The Climate Change conference in Paris has coincided with the unseasonal torrential rains that led to floods in Chennai and which have already claimed hundreds of lives. This leads to the question: Are the Chennai floods an example of what is in store in the future? Perhaps they are, and perhaps also so was the 2013 cloudburst in Uttarakhand that killed over 5000 and left thousands stranded till rescuers reached them. Both were unprecedented and unpredicted disasters, two years apart and thousands of kilometres away from each other, yet cannot be ignored when discussing climate change and its effects.
At the Paris Conference, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was assertive in his pre-conference speech that climate change needs to be addressed immediately. Even before his formal statement at the summit he had said that it was the rich, industrialised nations that were behind global warming. “Climate change is not of our making. It is the result of global warming that came from an industrial age powered by fossil fuel. Yet, we face its consequences today and that is why the outcome in Paris is so important and we are here today,” Modi said. The Prime Minister sought a ‘comprehensive, equitable and durable’ agreement in Paris. The statements made by Modi came a day before the Chennai floods and made the urgency of finding a solution all the more pressing.
India may not be the main country behind global warming, which is also what Modi pointed out, but the effects of this change in climate are already being felt in this country. China today is the main emitter of carbon, followed by the United States. But the question is: Can India too make the commitment to ensure that global warming will be contained and then keep it?
As the summit reached the weekend, the negotiators had settled on a rough blueprint that would lead to an approach on reining in emissions and reducing global warming. The ministers will arrive in Paris this week to ink what the negotiators of each country have arrived at. Yet, the weekend has come and there has been no major breakthrough. Reports coming in from Paris over the weekend said that the contentious issues had not been settled. Delegates were, however, hopeful of reaching some agreement and confident that the Paris conference would not be a washout, as some others have been in the past.
There is little time to lose and the time for reaching an agreement on climate change is now. While negotiators in Paris are looking at reaching a consensus on keeping the rise in temperature to 2 degrees Celsius, there are demands from small island nations to keep temperatures from rising above 1.5 degrees Celsius. Their demand is justified. According to projections, some 250 million people are set to be displaced in the coming decades because of climate change and the world is no nearer to coming to a strong response to the changing climate response at the Paris conference. As Pope Francis said, “Every year the problems are getting worse. We are at the limits. If I may use a strong word I would say that we are at the limits of suicide.”
The Pope is not wrong. There are already reports that the year 2015 is going to be the hottest on record. This statement won’t surprise anybody in Goa as the State has been experiencing a rather warm December, very unlike the cool nights and pleasant days of past years. The limits, no doubt, have been reached. What is now needed is bringing them back, even in Goa. But can it happen? When you have a government that describes the work of the one foundation that is fighting for Goa’s environment as anti-national, then there is little hope that the polity of the State will defend Goa’s environment and do its little bit towards reversing climate change.
