The UN document commits to investing in the capacity to ‘better prepare for and respond to future global shocks, crises and challenges, and using evidence-based planning and foresight to avoid and mitigate risks, while ensuring that the poorest and most vulnerable do not bear disproportionate costs and burdens of mitigation, adaptation, restoration and resilience-building’.
By Salam Rajesh
The world today is plagued by many issues, some critically threatening the very existence of life on Earth at a given stroke while some potentially can lead to the steady decline and existence of species today and tomorrow, even as the world community is locked in horns on many of these perplexed issues without achieving solutions.
The United Nations’ Pact for the Future (2024) looks at addressing most of the critical issues confronting humanity at large, whether it be the meaningless armed aggression by powerful nations over their neighbors disrupting peace and displacing millions, or the generalized threat of climate catastrophe that have the potential to wipe out millions of vulnerable communities at a sudden stroke of nature’s fury.
Addressing the much-deliberated issue of climate change implications and impacts in contemporary times, the UN document specifically commits that climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time, with observed adverse impacts that are disproportionately felt by developing countries, especially those that are particularly vulnerable to the intense effects of climate change.
Action 9 (We will strengthen our actions to address climate change) of the UN document stresses the need for deep, rapid and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in line with the 1.5 degrees Celsius pathways to halt the acceleration in global temperature and its outcomes.
To achieve this, the UN sought all member parties to contribute collectively to the global efforts, in a nationally determined manner taking into account the Paris Agreement targets, towards realizing the pathways and approaches that could accelerate efforts globally in achieving net zero emission energy systems.
This would entail utilizing zero- and low-carbon fuels well before or by around 2050, and transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a ‘just, orderly and equitable manner’ and thereto accelerating action in this critical decade so as to achieve net zero by the target year 2050, the UN document stated.
Action 10 (We will accelerate our efforts to restore, protect, conserve and sustainably use the environment) in the document sets the tone for deep concern on the rapid environmental degradation, influenced by human activities in a more aggressive and negative manner, and in recognizing the urgency for a ‘fundamental shift in our approach in order to achieve a world in which humanity lives in harmony with nature’.
This thought process reflects upon the UN’s thrust on the importance of conserving, protecting and restoring nature and ecosystems towards achieving the Paris Agreement temperature goal, including through enhanced efforts towards halting and reversing deforestation and forest degradation by 2030 under its universal campaign – the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030) – in meeting goals targeted at halting global temperature rise.
The UN document particularly lays stress on bringing in Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) in building a robust ground-rooted strategy towards achieving its goals. Some of its action targets specifically are focused on taking in people’s confidence and trust in working together to meet the deadlines.
Action 32 (We will protect, build on and complement Indigenous, traditional and local knowledge) of the document outlines the need for science, technology and innovation to be adapted and made relevant to local needs and circumstances, including for local communities, traditional Afro-descendent populations, and Indigenous Peoples, in line with the principle of free, prior and informed consent.
Finding appropriate funds to push forward the desired activities is more or less the hurdle in the scheme of things. Action 52 (We will accelerate the reform of the international financial architecture so that it can meet the urgent challenge of climate change) of the document seeks to overcome this hurdle.
While acknowledging that climate change and biodiversity loss exacerbate many of the challenges facing the international financial architecture and can undermine progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals, the UN document emphasizes that developing countries must access adequate finance to be able to pursue their interrelated objectives of achieving sustainable development, including poverty eradication and promoting sustainable, inclusive, resilient economic growth, and addressing climate change.
The guiding principle 5 of the document emphasizes that ‘a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, where humanity lives in harmony with nature’ must be created and maintained by urgently addressing the causes and adverse impacts of climate change and scaling up collective action to promote environmental protection.
This resonates with the commitment outlined in the document prioritizing ‘urgent action to address critical environmental challenges and implement measures’ to reduce disaster risk and build resilience, reverse the degradation of ecosystems and ensure a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.
The commitment further extends to the reaffirmation on the importance of accelerating action to address climate change and its adverse impacts, based on the ‘principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities’ in the light of different national circumstances, noting the importance of “climate justice”.
The UN document also commits to investing in the capacity to ‘better prepare for and respond to future global shocks, crises and challenges, and using evidence-based planning and foresight to avoid and mitigate risks, while ensuring that the poorest and most vulnerable do not bear disproportionate costs and burdens of mitigation, adaptation, restoration and resilience-building’.
The UN document is central to its appeal for universal solidarity with its objectivity in calling upon one and all towards recognizing that ‘sustainable development in all its three dimensions is a central goal in itself and that its achievement, leaving no one behind, is and always will be a central objective of multilateralism’.
This aligns with the deep concern that disparities are happening everywhere across the globe where the divide between the rich and the poor, the haves and the have-nots, is becoming wider by the day and more obvious in the ways how marginalized communities are vulnerable and getting exposed to climate change impacts more drastically than those who can afford the luxuries.