Coping with thorny climate change

Kenya has many challenges to address including Covid-19 pandemic-related economic slowdown, weakened consumer spending, low levels of public investment, security, environmental issues, and much more.

Environmental issues, which are being addressed include water shortages, domestic and industrial pollution, and deforestation. Kenya has already taken some action for protection of the ecosystem.

In 2017, Kenya’s then minister for Environment and Natural Resources, Prof Judi Wakhungu, oversaw a ban on single-use plastic bags in the country as it was causing increased levels of pollution. Such interventions assist with protection of the habitat and enable many budding entrepreneurs to see opportunities in manufacturing packaging and bags made of biodegradable materials.

Now that the world is emerging from the Covid pandemic, global concerns are focused on climate change. Many scholars continue to warn that climate change will have calamitous impacts on everyone. The only way to address climate change is via global collaboration.

 The 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26), which took place in Glasgow, was one of those unique opportunities that brought governments together to plan for the future. The event had a clear agenda to come up with the right solutions to help us avoid the upcoming climate-related catastrophe before it gets out of hand.

Collaboration

Attendees were representatives of countries that signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) during the year 1994. Does the agenda of climate change stop just at COP26? Delegates from the world realised strongly that there is a great need for collaboration from the private sector, not just the government.

The private sector is absolutely essential because addressing the question of climate change requires innovation and bold ideas. Who better than the private sector to come up with innovations and solutions? Individuals also have a role to play. Ultimately addressing climate change requires a change of behaviour, and how we produce, consume, relate to one another and to the planet.

COP26 has been one of those unique opportunities to enable individuals from across the globe to participate in dialogues and chart a course towards a better future and allows us to carry out business in a way that does not damage the environment.

One of the main agendas for COP26 was “how can the government and private sector collaborate to address climate change?” Governments across the globe have had a lot to deal with over the last few years especially with the Covid19 pandemic. Prior to the pandemic was the global financial crisis. Government finances have been quite strained. Although nations around the world have faced a multitude of difficulties, climate change is amongst the most prevalent challenges.

It is not realistic to expect the governments to solve this problem on their own. There is a need for collaboration between the private sector and the government for the mobilisation of capital necessary to bring the transformation. There will be great reliance on the private sector to come up with ideas for innovation, ultimately all of us are in this dilemma together.

Many participating countries at the COP26 have agreed on a deal on the climate crisis to keep within the goal of limiting global heating to 1.5 degrees centigrade, as per the threshold of safety agreed during the 2015 Paris agreement.

After two weeks of conversations at the COP26 summit, the event ended with mostly agreeable parties, however, there were some disagreements especially regarding coal use. The main goal of the summit was to limit global temperatures to make sure global warming is limited to 1.5°C by 2030.

Glasgow deal

COP26 was supposed to deliver a deal to reach that goal. The Glasgow deal asked 197 countries to make a very specific commitment regarding the use of coal in a bid to phase out coal and end fossil fuels subsidies; this was the proposal India and China opposed. India and China asked for a change in the terminology, “phase out” to be replaced by “phase down” which means they will use less coal but they will not stop using it. This seems to be a reasonable proposal.

At this point, any single organisation’s attempt to change practices or add policies to fight climate change is considered honourable and hopefully genuine. Quick fixes have all been done and there is a need for comprehensive and coordinated action globally.

The summit at COP26 aimed to provide the overarching regulatory framework with which businesses can confidently collaborate and share information and resources for the new joint innovation and start paddling collectively towards the same direction against this fight.

It is not clear that businesses would willingly and proactively collaborate on their own and therefore, such forums move the collective to action with the framework and understanding of incentives, commonly applied to tax policies, penalties, and so on. 

With regards to the consumer industries, consumer product companies and retailers are under a lot of pressure from all sides to address any number of sustainability challenges from carbon emissions, waste in landfills, recycling, plastic and textile, to deforestation, water waste, and so forth. Consumers are increasingly vocal about wanting these companies to do something about it.

People are willing to do their part but up to a certain point. Future consumer index indicates one-third of consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable products but we know that the intention and action gap for consumers is also quite wide.

 To be honest, coming out of the other side of the pandemic, many people are more worried about the end of the month and not about the end of the planet. That leaves a lot for consumer companies and governments to solve together.

Ritesh Barot is a business and financial analyst, humanitarian, conservationist, occasional artist, recipient of OGW honor. [email protected]