Battle Against Climate Change: Time Is Running Out As Deadly Climate Threats Rise

For centuries, humanbeings have exploited the planet for the sake of  development, and we have to accept that our planet is now taking its revenge against us. Of course, our next generation will face a terrifying future and not able to be safe anymore. 

A new study, led by former MIT research scientist Eun-Soon Im, revealed last August that South Asia, which is one of the poverty-hit regions and a home to 1.5 billion people, will become the hottest place on earth to live by 2100. And people will be endangered. It also forecasts that a mass migration will emerge and bloody conflicts, of course, are inevitable. The countries like India and China are known as the biggest carbon emitters or the biggest air polluters, and are deemed to be contributing to this humanitarian catastrophe. Asides from extreme weather, India is now facing another security thereat, which is running out of ground water, and this will heavily affect 600 million Indians by 2020. 

Akin to South Asia, the most prosperous place having advanced technology like Europe will also have to encounter hazardous situation in upcoming decades. According to another  report commissioned by European Union,  up to 150,000 people could die every year in Europe from the extreme weather by 2100. It predicts that most of these fatalities are to be caused by heat waves and other extreme weather events, such as ‘cold waves’, flooding and windstorms. This manifests that even countries having advanced technology can’t mitigate the impacts of climate change and can’t either be immune from the risks caused by climate changes. 

       New Security Threats On The Rise In Southeast Asia

It doesn’t mean only people in South Asia, Europe or Africa will have to face these harsher weather difficulties because there is no single region on earth can be immune from this. Southeast Asia might not experience the hazardous weather because it has already become the most vulnerable place to the climate changes. Sadly, many countries in the region have not been prepared enough to cope with the worst of climate change impacts.  

But let’s us forget about the heat waves or whether there will be the uninhabited place by 2100. Even though it is not becoming the hottest place for people to live like South Asia or Europe, still Southeast Asia will inevitably experience more severe natural and social disasters that anyone of us can’t afford to ignore.

The Southeast Asian region has to be aware that climate changes will stir up regional instability and create more unprecedented upheaval situations. According to a recent report commissioned by the German foreign office, the climate changes can indirectly facilitate the armed and terrorism recruitment activity in many parts of the world, and it already happened particularly in the Middle East and African continent. It begins with the quick increase of environmental degradation and natural disasters including prolonged drought and flooding which can lead to widespread food shortage, economic and social instability or even civil war. And this tremendously threatens people’s livelihood across the region, forcing them to fight in order to gain control of the resources.

One of the hotspots is the Mekong region. It is likely that conflicts would break out, and it is already under threat of climate changes. Mekong River, which flows through China, Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos from the Tibet plateau, is known as the main source of water for food production and agricultural sector that can feed millions of people and contribute to the sustained regional development. But, in recent years, the river turned to be troubled water. In 2016, China decided to release water from the upstream to Mekong basin when other countries like Vietnam Laos and Cambodia faced severe drought and extreme water shortage amid mounting tension. This manifests that the future conflicts to control the water resource in the region are obvious.

As mentioned earlier, the Southeast Asian region has already been vulnerable to the impacts of climate change—a challenge that can’t be addressed by any individual country member alone. As a regional grouping, ASEAN, of course, has to work hand in hand among its members to look for a more approachable and effective measure to deal with climate change effects which also pose new security threats. 

  Time to Seek Climate Justice?

As climate change becomes everyone’s major concern and endangers anyone’s livelihood, it is high time for poor and rich nations to ensure that climate justice must be realized in the future. Climate justice, according to the former President of Ireland and head of Mary Robinson Climate Justice Mary Robinson is a moral argument in two parts—firstly it compels everyone to understand the challenges faced by those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and secondly is to inform how the world should act to combat climate change in solidarity.

With this definition, we need to work together to safeguard the rights of most vulnerable groups to climate changes and bear burdens and take responsibility fairly and equitably regardless of who we are—governments or enterprises. That the concept also includes preserving the rights of the individual to take legal action against any stakeholders that threaten a clean and healthy environment, causing more than the 2°C of global warming.

I would say that “the poorer and weaker countries, who exploited the world less, should not have to suffer the most from the climate changes”. When it comes to climate change impacts, rich countries should have to be responsible for severe the pollution they have caused through exploiting the earth and emitting enormous carbon to climate for a long period of time.

According to Oxfam’s 2015 report, only 10% of world population—the richest people, are responsible for up to 50% of global carbon emission whereas the poorest half of the world population are responsible for only around 10% of global emissions.

That means the rich countries have moral, if not legal, obligation to carry out unwavering and continuous support for the least developed countries specifically local communities to divert climate change impacts.  

They must continue to provide the poor with more financial support to build-up capacity in coping with and mitigating climate change impacts. They have to keep their pledges to mobilize up to $100 billion of climate finance by 2020 to support developing countries being heavily affected by climate changes. In the meantime, industrialized countries should also continue to keep up their utmost efforts and to be firmly committed to reducing carbon emission for the sake of humanity around the world.  

In addition, rich countries can help the least developed countries around the world transform its economy from a fossil-fuel-based economy to sustainable energy economy.  They have to continue to provide developing countries with wider access to new technology and innovation.   

Battle Against Climate Change: Paris Climate Deal Is A Key

Climate change is exactly a matter of life and death; it is not my future or yours but our future and the future of our next generation, who will likely be a victim of this global natural phenomena if we fail to work hand in hand to address it properly. It was our predecessor’s fault for not doing enough to prevent the climate-related issues we are facing, but it will turn out to be our tremendous failure for not taking action now to prevent future climate catastrophe even we exactly know the consequences.    

To ensure the healthy future of our next generation, it requires a timely and effective solution in response to the problem of climate change. The world needs to be committed to sticking itself to the path of the 2015 Paris Climate Deal, which aims at reducing carbon and greenhouse gas emissions in order to limit global temperature increases to within 2°C or, if possible, to 1.5°C of pre-industrial levels. As promised, rich countries will have a moral obligation to provide modest funds—up to 100 billion dollars annually to help the least developed to build their capacity in implementing both adaptation and mitigation projects to cope with the impacts of climate change. 

However, US President Donald Trump is already turning his back on us, ordering the withdrawal of the US from the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement last June, sending a shocking wave to other countries across the world. However, we are still happy that other countries especially major countries don’t follow Trump’s path and instead pledged to build a more united front to confront the climate changes. Noticeably, French President Emmanuel Macron, when being sworn in last year, called upon scientists to join with France and other countries to make “our planet great again”.

In the recent Group of Seven (G7) meeting in Quebec, Canada, despite members remaining divided over climate change, Italy, Germany, Canada, France, UK, Japan and the EU reaffirmed the importance of the 2015 Climate Accord as well as the importance of carbon pricing and a “just transition” to clean energy.  

Although we are optimistic about what we have been doing to preserve the future of the world, there remains a lot of works to fulfill in order to fully implement the Paris Climate Agreement, and it is surely the most difficult task. What we hope for, while the clock is ticking, is the early adoption of climate rule book at the 24th UN Climate Conference (COP24) in December in Katowice, Poland, which lays out clear and comprehensive guidance for country members to undertake and monitor the implementation of Paris Climate Agreement.