Rising climate risks

India must estimate and publicise the large gap between the commitments of developed countries and their fair obligation for mitigation

- NITIN DESAI

The average global temperatures in June and July 2023 were the highest in recorded history. Forest fires are becoming more widespread, burning nearly twice as much tree cover today as they did 20 years ago. The average global ocean temperature has smashed records for May, June and July. At home, the Centre for Science and Environment has estimated that extreme weather events were reported at some place or the other on 314 out of 365 days in 2022.

Clearly, climate risks are not mere future threats. Thirty years of global cooperation for climate risk mitigation has not worked. Between 1990 and 2019, global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) have gone up from 30 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent (CO2e) to 48 billion tonnes of CO2e. The increase in GHG emissions is almost entirely attributed to developing countries, which were exempt originally from significant mitigation responsibility.

This growing role of developing countries in GHG emissions is not a violation of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In fact, at the first meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP) of the UNFCCC in 2005, the Berlin mandate recognised the "legitimate needs of the developing countries for the achievement of sustained economic growth and the eradication of poverty". It also acknowledged that "the largest share of historical and current global emissions of greenhouse gases has originated in developed countries, that the per capita emissions in developing countries are still relatively low, and that the share of global emissions originating in developing countries will grow to meet their social and development needs".