A BLUEPRINT TO TACKLE THREE CRISES FACING THE BLUE PLANET

NEVER has mankind faced multiple environmental crises as the present generation. To quote the United Nations secretary-general António Guterres: "We have been poor custodians of our fragile earth. Today, the Earth is facing a triple planetary crisis. Climate disruption. Nature and biodiversity loss. Pollution and waste. This triple crisis is threatening the well-being and survival of millions of people around the world."

- KN NINAN

The world has failed to achieve the internationally agreed environmental goals relating to climate change, biodiversity conservation and pollution. The Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released in 2022 notes that unless countries accelerate mitigation, the world is most likely to overshoot the global warming limits of 1.5°C or 2°C above pre-industrial levels which were agreed at the Paris Climate summit in December 2015. The report warns that global average temperatures are likely to reach a median of 2.2 to 3.5°C by the year 2100, making us more vulnerable to catastrophic events and reducing global gross domestic product by 1.3 to 4.2 percent by 2050.

Degradation of biodiversity and ecosystem services has continued unabated, if not accelerated. According to the Centre for International Forestry Research, the world loses $6.3 trillion worth of ecological services each year due to forest and land degradation. A United Nations report notes that air pollution is the main environmental contributor to the global burden of disease, causing six to seven million premature deaths and welfare losses estimated at $5 trillion every year. Plastic pollution has emerged as a major problem with the world producing 400 million metric tons of plastic waste annually, of which only 9 percent is recycled; the rest is dumped into landfills, rivers, lakes and oceans.