A vital agreement

As one of the global frontline states affected by climate change, Pakistan has a strong vested interest in any developments that may serve to improve our prospects — and China and the US have now delivered just that. The two countries have formally ratified the Paris Climate Change Agreement as an impressive overture to the ongoing G20 summit in Hangzhou, China. There was immediate and unusually widespread appreciation of what is seen as a significant advance in the struggle to hold back global warming.

Just occasionally, there are moments when history is seen to be made, and this is one of them. China and the US had been working for months behind the scenes to craft a document that they were both comfortable signing up to. The agreement brings together both will and vision, and is committed to spanning successive governments for at least a generation hence, a recognition of the need to act extra-politically and transnationally for the good of all nations. This opens the way for the Paris Agreement to be ratified this year, earlier than expected, and represents a move from making commitments — relatively easily done — to taking action which is relatively difficult to do. Richer countries are going to support poorer countries in limiting their carbon emissions beyond 2020. Final ratification requires the agreement of 55 countries — which coincidentally form 55 per cent of global emissions. What looked like a very tall order today looks eminently possible. The UN is holding a climate summit in November, and if other big emitters such as Brazil can be brought on board, then the global community will have finally found a banner under which all are prepared to march. Climate change presents an existential threat planet-wide, with countries such as ours extremely vulnerable. Pakistan has a tiny carbon footprint but lives with disproportionately high risk. That risk may just have been mitigated a little.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 6^th, 2016.

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