COP-30 to focus on carbon emission curbs

The two-week COP-30 conference is starting on November 10 in the city of Belem, Brazil. The important issues on the agenda of this conference include: The world is still not reducing carbon emissions fast enough to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement on Emissions. The first COP conference was held in 1995. Last year, the conference announced that it would collect $1.3 trillion annually from public and private sources by 2035. The issue of 'climate change' came to the fore for the first time at the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1999. The 29th session of the United Nations Climate Change Conference is set to take action to combat climate change and its impacts. Although it meets every year, not much has been implemented except for a few decisions. After two weeks of intense debate last year, the COP29 conference ended in bitterness. Developed countries promised to provide developing countries with $300 billion in aid annually by 2035, which is far less than what is needed. The Industrial Revolution began in Britain two hundred years ago. Coal was at the heart of this industrial revolution.

 

 

The World Meteorological Organization's 'State of the Climate Report' paints a grim picture. The report shows that 2015-2024 was the warmest decade since temperature records began. The global average temperature is likely to have broken all previous records for 16 consecutive months (June 2023 to September 2024) and the gap is often widening.

 

 

A report published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in collaboration with the University of Oxford on October 17 found that about 1.1 billion people (about 18 percent) of the world's 6.3 billion people in 109 countries are suffering from extreme multidimensional poverty as a result of natural disasters caused by climate change. About 900 million people in the world are directly at risk from climate change, which is 80 percent of the total poor population. The joint annual report of the Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) said that 887 million people are directly exposed to at least one climate problem. Of these, 608 million people suffer from extreme heat, 577 million from pollution, 465 million from floods and 207 million from drought. More than 650 million people are at risk from at least two types of risks. Of these, more than 300 million people face three or four types of hazards and 11 million people have experienced all four hazards in a year. The report also said that people in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are the most affected by the effects of climate change, in addition to poverty.

 

 

Last year, countries signed a draft agreement at the climate conference to stop using fossil fuels. The world's first coal-fired power plant was built in England in 1882. The UK is the first industrialized country to reach a milestone in its efforts to slow down global climate change. Other G7 countries include Italy, Canada and Germany, which plan to phase out coal by 2025, 2030 and 2038 respectively. COP30 is likely to ask about the progress of those plans. The UN has been working on new financing targets for several years. Developing countries are waiting for the finalisation of these targets. The damage caused by extreme weather events is expected to increase between 2014 and 2023. In particular, extreme weather events, including flash floods and persistent droughts, have caused $451 billion ($451 billion) in damage in the last two years.

 

 

The World Meteorological Organization's 'State of the Climate Report' paints a grim picture. The report shows that 2015-2024 was the warmest decade since temperature records began. The global average temperature is likely to have broken all previous records for 16 consecutive months (June 2023 to September 2024) and the gap is often widening. At the 2015 COP21 climate conference, almost every country in the world agreed to the Paris Agreement. The goal is to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius. Limiting below and holding it at 1.5 degrees. The World Meteorological Organization report says that it does not seem possible to cross the 1.5 degree threshold for now. Which can be called a failure to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. The long-term global temperature increase is not expected to be about 1.3 degrees Celsius.

 

 

Our main goal is to reduce the temperature. But that temperature is not decreasing at all. Rather, research is providing more alarming information. The United Nations has warned that the global temperature could increase by 3.1 degrees Celsius by the end of the century if necessary steps are not taken to prevent greenhouse gas emissions. This information has emerged in an annual report of the organization's environment program. The report says that global carbon emissions increased by 1.3 percent in 2023 compared to 2022. Developed countries must take urgent action to prevent this increase. The report's chief scientific editor, Anne Wohlhof, blamed the G-20, an alliance of developed countries, for 77 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. He said, "If we look at the progress towards the 2030 targets, especially the G20 member countries, they have not made much progress towards the current climate targets for 2030.

 

 

The United Nations has said that it is not possible to keep the global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius under the current policies or rules to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Even if it is possible, the global temperature will still increase by 2.6 to 2.8 degrees Celsius in 2100. Although the use of renewable energy is increasing, about 80 percent of the world's energy still comes from fossil fuels.

 

 

The Asian Development Bank has approved a loan of $400 million to combat climate change-related losses. The organization believes that this loan will contribute to the implementation of the National Adaptation Plan (2023-2050) and achieving climate-focused inclusive development. Countries in the world that are increasing carbon emissions should focus on getting out of there and creating a sustainable environment. The condition of the world today is very miserable in terms of industrialization. If they show failure or show an uncooperative attitude this time too, then the existence of the world will basically go into a more critical state. From which it will be much more challenging to come back. In a word, if they fail, the destruction of this planet called Earth is inevitable. Therefore, this year's climate conference should not be just a formality like other years.