New Delhi [India], March 11 (ANI): Undoubtedly, Asia is on its way to becoming the fastest-developing continent in the world. Projected new trade routes, efforts to develop a sustainable system, and the significance of green transformation in the face of rising energy, food, and security demands, Ugur Turan wrote.
Ugur Turan, an expert on the environmental dimension of the CICA Secretariat. The expert had experience working in China and Turkey as a researcher on international organizations' projects.
The CICA environmental dimension has three priority areas: sustainable development, environment protection, and natural disaster management. Each priority area has its coordinator and co-coordinator. For instance, Thailand is the coordinator for sustainable development, Mongolia is the coordinator for environment protection, where Bangladesh and China are co-coordinators, Iran is the coordinator for natural disaster management, and Bangladesh is a co-coordinator.
In addition, seminars, workshops, conferences, and training are held within the priority areas of the CICA environmental dimension. In general, the topics coordinating and co-coordinating countries cover are green transformation, sustainable development, low-carbon developments, waste management, carbon markets, natural disasters, and circular economy, according to the writer.
Moreover, the World Health Organization reports that over 7.1 million Bangladeshis were displaced by climate change in 2022. China, India, Thailand, and the Middle East also had difficulties due to climate change last year. Recently, the world has experienced a devastating sequence of earthquakes in Turkey. After the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the economic damage of the climate crisis and natural disasters has been taken into account, and the question of how fragile countries are for the future has come to the fore.
CICA covers a broad geography, therefore observing various environmental characteristics. Member States are taking multiple actions to ensure sustainable development and environmental protection. The major environmental problems in Asia include desertification, climate change, lack of water resources, deforestation, earthquakes, and forest fires. Indeed, there are environmentally vulnerable CICA countries. Among the most vulnerable Member States, according to the University of Notre Dame's Vulnerability index score of the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative (ND-GAIN), are Afghanistan in the 168th and Bangladesh in the 154th place. Pakistan ranks 147th, Cambodia is in 133rd place, and India ranks 132nd. The index evaluates a nation's vulnerability, sensitivity, and capacity for climate change adaptation. There are 177 nations on the scale, and those with high rankings, close to zero, have great climate change resilience. Highest-ranking CICA Member States include Israel in the 14th place, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Turkey sharing the 28th place followed by Kazakhstan in the 33rd place, the UAE in the 40th, and Qatar in the 44th.
The negative economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has brought countries closer to producing new solutions. Although developed and developing countries have different agendas, governments are shifting their economic targets to efficient systems aligned with sustainable development goals. Green transformation is one of the most prominent examples of this.
United Nations Climate Change Conferences are significant to raise awareness and act together against extreme environmental events the world has been facing in recent years.
Among the results drawn here was that nations decided for the first time to set up funds to pay developing countries for "loss and damage" caused by climate-related disasters. Moreover, it was important that China and the USA, the countries with the highest carbon emissions, decided to engage in climate diplomacy at COP27. Furthermore, COP28 will take place in the United Arab Emirates, another CICA Member State. From this point of view, it is a fact that the environmental theme becomes increasingly relevant in Asia.
Indeed, it will be in the interest of the CICA Member States to hold the 2024 High-level Environmental Conference, where best practices can be shared among the CICA countries and a sustainable mutual dialogue is likely to be ensured. As a result, the CICA environmental dimension is expected to progress rapidly among other CBMs.
The Secretary-General stated that the CICA Member States were extensively introducing green technologies, pursuing the ambitious goal of achieving carbon neutrality. In addition, within the scope of the preparations for the Conference on the environment, which is of utmost importance for the CICA Member States, the sides agreed to arrange a series of expert meetings of the CICA Member States to develop goals and objectives for the Conference.