♻️🌐 Growth-fetishism rules the roost in large parts of the developing world despite commitments of many to reach “net-zero” emissions by their own stipulated timelines.

A conflict arises here, as it is universally acknowledged that global warming and climate change are the results of humanity’s unbridled penchant for economic growth without accounting for the “costs of growth”. Again, most of the developing world climate commitments hinge upon an energy transition from fossil fuel sources to renewable energy sources!

Large parts of the global south, led by the BRICS nations, still perceive that a mere energy transition will resolve the problems of climate change. Therefore, they continue with unbridled changes in land-use, destroying the ecosystem in order to meet infrastructure needs.

Amid this unbridled penchant for economic growth and urbanisation, there hardly remains the acknowledgement that forest and coastal ecosystems are carbon sinks, whose roles in stocking carbon and annual carbon sequestration cannot be substituted via a mere energy transition.

Multilateralism can be helpful when dealing with an overarching and uniform delineation of the “Green Agenda”, the developmental needs and nuances of the conservation-development-livelihood dynamics of various parts of the developing and underdeveloped world are acknowledged.

Otherwise, multilateralism will only cater to the needs of the rich, and will be inimical to distributive justice at the global scale, writes Nilanjan Ghosh, Director of the Observer Research Foundation. 

🔗 The Fate of the ‘Green Agenda’: Does Multilateralism Have a Future?

#Valdai_WorldEconomy #multilateralism #ecology

@valdai_club — The Valdai Discussion Club