The recently concluded Summit for a New Global Financing Pact, which took place in Paris, France, may not have yielded revolutionary solutions, but it did effectively initiate a crucial dialogue concerning the financial challenges arising from climate change and development. President Emmanuel Macron of France led this summit, which brought together leaders from developing and European nations to confront the urgent issues faced by economically disadvantaged and vulnerable countries grappling with a range of interconnected crises. Indian finance minister Nirmala Sitaraman has also taken part in this meeting which could highly give importance to find some solutions in order to tackle financial instability in developing countries.
It’s very important to understand how relevant the term ‘Climate Finance’ is. It refers to financing at the local, national, or transnational levels, sourced from public, private, and alternative channels. This financing is aimed at supporting actions for both mitigation and adaptation to address the challenges posed by climate change. As a global element of discussion the UNFCCC, Kyoto Protocol, and the Paris Agreement emphasize the need for financial support to be provided by Developed Countries, who possess greater financial resources, to Developing Countries that are less economically endowed and more susceptible to vulnerability. Which can be considered as a compliance with the principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibility and Respective Capabilities (CBDR). During the UNFCCC COP26, fresh commitments were announced to provide financial assistance to developing nations in their pursuit of the global objective of adapting to the impacts of climate change.
The year of 2022 wa not easy for the developing countries as the lives have severely affected by catastrophes globally like the flood in pakistan, hurricane lan in us and other natural disasters occurred in india.thus the developing countries started asking for a climate finance at cop27 which led to this paris meet.
Let’s dive deep into the key highlights and struggles of this meet. As a vital point of discussion , all the crises that create turbulence in developing nations set a platform for revisiting global politics. Developing nations are facing a multitude of challenges, encompassing poverty, mounting debt burdens, and inflation resulting from events like the Russia-Ukraine Conflict. In addition to these economic hurdles, there is a growing demand for these countries to transition to low-carbon economies, despite lacking adequate Climate Finance to support such endeavors. India had gone through dramatic change in all its sectors due to the covid 19 pandemic. As a struggling developing country out of such a contagious trauma India still could give a helping hand to other neighboring countries.
Leaders representing the Global South are calling for Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) to tackle cross-border obstacles and allocate greater resources for development, including climate finance. Developing nations are urging for increased concessional and grant financing to alleviate their debt burdens, alongside advocating for debt relief, specifically for the least developed countries. While recognizing the potential of private sector investments, they underscore the importance of long-term development funds as a necessary complement to private sector financing.
In regard the summit has announced a lot of milestone projects and programs such as the expansion of lending capacity for emerging economies, with an additional USD 200 billion being made available. The World Bank implemented disaster clauses to pause debt repayments in the time of severe weather occurrences. The IMF unveiled a commitment to allocate USD 100 billion in Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to support vulnerable nations. aiming to increase the share of renewable energy in the country’s electricity mix, the meeting announced A new Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETP) deal worth 2.5 billion Euros for Senegal. Zambia successfully reached a debt restructuring agreement worth USD 6.3 billion, while simultaneously urging for a comprehensive Global Expert Review on Debt, Nature, and Climate. The European Union (EU) advocated for expanded global coverage of emissions through Carbon Pricing Mechanisms, with a portion of the generated revenues allocated to climate finance. During the Summit, it was announced that the long-anticipated goal of USD 100 billion in climate finance would be met this year. This commitment was originally made at the UNFCCC COP 15 in Copenhagen back in 2009.
Climate finance plays a vital role in both mitigation and adaptation efforts. To make significant strides in reducing emissions and combating climate change, substantial investments on a large scale are required. These investments are essential for implementing mitigation measures that can effectively curb greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, climate finance is equally crucial for adaptation purposes, as it provides the necessary financial resources to help countries adapt to the adverse impacts of a changing climate. By allocating adequate funding for adaptation initiatives, communities can enhance their resilience and implement strategies to minimize the risks associated with climate change. Recognizing the urgency, the 2018 IPCC report underscores the criticality of climate finance in achieving the ambitious goal of limiting the global average temperature increase to below 2°C above pre-industrial levels. The provision of adequate climate finance is imperative to support sustainable development and safeguard our planet for future generations.
While briefing the history of both the global and indian participation into this climate financing we can see that it’s not far away from its goal of inclusive development. In 2010, during the UNFCCC COP 16, a significant step was taken by the 194 member countries to establish the Green Climate Fund (GCF). The GCF was designed to provide support to developing nations as they confront the challenges of climate change, assisting them in transitioning towards low-emission and climate-resilient development pathways. With its headquarters situated in Incheon, Republic of Korea, the GCF serves as a crucial financial mechanism to channel resources towards climate action in developing countries. Building upon this progress, at the COP27 summit, UN delegates reached an agreement to establish a dedicated ‘Loss and Damages’ fund. This fund aims to compensate the most vulnerable countries for the losses they suffer due to climate-related disasters. By addressing both mitigation and adaptation needs through the GCF and acknowledging the significance of ‘Loss and Damages,’ global efforts are being made to support vulnerable nations in their climate change resilience and recovery endeavors.
