Need to halt climate change
IN 2023, we experienced the highest temperatures recorded since 1850, making it the hottest year on record according to official data. Additionally, paleoclimatic evidence suggests that 2023 was the hottest year in the past 125,000 years.
Environmental scientists are predicting that 2024 will be even hotter, and the effects are already palpable. Climate change and global warming has affected and continues to affect every facet of life on Earth.
Millions of lives have been lost through flood, fire, drought, heat waves and air pollution precipitated by climate change.
Its effects on our wildlife, flora and fauna, oceans, glaciers and coral reefs have been equally catastrophic. A United Nations assessment report states that 40% of insects such as beetles, butterflies and bees, face extinction.
The abundance of flora and fauna has declined by over 20%, and wildlife populations have plummeted by 82%. Around one million animal and plant species are threatened with extinction. In our part of the world, we have already witnessed the extinction of the Sumatran rhinoceros.
The cause
It is universally acknowledged that the spike in global warming is due primarily to the release of excessive carbon emissions or greenhouse gases, stemming from human activities rather than natural causes. These include the burning of fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas, heavy industries, the automotive market and the clearing of large swathes of rainforests for lucrative monoculture projects such as cattle farming and palm oil plantations.
One may also add that global warming has also been spurred by every nation’s obsession with growth. “Growth”, in layman’s terms, means more factories, refineries, hotels, high-rises, highways, cars and shopping malls – all of which require “dirty” energy.
Our response
It is not as if we were not aware of the damage we have been inflicting on our planet. Ever since Rachel Carson’s seminal Silent Spring warned us of the cost of tinkering with our natural environment, we have been put on red alert.
In the 60s and 70s, nations around the globe passed a flurry of Environmental Protection Laws. However, these laws were either ignored or not enforced and the health of our habitat continued to deteriorate.
In 1995, the first COP (Conference of Parties)
was convened in Berlin where all countries present agreed that the Earth was one and we should all join hands in the battle to save our Planet. There have been 27 COP summits since – the latest being COP 28 held in Dubai last year.
At every COP summit, pledges, promises, protocols and resolutions are passed and commitments are made to cut carbon emissions, clean up our act and stem global warming.
There were also projects, programmes and measures proposed, devised and designed to alleviate the situation human activity has precipitated. The most notable of these are the ESG (Environmental Social Governance) programme, SLL (Sustainability Linked Loans) and carbon trading market.
Result and reality
The truth is that none of those summits, conferences, commitments, resolutions or socalled green/sustainable solutions, made a difference. The proof of their failure is evidenced by the Earth’s soaring temperature.
Over the past decade, there has been net zero political will to stem global warming. At the COP 2015 Paris Agreement, nations committed to keep the global warming threshold under 1.5°C. Yet, in 2023, the world experienced 12 consecutive months of global warming above 1.5°C.
We say we are committed to reducing our carbon footprint, yet our automotive industry boasts it will be putting a million more gasguzzling vehicles on our roads this year.
We swear to be against air pollution and open burning, yet over nearly half a century, millions in
the region have been subjected to air pollutants (haze) caused by the open burning of rainforests.
In a Parliament sitting in 2023, the Environment Minister blocked a transboundary haze law that would have held culprits accountable. The chances of a makcik being arrested for burning rubbish in her backyard are infinitely more than that of a CEO responsible for the burning of thousands of hectares of rainforest.
On the subject of pollution, the country banned plastic straws and plastic bags in coffee shops and supermarkets, yet our country still produces a significant amount of cling plastic, accounting for 9% of the world’s total – a staggering 450,000 tonnes annually.
And, we are among the top five nations contributing plastic waste to the ocean. But let us refocus on proposed solutions to combat climate change: ESG and carbon trading.
Entities claiming to be green and sustainable are eligible for special environmental funds and loans. The problem is that there is no universal definition for terms like “green” or “sustainable”. Moreover, there is a lack of accountability and transparency on the part of lenders or borrowers.
Furthermore, most companies regard ESG as a business opportunity, leading to widespread abuse of the ESG label.
Carbon trading is often criticised as a loophole that allows wealthy individuals in developed countries to sidestep reducing their own carbon emissions. Instead, they can finance emissionreducing projects in underdeveloped countries, effectively transferring their responsibility elsewhere.
What we need to do
Dire situations call for drastic actions. Enough with token measures, false commitments and ineffective conferences.
The statement from COP 28 failed to establish a clear time frame or mechanism for how and when the necessary transition would occur, effectively granting fossil fuel producers and automakers free rein to continue their activities unabated. It can be said that COP 28 – “the COP that copped out of phasing out” – did not alleviate but accelerated the current climate crisis.
What we need are immediate and affirmative legal action. We need writs, summonses, stop orders and injunctions to halt this devastation. This is a tall order and our chances are slim but we have no choice as the future of our children and the death of the planet is at stake.
There is a sliver of hope. In 2016, a historic case – Juliana vs United States – was filed by 21 children against the US government for failing to safeguard their well-being, health and future against climate change.
Due to the intervention of big oil and big businesses which raised preliminary objections as to the locus standi of the children, the case has been stalled in the US courts. Nonetheless, since then, similar cases have been filed by children against their governments in 25 other countries. However, the defendants are blocking these cases from moving forward primarily by raising preliminary objections and motions.
If our children, who witness daily the destruction of their forests and the devastating effects of our greed and inaction on the Earth they cherish, are denied standing in our courts of justice, then who truly has the right to speak for the future of our planet? However, there is hope. Last week, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in favour of the children of Switzerland.
Hopefully, our young people will seize upon this Swiss precedent and take action. And when they do, I hope our legal profession, which has often fallen short on environmental issues, rises to the occasion and elevates its efforts.
Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and Article 12 of the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1976) states that everyone has a right to life, liberty, health and security. Let us give teeth to these provisions, stem global warming and put an end to this climate crisis.
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