Climate Change: Hopes and Hurdles

Climate change, perilous for all species, has become an existential threat globally. Unfortunately,
surge in temperature and irregular weather patterns are record-breaking. According to the World
Meteorological Organization (WMO) report, 2023 was the warmest year, with the global average
temperature at 1.45 °C above the pre-industrial baseline. Moreover, the deaths of over 1300
pilgrims during Hajj and the disastrous flooding in the UAE are stark evidence. Woefully, this
has deleterious effects on humans, wildlife, and aquatic life, but every cloud has a silver lining.
Fortunately, there are some rays of hope for climate adaptation. First, an upswing in renewable
energy capacity worldwide is the utmost hope in combating climate change. To illustrate, data
from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) depicts that in 2023, global
renewable energy capacity reached an all-time high of 3870 gigawatts. This is an increase of 473
GW from 2022, marking the largest yearly growth on record. This shows the serious efforts of
global states for climate resilience. Second, various countries have pledged to cut greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions to a sizeable level, which is a major anticipation. According to the UNFCCC,
in COP28 the stocktake recognized the science that indicates global greenhouse gas emissions
need to be cut by 43 percent by 2030, compared to 2019 levels, to limit global warming to 1.5°C.
This would reduce the intensity of climate change as greenhouse gases are major contributors to
this phenomenon. Third, climate financing is another prospect that builds an optimistic view to
withstand climate change. According to the global landscape of climate finance in 2023, average
annual climate finance has reached almost USD 1.3 trillion in 2021–2022, which is double
compared to 2019–2020 levels. The financing can help developing countries in adapting climate
change, building climate resilient infrastructure, and taking austerity measures to deal with the
threat. Nonetheless, there are some impediments in the way of tackling the threat. Start with the
politics of climate change; major contributors, China, India, and the USA, are reluctant to cut
down their GHG emissions despite their promises and expect other low-income states to achieve
net zero emissions. Indeed, climate change requires collective efforts that are lacking today due
to vested economic interests of those largely contributing states. In addition, another obstacle is
the divide between developed and developing world in making climate policies. Despite being
least responsible for creating this global threat and its worst affectees, developing countries are
usually excluded from the decision-making process about climate adaptation. Even, these poor
countries are deprived of adequate funding from developed countries required to deal with the
chaos. Moreover, limited climate finance allocation to nature is another hurdle in dealing with
climate change. Nature is above all healer of environmental issues; still, only 3 per cent of
climate finance is dedicated to nature worldwide. This ignorance of nature makes the situation
even worse. However, the cost of climate inaction is greater than the cost of climate action.
Hence, pragmatic measures, such as climate funding and global will, can overcome these
hurdles. Furthermore, combating climate change requires immediate actions such as restoring
natural ecosystems, improving agriculture management, changing construction styles, and
afforestation.