While checking the Indian context the first step was , National Adaptation Fund for Climate Change (NAFCC), Established in 2015 with a purpose of providing financial support for climate change adaptation efforts in the Indian State and Union Territories that are most susceptible to the detrimental impacts of climate change. Next one is the National Clean Energy Fund, Formed under the Finance Bill 2010-11. This initiative was established based on the recommendation of the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA) with the aim of fostering clean energy adoption. Its funding is primarily sourced from an initial carbon tax imposed on coal usage by industries. The governance of this initiative is overseen by an Inter-Ministerial Group, led by the Finance Secretary who serves as the Chairman. The core objective of this initiative is to provide financial support for research and development activities focused on innovative clean energy technologies across both fossil fuel-based and non-fossil fuel-based sectors. By investing in cutting-edge clean energy solutions, this initiative plays a crucial role in driving the transition towards a sustainable and low-carbon future. And finally the national adaptation fund , which was established in 2014 with a corpus of Rs. 100 crores .Its aim is to bridge the gap between the need and the available funds. The Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) is operating the fund for this.
The summit acknowledges the significant disparity in countries’ contributions to climate change and their abilities to mitigate and address its impacts. Therefore, it emphasizes that developed nations should persist in their role of mobilizing climate finance, employing a range of measures such as backing country-led strategies and considering the specific needs and priorities of developing countries.
The theme of this year’s Earth Day is “Planet vs. Plastics” – a theme chosen to raise awareness of the damage done by plastic to humans, animals and the planet and to promote policies aiming to reduce global plastic production by 60 percent by 2040.
As our chart shows, global plastics use has increased rapidly over the past few decades, growing 250 percent since 1990 to reach 460 million tonnes in 2019, according to the OECD’s Global Plastics Outlook, which projects another 67-percent increase in global plastics use by 2040 and for the world’s annual plastic use to exceed one billion tonnes by 2052. As our chart shows, packaging is the largest driver of global plastics use, which is why a rapid phasing out of all single use plastics by 2030 is one of the policy measures proposed under EARTHDAY.ORG’s 60X40 framework.
Other major applications of plastics include building and construction, transportation as well as textiles, with the fast fashion industry particularly guilty of adding to the world’s plastic footprint. “The fast fashion industry annually produces over 100 billion garments,” the Earth Day organizers write. “Overproduction and overconsumption have transformed the industry, leading to the disposability of fashion. People now buy 60 percent more clothing than 15 years ago, but each item is kept for only half as long.” Most importantly, the organization points out that 85 percent of disposed garments end up in landfills or incinerators, while just 1 percent are being recycled.
Felix Richter is a Data Journalist
This article was first published in the Statista.com.
Algeria’s Tassili N’Ajjer plateau is Africa’s largest national park. Among its vast sandstone formations is perhaps the world’s largest art museum. Over 15,000 etchings and paintings are exhibited there, some as much as 11,000 years old according to scientific dating techniques, representing a unique ethnological and climatological record of the region.
Curiously, however, these images do not depict the arid, barren landscape that is present in the Tassili N’Ajjer today. Instead, they portray a vibrant savannah inhabited by elephants, giraffes, rhinos and hippos. This rock art is an important record of the past environmental conditions that prevailed in the Sahara, the world’s largest hot desert.
These images depict a period approximately 6,000-11,000 years ago called the Green Sahara or North African Humid Period. There is widespread climatological evidence that during this period the Sahara supported wooded savannah ecosystems and numerous rivers and lakes in what are now Libya, Niger, Chad and Mali.
This greening of the Sahara didn’t happen once. Using marine and lake sediments, scientists have identified over 230 of these greenings occurring about every 21,000 years over the past eight million years. These greening events provided vegetated corridors which influenced species’ distribution and evolution, including the out-of-Africa migrations of ancient humans.
These dramatic greenings would have required a large-scale reorganisation of the atmospheric system to bring rains to this hyper arid region. But most climate models haven’t been able to simulate how dramatic these events were.
As a team of climate modellers and anthropologists, we have overcome this obstacle. We developed a climate model that more accurately simulates atmospheric circulation over the Sahara and the impacts of vegetation on rainfall.
We identified why north Africa greened approximately every 21,000 years over the past eight million years. It was caused by changes in the Earth’s orbital precession – the slight wobbling of the planet while rotating. This moves the Northern Hemisphere closer to the sun during the summer months.
This caused warmer summers in the Northern Hemisphere, and warmer air is able to hold more moisture. This intensified the strength of the West African Monsoon system and shifted the African rainbelt northwards. This increased Saharan rainfall, resulting in the spread of savannah and wooded grassland across the desert from the tropics to the Mediterranean, providing a vast habitat for plants and animals.
