No one is safe until everyone is safe: The world should unite to fight against climate change.
In 2023, we marked significant anniversaries: the 61st anniversary of Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking book Silent Spring, which is attributed to starting the global environmental movement; the 51st anniversary of the Stockholm Conference, the first-ever UN conference dedicated to environmental issues; and the 31st anniversary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). However, it’s ironic that in the same year, the global stocktake report was released in October, highlighting the alarming fact that the world is not making adequate progress toward meeting the targets established in the Paris Agreement. This timing is indeed peculiar.
Numerous conventions have taken place and still, we haven’t achieved any significant growth as only hyperbole is given by leaders at global negotiations. As per WHO between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250 000 additional deaths per year from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress alone. However, it’s important to note that the consequences of climate change are not uniformly distributed globally. According to the Global Climate Risk Index for the year 2021, the top ten countries that have experienced the most severe impacts of climate change during the period from 2000 to 2019 are mostly developing and least developed countries. This observation accentuates the climate justice paradox, where those who bear the least responsibility for climate change often find themselves in the most vulnerable positions.
This raises a fundamental question: Why, despite the awareness of climate change for over half a century, have we made so little progress, and why is it so challenging to get countries to work together on this issue? Various scholars have attempted to address these questions. J. Roberts, who prioritises inequality as the primary factor driving non-cooperative behavior between the Global North and the Global South, seeks to elucidate this through two central pathways. The first is the extreme poverty and relative powerlessness of the majority of the Global South nations which hinders their ability to negotiate with the Global North. The second is the experiences of these poor nations in the global economy and their interactions with wealthier nations across various issues. This has entrenched differing worldviews and beliefs, leading to widespread mistrust and polarised expectations regarding how to tackle climate-related issues.
The Global Stocktake Report highlights the critical importance of climate finance and the transfer of climate-related technology, particularly for the less developed and developing countries in the Global South. This idea is not a recent one but dates back three decades. In 1992, the UNFCCC, in Article 4.5, explicitly stated that Annex I parties should make every practical effort to promote, facilitate, and financially support, when appropriate, the transfer of environmentally sound technologies and knowledge to other Parties, especially those in developing countries. However, despite these long-standing principles, progress in this regard has been limited due to various geoeconomic and geopolitical factors that hinder cooperation. It is becoming increasingly urgent to explore more radical approaches to cooperation that go beyond the traditional neoliberal framework.
The reason it’s tough to achieve a worldwide agreement on climate change is that while we’re all collectively motivated to address it, our individual commitment often falls short, as noted by Frame and Matthews in 2017. In this context, it’s crucial to recognise that we all share this “spaceship earth” (Roberts and Parks, 2007), and are part of one global family, echoing the ancient wisdom of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam,” which perceives the world as one interconnected family. Much like how we instinctively care for the most vulnerable members of our own family, we must extend our support and solidarity to vulnerable nations. It is not like we do not have the memories of global cooperation. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that when the world unites to confront a global crisis, remarkable achievements become possible through our interconnectedness for shared goals. This experience serves as a powerful reminder of the potential for global cooperation to overcome significant challenges. Likewise, we should cooperate on a global level in the most unconventional and radical way to fight against climate change.