Resources, Environment, and Economic Development

In IPCC’s words, “climate change refers to a change in the state of the climate that can be identified (e.g., by using statistical tests) by changes in the mean and/or the variability of its properties and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer”.

Fossil emissions: Fossil emissions measure the quantity of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted from the burning of fossil fuels, and directly from industrial processes such as cement and steel production. Fossil CO2 includes emissions from coal, oil, gas, aring, cement, steel, and other industrial processes. Fossil emissions do not include land use change, deforestation, soils, or vegetation.

T he Albino effect is caused by the ongoing process of global warming and melting ice, which results in increased CO2 emissions due to excessive humidity and vapor in gas form.

“the aggregate area of land and water in various ecological categories that is claimed by participants in the economy to produce all the resources they consume, and to absorb all the wastes they generate on a continuing basis, using prevailing technology.”

Researchers also calculate the ‘date’ every year when countries as a whole press upon our planet’s resources in excess of biocapacity. This ‘day’ is referred to as the ecological overshoot day and is regularly reported by, for instance, at The Overshoot Day Org.

While it is universally recognized as a planetary problem, its economic effects are unevenly distributed across countries. Developing nations and low and middleincome countries (L&MICs) bear a disproportionate share of these burdens, facing significant losses in employment and income due to climate-induced factors.

Projections by the International Labor Organization (ILO) suggest that these inequalities will only worsen by 2030, highlighting the urgent need to address climate change not only as an environmental challenge but as a critical economic issue that threatens productivity, employment, and income stability on a global scale.

Low and Middle Income Countries

The majority of emissions can be traced back to a few major economies—China, the USA, the EU, and India—along with specific sectors and firms/corporations that are primarily responsible for the rising carbon footprint.

The fossil fuel-driven power sector, especially coal, oil, and gas, emerges as a significant contributor, while a handful of multinational corporations dominate the landscape of global emissions. Understanding the dynamics of these polluters is essential for discussions on climate fairness and justice, which call for a shift in focus from individual countries to the transnational energy giants shaping the global carbon cycle.

The International Energy Agency reports that four largest energy producer trans-nationals, Chevron, BP, Exxon and the Gasprom collectively account for 11% of the global emissions.

One of the most pivotal moments in this journey was the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015, a landmark treaty signed by 196 countries to limit global warming to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, with efforts to restrict the increase to 1.5°C. This agreement set a framework for countries to submit progressively ambitious climate action plans, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs), and triggered a cascade of related initiatives, such as the European Green Deal and the call for a Global Green New Deal by UNCTAD.

In their NDCs, countries communicate their intended actions to mitigate their greenhouse gas emissions in order to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. Countries also communicate in their NDCs actions they will take to build resilience to adapt to the impacts of climate change.

In late 2019 EU announced its Green Deal, which was subsequently followed by the announcements of Net Zero Emission trajectories until the 2050s. Being a comprehensive longterm development strategy, the European Green Deal (EGD) aims to create the first climateneutral continent by 2050. This strategy, in the words of the European Commission, also includes transforming the global trade patterns as trade is seen as the “epi-centre of Europe’s economic prosperity and competitiveness”.

The UN’s Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) announced its call on Global Green New Deal (GGND), and offered it as the right policy framework, “to make a clean break with years of austerity and insecurity following the global financial crisis, help bring about a more equal distribution of income and reverse decades of environmental degradation”.

Currently around 140 countries have officially declared their netzero emissions (NZE) plan, with most of these plans targeting the 2050s.

• Income redistribution which has positive effects on aggregate demand,
• Increases in public spending on goods, (social) services, transfers and industrial and environmental transformation,
• Fiscal impulse partially financed by progressive direct taxation and partially by greater revenues from more activity,
• Private investment push in response to aggregate demand stimuli,
• Domestic credit and international financial f lows directed to productive, green and employment intensive activity,
• Reductions in energy intensity of output accelerating ongoing trends by developed and developing countries,
• Changes in the composition of energy production to reduce CO2 emissions,
• Global, and especially South-South policy coordination.

2035

2030

2040