Climate Commitments and Challenges: Evaluating the Road to Global Net Zero

Securing a global net zero is essential in fighting climate change and its impact. The Paris Agreement calls for keeping the global temperature to 1.5°C. The EU, Japan and the Republic of Korea and over 110 other countries have pledged to attain carbon neutrality by 2050. Over 186 parties to the Paris Agreement have developed the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) (The United Nations, 2020). If you are seeking environmental studies dissertation help, consider reaching out for help that can help you navigate the complexities of this particular crucial topic.

The United States expects the COP26 to become the turning point in the global efforts to tackle the climate crisis. It is adopting a domestic and an international effort to facilitate the global effort in attaining net-zero emissions by 2050 (The US Department of State, 2021). The United States has rejoined the Paris Agreement and has launched the National Climate Task Force to establish the 2030 emissions target (the nationally determined contribution). President Biden has set a target of 50-52 percent reduction from 2005 levels by 2030 and to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 (The White House, 2021).

The United States sees the targets as opportunities to create good employment and improve equity. For instance, it targets to reach 100% carbon pollution free electricity. This will create job opportunities, for instance making carbon pollution free electricity generating resources; investing in innovation; or building nature-based solutions to reduce emissions from forests and agriculture and enhance carbon sinks (The White House, 2021).

The United States expects that there will be several rounds of discussion of the Paris Agreement. The Agreement sets the target of keeping global warming under 2°C while pursuing to keep it below 1.5°C. This target is necessary given that climate change can bring physical, social and political changes across the globe (Letcher, 2021). For instance, climate change will raise the temperature of lower atmosphere, oceans and land resulting in events including snowfall and accumulation, enhanced glacier discharge, or increase in sea levels. It will also bring a social impact. For instance, changes in seasons and production cycle will disrupt the agricultural cycle exposing people to vulnerability and food relief programmes. These events will expose disadvantaged countries to harsh conditions not equally shared among countries. Such countries will be vulnerable to violent civil conflicts. The negative impacts of climate change will push such countries faster towards political conflicts (Letcher, 2021).

Considering that climate change has occupied an urgent consideration by world leaders, it is imperative that all the countries come forward with political commitment to achieve the targets. The United States expects that all the developed countries will mobilise financial and other resources to lead the path for developing countries towards the set targets. This is particularly relevant considering that the UNEP’s Emissions Gap Report 2021 shows that NDCs are not sufficient. The current commitment to keep the global temperature rise is at 2.7°C by the end of this century. To address the issue, the United States expects the countries to invest in the next eight years to limit global warming to 1.5°C. This means that in addition to the NDCs, all the countries must reduce 28 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent (GTCO2e) of annual emissions, and annual reduction of 13 GtCO2e to limit the rise in temperature to 2°C (UNEP, 2021).

There may be a gap in the expectations and the efforts put in by countries in the climate change summit. As against the targets set, the efforts put in are deficient in relation to the target. Most plans seem to fall short of the goal. For instance, the EU plan featuring a 55% reduction in emissions by 2030 when compared to 1990s levels does not seem compatible with the goal of 1.5°C. Even the United States’ plan of $1.85 trillion social spending is pending the approval from the Congress. China’s commitment to the objective of net zero is set at 2060 with less details on its commitment (Tidey, 2021). The short in commitment negatively impacts the global efforts to achieve the targets. For instance, the poorer countries have not received the $100bn from the international community to address the issue and efforts of climate change. This represents a lack of strong collective political commitment. The key actors in climate change play a crucial role to that effect (McGrath, 2021).

Countries’ commitment to achieving net zero by 2050 is a strong commitment. However, this must be supported by political decisions regarding national policy measures. On one hand, a state commits to the net zero target. On the other hand, it may advance mining activities or reduction in financial aid as a part of international community programmes. This contradictory approach does not support the climate change initiatives and targets (McGrath, 2021).

The parties to the climate change process should also innovate on the consensus making process. A consensus to arrive between the 197 parties to the Paris agreement does not have a reasonable technical arrangement. There is a potential risk of the domestic climate policy measures creating a direct or indirect trade implication clashing with the rules and requirements of the Paris Agreement (Das, et al., 2019). The mechanism employed around the targets may not be adequate to address on-time mitigation. They may be inconsistent regarding achieving equity across all parties. For instance, On the one hand, there is the target to limit global temperature rise to below 2°C while pursuing to keep it to 1.5°C. On the other hand, the forecast expects to limit the rise below 3.5°C (Doukas, et al., 2018). Similar observations regarding the gap between what is targeted, and the current need can be made regarding the timeline of carbon cutting targets. Thus, instead of a five-year routine update, it must be a shorter time frame (McGrath, 2021).

The United States hopes to that the COP26 is the final and the last attempt that will effectively address the objectives of climate change commitments. It hopes that all the countries develop a collective political commitment to save the world from disastrous natural calamities. Climate change has become an urgent social, economic and political cause. The objective of net neutrality is the most practical step that countries must effectively set into motion.

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Bibliography

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