No Brainer, Tackle Climate Change by 2030 or Await the Doomsday by 2100

Abstract

Vulnerability to climate change is the greatest challenge in the 21st century. Scientists agree with high confidence that global warming (+0.8-1.0 °C since 1900s) is directly linked to a fast acceleration of human activities in advanced nations and the increased burning of fossil fuels for energy and industrial processes, which resulted in a massive concentration of CO2 and other more potent GHGs in the atmosphere. As of 2017, China as the largest emitter released 10,877 MtCO₂e which was almost one-third of the world’s total GHG emissions of 37,077 MtCO₂e; furthermore, China’s emissions were more than the aggregate emissions of 185 countries. If the governments of industrialized economies and oil/gas producers put their political differences aside and agree on policy reforms to mitigate risks of global warming by 2030, climate change can cost economies worldwide up to $5 trillion by 2050 and $50 trillion by 2100. Rising sea levels, acceleration in melting of glaciers, thinning polar ice, shrinking and breaking off arctic ice, devastating massive floods, and the deadliest bushfires in recent memory are an incontrovertible evidence of a planetary-scale warming. There is enormous social injustice; while five largest GHG emitter countries (China, US, India, Russia, and Japan) account for 58.3% of the total global emissions and still enjoy high standards of living, the most vulnerable poor living in 200 countries bear the burden of climate change even though they contribute the least to its causes. To achieve win-win policies which are necessary for climate (carbon) stabilization as well as a sustainable global economic development path, governments collectively must do the following; phase out coal by no later than 2040; promote energy efficiency as top priority; remove all energy subsidies; establish new funds to assist the least developed and developing countries in their efforts to reduce GHG emissions; and achieve a systems approach to energy.