-zero carbon emissions, but that's 20 years beyond the UN's global recommendation.

At its meeting in Rome, the G20 nations, responsible for around 80 per cent of global greenhouse gases, earlier failed to agree to halt net carbon emissions by 2050, undermining one of the summit’s main goals.

But what is encouraging is that many governments, industries and other businesses are setting targets to reach net-zero emissions for 2030. They are also aiming to protect at least 30 per cent of the world’s land and oceans by the same period.

But the question asked by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley that whether there will be peace and prosperity if one-third of the world lives in prosperity and two-third lives under seas and face calamitous threats to our wellbeing cannot be ignored by the leaders of developed nations.

Similarly, what Elizabeth Wathuti, a climate activist from Kenya, said is heart-rending, “I need to tell you what is happening in my home country. Right now, as you sit comfortably in this conference center Glasgow, over two million of my fellow Kenyans are facing climate-related starvation. Please open your hearts. If you allow yourself to feel it, the heartbreak and the injustice is hard to bear”.

As experts point out, the rapidly warming climate is the greatest threat to global public health. Repeatedly they have been calling on world leaders to cut heat-trapping emissions to avoid "catastrophic harm to health that will be impossible to reverse."

The most vulnerable populations are at highest risk from climate change, including the oldest and youngest, as well as those already facing economic and health challenges. Young children are falling sick and are seeking admissions in hospitals breathing problems due to poor air quality. We are witness to more heat exhaustion and heat-related illnesses. With climate change happening, the number of these cases will continue to rise.

Repeated disasters, such as hurricanes and fires, can lead to mental health problems and instability as people are displaced. Infectious diseases are also expected to rise.

Our clean air, clean water, temperate climate, mountain snowpack, and general way of life are at risk, and humans have the capacity to work together in a concerted effort to preserve our climate.

As UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres points out, “the carbon announcements might give the impression that we are on track to turn things around. This is an illusion.”

These promises are not enough. Targets are easy to set and hard to achieve. They are yet to be matched with credible short and longer term plans to accelerate cleaner technologies and transform societies.

But to have any chance of capping global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the world needs to almost halve greenhouse gas emissions in the next eight years and reach net-zero emissions by 2050.