Our results demonstrate the sensitivity of the Sahara Desert to changes in past climate. They explain how this sensitivity affects rainfall across north Africa. This is important for understanding the implications of present-day climate change (driven by human activities). Warmer temperatures in the future may also enhance monsoon strength, with both local and global impacts.
Earth’s changing orbit
The fact that the wetter periods in north Africa have recurred every 21,000 years or so is a big clue about what causes them: variations in Earth’s orbit. Due to gravitational influences from the moon and other planets in our solar system, the orbit of the Earth around the sun is not constant. It has cyclic variations on multi-thousand year timescales. These orbital cycles are termed Milankovitch cycles; they influence the amount of energy the Earth receives from the sun.
On 100,000-year cycles, the shape of Earth’s orbit (or eccentricity) shifts between circular and oval, and on 41,000 year cycles the tilt of Earth’s axis varies (termed obliquity). Eccentricity and obliquity cycles are responsible for driving the ice ages of the past 2.4 million years.
The third Milankovitch cycle is precession. This concerns Earth’s wobble on its axis, which varies on a 21,000 year timescale. The similarity between the precession cycle and the timing of the humid periods indicates that precession is their dominant driver. Precession influences seasonal contrasts, increasing them in one hemisphere and reducing them in another. During warmer Northern Hemisphere summers, a consequent increase in north African summer rainfall would have initiated a humid phase, resulting in the spread of vegetation across the region.
Eccentricity and the ice sheets
In our study we also identified that the humid periods did not occur during the ice ages, when large glacial ice sheets covered much of the polar regions. This is because these vast ice sheets cooled the atmosphere. The cooling countered the influence of precession and suppressed the expansion of the African monsoon system.
The ice ages are driven by the eccentricity cycle, which determines how circular Earth’s orbit is around the sun. So our findings show that eccentricity indirectly influences the magnitude of the humid periods via its influence on the ice sheets. This highlights, for the first time, a major connection between these distant high latitude and tropical regions.
The Sahara acts as a gate. It controls the dispersal of species between north and sub-Saharan Africa, and in and out of the continent. The gate was open when the Sahara was green and closed when deserts prevailed. Our results reveal the sensitivity of this gate to Earth’s orbit around the sun. They also show that high latitude ice sheets may have restricted the dispersal of species during the glacial periods of the last 800,000 years.
Our ability to model the African humid periods helps us understand the alternation of humid and arid phases. This had major consequences for the dispersal and evolution of species, including humans, within and out of Africa. Furthermore, it provides a tool for understanding future greening in response to climate change and its environmental impact.
Refined models may, in the future, be able to identify how climate warming will influence rainfall and vegetation in the Sahara region, and the wider implications for society.
Edward Armstrong is a postdoctoral research fellow, University of Helsinki
A new draft text on global stocktake has been published at the UN climate summit, COP28 UAE, on Wednesday morning. While the draft text does not contain the words “phase out”, it includes reference to transitioning away from all fossil fuels to enable the world to reach net zero by 2050.
The text published by the UN’s climate body calls on parties to accelerate and substantially reduce non-carbon dioxide emissions worldwide with a focus on reducing methane emissions by 2030. “We all want to get the most ambitious outcome possible,” Majid Al Suwaidi, COP28 Director-General, said on Tuesday.
The text, published early Wednesday, does not specifically refer to oil, but mentions the need to ‘phase-down’ coal. It says that it recognises the need for ‘deep, rapid and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in line with 1.5C pathways and calls on Parties to contribute to global efforts.
Among those efforts it recognises the need to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030 and doubling the annual rate of energy efficiency improvements by the same date. It also recognises the need to accelerate the phase-down of coal and accelerate towards net zero energy systems, utilising zero or low carbon fuels by mid century.
While the document does not mention oil or combustion engines, it does recognises the need for accelerating the reduction of emissions from road transport on a range of pathways, including through development of infrastructure and rapid deployment of zero and low-emission vehicles. It also recognises the need to phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that do not address energy poverty or just transitions, as soon as possible.
Finance specifics
On the subject of finance, the document said developed countries should continue to take the lead in mobilising climate finance from a wide variety of sources, instruments and channels, noting the significant role of public funds, through a variety of actions, including supporting country-driven strategies, and taking into account the needs and priorities of developing countries.
Such mobilisation of climate finance should represent a progression beyond previous efforts, the text said. It may provide small comfort to campaigners from developing countries who implored Parties to begin the phase out of fossil fuels and provide vastly improved access to funding for renewables.
The document highlights the persistent gap and challenges in technology development and transfer and the uneven pace of adoption of climate technologies around the world.
It further urges Parties to address these barriers and strengthen cooperative action, including with non-Party stakeholders, particularly with the private sector, to rapidly scale up the deployment of existing technologies, the fostering of innovation and the development and transfer of new technologies.
It also emphasizes the ongoing challenges faced by many developing country Parties in accessing climate finance and encourages further efforts, including by the operating entities of the Financial Mechanism, to simplify access to such finance, in particular for those developing country Parties that have significant capacity constraints, such as the least developed countries and small island developing States.
