By Prof. Bharat H. Desai
On the World Environment Day – June 05, 2023 – this author moderated a global webinar with a panel of eminent scholars from the four continents to ponder over the predicament of humankind as the triple planetary crisis has placed the Earth in the balance. This author enlisted select questions that would determine our future trajectory:
i. How real is the triple planetary crisis? What level of existential threat it presents for the humankind, all life forms, the global environment and the commons?
ii. Did the 2022 Stockholm+50 Moment became an effort to be ‘politically correct’ rather than seize the moment to ordain a serious revitalization of the existing corpus of international environmental legal instruments as well as the international environmental governance architecture?
iii. What will take for the humankind to usher into a better common environmental future on a healthy planet? (here, here)
iv. Are the suggested five ‘R’ pathways adequate? (a) reimagining the future (b) regeneration of the ecosystems (c) recovery (green) (d) rebalance equitable resource use (e) reinvigorated multilateralism (see, SIS Blog, March 29, 2023).
v. What role futuristic scholarly ideas (here, here) can play in providing solutions for averting the planetary level crisis?
vi. Can we turn to the General Assembly, as the plenary UN organ, for a clarion call to set in motion a bold normative process to address the crisis as a “plenary concern”?
vii. What can we expect from the 2024 Summit of the Future (UNGA resolution 76/307 of September 8, 2022)?
The webinar comprised five eminent panelists: Nicholas A Robinson, University Emeritus Professor, Elisabeth School of Law, Pace University, USA; Christina Voigt, Professor of International Law, University of Oslo, Norway; Nico Schrijver, Emeritus Professor in International Law, Leiden University, The Netherlands; Oliver Ruppel, Professor of Public International Law, Stellenbosch University, South Africa and Patricia Mbote, Director, Law Division, United Nations Environment Program, Kenya. Almost two hour long scintillating conversation with these panelists, affirmed this author’s indefatigable conviction for engaging in yet another audacious ideational venture preparatory to the 2024 Summit of the Future, as mandated by the UNGA (resolution 76/307) The organizing of the June 05 webinar, fifth one organized by the EPL publishers (IOS Press), affirmed that it is possible to lead from the front, even without any resources – from my home turf of SIS – in the global discourse on the future of the humankind at this critical juncture of the planetary level crisis.
The Predicament
The said planetary crisis has emanated from human frailty and inability to know The Limits to Growth, as propounded by the 1972 Club of Rome report and the finitude of resources on our only abode – the Earth. In fact, the human civilizational inability to overcome the greed (against need) constitutes the root cause of the global problematique and the predicament of humankind. The Club of Rome report aptly prophesized that: “It is the predicament of mankind that man can perceive the problematique, yet, despite his considerable knowledge and skills, he does not understand the origins, significance, and interrelationships of its many components and thus is unable to devise effective responses. This failure occurs in large part because we continue to examine single items in the problematique without understanding that the whole is more than the sum of its parts, that change in one element means change in the others.” (The Limits to Growth, p.11). Isn’t it ironical that after full 50 years, the humankind is unable to find a decisive way out and make a course correction from the proverbial predicament that pertains to our own existence? The humankind has sleepwalked into the planetary crisis riding on the ability to transform the Earth’s essential ecological processes. As observed in preface to this author’s curated futuristic ideational works, Envisioning Our Environmental Future (2022) as well as Our Earth Matters (2021), we need to “ponder on the rapidly depleting time we have left for remedial action to safeguard our future amid warnings of impending environmental catastrophe”.
The Triple Planetary Crisis
It is this planetary level crisis that stares the humankind in the face in the third decade of the 21st century. Exactly a year ago, the feisty UN Secretary-General (UNSG) António Guterres, in his opening remarks on June 02, 2022 at the 2022 Stockholm+50 Conference described the triple planetary crisis as “our number one existential threat” that needs “an urgent, all-out effort to turn things around.” Ironically, in the words of the UNSG, the human consumption is “at the rate of 1.7 planets a year” and the “global well-being is in jeopardy”. Similarly, Inger Andersen, UNEP executive director and the Secretary-General of Stockholm+50, underscored that “If we do not change, the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste will only accelerate." The President of the 76th General Assembly, Abdulla Shahid, also reminded that the policies we implement today “will shape the world we live in tomorrow”.
The UNSG’s warning has graphically vindicated this author’s 1992 scholarly prognosis (Social Science & Medicine, vol.35, no.4, 1992), at the time of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit that: “much of the developmental process in the world today does not appear to be sustainable…the human quest to conquer nature through science and technology has brought us on to the present brink. The threats to our eco-system essentially emanate from human activities in almost every sector.” At this stage, the drivers of the triple planetary crisis are: climate emergency; ecosystem degradation leading to biodiversity loss and pollution and waste.
The alarm bells rung by the UNSG, as the chief executive officer, is based upon the findings of several scientific reports released during 2022-2023 including IPCC6; UNEP and WMO. The IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (April 2022) drew a grim scenario that the “Net anthropogenic GHG emissions have increased since 2010 across all major sectors globally…as have cumulative net CO2 emissions since 1850”. Similarly, UNEP’s Emissions Gap Report on October 27, 2022 has reinforced the global concerns that “the international community is falling far short of the Paris goals, with no credible pathway to 1.5°C in place. Only an urgent system-wide transformation can avoid climate disaster”. In February 2023 report, the World Meteorological Organization predicted that during the period 2013-2022 sea level rise has been 4.5 mm/yr, wherein the human influence is construed as the main driver of such ominous sea level rise.
The Road Ahead
The above mentioned gathering storms provide enough indications of a planetary-level environmental crisis. Do they cast shadows of the coming events before in the 21st century? It is almost akin to some of the catastrophic events including the two world wars that devastated the world in the 20th century. Hence, it was logical that one of the panelists of the June 5, 2023 global webinar, Patricia Mbote (Director, UNEP Law Division) called for “futuristic scholarly ideas” to address the planetary level crisis. Thus, it makes great sense to strive for innovative and iconoclastic solutions that could form a basis for a decisive course correction. This author precisely sought to walk-the-talk by bringing together cutting-edge ideas of global thought leaders by curating three marathon scholarly processes: (i) Regulating Global Climate Change (2023); (ii) Envisioning Our Environmental Future (2022); and (iii) Our Earth Matters (2021). On the road to 2024 Summit of the Future, maybe the UNGA could hold an emergency special session to set in motion a normative process to nudge the member states to gear up for the planetary concern. It posits a challenge for the global scholarly community to do the ideational groundwork, including contours of the UNGA’s normative process, to be affirmed by a concrete plan of action when the Heads of Government assemble for the forthcoming 2024 New York Summit.
#WorldEnvironmentDay #PlanetaryConcern #LimitsToGrowth #OurEarthMatters #EnvisioningEnvironmentalFuture
Dr. Bharat H. Desai is Jawaharlal Nehru Chair, Professor of International Law and Chairperson of the Centre for International Legal Studies (SIS, JNU), who served as a member of the Official Indian Delegations to various multilateral negotiations (2002-2008) as well as coordinated the knowledge initiatives for Making SIS Visible (2008-2013) and the four partner Inter-University Consortium: JNU; Jammu; Kashmir; Sikkim (2012-2020)
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