Introduction
Global climate change is caused by greenhouse gas emissions from accelerated economic and technological development. The concern about global warming was first raised in the 1970s, but the problem has not been solved yet (Ambrósio et al., 2017). Kyoto conference in 1997 developed a protocol for controlling and reducing greenhouse gas emissions worldwide (Ambrósio et al., 2017). However, all countries were focused more on enhancing their economies than on the environmental sustainability of their strategies. Ecological disasters may lead to such adverse results as growth in environmental refugees, food shortages, and clean water (Lane, 2018). Therefore, the United Nation’s 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris in 2015 aimed to highlight the existing environmental threats and suggest future goals and directions (Viñuales et al., 2017). The first objective of this paper is to discuss the key outcomes of COP21 Paris and tell why it should be considered the foundation for new sustainability policies. Second, legal and financial incentives in mining in Sub-Saharan Africa, using the example of Chad, will be discussed. The third objective is to analyze the emergence of fracking technologies and their impact worldwide.
The Key Outcomes of COP21 Paris
Compared to the previous environmental crisis conferences, COP21 Paris established more precise goals. There were three primary positive outcomes of the COP21 Paris agreement that became possible due to increasing awareness about this issue internationally (Höhne et al., 2017). The first outcome is that the 2015 gathering aimed to reduce global warming from 20C to 1.50C annually (Ourbak & Magnan, 2018). The ultimate goal is to reduce global temperature rise and CO2 emission to zero by 2100 (Höhne et al., 2017). The second outcome was that the prevailing number of COP21 participants submitted Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) to estimate greenhouse gas emissions by individual countries (Höhne et al., 2017). Third, the COP21 agreement suggested investing in the research and development of alternative energies and fuels to reduce carbon dioxide production (Manga, 2018). Unfortunately, the modern world cannot suddenly switch from fossil fuels to alternative energies that are cleaner but not efficient enough (Manga, 2018). Still, researchers and environmental organizations are working to maximize the efficiency of alternative fuels to enable the transition to an economy that will not be damaging the Earth’s climate, driving humanity to catastrophe.
As previously mentioned, one of the advantageous critical outcomes of COP21 was the development of protocols of action for greenhouse gas emissions reduction by almost all countries that participated in the 2015 conference. The two significant issues discussed in the INDC reports were prevention and response to climate change (Tobin et al., 2018). The United Nations stated that many adverse consequences of climate change could be prevented; therefore, the participants of the Paris conference suggested possible solutions for carbon dioxide reduction in the atmosphere (Tobin et al., 2018). Response or adaptation to climate change involves environmental justice issues because the developing countries that contribute the least to global warming appear to be affected the greatest (Tobin et al., 2018). In their INDCs, such countries as Australia, Brazil, Canada, and Montenegro set the goal to achieve an absolute reduction of toxic gases compared to the baseline year (Tobin et al., 2018). Other states like Chile, China, and Mexico, were more concerned about environmental justice; thus, they planned to focus on emission intensity (Tobin et al., 2018). Indeed, the COP21 Paris conference was efficient at uniting the world to solve environmental issues.
Some concerns about implementing the strategies to maintain a global temperature rise lower than 1.50C should be discussed. The first concern is the importance of identifying the starting point regarding emissions for each country (Lesnikowski et al., 2017). The second concern is that monitoring adaptation to climate change should be transparent to ensure that the individual capacities of different countries are fairly judged (Lesnikowski et al., 2017). The third concern is that funding for mitigation and response to climate change should be equally distributed (Lesnikowski et al., 2017). International cooperation and sharing of knowledge and experience will help to facilitate resolving these concerns.
