Economy & Climate Change
While world leaders kept arguing over climate change in UN over the week, the new generation took to the street across the globe demanding action from the governments and the leaders to save their future.
Scientific reports that have come from several UN bodies and independent research organisations have sketched very pale picture of our future and this has become deeply concerning for young generation to the extent they were happy for school strike.
The picture of future natural disaster portrayed by the scientists gives us very pessimistic economic future. Climate Council Australia in its latest report said, climate change is a major threat to Australia’s financial stability, and poses substantial systemic economic risks.
Primary cause of climate change is increase in carbon dioxide gas into the atmosphere from multiple sources. According to US Environmental Protection Agency, these sources in US in 2015 were:
| Source | Fuel | Percent |
| Electricity generation | Coal, Natural Gas | 29 |
| Transportation | Oil, Gasoline | 27 |
| Industry | Oil, Chemicals | 21 |
| Commercial & Residential | Heating oil | 12 |
| Agriculture | Livestock | 9 |
| Forestry | Absorbs CO2 | Offsets 11 |
The continued loss of forest cover means, there is lesser chances of CO2 released on air being absorbed. According to Global Forest Watch, world lost 3.6 million hectares of forest in 2018. ‘More than one-fourth of the world’s population relies on forest resources for livelihood. The forest products industry is a major source of economic growth and employment in the world; it is estimated at US $255 billion’.
The economic impact of climate change and depletion of forest cover is more devastating in the developing countries where larger section of the population depend on forest for livelihood. The flooding, draught and uncertain climate conditions have deteriorated forest ecosystem and ultimately the economic system of these countries.
The developing countries are in need of additional help to tackle the worsening situation. Scientists at UN this week have proposed to raise and distribute $US2.5 trillion a year to developing countries. The measures include new controls on the movement of money, demanding more from developed nations, targeting sovereign wealth funds and setting a global minimum tax rate for multinationals.
The report says a global green new deal is the right policy framework to make a clean break with years of austerity and insecurity after the global financial crisis, help bring about more equal distribution of income and reverse environmental degradation.
Decarbonising economy requires a lot of investments and the developed countries are not ready to contribute for this. Many leaders from the developed countries continue to campaign that climate change is a hoax.
It is obvious that the decision makers would not face the direct impact of climate furore and they are unlikely to be the first climate refugees. The first climate refugees would be those from developing island countries and daily wage workers. World Employment and Social Outlook 2018 estimated that climate change has threatened 1.2 billion jobs now. These job losses will have irreparable economic consequences on families who rely on daily wages for livelihood.
According to Nature journal, if temperatures rose 20C, global gross domestic product would fall 15%. If temperatures rose to 30C, global GDP would fall 25% and decline will jump to 30% if the temperatures rose by 40C by 2100.
UN started working and engaging world leaders on climate change since 1992. However, countries failed to act for long and denied there are any impact of climate change that can be substantiated with facts and figures. I believe, the world leaders would hardly act on this because the disaster may not be during their life and who cares beyond life. That’s the very reason why Greta and her generation has to wake up to the call and save their future.
The parents must teach their children of this impact. Schools must teach this in their classes. The new generation must learn to act from their tender age on how their action will determine their future and future of humanity.