By Anjan Roy
It was a contradiction in terms. One of the largest producers of fossil fuels, UAE, was hosting the UN talks on limiting use of such fuels to cut down CO2 emissions and thereby help keep earth’s temperature rise within the stipulated 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.
At the end of the talks a sort of agreed document to achieve this objective has been hammered out. But this is more in form than in substance. The COP28 Dubai Summit has now yielded a document that all participating countries would follow set guidelines for “transitioning from fossil fuels in energy systems”.
At best the outcome is a pyrrhic victory; at worst this bodes ill for the world. The basic problem of actually limiting use of natural fuels has been left untouched apart from a pious declaration that efforts should be made to move away from use of such fuels.
That piece of rhetoric means that participating countries promise to cut down and then move away from using oil, gas, coal and similar fuels to limit their carbon emissions. Burning these fuels lead to emission of carbon dioxide and other gases which cause global temperature to rise. There has been no agreed mechanism for implementing the cuts in fuel consumption earlier agreed in the Paris Summit.
The pulls and pushes and the internal contradictions were strong and strident. The divergences in the interests of participating nations were flagrant. The secretary general of OPEC, the cosy club of oil producing countries, had issued a confidential letter to its member countries, urging them to stymie the move towards any cut in consumption of oil and natural gas.
After all, the OPEC countries survived and were flourishing by selling fossil fuels and charring ever higher prices. The media leak of this confidential letter amongst the oil producers had nearly rocked the entire talk.
The other contradiction was the tug of war between the developed countries and the developing ones. The developed countries had begun using fossil fuel in ever rising quantities much earlier than the developing ones. They bear a much greater responsibility for fouling up the earth’s atmosphere than the poorer countries. However, important western politicians, including former US president Donald Trump, had rejected outright any idea of climate change and he repudiated the US commitments at the earlier Paris COP Summit.
These groups of developed countries are now refusing to shoulder a higher burden for cut in fossil fuel consumption than the present poor countries. After all, for the development of the poorer countries, they need to use more fuels now. A system for a cut in fuel consumption based on the current base would be iniquitous.
The use of fossil fuels began to rise as countries came to depend on these for energy needs after the Industrial Revolution. Industrial Revolution first began in Britain and spread first to other European countries and then in the post colonial era in the rest of the world. It has grown to such an extent that the existence of the human species and other flora and fauna on planet earth is now threatened with extinction by a global heat exchange.
As CO2 emissions are rising which envelop the planet like a gas chamber, the planet’s heat is rising. Already the temperature is showing palpable signs of rising and its deleterious consequences are apparent. Now we are fast facing a situation when temperature rise could cause the globe’s climate to change drastically.
The issue has been flagged for decades now and rigorous scientific studies have been made showing how fossil fuel burning and CO2 emissions are causing changes. Two of these immediate changes could be seen as the snows of the Himalayas and other high mountains are melting fast. Many of the glaciers are receding and their retractions is stupendous.
The second change already witnessed is the rise in sea levels which are engulfing islands and low lying coastal areas. In fact, the delegations from these island nations, from the Pacific islands to those in the Indian Ocean, have registered their protests at Dubai. They feel the basic document adopted at the conference was competed when their representatives were not in the room.
The Climate Summit in Dubai was being held in the context of the worst climate in known history. The current year is the hottest one so far and already the results are getting manifest with unseasonal rains to extreme heat and wildfires to floods and fury of nature, and whatever you can think of.
The COP28 dialogue of some 195 countries was as critical for humanity and planet earth as its very existence. Popularly known as the climate talks, there have been many rounds of it, the most significant landmark being the Paris Summit where all participating country agreed on principle to cut their consumption of fossil fuels to control carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) which was contributing to rise in temperatures.
In the last few decades, climate science has become a major discipline and a huge body of rigorously scientific work has been one showing how exactly the earth’s atmosphere is changing and what disastrous course it was set to take in the absence of clear efforts to cut down fossil fuel consumption on the ground. The scientific studies also have discovered which areas would be prone to the adverse effects of climate change and bear the brunt of the changes. Many of the developed countries are also seeing the disasters at home. But no real change is being seen on the ground.
The world has bought wholeheartedly the western concept of “conquering nature” for human exploits instead of harmonious living with it. In this sense, Dubai talks are no different from earlier situation. Humanity is acting in haste, only possibly to repent later if it survives. (IPA Service)
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