Climate change solutions must be sought locally or regionally

Climate change consists of two components, natural and anthropogenic. The latter comes from energy production and energy consumption. Fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) are a major source of energy in developed countries that not only contribute to climate change but also to environmental pollution.

There has been a great deal of talk about and attempts to shift energy production from fossil fuels to renewable sources but there has not been a concomitant attempt so far to reduce energy consumption. A parameter often used to judge which country is responsible for anthropogenic climate change is the total energy consumption.

But the story is quite different when the average annual per capita consumption of energy in each country is considered. According to Our World in Data, it ranges from around 50,000 kilowatt-hours (in 2021) in high-income nations to about 1,000 kWh (in 2019) in low-income countries.”

One important but contentious outcome of COP27 is an agreement to establish a “loss and damage fund”. What remains to be seen is how and who will contribute to the “loss and damage fund” and how it will be distributed as there is no legal obligation to fulfil the pledge.

It is also not clear who will decide whether a potential damage is due to anthropogenic climate change or due to natural causes, because flood and drought hazards have occurred from time immemorial. A hazard may become a disaster when the affected community lacks coping capacity that is not linked to climate change.

Overall, the COP series, which is more concerned about linking political, business and financial issues to climate change, is a tussle between rich and poor nations. In a non-homogeneous world, it is next to impossible to achieve a global solution which the COP series is attempting.

It would perhaps be more workable if solutions are sought locally or regionally rather than globally. What we see at the end of COP27 is a list of pledges that may not be kept or cannot be kept but for sure there will be a COP28 a year later.