Climate change and Covid-19 recovery

A study by the United Nations and the University of Oxford have warned the world that most of the bigger economies of the world spending on Covid-19 recovery is not green. It means that the world is putting more money into polluting industries and not otherwise. The report was published yesterday. Rescue spending was pivotal to the relief operations worldwide during the pandemic - and even now of course, as another wave is spreading due to a mutated version of the virus.

The Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in the foreword to the report said the governments do have choices when thinking about planning recoveries once short-term relief has been provided.

No one doubts the intentions of the world leaders when they say that they would certainly rescue their virus-hit economies in building back their future through relief aid to fight climate change. But, are the intentions matching the actions.

No one leader has so far shown a commitment to the long term goals of Climate Change agenda. Why do they do that? Are they short of ideas or short of commitment? The report categorically pointed out that of the 1.9 trillion dollars that the world's 50 biggest economies announced in Covid-19 recovery spending by the end of 2020, only 19 per cent i.e., 341 billion dollars could be considered green.

These leaders, it is said, are spending smaller amounts on green programmes while publicising the same mightily while spending larger and bigger amounts on anti-green programmes silently. Climate change and growing levels of pollution in the environment will continue to remind the world how truly vulnerable the global economy is. Disruptions to the climate will also continue to exacerbate inequality within and between nations as well, the authors warned. The UNEP and Oxford also spotlighted "a growing body of evidence" that green fiscal spending can deliver stronger economic returns than traditional alternatives.

The report urged wealthy nations to use recovery money to support least-developed countries and marginalized communities, which have been disproportionately affected both by Covid-19 -induced deaths and job and income loss.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in December denounced the "suicidal" failure to tackle climate change and said the Coronavirus pandemic offered the world a rare chance for a reset to save Earth. As we all know, the state of the planet is broken. Humanity is waging war on nature which is suicidal. Covid-19 has shown a way on how to tackle Climate Change. The visibility of Himalayas from cities like Jalandhar itself is an evidence of it. A new world is taking shape and the biodiversity is collapsing. One million species are at risk of extinction.

Ecosystems are disappearing before our eyes. Deserts are spreading. Wetlands are being lost. Every year, we lose 10 million hectares of forests. Oceans are overfished – and choking with plastic waste. The carbon dioxide they absorb is acidifying the seas. Coral reefs are bleached and dying. Air and water pollution are killing nine million people annually. Why does not man stop treading the self-destructive path? Rather, does he prefer getting extinct? He has no right to do either because he also prefers his progeny to come into this world.