Tag:GS-3|| Environment|| Climate Change|| Tackling Climate Change

What is the issue?

• As climate change is a global problem, a global solution is needed.
• The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)report suggests that humans may have only a decade left to limit global warming.

What does the IPCC report suggests?

• The IPCC states that total global emissions will have to drop by 45 percent from 2010 rates by 2030 to hit a net zero by 2050.
• If these targets are not met, the global south is likely to be most adversely affected by their low altitudes and pre-existing high temperatures.
• These regional southern regions are mostly tropical areas of the world, which are densely populated.
• Several impacts of this have already been felt during the Tamil Nadu water crisis this year (2019).

How to share the burden?

• Historically and even at present, the global South has contributed less to the issue but is at the receiving end and continues to be at the brunt of the lifestyle choices made by the global North.
• While time is running out, there is no real global consensus on how to mitigate this issue.
• In the absence of a collective agreement, the world is becoming an accident.
• The bottom line is that both cultures need to contribute to the removal of this danger in their own interests.
• Also, the expectation of change cannot be balanced if the fundamental relationship between the two cultures has traditionally been inconsistent and unequal.

What is the right balance in terms of sharing this responsibility, which can only be achieved?

• A fair and approach would require a mutual sharing of responsibility between countries on the basis of their respective share of global emissions.
• The carbon trading system has historically been the most recognized type of mitigation strategy. Nevertheless, it has drawbacks of its own.
• Our proposal for a Just Energy Transition (JET) is based on a sense of environmental justice in terms of climate impacts and the respective contributions of countries.
• It will also allow resource-poor developed countries to make an energy transition without having to worry too much about finances.
• Alternatively, the latest perceptions of developing countries tend to reverse.

 How can this injustice be rectified?

• Infrastructure: The first goal is to fundamentally change the energy infrastructure, which requires massive investments for the green energy revolution around the world.
• Funding: Those at the top of the funnel, apart from funding their own energy transition, partly endorse the transformation of countries at the bottom
• Sharing of burden: The division of the burden of growth should be done in such a way as to undo the disparity of the funnel.
• 5% GDP: Countries need to spend about 1.5 percent of their GDP on a productive energy transition to greener renewable sources.
• Carbon tax
  • The global energy transition could be funded through a global carbon tax system.
  • Because total global carbon emissions amount to 1 billion metric tons of CO2, it amounts to a global carbon tax of $46.1 per metric ton.

 Who subsidizes whom and by how much?

• Carbon Tax sharing
  • Some countries (payers) that emit more than the global average per capita pay for their own transition and also fund part of the energy transition of those countries (beneficiaries) that are below that level.
  • As a result, those on the receiving end of climate inequality are adequately compensated for as the entire world moves to greener soil as a result of this carbon tax sharing process.
  • The overall amount of carbon compensation paid by the paying nation’s amounts to around $570 billion.
  • The distribution across the compensated countries is also dependent on how much lower their emissions are relative to the global average.
• S. and China
  • The S. and China are the top-paying nations in terms of absolute payments because their emissions are lower than the global average.
  • Despite being a paying country, China’s effective tax rate is lower than the estimated universal tax rate of $46.1 per metric ton.
  • This is because their own energy transition and the international payment they make include a tax rate of only $34.4 per metric ton.
  • In that sense, the burden of change falls only partly on their back and only because it emits more than the global average.

 Robin Hood tax?

• In terms of ‘compensated’ countries, India is at the top in terms of population size and distance from the global average of pollution.
• The other suspects are all nations from the global South, but this list gives rise to a few surprises, such as France, Sweden, and Switzerland.
• It shows us that even high-income countries with low per capita emissions actually profit from this global-just strategy.
• With China in the first list and some of the world’s first countries in the second, it is clear what this plan wants to achieve.
• It allows all nations to climb down the pollution ladder without actually having to give up their standard of living.
• It can be said to be the international carbon tax on Robin Hood.

Way forward

• Wealthy and developed nations like need to commit to more serious emission cuts. A consensus needs to be developed at the earliest.
• Both the global north and global south need to work towards the sustainable use of the resources to make earth a better place to live in.

Mains question

• Climate change is not anymore only an environmental problem, but a unique one with multi-scalar characteristic, from the global to the local. Comment; also discuss challenges in tackling the problem of climate change across the world.

 References

• https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/a-case-for-a-differential-global-carbon-tax/article29394220.ece
• https://report.ipcc.ch/sr15/pdf/sr15_spm_final.pdf