By Mostafa Sayyadi & Michael J. Provitera
On June 5, 2024, Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, stated in an open forum quite unequivocally: “We are playing Russian roulette with our planet. We need an exit ramp off the highway to climate hell. Indeed, climate change is a global challenge to sustainable development.” An applied solution to this global challenge is a common interest point for all. This opinion article presents the key leadership lessons from past global challenges in order to better combat the climate change crisis, alleviate the suffering of those immediately affected, and build a more stable future for all.
The financial benefits of investing in fossil fuels and the preference for short-term profits over longer-term benefits are uniquely consequential; meanwhile, our planet is suffocating. As researchers and authors, ostensibly, the short-term financial benefits are not more important than the challenges that threaten human survival. Indeed, many world leaders have not yet realized the importance, seriousness, and urgency of this threat. We must care about the land as a home for survival, development, and even financial gain for all its inhabitants.
To achieve this intention, a strong will is also necessary to overcome the challenge of climate change. Further collaboration between universities and climate change-related institutions could lead to technological innovations.
These technological innovations could then create opportunities to further replace fossil fuels with clean energy alternatives such as fusion-based nuclear power and green hydrogen energy. The key leadership lessons of past global crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian war on Ukraine, are necessary to address the current climate change crisis that threatens sustainable development. This opinion article specifically highlights several of these key lessons for world.
Lesson #1: Heed Expert Opinions
Global crises have provided us with examples and given us tools that might be used to help address the ravages of climate change more effectively. People view fossil fuel production and usage differently since the Russian Federation, one of the world’s largest oil and gas producers and former providers of the same to many European communities, invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Universally, many people now understand that renewable energy must play a critical role in their respective companies’ energy landscapes. We hope that many world leaders have also learned from the COVID-19 crisis, a pandemic that killed millions of people worldwide, that we must carefully heed expert opinions. For instance, in the U.S., one of the most important statements former President Biden made in his speech at the National Governors Association’s Winter Meeting on February 25, 2021, was that “He would be willing to take the vaccine publicly as soon as Doctor Fauci says it’s safe, in an effort to boost public confidence.” Now it is also time to implement this leadership lesson for world leaders in battling the climate change crisis and make more and better use of climate change experts to help guide decisions. Expert opinions can prevent errant policies and limit catastrophic ambivalence, steering the world to extinction. For example, German leaders have heeded expert opinions, and now the outlook for renewable energy use has improved and is encouraging. Optimistically, it can be said that Germany is now on the path of accepting renewable energy sources, and the use of these sources seems much more economical compared to fossil-fuel-based energy types.
Lesson #2: Achieve Greater Sensitivity and Awareness
As we face the energy crisis today, sensitivity to environmental change has spearheaded multi-faceted reactions. COVID-19 revealed to world leaders the importance of the “Butterfly Effect,” which showed how a seemingly small phenomenon could have a profound effect on political and economic systems around the world. They are now aligning with climate remediation and adaptation policies and objectives to begin to counter the harmful effects of a changing planet on their respective constituencies. They must also become more sensitive than ever to the consequences of the global super-crisis of climate change impacting their countries.
Lesson #3: Focus on Long-Term Consequences
Focusing on long-term consequences rather than short-term gains is another important lesson for world leaders that is better understood today in the energy crisis. Many European countries, especially Germany as previously mentioned, have come to terms with the crisis, realizing the long-term dangers of dependence on Russian oil and gas through greater cooperation between companies and universities and greater investment in alternative energies. Herein, expanding cooperation between technology experts and climate change experts is also increasingly needed to expand investments in emerging and cleaner technologies. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is recognized as a critical global framework, fostering international collaboration to address the borderless issue of climate change, often incorporating feedback from technology experts and climate change experts. Through its various agreements, the UNFCCC provides a platform to work collectively to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and adapt to – and mitigate wherever possible – the changing climate, emphasizing the crucial role of global cooperation in fighting this multifaceted challenge.
Now, world leaders should also consider the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) #s7 (“Affordable and Clean Energy”) and 9 (“Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure”), which clearly indicate that leaders should formulate and develop agreements to promote and enable the production of renewable energy sources. To achieve these goals, governments can also play an important role in facilitating and expediting the transition to electric cars and banning combustion-based vehicles. Policies such as incentive policies for customers who replace their gas-powered cars with EVs can be made more prominent. According to the Dow Jones Market Watch, in May of 2024, it was reported that the price gap between electric and conventional automobiles was slowly closing. The average transaction price for electric cars was $55,242 in April 2024, vs. gas-powered vehicles at $44,989. While Tesla (TSLA) contributed to a substantial drop in EV prices as it cut prices in 2023 after it announced it below $30,000-Model 2 to be released in 2025, its CEO, Elon Musk, has now ended that strategy. And with both the EU and the US slapping hefty import taxes on a more affordable Chinese brand – BYD – one wonders when mass marketing and sales will become more feasible.
Without question, anthropogenically caused climate change has presented an existential threat to all parts of the world. As world leaders, let’s band together to hammer out a protocol, using the lessons of the past, to set the world on a better path.
