The much awaited, talked and discussed event of the
year COP21 has come and with it comes a wave of hope & fear, hope that
finally all the parties will rise to the need of humanity, in light of the
evidences of forthcoming catastrophes as predicted by scientists and fear that
once again the disagreement of Kyoto, Copenhagen will haunt Paris and thereby
jeopardizing our common goals and future. The global leaders have a duty to
materialize the climate commitments, laws and policies and the onus is also
upon youths like me to share our notions, beliefs and expectations. With that
sense of duty I am writing this article.
The fact that we’re heading for a rise of five degrees
Celsius, which clearly will cause irreversible, catastrophic global warming and
still millions of people are either denying, ignoring or unknown about the
climate change is scary. Despite the history of climate negotiations dating
back to 1992, despite UNFCC asking countries to take action to avoid dangerous
climate change, governments have pandered for far too long, wasted time
pointing fingers towards each other. The stubbornness of few industrialized
nation clearly didn’t help. This has to come to the end at COP 21.
The geographical and political location of Nepal has
put us in the front line of the climate battle. The fact that Nepal ranks 14th
most vulnerable country to climate change worldwide doesn’t come as a surprise.
Our mountains are vulnerable to global warming, our glaciers are likely to
outburst which will have devastating effects to our communities. These are not
mere predictions but real observed facts, Tsho Rolpa has increased from 0.23sq.
Km to 1.65 sq. Km; Climbers have reported less snow in Mt Everest. These are
just a few examples. Not only our rich 118 ecosystem, 75 categories of
vegetation, 35 types of forests are at risk but the sectors like Agriculture,
Tourism, Energy, Health all are bearing brunt, are sure to get inflicted
further. With such small GHGs emission and such huge impacts, this is not fair
at all and I urge Nepalese leaders at COP 21 to strongly put forward this
contention to ensure we get enough financial help to pursue clean technology,
sustainable development and ensure proper adaptive measures.
The harsh truth is Nepal cannot escape climate change as
it is located between two rapidly growing economies viz. China and India. China
is expected to be the largest GHGs emitter by 2030 and GHGs emission of India
has sky rocketed over the years and surely will be on the rise. I ask all the
world leaders to understand the plight of Nepal and similar poor vulnerable
countries and thus pass laws and plans of actions to guide developing countries
to lessen their emissions and subsequently move towards greener economy.
Meanwhile we Nepalese need to prioritize adaption to climate change. The
National Action Plan on Adaptation (NAPA) is a praiseworthy move and it needs to be made more
comprehensive. The works of Project ICCA and many NGOs/INGOs in capacity
building for better management & adaptation, local adaptation plans of
actions (LAPA , Monitoring & Evaluation of climate sensors, improving
resilience against diseases, pests and insects of crops is commendable. This
needs to be amplified and more importantly Green Living in tandem with the 17
sustainable development goals (SDGs) need to be included in national
development agendas.
EU agreeing to cut emissions by 46%, US agreeing to
cut emission by 26% and china agreeing its emission peaks at 2030 is a positive
sign. I request all global leaders to be generous on the climate funds and
indeed establish a global climate fund, large and significant enough to give the
much needed pull and catapult human civilization from impending doom. History of
climate negotiations has shown this is the most argued part and I request all
the leaders to see the picture from the eyes of their grandchildren and
capitalize on this historic moment by healthy contribution. I also urge
billionaires, multi-national companies, World Bank and many such organization
to seize the day and rise to the occasion by sharing the responsibility.
Kyoto Protocol was a remarkable achievement in paper but
it failed in implementation I believe chiefly due to its inability to sanction
countries who didn’t follow protocol. So, this time agreement has to be
powerful enough to sanction even the powerful, rich countries if needed.
Even with the hatred, violence, terrorism present in
the world I firmly believe there is enough humanity and sensibility remained in
us to save ourselves by saving mother earth. The solidarity shown by people on
the aftermath of Paris attack reinstalled my belief and I am sure our leaders
will make sure to load our arsenal with enough funds, ideas, vision, diversity,
tolerance and solidarity in this war against climate change.
The post COP 21 is our shared journey in the same boat
with the raft still in our hands, let’s keep it that way.
Bon voyage!
