A major UN “report of reports” from the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), outlines the many options that can be taken now, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to human-caused climate change.The study, “Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report”, released on Monday following a week-long IPCC session in Interlaken, brings into sharp focus the losses and damages experienced now, and expected to continue into the future, which are hitting the most vulnerable people and ecosystems especially hard.

Temperatures have already risen to 1.1 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, a consequence of more than a century of burning fossil fuels, as well as unequal and unsustainable energy and land use. This has resulted in more frequent and intense extreme weather events that have caused increasingly dangerous impacts on nature and people in every region of the world.

Climate-driven food and water insecurity is expected to grow with increased warming: when the risks combine with other adverse events, such as pandemics or conflicts, they become even more difficult to manage.

Time is short, but there is a clear path forward

If temperatures are to be kept to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, deep, rapid, and sustained greenhouse gas emissions reductions will be needed in all sectors this decade, the reports states. Emissions need to go down now, and be cut by almost half by 2030, if this goal has any chance of being achieved.

The solution proposed by the IPCC is “climate resilient development,” which involves integrating measures to adapt to climate change with actions to reduce or avoid greenhouse gas emissions in ways that provide wider benefits.

Examples include access to clean energy, low-carbon electrification, the promotion of zero and low carbon transport, and improved air quality: the economic benefits for people’s health from air quality improvements alone would be roughly the same, or possibly even larger, than the costs of reducing or avoiding emissions

“The greatest gains in wellbeing could come from prioritizing climate risk reduction for low-income and marginalized communities, including people living in informal settlements,” said Christopher Trisos, one of the report’s authors. “Accelerated climate action will only come about if there is a many-fold increase in finance. Insufficient and misaligned finance is holding back progress.”

Governments are key

The power of governments to reduce barriers to lowering greenhouse gas emissions, through public funding and clear signals to investors, and scaling up tried and tested policy measures, is emphasized in the report.

Changes in the food sector, electricity, transport, industry, buildings, and land-use are highlighted as important ways to cut emissions, as well as moves to low-carbon lifestyles, which would improve health and wellbeing.

“Transformational changes are more likely to succeed where there is trust, where everyone works together to prioritize risk reduction, and where benefits and burdens are shared equitably,” said IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee.

“This Synthesis Report underscores the urgency of taking more ambitious action and shows that, if we act now, we can still secure a liveable sustainable future for all.”

UN chief announces plan to speed up progress

In a video message released on Monday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres described the report as a “how-to guide to defuse the climate time-bomb.”

Climate action is needed on all fronts: “everything, everywhere, all at once,” he declared, in a reference to this year’s Best Film Academy Award winner.

The UN chief has proposed to the G20 group of highly developed economies a “Climate Solidarity Pact,” in which all big emitters would make extra efforts to cut emissions, and wealthier countries would mobilize financial and technical resources to support emerging economies in a common effort to ensure that global temperatures do not rise by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Mr. Guterres announced that he is presenting a plan to boost efforts to achieve the Pact through an Acceleration Agenda, which involves leaders of developed countries committing to reaching net zero as close as possible to 2040, and developing countries as close as possible to 2050.

The Agenda calls for an end to coal, net-zero electricity generation by 2035 for all developed countries and 2040 for the rest of the world, and a stop to all licensing or funding of new oil and gas, and any expansion of existing oil and gas reserves.

These measures, continued Mr. Guterres, must accompany safeguards for the most vulnerable communities, scaling up finance and capacities for adaptation and loss and damage, and promoting reforms to ensure Multilateral Development Banks provide more grants and loans, and fully mobilize private finance.

Looking ahead to the upcoming UN climate conference, due to be held in Dubai from 30 November to 12 December, Mr. Guterres said that he expects all G20 leaders to have committed to ambitious new economy-wide nationally determined contributions encompassing all greenhouse gases, and indicating their absolute emissions cuts targets for 2035 and 2040.

