Donald Trump announced US' withdrawal from Paris climate accord early this year.
Almost 7,000 km south-west of California, there lies an archipelago along the edges of equator. Scattered across more than 3,000 kilometers in low-lying pacific region, this island nation is drowning in the sea. Minutes by minute. Day by day.
The imperiled territory is called Kiribati, which consists of three island groups - Gilbert, Line and Phoenix. The width of the landmass is nowhere more than two kilometers, and this makes Kiribati extremely fragile and precarious. Therefore, for the population of around 95,000 living in these islands, the view of dancing sea waves along the shore is no romantic sight. It looks to them as if a predator is charging towards them. Ominously.
"On many occasions, I have been asked by people, you are suffering (by the rising sea). Why don't you move back? They don't actually understand what the problem is like," said Anote Tong, the former president of Kiribati in one of the interviews he gave to TED curator Chrish Anderson.
"I tell them if we move back we will fall on other side of the sea," Mr Tong said.
People tend to laugh at these words, but this is a question of life and death for those living here - surrounded by advancing water from all sides.
Thousands of kilometers from Kiribati along the shoreline of Bay of Bengal, a similar story is being played out. Bangladesh doesn't face an immediate threat of being wiped out entirely like Kiribati, but many parts of its territory will vanish if the sea level keeps rising.
Bhola Island in the south of the country from where more than 5,00,000 people have migrated because of the advancing water.
Though Kiribati and Bangladesh are not the only countries facing a threat, little has been done towards saving the earth from the dangers of climate change.
In 1992, world leaders took a pledge in Rio de Janeiro to save the earth, but 25 years later, it remains a promise.
On Monday, more than 197 countries will start negotiations in Bonn, Germany to make a 'rule book' to implement the Paris climate deal signed two years ago. However, the United States, the biggest culprit for global warming, has already pulled itself out of the deal.
US president Donald Trump announced the withdrawal early this year saying the deal is "very unfair" towards his country. Trump believes that countries like India and China are to blame for the climate change. He alleged in his statement that under Paris accord, China will keep building the coal plants and India will receive billions and billions and billions of dollars. However, the step taken by Trump will only increase the use of fossil fuel.
On Thursday, New Delhi-based Center for Science and Environment (CSE) released data quoting multiple sources. According to Lancet, a medical journal, 306 disasters were recorded annually on an average between 2006 and 2017 which is a 46% increase in comparison of 1990 and 1999. The report says that 90% of the disasters were related to weather-related events. 4.8 billion people have been affected world over by climate-related disasters since 1990. Poor and developing countries are most hit by climate change. For example, countries like Dominica lost more than 70 per cent of its GDP due to climate disaster in last few years.
According to Hyderabad-based Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (CRIDA), climate change impacts around 4-9 per cent of agriculture and by 2030, wheat and rice may see a 6-10 % decrease in yields. It also says that India loses around 1.5 per cent of GDP due to climate change. Though Trump is telling his countrymen that he is saving US taxpayers money by walking out of the Paris deal, the fact of the matter is America itself is losing billions of dollars due to the impact of climate change.
In 2017 alone, the US has seen more than a dozen disasters and the cost of damage is over 1 billion dollars. Since 1980, the US has lost 1.2 trillion dollars due to climate related disasters. The figure for Europe is 433 Euros between 1980 and 2015.
If we look at the historic emission (since 1850), the USA is the biggest culprit having the largest share of carbon emissions with more than 21%. However, in the current emission China is the biggest emitter as its economy is growing rapidly. In Paris accord responsibilities of all the countries were decided and there is a voluntary commitment to take emission cuts and mitigation steps.
Rich countries have to pay to the developing world so that they can prepare for the mitigation and adaptation while building their economy. Low lying countries are most vulnerable, and they need urgent help. As Anote Tong says that he wants to settle his countrymen to some other country if his own islands drown under the sea water. It clear shows that for the rich and powerful the climate change shouldn't be just a financial issue but it's a moral responsibility as well.