If we continue business as usual and keep adding carbon to the atmosphere, we will cross over into temperatures that will make life on earth impossible. Rising temperatures and changing monsoon rainfall patterns from climate change could cost India 2.8 per cent of GDP and depress the living standards of nearly half the country’s population by 2050 .
There is little doubt that economic growth has helped pull billions of people out of poverty over the last seventy years or so. On the flip side, growth is also linked to increasing use of energy, materials and thereby global warming. It is increasingly becoming clear to policymakers that economic growth, social balance and ecological well-being cannot be seen under the same lens. The three need to be separated from one another. COP28 is the 28th annual United Nations (UN) climate meeting where governments will discuss how to limit and prepare for future climate change. It is hoped COP28 will help keep alive the goal of limiting long-term global temperature rises to 1.5C. This was agreed by nearly 200 countries in Paris in 2015.
The big questions we now need to be asking are, how can we use science to design economies that will mitigate the threats of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pandemics. How can we lay the foundation for a green, circular economy that is anchored in nature-based solutions and geared toward the public good? The discussion around the new emerging shifts in business and finance are therefore repeatedly highlighting the need for balance between profit and equality and between growth and environmental stability. There is no time to lose – the NetZero transition needs everything, everywhere, all at once.
