Another analysis at a more local level found that more than 40 percent of the world’s largest companies, cities and regions still had no plans or targets to reduce emissions that are driving climate change | File image
Developing countries on Monday called on the world’s richest nations at the UN General Assembly to do more to help them cope with the hardships brought by climate extremes.
Leaders of small island developing states most at risk from rising sea levels say it is time for the countries that burn the most fossil fuels and are responsible for rising temperatures to stop paying ‘lip service’ to the problem.
“I wonder if our countries are drifting further and further away from the unity and moral strength we need to protect our people,” said Cedric Schuster, Samoan Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, chair of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS).
The island nations of AOSIS have gained a powerful voice in global climate talks. At a press conference on Monday, Schuster named the world’s largest economies in the Group of 20, which together account for more than 80 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
“We need all countries, but especially the G20, to take the lead” on emissions reductions and climate finance, Schuster told reporters. “The vulnerable people in our world are being sucked dry by lip service.”
Malawi’s Minister of Climate and Natural Resources, Yusuf Mkungula, delivered a similar message on behalf of the Least Developed Countries negotiating bloc: “Industrialised countries must take the lead.”
The requests highlight the growing gap between the countries that contribute most to global warming and those that suffer the worst effects, demonstrating that climate change has become not just an environmental problem, but also a matter of global justice.
Some country leaders spoke at a special UN summit for the future, while others addressed reporters and panels at one of about 900 climate events taking place in New York City this week.
Separately, scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research warned that humanity has now damaged at least six of the planet’s natural systems, including the climate balance, while a seventh, “the chemistry of the ocean”, is now threatened by acidification, which occurs when the ocean absorbs carbon dioxide from the air.
“Climate events are coming at us faster and more frequently,” Bahamas Prime Minister Phillip Davis told Reuters, adding that he implored wealthy countries to “stay focused” on the problem.
So far, he said, “the signals being sent (by countries) do not match the commitments that have been made.”
Conversational energy
Earlier on Monday, executives from major companies including energy giant Amazon.com and energy producers Vestas and Iberdrola urged world leaders to fulfill a deal made at last year’s COP28 summit to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030.
Elsewhere, 50 US banks announced plans to work together to accelerate clean energy investment, while a separate group of 14 banks, including Citi and Bank of America, called for a tripling of global nuclear capacity.
But new research from Moody’s Ratings Agency warned that global climate investment overall fell trillions of dollars short of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 and adapting to climate impacts. It said that while this investment would lead to higher debt for national governments, not investing would prove far more expensive.
Another local-level analysis found that more than 40 percent of the world’s largest companies, cities and regions still had no plans or targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
According to the Net Zero Tracker, a research organisation based at the University of Oxford, the ‘commitment gap’ was the result of climate issues competing for government attention with other challenges, such as war, elections and/or economic problems.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been edited by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First publication: Sep 24, 2024 | 09:38 AM IST