COP28 - Just Another Climate Conference or Does it really matter?
Thursday, Dec 14, 2023
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Dear Investors,
COP28 has been all over the news for almost two weeks now. This is not the first international conference on climate and it’s definitely not the last. We’ve been reading that the world is inching towards the worst of climate change and action needs to be taken immediately for decades now. However, we see only minute changes happening despite the apparent “urgency” of the situation. Do you know that if it wasn’t for climate change, the world would’ve been $1.5 trillion dollars richer!
So, is the COP28 going to shake things up and initiate action or should we forget it already? Well, this conference does seem promising as I’ll discuss today but don’t be too hopeful as climate conferences rarely lead to any real action.
COP28 - Just Another Climate Conference or Does it really matter?
COP28 - the 28th Conference of Parties is a World Climate Action Summit held every year by the UN. This year, the summit is taking place in Dubai with officials coming in from 196 countries. Let’s first understand what this conference is for. The CoP is a forum for global leaders to come together, discuss ways to combat the climate crisis and analyze progress achieved on previously set objectives.
Economic Losses from Climate Change
Extinction of wildlife, frequent natural disasters, melting glaciers, forest fires and exorbitantly high temperatures don’t attract even a blink from the top global leaders, but the economic impact and losses do. So, let’s talk numbers!
The global economy loses 1.8% of its GDP to climate change.
Weather disasters have cost the US over $57.6 billion this year.
Low and middle-income countries have experienced $2.1 trillion in produced capital losses due to climate change.
Extreme climatic events cost the European Union 52.3 billion euros.
If you add GDP and capital losses, low and middle income countries have suffered losses of $21 trillion in the last three decades.
Dive into data: That’s not it. Climate change impacts national GDPs significantly. The visual here shows the exact effect. India, for instance, lost 8% of its GDP to climate change.
The Loss and Damage Fund
With industrialization having kickstarted during the second world war, climate deterioration started happening as early as 1940s. Then, it was the developed countries, the West which underwent the most rapid industrialisation without thinking of the environmental consequences. The Global South, on the other hand, has only started seeing economic growth driven by industrilisation since the last couple of decades. Now, the developed countries contributed the most to climate change triggers, however, it’s the third world countries and people who have been paying the price.
Thus, in order to make it fair to the vulnerable, a fund has been formed - The Loss and Damage Fund where the rich countries with most emissions have pledged funds. Around $475 million have been pledged until now which can be accessed by vulnerable and impacted countries and communities via the UN. Now before I lose you, let me finally get to India’s role in COP28. India is losing to climate change. In 2022, we lost 8% of our GDP to losses from extreme climatic conditions and the forecast going forward is not too optimistic. India is all in when it comes to reducing the usage of coal and oil to switch to renewable energy, but we want to do it at our own pace. Thus, India did not sign the Triple Green Energy agreement which calls for a pledge to triple the world’s renewable energy resources by 2030. However, this doesn’t mean that India is doing nothing, we have our own national targets set and agreements made during the G20 summit. India, also did not sign the health agreement which called for reduction in greenhouse gas emissions as this would hinder the growth of our health infrastructure which needs to be improved significantly as of now. As Prime Minister Modi said in his address, India contributes to only 4% of emissions despite housing 17% of the world’s population. So, does it seem fair to you that India refrained from signing these agreements? The conference is ending today, but there are still a lot of questions and concerns. The most important question being, will these agreements and promises take form as actions? COP28 - India’s Role and Impact on the Country
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