Journey to net-zero ‘picks up pace’

Achim Steiner, Administrator, of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) pointed to signs that the journey to net-zero is picking up pace as the world looks to the 2023 UN Climate Change Conference or COP28 in the United Arab Emirates.

“That includes the Inflation Reduction Act in the U.S., described ‘the most significant legislation in history to tackle the climate crisis’ and the European Union’s latest Green Deal Industrial Plan, a strategy to make the bloc the home of clean technology and green jobs,” he said.

“Now is the time for an era of co-investment in bold solutions. As the narrow window of opportunity to stop climate change rapidly closes, the choices that governments, the private sector, and communities now make — or do not make – will go down in history.”

During thetwenty-first century, South Asian countries have been facing and dealing with enormous problems. But the environmental crisis is one of the major and most emerging issues. South Asia is the southern part of the continent Asia, which is also known as the Asian societies. Mainly consist of eight countries India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Sir Lanka, and Bangladesh. Most of the environmental problem has been started after the 1960s due to high economic activities, population growth, industrialization, urbanization, and poverty. The combined effects of all these factors caused the situation more complex because of less management of negative and deviant behavior in economic activities. South Asian countries are the developing region that mainly constitutes middle-income countries struggling to flourish their economies and to cope with challenges of political and environmental sustainability, although they are still yet facing many environmental crises which are highly interactive, interlinked with human activities and also human life which it is the need of the hour to be addressed.

Population Density and Population Pressure

Population growth is one of the major elements which play an important role in environmental crises. As all the South Asian developing countries have an extensive density of populations such as India which considers the world second most populated country after China, because the growing population in all South Asian countries, it’s put tremendous population strain on natural and environmental resources such as increase the extraction of resources from the environment influence negatively in our environment.  The   Intergovernmental Panel Discussion (IPCC) on climate change says that most of the environmental crises are attributed to human activities. The population of Pakistan is also increasing at the rate of 1.9 % annual changes and the population of other South Asian countries is also not up to the mark, but increasing day by day which adversely affects the economy and the natural setting of the environment.

Climate Change

Climate change is also a major problem. South Asian developing counties are vulnerable to climate change-related disasters. The history of Pakistan, and Bangladesh showed how much they suffered due to climate flood disasters. Pakistan and India are facing the brunt of extreme weather almost every year. Being affected by environmental problems severely influence economic activities in the summer of 2022 due to “Heat Waves” in India and Pakistan, “Flood Crisis” in Pakistan last year affected the largest region about one–third of the whole country. Melting glaciers in Pakistan, almost twenty glacier bodies in Nepal, and twenty-five in Bhutan are so unsafe glacial water bodies. Land erosion in India, and Nepal land erosion, and land sliding. With rising sea levels in Bangladesh, Maldives, and Pakistan it is expected that by 2050 most of them swallowed by the sea. This climate condition is not new for this region, according to the World Bank Report 750 million people across South Asian societies are impacted by the last almost 20 years. In Afghanistan, farmers face climate-induced drought, and nearly 19 million Afghans are unable to feed themselves and almost 5 million people across India and Bangladesh. According to the climate change risk index Bangladesh and Pakistan ranked sixth and seventh while India ranked fourth among them respectively. A recent report of intergovernmental on climate change called “Code Red for Humanity” by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, it is predicted that in the next two decades, global warming will increase up to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Pollution

Almost all Asian societies adversely face the problem of pollution associated with indoor and outdoor elements which may be the source of pollution. With the increase of demographic pressure and urbanization, pollution is also considered a vital concern in South Asian countries. Due to industrialization, transportation, burning of coal, and biomass, excessive use of metals, and soil depletion of natural resources and minerals merely falls under the category of pollution. According to the report of the Air Quality Life Index Pakistan is the fourth most pollution-causing country in the world and India is the second most polluted country in the world and number one in Bangladesh. Excess methane, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, sulfur, and insoluble and soluble materials emitted by vehicles and industries are harmful effects on humans such as lung cancer, asthma, and water-borne diseases. It badly influences plants and animals.

