SDG and climate change

Progress and modernity on the back of the industrial revolution came with a high price tag. The consumption of fuel and gas for transportation and to run factories contaminated the atmosphere to the extent that the naturally accumulated greenhouse gases (GHG) increased in volume. The atmosphere consequently trapped more heat which, when radiated back to earth, led to melting glaciers, high sea levels, incessant rainfalls and drought.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2013a, 2013b, 2014) makes it clear that human beings are responsible for climate change and that the recent anthropogenic GHG emissions are the highest in history.

In this context, collective action is required to address the problems associated with climate change. The year 2015 was extraordinary in this regard. The United Nations Agenda 2030 was preceded and followed by two landmark events: The Encyclical Letter Laudato Si (“Praised Be”), published by Pope Francis in May 2015 and the Paris Agreement on climate change in December 2015.

The letter pinned the responsibility of global warming on the energy supply system built on the fossil fuel:

“The climate is a common good, belonging to all and meant for all. At the global level, it is a complex system linked to many of the essential conditions for human life. A very solid scientific consensus indicates that we are presently witnessing a disturbing warming of the climatic system. In recent decades, this warming has been accompanied by a constant rise in the sea level and, it would appear, by an increase of extreme weather events, even if a scientifically determinable cause cannot be assigned to each particular phenomenon.

“Humanity is stimulated to recognise the need for changes of lifestyle, production, and consumption, in order to combat this warming or at least the human causes, which produce or aggravate it. It is true that there are other factors (such as volcanic activity, variations in the earth’s orbit and axis, the solar cycle), yet a number of scientific studies indicate that most global warming in recent decades is due to the great concentration of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen oxides and others) released mainly as a result of human activity.

“Concentrated in the atmosphere, these gases do not allow the warmth of the sun’s rays reflected by the earth to be dispersed in space. The problem has been exacerbated by a model of development based on the intensive use of fossil fuels, which is at the heart of the worldwide energy system. Another determining factor has been an increase in changed uses of the soil, principally deforestation for agricultural purposes.”

The letter also highlighted the role ‘market’ can play in transitioning to a low-carbon economy:

“We know that technology based on the use of highly polluting fossil fuels — especially coal, but also oil and, to a lesser degree, gas — needs to be replaced immediately. Until greater progress is made in developing widely accessible sources of renewable energy, it is legitimate to choose the lesser of two evils or to find short-term solutions.”

The Paris Agreement floated at the CoP21 in Paris in 2015 laid the responsibility of limiting global temperature rise to well below 2 Celsius in every country irrespective of their contribution to climate change.

This was the beginning of finding an integrative approach to climate change. Hence, in September 2015, United Nations approved 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets. The 2030 Agenda for sustainable development was approved and accepted by 193 countries to eliminate poverty and inequality and promote prosperity for everyone by 2030. The Agenda states:

“The Sustainable Development Goals and targets are integrated and indivisible, global in nature and universally applicable, taking into account different national realities, capacities and levels of development and respecting national policies and priorities. Targets are deemed as aspirational and global, with each Government setting its own national targets guided by the global level of ambition but taking into account national circumstances. Each Government will also decide how these aspirational and global targets should be incorporated into national planning processes, policies, and strategies. It is important to recognise the link between sustainable development and other relevant ongoing processes in the economic, social and environmental fields.”

Since the end of World War II, a consistent effort has been made to highlight the importance of human rights and their preservation. The sustainable development goals and other preceding treaties and agreements on human rights and climate change featured the importance of collective actions for the betterment of human societies and the rehabilitation of the climate system put in peril due to irresponsible human behaviour. The SDGs aim to build a prosperous world where controlled human behaviour is made possible by justice, rule of law and peaceful coexistence of the human species.

Almost all of the SDGs are, in one way or another other, linked to actions needed to combat climate change. Therefore, if the UN member countries were to implement the 17 SDGs religiously, it would automatically take care of climate change.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 2^nd, 2023.

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