LAHORE: The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference that is under way, also known as COP26, is hoping against all odds that more and more countries would limit their greenhouse gas emissions from human activities and stem the rapid climate changes that are being noticed all across the globe.
Led by the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and being attended by leaders from 121 countries, this moot in Glasgow, Scotland, will continue till November 12. About 25,000 delegates from 200 countries are also present at the venue.
Among the high-profile, and socially influential attendees are: US President Joe Biden, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Prince Charles of Britain, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Colombian President Ivan Duque, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, Swiss President Guy Parmelin, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Greek premier Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, South Korean President Moon Jae-in, the President of Congo Felix Tshisekedi, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo, Argentinean President Alberto Fernandez, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Czech Premier Andrej Babis and UN Secretary General António Guterres etc.
The Scotsman, an Edinburgh-based Scottish newspaper published since 1817, writes: “The Kremlin has confirmed that Vladimir Putin will not be travelling to Glasgow for COP26. Queen Elizabeth II will also not be attending COP26, as confirmed by Buckingham Palace on October 26, following medical advice to rest.
The palace has confirmed that she will still be delivering her address remotely and other members of the Royal family will still be attending”. According to the Reuters, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan also cancelled plans to attend the global climate conference in Glasgow because Britain failed to meet Turkey’s demands on security arrangements.
But to the utter dismay of the conference organisers and participants, Chinese President Xi Jinping will not be attending despite the fact that his country accounts for 28 percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions from human activities.
According to the American Union of Concerned Scientists, a national nonprofit organisation founded more than 50 years ago by scientists and students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the United States emits 15 percent of all global greenhouses gases and India contributes seven percent. Other leading countries with most greenhouse emission include the Russian Federation (five percent), Japan (three percent) and those with two percent share in this context are: Canada, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Iran and Germany.
The American Union of Concerned Scientists, which claims to be a group of nearly 250 scientists, analysts, policy and communication experts dedicated to that purpose, has found out that countries with one percent share in greenhouse gases are: the United Kingdom, Italy, Poland, France, Australia, Turkey, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico etc.
Hence, striving to find zero or low carbon solutions under the framework of the 2015 Paris Agreement to combat climate change by alleviating the harm caused by the heat sea level rise and other consequences of runaway emissions and to develop sustainable ways to somehow reduce the earth’s temperatures by 1.5 degrees Celsius at least.
What are greenhouse gases?
According to the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the greenhouse gases refer to the sum of seven gases that have direct effects on climate change.
These gases are: Carbon Dioxide, Methane, Nitrous Oxide, Chlorofluorocarbons, Hydrofluoro Carbons, Perfluoro Carbons, Sulphur Hexafluoride and Nitrogen Tri-fluoride. The main sources of greenhouse gases due to human activity are: Burning of fossil fuels and deforestation leading to higher carbon dioxide concentrations in the air, industries like cement, coal, oil, gas, power and transport etc, land use change (mainly deforestation in the tropics) accounts for about a quarter of total greenhouse emissions, irresponsible and inefficient livestock fermentation and manure management, paddy rice farming, man-made lakes, pipeline losses, covered landfill emissions leading to higher methane atmospheric concentrations, and agricultural activities largely involving the use of fertilizers.