Editorial | Hong Kong’s typhoon signals send climate change alert
Two warnings to Hong Kong within four days are one good reason to reflect on global warming and why the world is not doing enough
One swallow does not make a summer, the phrase goes – or even two swallows. Likewise, one or two extreme weather events are not necessarily the new normal for November. But two typhoon signals within four days are food for thought about the effects of global warming and climate change.
The first, for Severe Typhoon Yingxing, was the second November alert in two years, after a No 8 typhoon signal for Nalgae in 2022. That was the first such warning in November in 50 years. This time Tropical Cyclone Toraji is hot on the heels of Yingxing. They are not isolated instances of extreme or unusual weather, as with the deadly floods in Spain.
The evidence points to such events becoming more frequent. Global cooperation on global warming, including regular talks between the top climate officials of China and the United States, is therefore paramount. However, the re-election of Donald Trump as president, who pulled the US out of the Paris Agreement on climate change during his previous term in office, before President Joe Biden rejoined, has raised fresh questions about global cooperation. It has even brought fears that the US will turn its back on climate change.
Meanwhile, a long-standing split between developing nations and rich economies over the funding of initiatives related to climate change has just widened at the Cop16 summit on the conservation of biodiversity in Cali, Colombia. It is worrying that wider negotiations for nature funding were suspended after UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged “significant investment” in a fund to help safeguard biodiversity in 30 per cent of the planet by 2030.
Without a solid finance strategy, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework agreed at Cop15 faces an uncertain future, given that developed nations have fallen behind on their commitment to contribute US$20 billion annually to help developing countries with biodiversity efforts. There is a need to find a way to generate the political will to put climate change and nature conservation back on track. Otherwise global climate and biodiversity summits risk generating a lot of hot air. It is time for serious reflection, given the link between global economic activity and the health of natural ecosystems.
