Climate change and its effects are now visible more than ever before. A major cause of climate change and global warming, carbon emissions, is also getting renewed attention as countries across the world are working tirelessly to reduce their carbon footprint, hoping to bring down global carbon dioxide (CO2) levels and somehow achieve the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. But before that, we need to assess how to plan policies at the global and local levels, and where our efforts must be focused to witness the best results.
This year’s theme for the World Habitat Day is ‘Accelerating urban action for a carbon-free world’. And as we move further ahead in the Decade of Action, our attention is once again directed to what we should do to reduce global carbon emissions. Since 2015, countries have been struggling to reduce their footprint. However, not much progress has been made. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the world saw a dip in global carbon emissions for the first time in decades. However, numerous reports have shown that even after the dip, the world is set to witness a three-degree Celsius rise in global temperatures. This is a rise much higher than the one set by the Paris Climate Agreement – of keeping global temperature rise well below two-degree Celsius, and to aim for achieving 1.5 degrees. This could have disastrous consequences on the world’s population, especially vulnerable groups in low- and lower-middle income countries. So what can be done? What are we failing to notice?
Who is to blame?
A historically essential question and one which has been debated upon since ages, the objective of finding the major contributor to carbon emissions is simple – targeting emission-reduction activities for the identified set of countries and allowing others to develop independently, with minimal oversight over their carbon emissions.
On the part of the developing world, with India and China as their leaders, the debate arises as they believe that a number of countries in the Asia Pacific region are developing, post-colonial countries. Thus, they have had the lowest historical contributions to emissions but are being grilled the most by many as they contribute the most to global carbon emissions owing to their full-blown development and growth activities (Page 23). On the other hand, developed countries, which are mainly part of the North American and European region, may have lower emissions in the recent past. However, their historic carbon emissions have been mainly responsible for the climate change the world faces now. Thus, since a long time, the debate on who is responsible for the path that the world currently treads on has been burning.
Often, the other side of this debate focuses on industries and sectors which produce the highest level of carbon dioxide. Globally, the primary sources of greenhouse gas emissions are electricity and heat (31 per cent), agriculture (11 per cent), transportation (15 per cent), forestry (six per cent) and manufacturing (12 per cent). Energy production of all types accounts for 72 per cent of all emissions. However, efforts of reducing carbon emissions are focused majorly on the energy generation and transportation sectors and sectors like forestry and agriculture remain unnoticed. This needs to change. Governments need to understand that proper research needs to be undertaken in order to determine what emits the most amount of CO2. Only then will policy formulation for achieving the goals of Agenda 2030 can be successful.
And even though the Sustainable Development Goals can only be achieved when everyone around the world participates equally, there is always the factor of ‘who has to work the most?’
Per capita & total emissions
Again, different countries and organisations have different answers to this question, and the major determinant of who is responsible for cutting down on their emissions the most is based on the method of calculating their contribution. As is visible from data provided on Page 22, when we rank countries based on their overall carbon footprint, the top contributors are China, the United States of America, and India. However, what must be kept in mind here is that China and India are also countries with the two highest populations in the world.
Moreover, they are also leading the world in terms of switching to renewable sources of energy for transportation and energy generation. Lastly, they are also home to some of the world’s largest production industries, which provide goods to countries all over the world. On the other hand, despite having comparatively lower population, being past its age of rapid industrialization and being home to a much smaller number of production industries, countries like the United States of America and the Russian Federation account for the second and fourth highest global carbon emissions respectively. In terms of per capita carbon emissions, which account for the population size and density, the top contributors are Qatar, Curacao, and New Caledonia. India ranks 147 in the world in terms of per capita carbon footprint. Therefore, simply changing the unit of consideration drastically changes the ranking of countries around the world. Nonetheless, increasing carbon emissions have also started affecting the day-to-day life of people across the world. While countries like India are home to a majority of the world’s most polluted cities, others are experiencing absurd weather events, marking the beginning of a probably irreversible climate change scenario.
Effects of emissions are visible
The city of Delhi has been experiencing some of the worst climate events in the past few months. From incessant rains to waterlogging, the problems faced by Delhiites are mounting. Similarly, the occurrence of Cyclone Tauktae, Amphan, Nisarga, and Gulab in a little over a year is also being seen as a clear sign that climate change has begun and the time to act is now. And since cities are not only the major contributors to climate change but are also the most vulnerable to them, it is high time that city administrations begin implementing local-level climate action plans, localize sustainable development goals and stop passing the buck on who is responsible and who will cut down the most on emissions.