Water scarcity

Water scarcity is a major concern in almost every region. South Asian countries have become water-default regions due to population exploitation, and unplanned urbanization. Almost 90- 95 of water is consumed by agriculture and industries, and there is insufficient storage and a wasteful irrigation method. Per capita, water availability is less than the world average and 4.5% of freshwater resources availability. Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan face varying degrees of water scarcity. Groundwater depletion caused by irrigation, agriculture runoff, industries, and the unregulated release of sewage needs a major concern. Along with scarcity of water quality and quantity, both are also affected by the reduction in the quantity of water because of the recession of glaciers and disruption in the monsoon.

Global warming

Furthermore, global warming is also a main issue that is observed globally it is specifically due to human activities primarily the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, and petroleum, fire burning, and along with the emission of harmful gases. South Asian countries are the major source of carbon dioxide, so it is a crucial component in global warming. However many South Asian countries implement a tax on the use of carbon-related components, a form of small fiscal policy to reduce the concentration of carbon in the atmosphere.

Energy Crisis

In addition to all these South Asia approximately uses only 5.9 % of global energy resources excluding the non- commercial energy resources. South Asian counties have increased the demand for energy in the last few decades, increasing demand by up to 50% since 2000. The rising energy demand is induced by population growth and the manufacturing sector. All the south Asian countries have increased the demand for electricity on average by more than five percent annually over the past two decades and are expected for the future that requires more than double by 2050. More than two third of the energy is imported. So it put pressure to increase cost recovery if the demand increase. In South Asia, disruptions due to conflict among other countries adversely impact fuel imports and put greater pressure on the government to ensure the security of their energy supply.

Conclusion

South Asian countries are major part and contributors to the world economy. Due to the crisis, economic activities were destroyed and diminished in many regions, because of damage to productivity and infrastructure, security threats, and mass migration, as the results growth rate declined and the world economy gets affected. Globally, all the economies of the world somehow depend upon each other for trade. To facilitate this connection it is necessary to maintain a balance. There are many organizations are working in South Asian countries to control the environmental crisis, such as the intergovernmental organization of South Asia Co-operative Environment Program (SACEP). Climate Action Network of South Asia, South Asian form for the environment. So the main purpose of all these organizations is to provide support, protection, and management in context to contribute in terms of sustainable development, along with issues of economic and social development. In addition to all these, urgent action is needed to curb all the challenges. The most immediate and pragmatic step to cope with the challenges is to make a collective UN committee for collaboration among the countries, reduce the global emission of harmful gases, decarbonize the energy sector, educate people to spread awareness among people start campaigns related to the protection of environmental at county level, uses of renewable resources, new policy initiation, formulation, and Implementation.

Gaiya’s hypothesis points to the earth as a living. The elements that support human life on earth, starting with the lithosphere and ending with hydrogen, argue that the earth is also like a living being, it’s just that this hypothesis cannot be scientifically proven. But to say that the earth is old is not only to brag. Just as the human body is aging and experiencing a functional decline, it is most often affected by the disease. The same goes for the earth on which humans live.

It is undeniable that since the beginning of 2023, earthquakes have affected many regions of the earth. In Indonesia, throughout 2023, there have been at least 11 large-scale earthquakes, the last of which occurred in Jayapura with a magnitude of 5.4 on the Richter scale. Meanwhile, at the global level, Turkey and Syria are still struggling to recover from the earthquake that killed as many as 36,000 people on February 14, with estimates of physical damage not yet calculated. Natural disasters like earthquakes, which have become more and more massive in recent times, have, of course, increased self-consciousness in society. Aside from this fear, earthquakes also cause a lot of damage and loss, both on goods and lives. Natural earthquakes are never caused by man. Yet humans can still learn this. In 2023, seismic registers will be completed with the results of the earth’s natural activity.

The reason that the land is old may always be a valid argument today. This old earth makes the tectonic forces that exist below the Earth’s surface stronger. These tectonic forces can set off earthquakes when the plates of the earth cooled.

