Hira Bahadur Thapa

The global pandemic has shattered our lives by ravaging economies. Millions of precious human lives have been lost. The toll is continuing but science has given bright hopes for mankind with innovation of COVID-19 vaccines. At the time of this writing, the UK and the USA have started inoculating their populations with anti-COVID-19 vaccines. Our experience with the global health crisis shows that there has been mismatch between nature and our activities. Human endeavours in the exploitation of natural resources for gaining prosperity have gone to the extremes. In human pursuit of economic advancement, the natural resources have been overused.
Scientists have warned us that when the balance between nature and human activities is disturbed, the crises are sure to emerge. There is a limit to what extent humans can use the natural resources beneficially. Once this is ignored, there is going to be consequence for us. This human behaviour has exposed us to new diseases as exemplified in SARS CoV-2 more popularly known as COVID-19, which has been a scourge to us. More viruses are likely to appear in the future and therefore we have been advised to remain prepared for fighting them effectively.

Existential threat
There are many other global challenges which we have been facing simultaneously. Significantly, climate change crisis, a consequence of human activities, is one of them. Posing an existential threat, the climate change becomes a more serious issue to tackle which not years but centuries would be needed. Unfortunately, science alone as in the case of containing COVID-19, cannot resolve the climate crisis unless we implement the measures for reducing carbon emissions as per our pledges.
Excessive exploitation of fossil fuels for spurring industrialisation since the 19th century has resulted in the release of greenhouse gases that led to global warming. There is evidence that the world has warmed by about 1.1 degrees Celsius since the second half of the 19th century when widespread emissions of greenhouse gases began following the rise of industries. Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases build up in the atmosphere and trap more of the heat that radiates from the earth’s surface as it absorbs sunlight.
After years of protracted negotiations among UN member nations, the Paris Climate Agreement was signed in 2015 which called for signatories to pursue efforts to limit warming this century to 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, with an even strict target of 1.5 degrees Celsius. As required by the above climate deal, Nepal is revising its Enhanced Nationally Determined Contributions, which spell out country’s plans for reducing carbon emissions in a phased manner. Nepal though with the lowest rate of carbon emissions has become the fourth most vulnerable country in terms of climate impact. This is the indisputable example of disproportionate impact of climate crisis on countries.
This December marks the fifth anniversary of Paris Climate Agreement. Winning the life-threatening battle to protect the earth’s climate will take long years. To win this battle we will have to establish our compact with nature. In the words of Al Gore, a campaigner for environmental protection who also shared 2007 Nobel Peace prize with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change we need to establish our place within the planet’s ecological sphere, for the sake not only of civilisational survival but also of the preservation of the rich web of biodiversity on which human life depends.
In 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a UN body of world scientists, warned of severe consequences - coastal inundations and worsening draughts, among other catastrophes - if greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced by 45 per cent from 2010 levels by 2030 and 100 per cent by 2050. Amid the danger posed by climate change, crisis there are good signs that scientists, engineers and business leaders are making use of stunning advances in technology to end the world’s dependence on fossil fuels far sooner than was hoped possible.
With rapid technological progress in the development of renewable energy, the costs of such energy have gone down significantly. Thus, the use of clean energy has spiked, too. The International Energy Agency projects that 90 per cent of all electricity capacity worldwide in 2020 will be from clean energy. The agency further projects that over the next five years clean energy will constitute 95 per cent of all new power generations globally. This is why the International Energy Agency called solar power “the new king” in global energy market. The solar energy has also been considered the cheapest source of electricity in history.

Clean energy
Recognising the value of clean energy in the reduction of carbon emissions several of the world’s important political leaders have introduced significant initiatives. Chinese president Xi Jinping announced that China would meet the net zero emission level by 2060. Such commitment from the leader of a country, which is the second largest emitter of carbon, carries a lot of importance at a time when the world needs to decrease the fossil fuel production by roughly 6 per cent every year between now and 2030 in order to limit the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
In the same vein, US president-elect Joe Biden’s pledge to decarbonise the electricity grid by 2035 is an important initiative. UN Secretary-General’s remark in the recent virtual meeting of UN members in connection with climate change is worth considering. He said, “Making peace with nature is the defining task of the 21st century.”

(Thapa was Foreign Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister from 2008-09. thapahira17@gmail.com)