By: Gabriela Soto
Climate Change and Forests Program
On August 9, the first part of the Sixth Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was presented. His conclusions on the current situation of the planet have set off a global alert. The report of the 234 authors from 66 countries, 517 contributing authors and the review of just over 14,000 scientific studies, gives us a clear warning: if urgent action is not taken now, our survival and that of the new generations are in danger. Our window of opportunity to make real changes that impact in favor of the planet goes back a decade.
In the findings report you can find the following:
- The human species is held directly responsible for global warming (the atmosphere, the oceans, the land) and for changes in the climate system.
- Evidence is shown of extreme meteorological and climatic phenomena such as heat waves, heavy rainfall, agricultural droughts, reduction of glaciers and Arctic ice, among others, which are already affecting various countries.
- The global temperature is expected to exceed 1.5 ° C in 20 years.
- Given the increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, oceanic and terrestrial carbon sinks will be less effective in curbing the increase in carbon (CO2).
- Many past and future changes caused by increased greenhouse gas emissions are irreversible, especially changes in the ocean, ice sheets and global sea level.
- The only alternative to stabilize the climate requires a sustained reduction in GHG emissions that makes it possible to achieve net zero emissions of carbon (CO2), but also of other gases such as methane (CH4).
- If GHG emissions are not reduced immediately, rapidly and on a large scale, limiting warming to 1.5 ° or even 2 ° will be an unattainable goal.
However, in a world in which it is essential and vital to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases to stop the increase in global warming, it seems that humanity is taking the opposite trend. For many years, various scientific reports have warned about the catastrophe that would be for the planet an increase in temperature above 2 °, 3 ° and 4 ° C. And although we find climatic milestones to highlight such as the Paris Agreement in 2015, in practice they only remained in commitments by the countries, little has been done to convert them into concrete actions and prioritize efforts to implement actions.
Shared responsibilities for this result?
If we talk about responsibilities and urgent actions to contribute to the effort to reduce GHG emissions that the planet requires to guarantee our survival, we must start from the recognition of 4 important aspects to consider:
1. Globally, they are only a few countries those that concentrate the largest amount of GHG emissions worldwide, including countries such as China, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and India, Russia, Japan, Germany, Indonesia, among others.
2. Climate change does not affect everyone equally. Geographical and socio-economic characteristics determine that some countries are much more vulnerable than others to the impact of extreme weather events.
3. Also, according to Global Climate Index Risk (IRC) 2021 of the German Watch organization, developing countries are the most affected by the effects of climate change because they are more vulnerable to the damaging effects of a hazard, but have less capacity to cope.
4. There is a “climate debt” which refers to the debt that developed countries have with developing countries for the damage caused by their disproportionately large contributions to climate change (GHG emissions).
In this sense, the results of this report are a call to the main GHG-emitting countries to make real efforts to reduce their GHG emissions that allow economies to decarbonize, achieving carbon neutrality in the shortest period of time. weather. A key aspect for this is the change in the current energy model, considering that this sector contributes with more than 75% of global emissions of greenhouse gases, and that it will require the urgency of an energy transition opting for new forms of energy generation from renewable sources.
But they should also be reason for a strong demand and monitoring of various organizations in the fulfillment of their climate commitments assumed before the Paris Agreement, especially the obligation of developed countries to provide financial resources to developing countries in order to repair this ” climate debt ”, which, although it was adopted in 1994 in the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), only in 2015, at the COP15 in Copenhagen became numbers committing to mobilize at least 100 billion dollars annually for 2020.
And is that the issue of climate finance is a key part of: the implementation of nationally determined contributions in less developed countries, transform their economies towards low carbon emissions and also to help pay for damages derived from climate impacts. Unfortunately, this obligation of the developed countries has not been fully complied with so far.
According to a recent report of the LATINDADD organization on the global mobilization of climate finance, the average annual flow for the years 2016-2018 was 69.4 billion dollars, of which, for example, for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) only reached 17% (12 billion US $). Another finding was the unequal distribution of financing that reaches LAC, being 72% oriented to mitigation, 19% to adaptation and 9% for both, which is why it is urgent to channel more financing for adaptation measures, especially in highly vulnerable regions like LAC.
