16 COLUMN

@ green | April-May, 2025

It is a time of immense technological advancement, environmental pressures, social shifts, economic inequalities, and geopolitical complexities

‘ The Times They Are a-Changin’ is one of Bob Dylan’ s most iconic songs. It was released in 1964 and became an anthem for social change. Dylan wrote the song in late 1963 and early 1964, seemingly concerned by the tumultuous social and political upheavals occurring in the United States and around the world.

Fast forward 60 years later, and it seems the lyrics continue to resonate with the reality of the world we live in today.

THE REALITY

The world we live in today is diverse and interconnected in many key areas. It is a time of immense technological advancement, environmental pressures, social shifts, economic inequalities, and geopolitical complexities. While offering unprecedented connectivity and opportunities for collaboration, our world is also subject to significant risks like climate change, armed conflict, and social unrest.

With all the interconnectivity and interdependencies that exist across the globe, it would be expected that peace, economic stability and the management and mitigation of risks associated with the long-term existence of humankind on Earth would be the priorities. The expectation would be that critical decisions made and executed by the developed economies would take account of their long-term consequences and global effects.

The Reality: Speed, insular approaches, prioritisation of populist policies( instead of sensible economics being used as a basis), and flip-flopping in critical decisions without consideration of the broader effects are collectively

Founder and managing director of Hibiscus Petroleum. introducing systematic and longterm risks into an already unstable world.

CLIMATE CHANGE: PARIS 2015

The basis on which the climate change agenda was developed and implemented was never economically sound. It relied on commitments made in the Paris Agreement by almost 198 countries. The agreement was adopted on Dec 12, 2015, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference( COP21) in Paris, France. It entered into force on Nov 4, 2016. This agreement, a legally binding international treaty on climate change, centred around the goal of limiting global temperature increase to well below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The Paris Agreement was open for signature on Apr 22, 2016, Earth Day, at the UN Headquarters in New York.

A special ceremony marked the first day the agreement was open for signature, with 175 countries signing. The United States of America( US) and China signed the Paris Agreement on the first day. This was a significant event, as they were the first major emitters of greenhouse gases to join the agreement officially. The US ratified their adoption of the Paris Agreement on Sep 3, 2016, during the Obama administration.

CLIMATE CHANGE: US 2017- 2024

Less than a year after the US ratified its adoption of the Paris Agreement, President Donald Trump announced his intention to withdraw from the treaty in June 2017, arguing it was unfair to the US economy. The US then formally withdrew on Nov 4, 2020, making it the only country to have officially exited the agreement at that time.

When Republican President Trump failed to be re-elected for a second term in an election won by Democrat candidate President

Joe Biden, the US officially rejoined the Paris Agreement on Feb 19, 2021. This was 107 days after the Trump First Withdrawal took effect.

Under the Biden Administration, the US Congress approved the Inflation Reduction Act( IRA) of 2022, combining the objectives of reducing domestic inflation- notably brought by the global energy crisis- while tackling climate change. A key stated goal of the IRA was to reduce carbon emissions by around 40 per cent by 2030.

The IRA included a combination of grants, loans, tax provisions and other incentives to accelerate the deployment of clean energy, clean vehicles, clean buildings and clean manufacturing. This included investments in deploying clean energy, expanding the electricity grid, developing domestic clean technology manufacturing, incentivising uptake of electric vehicles, reducing methane emissions, increasing the efficiency of buildings, improving the climate resilience of communities, and other areas.

In total, around US $ 370 billion was to be disbursed for measures dedicated to improving energy security and accelerating the transition to clean energy. But the pendulum continued to oscillate. Vice President Kamala Harris replaced Biden as the Democratic Party presidential candidate for the 2024 US election. She failed to be elected as president, and she handed over the baton once again to Trump.

CLIMATE CHANGE: US 2025

On Jan 20, 2025, shortly after his second inauguration, Trump signed an executive order titled“ Putting America First In International Environmental Agreements”, withdrawing the US from the Paris Agreement for a second time. The climate change movement was in dismay and disarray. No country had exited the decade-old Paris Agreement once, let alone twice. A leading polluter was seen to be publicly withdrawing from a global climate crusade. Commercial considerations seem to have taken precedence over moral obligations.

Action invoked by Trump on his second day in office cast doubt on the future of the IRA as well. Trump ordered“ all federal agencies to immediately pause the disbursement of funds under the IRA”, and through his executive orders, the president issued a directive to cease financial support