Climate Change & International Responsibility, Op-ed

More than a year ago, high temperatures and continuing drought in Australia led to an unprecedented wave of wildfires across the country, killing dozens of people and millions of animals.

The fires destroyed about 60,000 square kilometers of forests, bushes, and gardens. In this regard, the World Meteorological Organization says that global warming, which is the main cause of such blazes, is due to greenhouse gas emissions. In other words, humanity is paying the price of this global warming and the inhuman exploitation of the earth's wealth that leads to pollution and its derivatives.

This is just the beginning; If there is a main cause for the events that will profoundly affect all people across the globe in the coming decades, then it will be climate change inevitably; the consequences of this change will affect the whole world, perhaps not at the same time or intensity, but they will catch up with us all eventually.

The World Bank has long warned that the Middle East and North Africa region is among the most vulnerable places to climate risks on Earth due to rising sea levels, especially low-lying coastal areas.

It also expected that tens of millions of people in the region would be exposed to the pressure of water shortages by 2025, water scarcity as a result of drought, that will, in turn, lead to increased pressure on groundwater resources and a lack of agricultural crops, which will affect the economy of these countries, the revenues from agricultural crops and tourism, and the rates of unemployment, weak purchasing power, as well as many social issues.

The latest data from "Copernicus" climate change service has shown that the past five years have been the hottest and warmest period on record. 2019 was almost 0.6 °C warmer than the 1981-2010 average, and the average temperature of the last 5 years was between 1.1 and 1.2 °C higher than the pre-industrial level.

Copernicus also said that atmospheric carbon concentrations continued to rise in 2019, reaching their highest levels on record. On its part, the United Nations (UN) also said last year that greenhouse gas emissions would have to decline by 7.6 percent annually through 2030 in order to limit the 1.5 °C rise in temperature.

In this regard, after a few days, leaders from all over the world including French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), Antonio Guterres, and his predecessor Ban Ki-moon, will meet via a virtual summit hosted by the Netherlands to discuss ways of human adaption to climate change. This summit will be held via video call technology due to the Coronavirus.

It's no crime that if we don't learn to deal with the consequences, and if we can't adapt, the effect of global warming will be catastrophic.

On his part, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte pointed out that his country, with third of its land located below sea level, has centuries-old experience in protecting land from water and that he hopes to share it with others.

Moreover, Boris Johnson plans to launch an international initiative called "Adaptation Action Coalition" that will include the United Kingdom (UK), Egypt, Bangladesh, Malawi, the Netherlands, Santa Lucia, and the UN.

This coalition will "translate international political commitments" on climate change adaptation and resilience into "field support for vulnerable nations," according to the UK prime minister.

UK cabinet said in a statement that Johnson will announce during the summit that "there is no denying that climate change is actually happening and is destroying life and the economy. We need to adapt to our changing climate, and we must do so now."

US President Biden's decision to return to the Paris climate agreement abandoned by former President Donald Trump, and to reinstate a large set of environmental laws that were approved under former President Barack Obama.

Fighting global warming, which is considered an "existential threat", will be a central focus in Biden's administration seeking to rebuild the US economy affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

All these raise hopes to revive international efforts to address the existential threat of our time, which is climate change.