Weeks ago, an academic friend asked me to chair a moot panel on Climate Change on a date that I meant to travel for leisure. I taught International Environmental Law before, was interviewed on television during the Gulf War (1991-1992) and have collaborated with my Shenzhen friends to raise public awareness on Climate Change via audio-visual means. So I agreed to play the role, updating myself on the developments during the preparation and hearing process.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 1992 and its Kyoto Protocol 1998, regulate the relationship between human activity and the natural environment. As a global hot topic, it has the inherent political-legal, economic-financial, and development-business controversies. Whereas international standards and norms are made top down, the regime of the Paris Agreement 2015 on Climate Change is bottom-up.
All Parties to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change have to put forward their best Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and strengthen their efforts in future. They have to report regularly on their greenhouse gas emissions and implementation results. A five-year global stocktake would not only measure the collective progress in achieving the common mission, but also inform individual Parties what further actions to take.
China is also big in greenhouse gas emissions. Although Hong Kong, China, is politically, economically, socially and environmentally small, I believe Hongkongers, as part of the global response, can contribute on certain fronts like environmental integrity, data transparency and robust accounting. Minimizing the scale and adverse impact of Climate Change timely is conducive to sustainable development for generations to come!