Kerry Adams-Strump—Contributed Photo
Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our generation. It affects every one of us wherever we are in the world. Deadly heat waves in previously unlikely locations such as in Europe or flash floods in the Middle East and intense storms in Asia have become more common even in the past few years.
The second installment of the flagship report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that was released in February this year has noted that despite the recent efforts to reduce the risks, climate change is now causing dangerous and widespread disruption in nature and affecting the lives of billions of people around the world. The report calls for accelerated and ambitious climate adaptation action and deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
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The report notes that progress in climate adaptation is uneven and that the increasing gaps between the action taken and what is needed to deal with the increasing risks become more pronounced among the lower-income populations and economies. Therefore, it is imperative that global climate action taken to transition to a low-carbon economy should be done mindfully and carefully executed given the disparity of resources among countries and populations.
Barriers to decarbonization
To start, there is a stark disparity between developed and emerging markets’ energy consumption and contribution to carbon emissions.
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While developed markets may have already invested in alternative energy resources, their accumulated carbon footprint to date is still significantly bigger. The United States, Europe, Australia and Japan have an accumulated 67 percent of total carbon emissions.
On the other hand, emerging markets have historically contributed less to greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere despite being heavily dependent on fossil fuels.
Reducing emissions while meeting rising energy needs will need heavy investments that are estimated at $1 trillion per year. To date, these emerging markets make up two thirds of the global population but hold only 10 percent of financial wealth. This is indeed one of