Topic: Climate Change
3) At the recently concluded COP24, key issues of concern for the poorest and developing nations were diluted or postponed. Critically analyze .(250 words)
Why this question
With the framing of rulebook at Katowice, the need of the hour is to critically analyze the provisions to see whether they have enough concrete steps laid out in them to mitigate the disastrous consequences of climate change.
Key demand of the question
The question expects us to discuss how the Katowice rulebook has shaped up and whether it has sufficient provisions related to equity, finance and technology transfer, loss and damage etc to keep the interest of poorest and developing countries in mind.
Directive word
Critically analyze – When asked to analyze, you have to examine methodically the structure or nature of the topic by separating it into component parts and present them as a whole in a summary. When ‘critically’ is suffixed or prefixed to a directive, all you need to do is look at the good and bad of something and give a fair judgement.
Structure of the answer
Introduction – explain about COP24 and its purpose. Highlight that a rulebook has been framed as a end result.
Body
- Discuss the various outcomes of the summit and examine the issues involved
- There is little to no finance available for poor and developing nations. The details on funding and building capacity have been postponed. References to “equity” in the draft rule book were erased
- Poor and developing countries whose greenhouse gas emissions have been low or negligible will bear the brunt of warming effects. Whether or not funds will be replenished even for the implementation of the current NDCs is unclear. Funds for finance, better terms for new technologies to be transferred to developing and vulnerable countries, and economic and non-economic support for loss and damage and their equitable moorings in the text have been eliminated, minimised or footnoted etc
- Give the other point of view as well
- Under the Paris Agreement, states have complete autonomy on the nature and type of climate actions they choose to take, subject to the expectation that they represent a progression on past actions. However, the rules now require them to provide detailed information of their actions. If states have absolute economy-wide targets, they need to provide quantifiable information on their reference points for measurements, the gases covered, their planning processes, assumptions and methodological approaches, how they consider their contribution as fair and ambitious, and how it contributes to the objective of the regime. Etc
Conclusion – give your fair and balanced opinion on the significance of Katowice rulebook and discuss the way forward.
