Wrangling over phasing out of coal power hits deal at UN meet
The celebrated Indian writer talks about his latest book ‘The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis’ published only last month
GLASGOW: Last-minute wrangling over commitments to phase out coal power held up a deal at the UN climate conference on Saturday that conference host Britain said would keep alive a goal of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Alok Sharma, the conference chairman, urged the almost 200 national delegations present in Glasgow to accept a deal that seeks to balance the demands of climate-vulnerable nations, big industrial powers, and those whose consumption or exports of fossil fuels are vital to their economic development.
“Please don’t ask yourself what more you can seek but ask instead what is enough,” he told them, in the closing hours of a two-week conference that has already overrun by a day. “Is this package balanced? Does it provide enough for all of us?”
“Most importantly - please ask yourselves whether ultimately these texts deliver for all our people and our planet.”
But before a plenary meeting could be convened to vote on the deal, delegates from India, China, the United States and the European Union met to discuss language on an agreed phase-out of coal, a member of the Indian delegation said.
The final agreement requires the unanimous consent of the countries present, ranging from coal and gas-fuelled superpowers to oil producers and Pacific islands being swallowed by the rise in sea levels.
The meeting’s overarching aim is to keep within reach the 2015 Paris Agreement’s target to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.
A drat deal circulated early on Saturday in effect acknowledged that existing commitments to cut emissions of planet-heating greenhouse gases are nowhere near enough, and asked nations to set tougher climate pledges next year, rather than every five years, as they are currently required to do.
In a public check-in round with key delegations, there was encouragement for Sharma when China, the world’s biggest producer and consumer of coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, said it had “no intention to open the text again”.
The West African state of Guinea, which had pressed hard on behalf of the G77 group of developing countries for greater commitments from rich countries to compensate them for “loss and damage” from unpredictable climate disasters, also indicated that the group would accept what had been achieved.
However, India, whose energy needs are heavily dependent on its own cheap and plentiful coal, signalled unhappiness.
“I am afraid ... the consensus remained elusive,” Environment and Climate Minister Bhupender Yadav told the forum, without spelling out whether or not India would block a vote on the package.
EU Climate Commissioner Frans Timmermans, speaking ater Yadav, asked if the marathon conference was at risk of stumbling just before the finish line and urged fellow delegates:
“Don’t kill this moment by asking for more texts, different texts, deleting this, deleting that.”
Scientists say that to go beyond a rise of 1.5C would unleash extreme sea level rise and catastrophes including crippling droughts, monstrous storms and wildfires far worse than those the world is already suffering.
But national pledges made so far to cut greenhouse emissions — mostly carbon dioxide from burning coal, oil and gas — would only cap the average global temperature rise at 2.4 Celsius.
Saturday’s drat, published by the United Nations, called for a phase-out of coal power as well as efforts to reduce the huge subsidies that governments around the world give to the oil, coal and gas that power factories and heat homes.
Previous UN climate conferences have all failed to single out fossil fuels for their harm to the climate.
A rich-poor divide widened at the UN summit in recent days, with developing nations complaining about not being heard. But when the representative from Guinea, speaking for 77 poorer nations and China, said his group could live with the general results, negotiators applauded.
The Chinese delegation also said it was fine with the positions that would come out of a Glasgow in a final conference agreement.
But Indian Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav potentially threw a wrench when he argued against a provision on phasing out coal, saying that developing countries were “entitled to the responsible use of fossil fuels.”
Yadav blamed “unsustainable lifestyles and wasteful consumption paterns” in rich countries for causing global warming. It was unclear whether India would try to stop a potential deal. “Consensus remains elusive,” the minister said. Iran said it supported India on not being so tough on fossil fuels.
A frustrated European Union Vice President Frans Timmermans, the 27-nation EU’S climate envoy, begged negotiators to be united for future generations.
India’s highest literary award winner, Amitav Ghosh, spoke about his latest book, his struggles as a writer during COVID-19 and his concerns about climate change on the penultimate day of the 40th Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF).
“Sounds of ambulances piercing through my apartment walls in Brooklyn (at the height of COVID-19) was not the perfect stage for me to write fiction,” said Ghosh while talking about his latest book ‘ The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis’ published only last month.
“It began with a trip to the Banda Islands. It was amazing in ways I couldn’t immediately absorb, but all the work began aterwards when I got home,” said the winner of the 2018 winner of the Jnanpith award for his body of work in English that includes best-sellers like ‘ The Calcuta Chromosome’ (1995), ‘ The Glass Palace’ (2000) and ‘ Gun Island’ (2019).
“I had to address questions I encountered (on climate change), and the effects I saw for the first time first-hand were closer home,” said Ghosh while talking about how his book on the climate crisis, ‘ The Great Derangement,’ is inspired by the situation in the Sunderbans in his native West Bengal – a mangrove area in the Bay of Bengal delta formed by the confluence of three rivers where, he said, rising sea levels were “gobbling up islands” in front of his eyes.
In Ghosh’s latest book – a successor to ‘ The Great Derangement’ – he finds the origins of our contemporary climate crisis in violent exploitation of the natural environment.
“Nutmeg and mace are endemic to the Banda Islands – a volcanic group of ten small volcanic islands in the Banda Sea in the Indonesian province of Maluku – thanks to their fertile volcanic soil. Because of the nutmeg tree, Banda became the centre of the world and the Bandanese were very prosperous until the colonialists entered, plundered and let,” said Ghosh while talking about how an abundance of a natural reserve (the nutmeg trees) led to the elimination of their very preservers, the Bandenese.
“The planetary crisis is exactly the same. It’s a resource curse – take, for instance, what happened with fossil fuels in several parts of the world in recent history,” he said while explaining how the dynamics of climate change today are rooted in a centuries-old geopolitical order constructed by Western colonialism.
ROLE OF LITERATURE: To what extent do literature and writings reflect our identity, and should writers and poets hold a mirror to the issues of society?
This was the subject of an intense discussion at the 40th Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) where panellists included Sultan Al Amimi, Emirati poet, novelist, and short story writer; Saud Al-sanousi, Kuwaiti novelist and journalist; and Jennifer Mansubuga Makumbi, Ugandan fiction writer.
The session titled ‘Mirrors’ was moderated by Layla Mohammed.
Reading is a journey of personal development, pointed out poet Sultan Al Amimi. “The relationship between a reader and a writer is very complex and ambiguous – both change and evolve over time. It is the same with my reading and writing – my interests and beliefs change with my growth as an individual.”
Saud Al-sanousi, winner of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2009, said: “Literature is thought provoking; it gives us a deeper understanding of the world around us. But, as a writer, when I go deep into the thoughts and minds of my characters, unearthing their beliefs and values, it is a process that leads me to discover myself.”
Award-winning Jennifer Makumbi agreed that readers turn to literature to find themselves in the worlds of another. “Literature, for me, is like a mirror that we hold to ourselves. It tells me that I can do beter; pushes me to go further; and shows me the ways I can be.
Even when I read about other cultures, I become the main character and learn so much from it – just a mere reflection is not what I look for in a book; I expect to find much more than that.”