Sustainability and climate action present a rare chance for international cooperation.

 Jan, 4 2023

Despite the fact that conflicts have always existed on the geopolitical chessboard, the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 ushered in a period of unpredictability that fueled an energy crisis, exacerbated inflationary pressures that led to a shortage of food and resources, and further fractured an already divided global community. Fears that the globe is on the verge of an all-out global war, the likes of which have not been seen since 1945, have increased as a result of the aggressiveness, which many have dubbed the beginning of the Second Cold War.

Naturally, this is not encouraging for our shared hopes for a peaceful, sustainable future, but there is a case to be made that in the midst of this severe breakdown of international cooperation, the need for advancing climate action and holistic sustainable development is more important than ever. In fact, these issues hold the key to fostering international cooperation and may even become a crucial lever for harmonising geopolitical relations.

The Immediate

The saying "the tipping point of climate change is nigh upon us" is one that we have all heard, and recent IPCC reports warning of the code red for humanity, along with the extremely obvious climate disasters increasing in frequency, have increased the urgency of securing a 1.5° C future to astronomical levels. It is becoming more and more clear that any geopolitical crisis would make the climate catastrophe worse and amplify its harmful repercussions.

A good illustration of this is the Russia-Ukraine crisis, when the ensuing food and energy shortages disproportionately affected the most vulnerable and poor people, who were already suffering from climate change. The SDGs must be accomplished in less than ten years, hence it is urgent to intensify international collaboration efforts.

The negative effects of inaction

Johan Rocktröm, a renowned climate scientist, developed a paradigm known as "planetary thresholds" that identifies nine systemic boundaries that humanity should not breach in order to preserve the planet's resilience. Climate change, biosphere integrity (biodiversity), biogeochemical fluxes, and other boundaries between thresholds must be maintained since crossing one or more of these boundaries might have catastrophic global repercussions.

The paradigm assumes that these planetary thresholds are very interrelated, making their existence highly dependent on one another. As a result, any measures to combat climate change or promote sustainable development that aim to protect these thresholds and prevent catastrophe must be made with international collaboration.

Because of the degree of geopolitical fragmentation now present, the consequent lack of collaboration will ultimately have a detrimental impact on the whole world. Due to the interdependence of all our planetary thresholds, even if one nation significantly decreases its emissions while another lags behind in this area, the good efforts will be offset by others that choose not to cooperate with the climate action or sustainability agenda.

The benefits of working together to combat climate change

According to game theory, a "positive sum game" is one in which no one receives an advantage at the expense of another and the entire sum of gains and losses is more than zero. In a society where everyone works together to address climate change and there is widespread support for sustainable development, there is effectively a positive-sum game where the value created and the gains made are larger than the total of all the efforts made in this direction.

There is no denying how intricately connected and dependent various sustainability goals are, with gender equality (SDG 5) having connections to all other SDGs, energy transition (SDG 7) having an impact on climate action (SDG 13), employment and economic growth (SDG 8) having connections to all other SDGs, and the ability to create a circular economy (SDG 12) having connections to all other SDGs.

As a result, worldwide collaborations, cooperation, and efforts to combat climate change may serve as a shining example of "a rising tide lifting all boats." It is more than an objective universal truth that unanimity in climate action and sustainable development will lead to global prosperity, inclusivity, and sustainability far beyond a situation plagued by geopolitical disunity. Any local gains due to climate action and sustainable development efforts will eventually reap benefits to the world at large.

Working together for a brighter future

There has always been a rationale for adhering to a global identity that is distinct from regional identities in a way that advances geopolitical goals of planetary-scale collaboration for humanity's wealth, inclusivity, and sustainability. We have reached a stage when pursuing self-serving objectives that do not advance global priorities in general may not be the best course of action, while regional development ambitions for some nations may take precedence over planetary urgencies.

The COP27 loss & damage fund's operationalization represented a step toward climate justice by equating historical obligations for addressing climate change between developed and developing nations. However, it is time to acknowledge that without widespread support for sustainability efforts, international cooperation, and the willingness of each individual to put global interests ahead of local ones, the dream of a united front for a better society and planet will remain a pipe dream. Our capacity to work together in sync to save the world—rather than acting independently as stakeholders—depends on it.

It will need cooperation from people all around the world to protect our incredibly delicate and interrelated ecology, which includes everything from preserving the biodiversity of the Amazon River to lowering the carbon footprint of the global business, Amazon. It is crucial that the globe restore early 21st-century globalisation policies and work vigorously in order to turn the tide and get back on the path to being truly global citizens - protectors of our shared planet, united for and by our climate action and sustainability initiatives. We cannot afford to put off taking action until the subsequent round of reminders.