“Some government and business leaders are saying one thing — but doing another. Simply put, they are lying. And the results will be catastrophic.” – Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary General, 2022
In the past few weeks, most Nigerians have experienced collapse of the nation’s fragile power grid. We were duly informed by those in authority that the national grid has completely collapsed and that was responsible for darkness in some parts of the country.
One may recall that Nigeria’s power grid collapsed early this year twice in 48 hours. Besides, some national dailies also reported that in 2021, the national grid collapsed thrice and more than 200 times between 2010 and 2019.
While government policies, investments and regulations will propel emission cuts, the IPCC made it clear that individuals can make a big difference
The collapse of national grid this year embarrassed many Nigerians at a time when there is spike in the cost of diesel and scarcity of petrol. To further compound the troubles of many Nigerians and people in most parts of the world is the rising weather temperature occasioned by climate change. These days there has been a significant shift in temperature and weather patterns globally.
Human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels are responsible for climate change. Recently, the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) rendered its Sixth Assessment Report.
The Report made it clear that current policies by governments and business leaders globally are leading the planet towards catastrophic temperature rises. If the tide of events remains unchecked, humanity has less than three years to halt the rise of planet-warming carbon emissions and less than a decade to slash them by nearly half, according to UN climate experts.
These experts warned strongly that the world faced a last-minute race in desperation to ensure a “livable future.” The nations of the world, environmentalists argued, “are taking our future right to the wire.”
An official report showing how to halt global heating ever produced also has a “litany of broken climate promises”. In a blistering judgment of government and industry, the UN Secretary-General made the remarks reflected in the quote above.
It is worthy to note that in recent months, the IPCC has published the first two installments in “a trilogy of mammoth scientific assessments” covering how greenhouse gas emissions are heating the planet and what that means for life on earth.
We are at crossroads, according to the IPCC chief, Hoesung Lee. He stated that the decisions we make now can secure a liveable future. We have the tools and know-how required to limit warming. This view was corroborated by the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, who expressly stated that “these tools are firmly within our grasp, but was of the opinion that “nations of the world must be brave enough to use them.” The solutions will touch on virtually all aspects of modern life, require significant investments and need immediate action.
The very first item on the global – to – do – list is to stop greenhouse gas emissions from rising any further. This action must be done before 2025 to have a hope of keeping within even the Paris Agreement’s less ambitious warming target of two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
The report clearly states that investments to cut emissions will be far less expensive than the cost of failing to limit warming. Scientists warned that any rise above 1.5C risks the collapse of ecosystems and the triggering of irreversible shifts in the climate systems.
To achieve this target, the report said that carbon emissions need to drop by 43 percent by 2030 and 84 percent by mid-century. Without immediate and deep emissions reduction across all sectors, it will be impossible. To do that the world must drastically reduce the fossil fuels behind the lion’s share of emissions.
The IPCC is of the view that nations should stop burning coal completely and cut oil and gas use by 60 and 70 percent, respectively, to keep within the Paris goals. It was also noted that both solar and wind were now cheaper than fossil fuels in many places.
On the other hand, the IPCC argued that cutting emissions is no longer enough. Technologies to suck CO2 out of the atmosphere which is not operating up to scale will need to be ramped up enormously.
Read also: World Forest Day: Environmentalists calls for climate action for cleaner, healthier environment
While government policies, investments and regulations will propel emission cuts, the IPCC made it clear that individuals can make a big difference. Cutting back on long-haul flights, switching to planet-based diets, climate – proofing buildings and other ways of cutting the consumption that drives energy demand could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from 40 to 70 percent by 2050, are some of the recommendations made by experts.
The UN has also predicted that the war in Ukraine will exacerbate challenges faced by humanity. To defend its position, the UN is of the view that although COVID-19 plunged 77 million people into poverty before the Ukraine War, higher energy and commodity prices, renewed supply chain disruptions, higher inflation, lower growth and increased volatility in financial markets are bound to occur globally.
Experts are of the opinion that it is very doubtful if many developing economies will recover economically by the end of 2023 because of crippling debt repayments worsened by the war in Ukraine.
We read a UN report on the internet that 812 million people lived in extreme poverty worldwide in 2019, and by 2021 amid the pandemic the number had risen to 889 million. The report estimated that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in 20 percent of developing countries will not return to pre-2019, even before absorbing the impact of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Development economists argued strongly that developed countries could support their recovery from pandemic slumps with record amounts borrowed at ultra-low interest rates. But developing nations would spend billions of dollars servicing their debts at much higher borrowing costs that will prevent them from spending on improved education and health care, protecting the environment and reducing inequality.
The UN is worried about how most developing countries particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa will finance their efforts at achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 including ending poverty,ensuring quality education for all people and achieving gender equality. Unfortunately, COVID-19 and the Ukraine War have ruined the finances of many nations.
There should be no excuse for inaction at this defining moment of collective responsibility to ensure that hundreds of millions of people are lifted out of hunger and poverty. So we advocate that nations, especially those in sub-Saharan Africa, must invest in access to decent and green jobs, social protection, healthcare and education, leaving no one behind. Thank you.
