The global COVID-19 pandemic has put on hold urgent climate change discussions that were supposed to take place this year. The combined impacts of the global pandemic and climate change are putting a strain on the resources and capacities of Southern countries that are already reeling from the impacts of global warming and decades of neoliberal globalization.
The underlying economic and social conditions that have made Southern countries especially vulnerable to global pandemics are the same ones that have compromised our biodiversity and put human societies in contact with novel diseases like COVID-19. The pandemic further emphasizes the need to continue the advocacy on climate change to raise ambition and to confront the challenge of system change. Civil society and peoples’ movements need to continue the discussions and building of networks to ensure that they can effectively engage in shaping public policy on climate change and sustainable development given how the so-called “new normal” regime is aggravating closing civic spaces in many countries. The global COVID-19 pandemic has put on hold urgent climate change discussions that were supposed to take place this year. The combined impacts of the global pandemic and climate change are putting a strain on the resources and capacities of Southern countries that are already reeling from the impacts of global warming and decades of neoliberal globalization. The underlying economic and social conditions that have made Southern countries especially vulnerable to global pandemics are the same ones that have compromised our biodiversity and put human societies in contact with novel diseases like COVID-19. The pandemic further emphasizes the need to continue the advocacy on climate change to raise ambition and to confront the challenge of system change. Civil society and peoples’ movements need to continue the discussions and building of networks to ensure that they can effectively engage in shaping public policy on climate change and sustainable development given how the so-called “new normal” regime is aggravating closing civic spaces in many countries. The current climate policy context The year 2020 would have been a critical moment for climate policy making with the scheduled review of governments’ emissions reduction pledges under the Paris Agreement of 2015. Non-binding emission reduction targets made in 2015 will not meet the target of limiting global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius, the benchmark set by climate science to avoid the higher catastrophic impacts of global warming. Climate action, however, faces numerous roadblocks. Global attention has currently shifted to the COVID-19 pandemic. A series of meetings to address the climate emergency have already been cancelled, including the 26th Conference of Parties under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26) which was due to be held in Glasgow this coming November. Big polluters, such as those in the energy and aviation industry, are taking advantage of the pandemic to delay implementation of national climate policies and to secure public bailouts. Prior to the pandemic, many countries, including major polluters from the Global North had already backed out of their climate commitments such as emissions reductions and financing climate action in the Global South. The economic conditions that have made Southern countries especially vulnerable to global pandemics and global warming are the same ones that have compromised our biodiversity and put human societies in contact with novel diseases like COVID-19. As world attention shifts to the agenda of rebuilding the global economy after COVID-19, we need to stay vigilant that post-COVID-19 recovery plans do not lock us in to the current unsustainable and profit-driven development model which would result in overshooting our warming threshold and more environmental destruction. The COVID-19 should be pushing international cooperation to confront climate change and its underlying causes. The much needed scaling up of climate ambitions and actions should be carried out with the same urgency that the current pandemic is being addressed, but placing people’s rights and welfare at its core. People-powered climate actions and solutions In the face of inaction of authorities, grassroots communities are organizing and mobilizing themselves to enhance their resiliency and curb emissions, and to promote equitable and democratic access to productive resources and care of the commons. People-powered climate actions such as collective land cultivation and occupation, agro-ecological farming, community-led relief and rehabilitation drives are being organized across the global South in the context of their struggle against fossil fuel and extractive companies, encroachment on land, water, and other resources by multinational corporations, and disaster capitalism. These oases of alternative development models and practices prove the vitality of social movements and collective action from the ground in the struggle for system change. Civil society and social movements are demanding democratic participation of climate action in all relevant governance levels. A most vital advocacy space for intervention in this regard is the planning, implementation and monitoring of nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to reduce GHG emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. For frontline communities in the global South, enhancement of countries’ NDCs, especially in light of the need to keep warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius, there is a need to ensure that such space for engagement is guaranteed and respected and that communities are able to demand support for people-led climate actions and solutions.
0 Comments
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |