Pandemic Postponing Climate Talks
Author: Ashmira Deshmukh
Source: Unsplash (Bill Oxford)
Act on climate change NOW.m4aHere is an introduction for the topic
(3:17m podcast; script below)
ACT ON CLIMATE CHANGE NOW!!
Script for Audio:
Script for voiceover introduction
Hello Everyone! COVID-19 pandemic derailed life as we know it. With social distancing, lockdowns and economic crisis things started to get impacted. One such big impact has been felt on the future of climate change initiatives. Policy makers, governments and scientists are wondering what we should learn from the pandemic and how this will affect the steps we take to mitigate future risks to public health. On one hand there is an optimistic approach that we will learn our lessons and take a more informed decision in tackling climate change but on the other hand the economic disaster COVID-19 has created, a loss of 3.5 trillion dollars in the United States alone and issues like the lockdown measures and social distancing has a potential to delay climate change talks.
The United Nations climate conference (COP26) scheduled for November 2020 got postponed to an undecided date. Countries were set to announce their emission reduction goals as per the Paris agreement. The threat with this delay is that it not only affects the very time sensitive initiative required to mitigate global warming but also gives some countries an opportunity to excuse themselves out of the talk all together using the impact of the pandemic on their economy and resources as an inability to participate. Wildlife conservation missions and studies came to a temporary halt. Relaxations on emissions and waste management were provided and industries were exempt from penalizations during the pandemic. For example, EPA has announced that it will temporarily “exercise enforcement discretion” with regard to violations of environmental laws as a result of COVID-19.
With budget cuts all across the globe as spending on issues like healthcare, relief stimulus, employment increased climate change had to take a backseat. But governments across the world fail to understand that climate change should be a part of the economic revival post pandemic. As stated by numerous scientists and epidemiologists’ pandemics like these would become more frequent if we don’t act now on climate change. Degradation of the environment has affected human relationship with nature which increases the risk of such infection outbreaks. European Union, France and Germany have set great examples by allocating their post pandemic resources to climate change initiatives. It puts into perspective that a bright future for the coming generations is only possible with steps taken today. ACT ON CLIMATE CHANGE NOW!
Importance of Climate Change Talks
Need for Climate Change Talks
Humans have contributed to climate change in a major way. The effects of human activities have accelerated climate change especially in the past few decades. Overuse of plastic, tons of waste generation, fossil fuel use, and deforestation are just some ways humans have hurt the planet. According to NASA, in the absence of major action to reduce emissions, global temperature is on track to rise by an average of 6 °C (10.8 °F). The last four years have been the warmest on Earth in the 139 years that NOAA has been keeping records. If climate change initiatives are not taken seriously we could lose the planet as we know it.
Climate Change and Public Health
Climate change affects human health by increasing the risk of future diseases and increasing the severity of present ones. The consequences of climate change directly affect human health, the practice of medicine, and the stability of health care systems.1 According to scientists across the globe, pandemics like these will become more frequent in the future as a result of climate change. As of December 2020, we don’t have direct evidence that climate change is influencing the spread of COVID-19, but we do know that climate change alters how we relate to other species on Earth and that matters to our health and our risk for infections.2 Within the next 40 years, increases in global temperatures are projected to raise global mortality rates by the same amount (14 deaths per 100,000). 3
COVID-19 and the Future of Climate Change Initiatives
An unprecedented pandemic hit us in late 2019. Lives were completely uprooted. A big impact was felt by the global economy. Global stock markets experienced their worst crash since 1987, and in the first three months of 2020 the G20 economies fell 3.4% year-on-year. Between April and June 2020, the International Labour Organization estimated that an equivalent of 400 million full-time jobs were lost across the world, and income earned by workers globally fell 10 percent in the first nine months of 2020, equivalent to a loss of over US$3.5 trillion.4 All these economic impacts have a potential to affect the climate talks. Policy makers, governments and scientists are wondering what we should learn from the pandemic and how this will affect the steps we take to mitigate future risks to public health. On one hand, there is an optimistic approach that we will learn our lessons and take a more informed approach in tackling climate change; but on the other hand, the economic disaster COVID-19 has created, the lockdown measures, and social distancing have a potential to delay climate change talks.
Delaying Climate Change Talks
United Nations' COP26
International climate change negotiations scheduled for Nov 2020 were already postponed. The United Nations also postponed a pivotal climate conference (COP26) scheduled for November 2020 in Glasgow amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, delaying an international effort to head off the worst consequences of climate change.5
Countries were set to announce their emission reduction goals as per the Paris agreement. The threat with this delay is that it not only affects the very time-sensitive initiative required to mitigate global warming, but also gives some countries an opportunity to excuse themselves out of the talk all together using the impact of the pandemic on their economy and resources as an inability to participate.
Budget Slashes
In United States, due to the pandemic-associated recession, states' budget had to be slashed. With more pressing issues like employment, healthcare needs, personal protective equipment needs, and public safety, issues pertaining to environment had to take a backseat. The future of efforts, much lauded in environmental circles, has been thrown into question as cash-strapped state governments look to cut spending.6
According to some researchers, governments and citizens may struggle to integrate climate priorities with pressing economic needs in a recovery. This could affect their investments, commitments, and regulatory approaches. Investors may delay their capital allocation to new lower-carbon solutions due to decreased wealth.7
EPA's Relaxations
The E.P.A. has announced that it will temporarily “exercise enforcement discretion” with regard to violations of environmental laws as a result of COVID-19.8 What this means is that companies will self-monitor their emission quality and E.P.A. will give leeway to companies if they are unable to follow the standards due to the pandemic, thereby avoiding getting penalized for poor emission quality.
Though it addresses the hardships that industries are facing due to the pandemic, it does create a risk for worsening climate issues. According to the New York Times, "Gina McCarthy, who led the E.P.A. under the Obama administration and now serves as president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, called it “an open license to pollute.” She said that while individual companies might need flexibility, “this brazen directive is nothing short of an abject abdication of the E.P.A. mission to protect our well-being.’’"9
Looking Ahead
There surely is a silver lining in all this. One thing the COVID-19 pandemic taught us is that prevention is critically important. The very nature of such pandemics going hand in hand with deteriorating climate sheds light on the fact the time to act on climate change initiatives is now! The cost of fixing the climate is now somewhere between $1.6 trillion and 3.8 trillion per year, according to the UN’s latest Gap Report. To avoid such losses taking necessary steps now will surely be beneficial. The benefits of smarter and clearer growth are significantly under-estimated, and that bold climate action could deliver $26 trillion in economic benefits through to 2030.10 Some proposed steps towards addressing climate change initiatives are:
European Commission’s recently proposed €750 billion EU-wide stimulus package (25% of which is for climate-friendly stimulus), along with the ambitious Green Deal framework that frames the EU’s transition to a low-carbon economy.11
Germany has pointed the way towards building back better in a way that emphasizes environmental as well as economic concerns. Its €130 billion ($146 billion) domestic stimulus is not just aimed at economic recovery, but at paving the way towards a more sustainable, inclusive and job-rich future economy.11
Natural climate solutions such as restoring degraded forests could create as many as 39 jobs per million dollars spent — that's a job-creation rate more than six times higher than the oil and gas industry.12
The COP26 conference has been rescheduled for November 2021, which is ray of hope that the discussion is not entirely ended.
EU and Germany have set great examples of how the post pandemic economic recovery needs to include climate change budget. It puts into perspective that a bright future for the coming generations is only possible with steps taken today.
References:
Salas RN, Solomon CG. The Climate Crisis — Health and Care Delivery. New England Journal of Medicine. 2019;381(8):e13. doi:10.1056/NEJMp1906035
Coronavirus and Climate Change. C-CHANGE | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Published May 19, 2020. Accessed November 22, 2020. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/c-change /subtopics/coronavirus-and-climate-change/
3. Gates B. COVID-19 is awful. Climate change could be worse. gatesnotes.com. Accessed November 22, 2020. https://www.gatesnotes.com/Energy/Climate-and-COVID-19
4. "Pandemic knocks a tenth off incomes of workers around the world". Financial Times. 23 September 2020.
5. The Paris Agreement | UNFCCC. Accessed November 22, 2020. https://unfccc.int/process-and- meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement
6. States’ Climate Change Efforts Stall During Pandemic. US News & World Report. Accessed November 22, 2020. https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2020-09-23/states-climate- change-efforts-stall-during-pandemic
7. Addressing climate change in a post-pandemic world | McKinsey. Accessed November 22, 2020.
8. US EPA O. EPA Announces Enforcement Discretion Policy for COVID-19 Pandemic. US EPA. Published March 27, 2020. Accessed November 22, 2020. https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa- announces-enforcement-discretion-policy-covid-19-pandemic-0
9. Friedman L. E.P.A., Citing Coronavirus, Drastically Relaxes Rules for Polluters. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/26/climate/epa-coronavirus-pollution-rules.html. Published March 26, 2020. Accessed November 22, 2020.
10. Nations U. Key Findings. United Nations. Accessed November 22, 2020. https://www.un.org /en/climatechange/science/key-findings
11. Germany’s COVID-19 Stimulus Prioritizes Low-carbon Investments. World Resources Institute. Published July 2, 2020. Accessed November 22, 2020. https://www.wri.org/blog/2020/07/germany- s-covid-19-stimulus-prioritizes-low-carbon-investments
12. Climate Change: 11 facts you need to know. Accessed November 22, 2020. https://www.conservation.org/stories/11-climate-change-facts-you-need-to-know