Peru’s vulnerability and progress in climate change management
Our country has seven of the nine characteristics recognized by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which characterizes it as a country with ecosystems that are particularly vulnerable to climate change. The impact for the Peruvian population occurs on various edges, one of them is the impact on the main supply of a vital element for life: glaciers. According to Armando Valdes, a researcher at the Cayetano Heredia University, the water that reaches our home depends on glaciers and high Andean wetlands, so the de-glazing that is already occurring is a direct threat to us, due to the significant reduction in water flow in rivers.
Valdes also mentions that the Amazon depends on a certain temperature, winds and precipitation, if these conditions change, the characteristics and survival of the ecosystems it houses are put at risk. According to the IPCC projections (2021) for the Andean Amazon area, the intensity and frequency of extreme rainfall and flooding would increase for a global warming level of 2 ° C or more. Likewise, he foresees that the duration and frequency of droughts will increase.
In the last decade, Peru has developed various national instruments to face the impact of climate change, such as: the National Climate Change Strategy, the Forest and Climate Change Strategy, the Framework Law on Climate Change and its Regulations. It also adopted climate commitments (NDC) before the international community and which are considered as instruments for climate change management; mandatory and binding on the sectors involved. As part of these commitments, 92 adaptation measures and 62 mitigation measures were established in the NDCs and by the end of 2020, it determined that the country’s climate goal would be to reduce 40% of GHG emissions by 2030 and reduce vulnerability in 7 prioritized thematic areas: water, agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture, forests, health, transport and tourism.
Some challenges to face climate change
The implementation of the aforementioned instruments presents various challenges to overcome, one of them greater involvement of the sector to comply with the responsibilities determined by law. For example, according to César Ipenza, environmental specialist, risk management for the effects of climate change has not yet been incorporated, as well as criteria for identifying mitigation and adaptation measures in projects subject to the National System for Environmental Impact Assessment. (SEIA), an obligation established in 2019 by the Regulation of the Framework Law on Climate Change.
On the other hand, the mitigation measures identified as climate commitments only cover 23.3% of what was committed, leaving a gap of 16.7% to overcome in order to fulfill our ambition before the international community. It is necessary to identify additional measures, especially to address deforestation that contributes to the LULUCF sector as the main GHG emitter at the national level, and that according to 2020 data from the GEOBOSQUE Platform, presented an increase of almost 37% of forest loss compared to 2019, having a total of 203,272 ha deforested.
For César Ipenza, this also requires the establishment of actions in the territory that do not go against the goals set as a country to reduce emissions, such as the initiative of the Legislative Power of expand mining formalization processes. These processes threaten the frontal fight against illegal mining, generate a great deterioration to the environment, including deforestation and destruction of Amazonian forests, thus promoting an activity that does not contribute to the goals established as a country to face climate change.
This problem and others make visible the importance that both national policies and strategies, as well as NDC measures, incorporate measures that address the main drivers of deforestation, including the expansion of infrastructure, illegal logging and mining, among others. This should motivate the collection of proposals not only from the state but also from non-state actors, such as the NDC measure proposal that seeks to minimize the cumulative and synergistic impacts of road infrastructure in Amazonian forests and which has been promoted by DAR since 2019.
A fundamental aspect in the fight against climate change in the country is to be able to finalize the ongoing updating process of the National Climate Change Strategy, whose time horizon will be to 2050 and which will establish the path to achieve adaptation to climate change and become in a carbon neutral country by 2050. In relation to adaptation, we consider that Peru took an important step with the approval of the National Adaptation Plan, in June of this year, and that its main objectives are to reduce vulnerability and increase capacity adaptation of the most vulnerable people and sectors of society by 2030 and 2050. Finally, a critical point will be the adequate management in the execution of the financing that reaches the country to face climate change. It is crucial that international cooperation reevaluate the best mechanism / approach so that climate funds have the expected impact on the territory and meet the objectives set, but also recognize the importance of balancing the distribution of financing and prioritize first. place safeguarding the life of its population and the preservation of its ecosystems. For this, it is necessary that financing is not only linked to the payment-for-results approach, but also be inclined to support the country’s efforts to generate enabling conditions for the implementation of the identified mitigation and adaptation measures that allow continuing actions to face this serious problem that threatens us.