FRANCESCO GIAMPIETRO
The massive producing of greenhous gases (naturally peresents in the atmosphere to warm uo the earth) increase the global temperature, speeds up the melting of glaciers in the oceanic water provocking, also due to the expansion caused by heat, the sea level rise. In this condition, wetter and warmer, the tropical belts expands involving the weather and the acosistems, coastal cities around all the world are threathed like all form of life on the planet. The scientific community estimates that, at this rate, by the end of the century we will exceed the 2 degrees of temperature increase and that will put the lives of 1-2 billion people at risk!
Deforestation, overexplotation of natural resources and polluttion are the major responsable of the this fast changing: the massive using of fossile combustile had increased in the last 80 years the presence of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, particularly the carbon dioxide, that is no longer disposed cause the continuous decrease of trees for the industrial deforestation and the consequent desertification in more and more areas around the world.
WHAT IS THE MEANING OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND HOW IT AFFECTS ON THE WEATHER
It would be better call it climate upset, cause the climate change is a normal phenomenon that is always occurred during all the geological age of the earth. In the past this change depends by some geological force, but nowadays the geological force responsable of this upset is the human practies, so the scientis have defined this age “Anthropocene”. So actually when we talk about climate change, we are talking about the upset that the human activities are provoking on the weather.
The Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) are the promises that have been made by governments around the world in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. These documents are collected by the UNFCCC, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change: the body that organizes Cops, the Conferences of the parties that are held every year on the subject.
FRANCESCO GIAMPIETRO
There were 4 main objectives of COP26, identified by the Presidency:
- Mitigation: zero net emissions ( reducing indirect carbon emissions from upstream suppliers to end users) by 2050 and limit the increase in temperatures to no more than 1.5 degrees, accelerating the elimination of coal, reducing deforestation and increasing the use of renewable energy;
- Climate finance: mobilising financing for developing countries, eaching the target of USD 100 billion per year;
- Adaptation: supporting the most vulnerable countries to mitigate the impacts of climate change, for the protection of communities and natural habitats;
- Finalization of the "Paris Rulebook": making the Paris Agreement operational, with particular reference to transparency, mechanisms and common timelines for NDCs.
During the last international climate conferenze (Glasgow, From 31 October to 13 November 2021), the COP26, over 190 world leaders, tens of thousands of negotiators, government representatives, businesses and citizens gathered for two weeks of intense negotiations, aimed at adopting measures to contain and, if possible, reverse the process of global warming and the consequent climate change. The COP26 was part of the path traced by the COP21 (Paris, 2015) the occasion which, for the first time, all countries agreed to collaborate to limit the global warmup below 2 degrees, trying to reduce it to 1.5 degrees.
WHAT ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL GOVERNMENT
FRANCESCO GIAMPIETRO
It should also be stressed the importance of having explicitly included, in the final text of the Glasgow Climate Pact, the reference to the phasing out of the use of coal.
1. Mitigation For the first time it is recognized that the goal of climate policies must be to keep the global temperature within a maximum increase of 1.5 ° C compared to the pre-industrial era. including much more stringent reference than the paris agreement implies that the climate policies, implemented by the different countries, will have to be updated and reinforced, until the target of 1.5 °C will not be reached.
FRANCESCO GIAMPIETRO
2. Climate finance The goal of reaching, by 2020, 100 billion dollars per year to support vulnerable countries has not yet been achieved (in 2019, it was close to 80 billion). However, in the context of COP26, there were many commitments by various financial institutions and countries to increase their contributions and ensure that this objective is achieved as soon as possible. According to OECD estimates, it could reach 100 billion annually by 2023, with the prospect of increasing the commitment in the following years.
FRANCESCO GIAMPIETRO
4. Finalization Paris Rulebook:
To make the Paris Agreement fully operational: - Transparency
Tables and formats for reporting have finally been adopted under the new transparency framework (ETF) of the Paris Agreement, which will enter into force for all countries, developed and undeveloped, by 2024.For the finalisation of this work, an agreement was needed on how to translate into the tables and formats the specific "flexibility" options available to developing countries in case they fail to fully apply the rules established by virtue of national capacity limits. - Mechanisms: The agreement on market mechanisms, relating to Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, was also reached, which recognizes the possibility for countries to use the international carbon market for the implementation of nationally determined commitments for the reduction of emissions (NDCs). This includes the adoption of: - guidelines for so-called "cooperative approaches" involving the exchange of allowances (Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement), including information to be included under the new transparency framework;
- rules, modalities and procedures for "market mechanisms" (Article 6.4);
- a work programme within the framework of 'non-market' approaches (Article 6.8), starting in 2022.
- Common timeframes Finally, an agreement was reached for a (short) decision that encourages (therefore in a non-binding manner) countries to communicate NDCs on a five-year basis and with common timelines for their implementation of 5 years.
3. Adaptation It was decided to double international funds for adaptation actions, especially in the countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. A work programme was also approved to define the "Global Goal on Adaptation", aimed at defining indicators to monitor countries' adaptation actions. Particularly heated was the negotiation on the losses and damages suffered as a result of climate change ("Loss and Damage"); strong negotiating push to ask for dedicated financial instruments to support countries to minimize losses and damages. In the conclusions, it is planned to start a "dialogue" on this issue, to be concluded by 2024, for the establishment of a fund for alert systems and minimization of losses and damage resulting from climate change.
FRANCESCO GIAMPIETRO
In the end there is no way out: the conservation of biodiversity derives from the inversion of the power relations between exploited and exploiters, because the disaster cannot be stopped without changing the economic model of accumulation, the over-production of goods, the overexplotation of the lands and unnecessary travels! This means that if governments do not change course and impose a real ecological transition on companies accompanied by a new season of social justice, climate justice will be just a story without substance. Fortunately, there are youth movements such as extintion rebellion and friday for future that force politicians to do something to deal with this emergency, or at least to talk about it. There will probably be no other way to cope with the emergency without organizing from below to change not only the way of producing but also the relationships between humans and humans and non-humans, in a new, more ecological and fairer sense.
The IPBES (The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) speaks about "adaptive and incusive governance" with all the stakeholders (in reference to multinational corporations). Curiously, nothing is said about the biodiversity compensation mechanism even if it is an important tool. As we have seen, clymatic policy has created market tools that allow large polluting companies, states and other entities in the north of the world to offset their emissions by purchasing carbon credits from their "clean investments" in the south (such as planting trees, forest protection, etc.). In theory, offsets should maintain biodiversity levels but in practice this is not true: just as carbon credits are rarely equivalent to the emissions they are supposed to offset, biodiversity offsets lend themselves to all sorts of scams. In fact, it is a fairy tale to think of recreating the same ecosystems that are the result of long natural evolutions and interactions between human and non-human beings. This operation serves to numb public opinion and fragment the opposition, to raise funds and, last but not least, by committing to repair the damage done in one place by investing in another increases the land grabbing of multinational corporations.
HOW TO ESCAPE FROM THE DISASTER
