Apparently, or perhaps paradoxically, or perhaps paradoxically apposite, a virus attacking respiratory tracts has reminded the world of the urgent need to reduce air pollution, which costs millions of lives worldwide every year.
Rwanda has been the first to respond to this challenge, making the nation one of the world’s leaders, if its ambitious targets are achieved.
France hosted 196 countries at the United Nations ( UN) Climate Change Conference, from 30 November to 11 December 2015. The meeting was the twenty-first annual Conference of the Parties (COP) meeting of the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC), and the eleventh meeting of the Meeting of the Parties (CMP) to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.
The Paris Agreement committed the participating nations to significantly reduce their carbon emissions, in a collective effort to initially reduce global temperature increases to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2030, with further reductions to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
There are concerns that policymakers will set aside environmental standards when they seek to kick start their economies with the adverse economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Rwanda is a Party to the Paris Agreement. By early submitting ambitious emission reductions to the UN, the country is signaling a clear intention to stick to its commitment to emission reduction, despite the economic damage under Covid-19.
Rwanda undertakes, in its submission to the UN, to reduce its emissions to 16 per cent by 2030 , compared to the so-called business as usual baseline.
Business as usual scenarios are benchmarks based on historical norms. The already ambitious target rises to 38 per cent, if richer, more advanced nations, which are also the biggest polluters, support the country with financial , technical and technological support, as promised in the Paris Agreement.
Rwanda is the first African country to commit to such tough emissions reductions. That is an onerous undertaking. The economic growth of the country climbed above 10 percent before the Covid-19 pandemic, the World Bank described Rwanda as in the midst of an economic boom. The emissions were projected to double without effective, radical interventions.
To alter the trend, more use will be made of hydro and solar energy, new regulations will be enforced for automotive emissions, greater usage of electric vehicles. Farms may receive encouragement to focus more on biogas.
The UN welcomes the clear leadership of Rwanda, not least because the example could encourage Commonwealth nations to take similar commitments. The country is due to host the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) 26th meeting in 2021, a meeting that was due to take place this month but was pushed forward because of Covid-19. Climate change will be a major issue on the agenda.
But Rwanda, and the international community generally, will need more than a pat on the back from the UN. It will take up to $11 billion to adopt the economy to achieve those ambitious goals.
Commitments from the country come in the middle of warnings that the ’emission gap’ has grown significantly. The Emissions Gap Report is produced annually by the Environment Program of the United Nations to measure the gap between the commitments of nations and to fulfill those commitments.
Due to the failure to narrow this gap, it now means that countries will need to do more to prevent certain disasters in a shorter period of time if global warming increases above 2% Celsius.
In short, more countries need the world to follow where Rwanda leads:
“As the first African country to submit a strengthened climate commitment in 2020, Rwanda is demonstrating the kind of leadership that the world needs right now” said the Vice President for Climate and Economics, at the World Resources Institute, Helen Mountford.
