This week: Trump pulls the US out of the Paris agreement, climate change is the biggest long term risk in a new WEF report and a simple nature based solution is helping address elephant - man conflict
1. On Day 1, Trump pulls the US out of the Paris agreement
What are we talking about?
- Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement
What is the Paris Agreement?
- It's a list of commitments from all the countries of the world towards addressing climate change.
- To "pursue efforts" to limit global temperature rises to 1.5C, and to keep them "well below" 2.0C above those recorded in pre-industrial times
- To achieve 'Net zero' by 2050
- For every country to set its own emission target (called Nationally Determined Contribution)
- Richer countries to help poorer countries mitigate and adapt to climate change. The collective money committed was USD 100 bn per year.
- As much criticism as it gets, the Paris agreement is so far the most important global agreement we have on addressing climate change.
- The US pulling it out of it is a big blow as it indicates that the US is not serious about addressing climate change. The concern is that other countries may follow suit.
- Several corporates have already taken a cue from Trump’s attitude towards climate change and cut back on their sustainability targets. E.g. the 6 biggest US banks pulled out of the Net Zero Banking Alliance a week back.
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2. Climate change/ envt related risks are the most severe long term risks according to WEFs global risk report
- The World Economic Forum released the 20th edition of its Global risk report last week.
- Environmental concerns featured heavily in last year’s report, accounting for half the top 10 risks over the next 10 years.
- Extreme weather events remain at number 2 and number 1, in the 2-year and 10-year outlooks, respectively, with younger people and those in civil society most likely to categorize this as the most critical current risk of the immediate future.
- Pollution is seen as a more pressing short-term risk, and biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse perceived as a greater threat in the longer term.
- This is yet another in a series of warnings that climate change poses a severe risk to the world and we are indeed in an emergency. However, we are still to see anything close to adequate urgency in our response.
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3. A simple nature based solution is helping address elephant - human conflict
What are we talking about?
- A ground-breaking, nine-year study has revealed that elephants approaching small-scale farms in Kenya avoid beehive fences housing live honey bees up to 86% of the time
- That includes peak crop season, when they often raid small farms to feast on fresh produce and encounter unsuspecting - and sometimes hostile - human counterparts.
- Elephants may have thick skin, but agitated bees can target the eyes, mouth and trunk. Over millennia, they developed an innate fear of the tiny creatures.
- From Africa to India and Southeast Asia, sharp human population rises have shrunk elephant habitats and brought them into close contact with people.
- As a result, incidents of elephant - human conflict have been on the rise
- Kenyan wildlife authorities kill between 50 and 120 elephants each year because of attacks on humans.
- These findings could offer a powerful nature-based solution to safeguard livelihoods and wildlife habitats alike.
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Researcher & Journalist | Advocate for Praxis in Body/Place Representation | Exploring Pure Science and Metaphysics | M.Sc. in Civil Engineering (Structural Engineering) & M.A. in Urban Planning
1 个月The recent developments you've highlighted reflect the troubling state of global societies and the challenges posed by internationalism. Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement underscores a retreat from collective responsibility in addressing climate change, which is increasingly recognized as one of the most significant long-term risks we face. This move not only jeopardizes global efforts to combat environmental degradation but also highlights a broader trend of nationalism overshadowing the need for international cooperation. The World Economic Forum's report on climate change further emphasizes the urgency of this issue, yet it also reveals the limitations of current international frameworks that struggle to unite nations in a common cause. Meanwhile, the nature-based solutions addressing human-elephant conflict illustrate the potential for localized, community-driven approaches to environmental challenges. However, these solutions often remain isolated and underfunded in the face of larger geopolitical dynamics.