The causes and effects of the earthquake

Small-scale earthquakes are not always innocuous, but large-scale earthquakes are certainly more dangerous. The structure of the soil and the area of a site influence how earthquakes may damage the site.

Earthquakes are vibrations or shocks which come from inside the earth. The natural cause is the movement of the terrestrial crust. The Earth consists of many different layers, which consist of the heart of the Earth (liquid or solid), the mantle, the Earth’s crust, and the lithosphere. Each layer has different properties and features. The lithosphere is the outermost layer and is made up of tectonic plates that come and go. When tectonic plaques move, they cause earthquakes. Earthquakes can also happen due to volcanic activity, where magma from inside the earth enters the surface.

An earthquake is a natural phenomenon that may cause serious environmental damage. Earthquakes have the potential to cause a variety of impacts, not only damage to physical structures, but also damage to the environment. Earthquakes can cause a variety of negative environmental effects, including pollution and damage to ecosystems.

First, earthquakes have the potential to contaminate the environment. Earthquakes will cause the breakdown of physical structures such as buildings, roads, and bridges, which will cause hazardous materials such as asbestos, chemicals, and waste to spread into the environment and cause environmental pollution. In addition, earthquakes can also lead to dangerous gas leaks, such as poisonous and irritating gases. It can irritate the respiratory tract, nervous system and skin and cause poisoning.

Second, earthquakes can wreak havoc on the ecosystem. Earthquakes can cause turbulence in sea water, which can lead to loss of habitat and even death of marine animals. This can result in the loss of valuable habitats that contain many organisms. What’s more, earthquakes can also cause damage to forests, especially on mountain slopes. Earthquakes have the potential to destroy trees in forests, resulting in the loss of habitat for many wildlife.

Third, earthquakes may cause environmental damage as a result of tsunamis. Tsunamis are large oceanic waves due to earthquakes. Tsunamis can wreak havoc on the environment. Tsunamis can destroy buildings, bridges and roads, resulting in environmental damage. In addition, tsunamis may also cause damage to the ecosystem, such as loss of habitat for birds, fish and other animals.

Fourth, earthquakes can harm the environment because of landslides. A landslide is a natural process in which the ground, rock and other materials are washed away by water or wind. Earthquakes have the potential to cause avalanches and environmental damage. Landslides may flood areas adjacent to the landslide site, resulting in the death of plants and animals in the area. Landslides can also result in the release of hazardous waste into the environment, which can cause further damage to the environment.

Fifth, earthquakes can wreak havoc on the environment. Lahars is a blend of water, rock, earth and other materials from volcanic eruptions. Lahars can cause great environmental damage. Lahars can cause flooding of surrounding areas, which can make the soil infertile and cause habitat loss for wild animals. In addition, lava can also cause the release of hazardous materials into the environment, which can cause greater environmental damage.

The impact of environmental damage due to earthquakes is very dangerous and can cause irreplaceable losses. Environmental damage due to earthquakes can cause habitat losses for animals, infertility in the soil, and environmental pollution. Therefore, it is important to make efforts to prevent and control the impact of environmental damage due to earthquakes. These efforts include raising awareness of the impact of earthquakes, installing earthquake information delivery systems, and developing technology to minimize the impact of environmental damage. This is important to do to reduce the impact of environmental damage due to earthquakes that may occur in the future.

Can Human Manage the Earthquake?

At least very strong earthquakes occurred between the years 1900 and 2000. The largest earthquake of the 20th century, measuring 9.5 on the Richter scale, struck Chile in 1860. Earthquakes increased in frequency after that. Even though earthquakes are more frequent now than they were a century ago, nobody can stop them or come up with any strategies to stop them from happening. All that people can do to reduce losses is make an effort to adjust to earthquake conditions and keep researching earthquake incidents. And the dangers. Seismological experts have frequently offered predictions about earthquakes based on research. It’s only the human habit that’s human nature to reflect and become more watchful after the bad things happened.