Existing Policies to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions Worldwide
The existing policies for reducing carbon dioxide production target people’s behavior. Indeed, behavioral change can solve more minor issues resulting in the subsequent improvement of more significant problems. These problems include increased CO2 production, the rise in the planet’s temperature, and polar ice melting as consequences of rapid industrialization, which caused a 60% rise in carbon dioxide emission from 1990 to 2017 (Welch & Southerton, 2019). Therefore, the global community should initiate strategies to change the world’s population behavior from pure consumerism and disposal to sustainable utilization of goods. For example, Norway’s deposit return system encourages citizens to return 96% of glass and plastic bottles (Welch & Southerton, 2019). The U.K. introduced a five-pence fee for single-use plastic bags, which led to an 80% drop in their use (Welch & Southerton, 2019). Australia’s TravelSmart program allowed an 18% drop in private car use due to individualized travel planning and convenient car-sharing services (Welch & Southerton, 2019). These examples demonstrate that many countries changed their perspective toward environmental problems due to the right propaganda of international organizations that wanted to increase awareness of the adverse effect of over-production.
COP21 Paris Agreement for New Sustainability Policies
COP21 Paris agreement should become the foundation for new sustainability policies across the globe. This agreement provides clear guidance to mitigate climate change and prevent the adverse impact of global warming (Lesnikowski et al., 2017). There are three main reasons why the 2015 agreement can be used as the starting point for implementing new environmental strategies. First, many corporations agreed to sponsor research on solar and wind energies after the COP21 Paris conference (Manga, 2018). It means that governments should encourage private companies in their countries to invest in alternative fuels to create a better future with low greenhouse gas emissions. Second, the threat of the Northern and Southern pole ice melting became real; thus, the world needs to maintain the temperature rise at 1.50C to prevent the tragic consequences of an increase in the sea level (Ambrósio et al., 2017). Third, climate change has a negative impact on human health. Specifically, CO2 emission into the atmosphere increases patients with respiratory diseases (Eckelman & Sherman, 2018). Therefore, steps to decrease CO2 production should be taken to reduce the constant exposure of people to dangerous gases.
Chad: The Financial Incentives for Sustainability Measures in the Oil Mining
The Republic of Chad is a landlocked country in Sub-Saharan Africa with a high poverty rate due to an immature economy and unstable political situation. For example, crude oil extraction was started less than thirty years ago, between the 1990s and 2000s (Tchana Tchana et al., 2020). Moreover, the 2014 oil prices drop caused an economic recession in Chad, which started to recover only in 2018 (Owen & Sun, 2019). The complex social and political situation also complicated the country’s crisis. Specifically, more than 40% of the Chadian population lives below the poverty line (Tchana Tchana et al., 2020). Moreover, the level of corruption is higher in Chad than in other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (Owen & Sun, 2019). Still, Chad’s GDP per capita increased from $220 in the early 2000s to $670 in 2017 due to oil extraction and export (World Bank, 2019). The government of the Republic of Chad will need to implement financial policies to improve the economic situation and reduce poverty.
Improving oil revenues should help the Chadian economy to recover and grow after the COVID-19. After the 2014 oil price shock, the government developed a strategic plan to make oil mining more sustainable. The program was aimed to “reestablish debt sustainability through external commercial debt restructuring…and create space for domestic arrears payment by maintaining a tight spending envelop” (Owen & Sun, 2019, p. 33). In other words, the strict control of expenditures, debt restructuring, and external investments stabilized the economy of Chad (Owen & Sun, 2019). However, the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a global lockdown, a decrease in fossil fuel demand, and a drop in oil prices, jeopardizing Chad fiscal balances (Tchana Tchana et al., 2020). Like many other countries in this region, Chad was optimistic about the rise in economic development before the coronavirus crisis.
