Green Governance is amiss!

 

By Malini Shankar

Digital Discourse Foundation

The whole of Planet Earth is getting desertified courtesy human induced Climate Change © Richard Allaway 

As the year 2024 winds down we have to skeptically report, - unfortunately – that the TRICOP year – Conference of Parties for UNCCD COP 16 in Riyadh Saudi Arabia, UNCBD COP 16 in Cali Columbia & UNFCCC COP 29 in Baku, Azerbaijan failed to reach a consensus and resolve fiscal commitments to achieve the respective Green Goals and Targets.

It is not just a sad sentiment but echoes the inefficacy of putting People before the Planet and the Comity of Nations lacking a binding fiscal framework or fiscal commitment – nay responsibility – to commit to the Green, fiscally viable Goals.

We are long past the age and stage of doomsday prophecy. Indeed without Climate friendly agriculture or without stymieing Biodiversity Loss, it has come to the sad pass that countries are tethering on starvation and have to resort to culling wildlife like critically endangered African Elephants to feed the starving populace of Zimbabwe and Botswana. If Human Beings were indeed responsible for making the species critically endangered (read poaching hunting and habitat loss) and then justifying killing elephants for the Pot it reflects a political regression / retrogression of Humankind.

While the Rio Earth Summit’s resolutions (including formation and formulation of United Nations’ Conventions on Combatting Desertification, Climate Change and Biological Diversity besides Agenda 21 which eventually became SDGs) are onerous and demanding on democratic polity, the democratic processes through which these Covenants can be implemented if at all, cannot be side stepped either leaving the Green Goals no more than a mirage on the blistering desertified sandscapes of Planet Earth -  leaving the Human race orphaned for a place to live and thrive.

There aint much doubt that Humankind thrived at the cost of Other Creatures Great and Small Made by the Lord Above; that is why it has it come to such a naught after all. That is like taking development to another level of anthropomorphism at the cost of other creatures.

That being said, the Paris Gap and admitted errors in Climate data modelling makes the goal of decreasing global temperatures by 1.5⁰ C by 2030 a mystical mirage on the desertifying sands of time. US President-Elect Donald Trump’s skepticism on Climate Change and Fossil fuel usage notwithstanding, a serious attempt needs to be made to understand better the role played by volcanic explosions / volcanic activity in regulating Climate. The permanent nature of this geological factor of Climate Change in planetary science needs to be calibrated into the Sustainability Framework.

The emissions from the Bardarbanga volcano in Iceland in 2014, nullified one day's industrial emissions of CO across Europe according to a Press Release of the Department of Geology of the Bristol University in the UK.  © Peterhartree CCSA 3.0 

Indeed in 2014 Iceland’s Bardarbunga Volcanic explosion – as documented by the Geology department of Bristol University in the UK – proved that “the emissions from this volcano nullified one day’s industrial emissions across Europe”. Not to sound like a Climate Change skeptic, but these factors need deeper scientific engagement especially because modelling Climate Data predating 1950 is well-nigh impossible / unreal and has its challenges. Besides Climate scientists have failed to quantify the impact of El Nino and La Nina commensurately; this needs to be calibrated against long term Climate Change to get accurate Climate Data.  

It may also be pertinent to study Climate Data through the lens of traditional wisdom like the Lunar Almanac. All the same reversing the unsustainable emissions of Industrial Revolution and post Industrial Revolution society needs a fresh recalibration to sustainable levels of inclusive development.

Or perhaps socio economic development for Humankind was okay till such time that Liberalised Economic Order skewed economic development in favour of the corrupt few?

Coming back to the failure of all three COPS in the year 2024 it sadly reflects on the unfeasibility of lofty Green Goals to be agreed upon in one sitting. Perhaps Dictatorships are better equipped to reach Green Goals but that is the least priority for Dictators! Green Governance is lacking in incentivizing the Corporates for the Green goals. That said, cheque book green diplomacy for Climate Action is not everything either.

Initiatives in Administration, Agriculture and Agro-ecology, architecture, Artificial Intelligence, Aviation, Business, Mitigating / reversing Biodiversity Loss, Climate centric governance, diplomacy, education, Climate finance, grass roots activism, Public Health, Media engagement, Nature conservation to reverse biodiversity Loss and species extinction, Ocean Health restoration, Reforestation, Sustainable fisheries, all things sustainable, Terrestrial restoration (SDG 14), inclusive Transport, plugging the UV holes, ground Water replenishment, Watershed Management,  are key to Climate Change mitigation and Mitigating Biodiversity Loss. Looks like one UN agency has to focus on any one subject only.

Mitigating biodiversity loss accrues well for Humankind. Apart from cooling the planet, mitigating biodiversity loss helps Create food security for the marginalised, Mitigates malnutrition, Enriches soil nutrition, Prevents soil erosion, Sequesters Carbon, Supplants habitat loss, Regulates monsoons through catchment area conservation, Restores habitat for endangered fauna, Prevents species extinction, factors in Livelihood Security and Water security. 

It’s a mandate for Humankind’s survival not just a universal political agenda for the UN. Governments are finding it difficult to do something so simple as banning plastics where then can we start cleansing the earth and oceans of plastics? Artificial intelligence and Machine Learning did you say? The danger of deploying AI and ML in cleansing oceans of debris is: it might injure marine fauna which are already vulnerable and endangered by unsustainable trawler fishing and dumping of plastic debris and litter in the oceans. Abandoned fishnets are posing very grave threat to the very survival of marine fauna like turtles, whales, other cetaceans, endangered sharks, sea snakes estuarine crocodiles etc.

Let’s make a start with something simple like focusing on one goal like halting manufacturing of < 20 microns plastics for example.  Bans are already in place. Implementing the ban is shaken off thanks to corruption. Haul the corrupt by their collar! Green governance is the key!