When the world should have been more united to fight climate change, delegates of 200 countries participating in the climate talk at the UN's 27th climate summit (COP27) at the Red Sea port of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt have worked hard to finally strike a deal. It is about creating a fund to help nations most affected by climate change. But earlier there was a difference of opinions about who would compensate the developing countries for 'loss and damage' they suffered due to climate change. At a point, the climate talk was on the verge of collapsing as the EU delegates threatened to walk away saying no deal was better than a bad deal. The 27-nation EU said it was willing to compensate developing nations for the climate-change-related 'loss and damage' they have been subjected to, but they also wanted the larger emerging economies like China, Saudi Arabia and Singapore to share the burden. Moreover, they (EU delegates) argued in favour of tying climate compensation to tougher emission cuts. But that raised a question about how to define a developing country. And this controversy over who would pay for the said 'loss and damage' has the climate talk run into overtime.
The rich developing economies which have joined the club of industrialised nations recently are not willing to see eye to eye with the EU, or the West for that matter. But such differences can and should be sorted out, keeping in view that the issue of global warming is an existential one for humanity. No difference in views can be big enough for any party to decide to leave the climate talk. The West needs to accept responsibility. For the fact remains that it was their (the industrial West's) indiscriminate burning of fossil fuel over the last two centuries (since the Industrial Revolution around 1830s) that the world has gradually got warmer than it was in the pre-industrial times. From that point of view, the richer developing economies' share in the present level of global warming is far less than that of their Western counterparts. Nonetheless, the neo-rich economies have also a responsibility towards the less fortunate countries worst-affected by climate change. So, the outcome of the present climate summit, though, thankfully, a positive one, cannot be an end in itself. The world's leading industrialised nations should be made to shoulder more responsibility for the climate issue. But what about the more urgent task of limiting global warming to the key threshold of 1.5C(degrees centigrade) above pre-industrial level as agreed at the 2015's Paris climate summit? The world must vigorously work for finding an alternative to fossil-fuel-based energy.
As cleaner and renewable alternatives to fossil fuels to run industries and generate power are yet to be fully developed, the use of fossil fuel is still going on in full swing. The volatility in the world's energy market caused by Russia-Ukraine war and the high inflation and recessionary trend that it has triggered in the world economy have again demonstrated the grave existential threat to life on earth. In fact, a world not dependent on fossil-based energy is still far off and such fuels will continue to burn raising the global temperature. That makes it incumbent on us to avoid using fossil fuel. Of the many different approaches to developing renewable sources of energy, the solar technology has proved to be most viable so far. Admittedly, the photovoltaic cells are leading the way in this regard. But as the land necessary to install big solar panels is becoming scarcer by the day, especially, in densely populated countries like Bangladesh, new ways have to be devised to get around the problem. Recently, solar panels mounted on platforms floating on water have been gaining popularity worldwide. According to a report global demand for floating solar power is expected to grow on an average by 22 per cent between 2019 and 2024. Bangladesh is best-suited to this technology as it has numerous water bodies. Of late, floating solar panels are becoming more efficient at harvesting sunrays. For a new technology has been added to these floating solar panels so that they may track the Sun as it moves across the sky in the daytime. As a result, it can catch more sunrays in a day than the normal ones. The BBC reports that there is such a sun-tracking island (of solar panel) floating in the Oostvoornse Meer, a lake in the South-West Netherlands. The said floating island has 180 of these sun-seeking solar panels 'with a total installed capacity of 73 kilowatt of peak power (kWp). This may not look big, but consider its impact once used on a larger scale across the globe.
Also, there are other technologies around to make use of the existing grid power, for example, to heat sand and store it for later use. In the town of Kankaanpää, about 230 kilometres south-west of Helsinki in Finland, homes and offices are being kept warm with the help of what they call 'sand batteries'. 100 tonnes of sand stored in a 7-metre high steel container is such a 'sand battery'. The Kankaanpää sand battery is connected to the power grid and runs when electricity is cheapest. To be frank, the present level of technology is not still able to provide a single alternative to fossil-fuel-based energy. Until the time the technology is advanced enough, humanity will have to use a mix of options to reduce the use of fossil fuel as much as possible. To that end, the talks at the climate summits should be able to come up with binding rules for all countries so that they feel prompted to drastically reduce the use of fossil fuel.
