Perspectived: The Dreadful Warmth: Climate Change, Policy Measures, and the Hypocrisy of the West

It is no longer a debate that climate action to control manmade emissions is an urgent necessity. COP27, like its predecessors, saw turtle steps being taken in a rabbit race of death. The creation of a 'Loss and Damage Fund' was the tiniest of steps that could have been taken, but given the hesitancy, it is almost a surprise that it was accomplished. What is the rate of change? And what do the future and the present look like for India, the world, and the West?

The Global Future

While there is some fringe-fraction denial, particularly among the libertarian West (of course), the question of a global climate heating catastrophe is undeniable. According to the UN, Greenhouse Gases' concentration is at its highest in 2 million years, with 2011-2020 being undeniably the record highest.

Image source: NASA Earth Observatory

The Facts

• Global temperatures rose about 1.8°F (1°C) from 1901 to 2020.

• Sea level rise has accelerated from 1.7 mm/year throughout most of the twentieth century to 3.2 mm/year since 1993.

• Glaciers are shrinking: the average thickness of 30 well-studied glaciers has decreased by more than 60 feet since 1980.

• The area covered by sea ice in the Arctic at the end of summer has shrunk by about 40% since 1979.

• The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen by 25% since 1958, and by about 40% since the Industrial Revolution.

• Snow is melting earlier compared to long-term averages

Facts of Future

• Under a 2050 climate scenario developed by NASA, continuing growth of the greenhouse emission at today’s rate could lead to additional global warming of about 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2050.1 People will likely be forced to work indoors or to take frequent breaks to prevent heatstroke, while extreme hot weather could also lead to changes in the disease vectors which ultimately impact human health

• The World Health Organisation projects that between 2030 and 2050, climate change impacts will cause 250,000 more deaths globally each year, mainly from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea, and heat stress

• With no change in emissions by 2050, 1,126,000 premature mortalities are expected each year due to ozone

• By 2050, more than half of the global population (57%) will live in areas that suffer water scarcity for at least one month each year.

• It is projected that the amount of physical capital that could be damaged as a result of riverine flooding by 2050 will rise to $1.6 trillion globally and $1.2 trillion in Asia

• It’s projected that by 2050, the glacial loss will reach 70 percent in the Andes; the summer monsoons in China will fail, and water flows into the great rivers of Asia will be severely reduced by the loss of more than one-third of the Himalayan ice sheet.

(Source of Compilation: Fidelity International)

India- A Mirror to The West

India occupies a very interesting place in the global geopolitical dynamics, especially in regard to the climate change crisis. Quite to the pleasure of Indians' ears, the government's stance on the whole situation has been calling out the West on their ridiculous (initial) demand of Net -Zero from third-world countries parallelly with the west. This undoubtedly meant an expectation to halt development and progress, projecting the third world at not even the bottommost of the Kardaschev hierarchy.

Despite this, India is now the world's third-largest emitter. While the USA along with most other Western countries have committed to Net-Zero by 2050, with Sweden being the earliest one with 2045, India's target is set firmly and reasonably to 2070, granting a near-perfect buffer period (considering the technology and scale of development possible by that time) to catch up.

Conclusion

However, the bleak part about all this is that countries have often missed and avoided these targets, with the West particularly more willing to pay fines rather than make amends. If nothing else, asserting one's sovereignty and pointing fingers at the International Conferences generally works. The world is in a shaky place currently, with the invasion of Ukraine, protests in China, and overall global tensions, the heat in and around the people is on the rise. It is thus no longer a matter of promises or even policy, but of competence, for countries to straighten up their priorities and united to fight the true global enemy that has largely been a creation of man himself.