Despite the global crisis caused by the ongoing pandemic, Chad’s petroleum sector continues to function. Chad’s leading oil corporations produce approximately 130,000 barrels of crude oil per day (World Bank, 2019). These corporations started to use new 3D seismic and integrated basin analysis technologies to increase the oil reserve in the existing reservoirs (World Bank, 2019). Another novel method that is being tested to increase the sustainability of oil mining is the fractured basement, allowing for deeper exploration of some basins (World Bank, 2019). Introducing these methods can improve oil extraction and production efficiency, increasing export and total oil revenue. Another critical aspect of successful oil production is legislation attractive to investors. Profitable 5-year contracts to oil and gas companies for land use, exploration, and extraction ensure sufficient return on investments and prevent monopolizing these oilfields (World Bank, 2019). However, Chad’s heavy dependence on oil mining is not favorable for this country because of the strong influence of the world’s economy on oil prices, indicating the importance of developing the non-oil sector.
The Emergence of Fracking Technologies in the World
The crude oil extraction business demands more efficient technologies due to the increased need for fossil fuels worldwide; however, new techniques may be unsafe for the environment and human organisms. Hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, is a method that involves vertical and lateral drilling with the subsequent filling of the hole with water to extract natural gas that was not accessible for older techniques (Gabrys, 2017). It was introduced by the American corporation Statolind Oil in the late 1940s after the innovation of horizontal drilling technology (De Rijke, 2018). This method is considered more efficient than the previous techniques because it enables access to natural gas that is difficult to extract (Scanlan, 2017). However, environmental organizations raised concerns about the potential damage imposed by fracking on nature and people’s health.
There are several issues associated with natural gas extraction using hydraulic fracturing. The first issue is that methane escape during the process contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, raising the planet’s temperature and causing global warming (Scanlan, 2017). Furthermore, fracking causes air pollution leading to various morbidities and increased mortality in the affected areas (Gabrys, 2017). Air pollution from fracking is not regulated by the government, making the control of toxins and carcinogens released into the atmosphere impossible (Gabrys, 2017). Second, water contamination with toxic wastes is inevitable, with this extraction technique requiring about 20 million liters of water per fraction (De Rijke, 2018). Fortunately, this water is often reused after purification by reverse osmosis (De Rijke, 2018). Another damage imposed by fracking is damage to soil, causing “human-induced earthquakes” in such U.S. states as Ohio, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Colorado (Scanlan, 2017, p. 3). However, oil and gas companies argue that fracking and its ecological influence are not so dangerous for people as economic stagnation (Scanlan, 2017). Although this argument is valid, it does not consider that economic prosperity will not benefit anyone if the human race is extinct from the Earth.
Conclusion
The first part of this paper was dedicated to the COP21 Paris conference, which was the pivotal point toward important collective decisions to reduce adverse consequences of global warming. Environmental movements started to raise the climate change issue in the 1970s; however, many international conferences were inconsequential. The 2015 COP21 Paris conference had three key outcomes essential for environmental problems. First, almost all participants submitted reports to estimate pollution produced by their countries and steps to reduce it. Second, the majority of involved states agreed to maintain the global temperature rise at 1.50C. Furthermore, the world community will now strive to achieve zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2100. Third, during this conference, researchers highlighted that investments in the development of alternative energies are crucial. The COP21 agreement should be used as the foundation for sustainability actions because the adverse effect of global warming is already evident. For example, the sea level is rising due to ice melting, and people are suffering from various diseases caused by toxic gases. Since this conference gave clear goals and steps for implementation, governments should consider this document as guidance for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The second part of this paper was focused on exploring oil mining in the Republic of Chad. Chad’s economy is still immature, and the corruption level is high in this country; therefore, almost half of its population lives in poverty. Crude oil mining has started relatively recently in Chad, but the contribution of this sector to the country’s economy is significant. Chad’s dominant oil and gas corporations try to introduce novel extraction and production methods to increase oil exports. Furthermore, the government provides financial incentives for investors, allowing more extended contracts to exploit basins.
The third part was dedicated to the emergence of fracking technologies worldwide. Fracking methods allow the extraction of natural gas more efficiently, but it harms the environment. Specifically, it causes water, air, and soil pollution with toxic chemicals. It appears that the argument about sustainable use of natural resources is eternal because people want rapid economic growth. Still, they also need to remember to preserve the planet for themselves and future generations.
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