The importance of the UNCCC COP conference is decreasing
António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations, in his speech entitled ‘Collective suicide or fight together at the UNFCCC COP 27 conference in 2022, highlighted that three times more people had been displaced due to climate change than the number of people displaced by war.
The biggest problem of the future world is environmental degradation. Climate change is the problem that scientists worldwide have agreed on in the 21st century. Once upon a time, while living in caves, humans battled wild beasts of the forest, coping with hostile environments.
Humans have always controlled nature to increase the comfort of living. Gradually, the pattern of nature’s governance is going to such a terrible level that the comfort of living today will be tomorrow’s misery. Currently, things like heat, fire, flood, storm, and tidal waves are extremely visible.
The first COP conference has held in Berlin, Germany, in 1995 under the initiative of the United Nations. One by one, 26 conferences have already been completed in various cities, including Geneva in Switzerland, Kyoto in Japan, and The Hague in the Netherlands.
Several commitments at the COP26 conference in Glasgow included a gradual reduction in coal use, a halt to deforestation by 2030, a 30 percent reduction in methane gas emissions, and the submission of a new climate action plan to the United Nations. This year’s 27th UN Climate Conference has held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, from November 7-18, 2022.
According to this year’s UN research report, after last year’s COP-26 climate conference, governments still need to make more progress in their plans to reduce carbon emissions.
In the past few months, thousands of people have died in floods and landslides caused by weather disasters caused by climate change. Massive floods in Bangladesh and Nigeria, severe droughts in Africa and the western United States, cyclones in the Caribbean, and unprecedented heatwaves across three continents have shaken the world.
Billions of dollars have been lost, and millions of people have been displaced. To avoid creating such a situation, world leaders signed the Paris Agreement in 2015. It was the first time the world reached an agreement to combat global warming and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
From that agreement, scientists believe it can avoid catastrophic effects of climate change if temperature increases can keep below 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to the pre-industrial era (before the time of 1750 AD).
Although 27 conferences have already ended, the implementation of the agreement and the reduction of carbon emissions are disappointing.
According to the Global Climate Risk Index published in 2010 by the international research organization German Watch, Bangladesh ranks first among the top 10 affected countries in terms of damages due to climate change.
This survey has conducted from 1990 to 2009 in 193 countries. Every year Bangladesh faces some disasters like floods, cyclones, drought, tidal waves, tornadoes, and earthquakes.
Most recently, we have seen flash floods in Bangladesh’s Sylhet and Sunamganj regions. In this flood, the crops of the Haor region, especially paddy, suffered a lot.
Generally, the COP conference can strongly demand reducing carbon emissions and financial support to combat climate change. The implementation of the historic Paris Agreement in 2015 still needs to be visible.
A pledge of $100 billion has been made in Paris Agreement for affected countries by 2025. However, although developing countries have always given importance to the issue of financial assistance, the actions of developed countries could be more visible.
The absence of heads of state or government of many countries, including China, Russia, India, Brazil, and Mexico, at the COP conference this year is giving us this message – the importance of the COP conference is decreasing.
