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* Did G20 learn lessons from Delta variant?4
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(December 12, 2025) 2025 ends with uncertainty on climate action More people are now aware that more natural disasters caused by global warming are seriously affecting human society’s well-being and sustainability. But, the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Brazil last month did not turn past promises into concrete results on the ground as expected.   The conference is commonly known as COP30, which stands for the 30th Conference of the Parties, serving as the formal meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) parties and a vital platform for advancing solutions to the climate crisis and reinforcing the collective commitment to a sustainable future. It was billed by many as the “implementation COP,” but eventually COP30 did not significantly move us closer to a safer future.   For example, all countries were expected to submit an updated climate plan, which is known as a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), showing how they would help keep global warming limited to below 2 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels, and pursue efforts to keep it to 1.5 degrees, the goal outlined in the 2015 Paris Agreement. Although several major economies, including Brazil, Japan, Norway, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the European Union submitted stronger climate plans, some of the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters have not finalized their plans or have announced targets that fall far short of what science says is needed.   The annual Global Carbon Budget Report was published on November 13 as countries met for COP30 climate talks. An international team of scientists found that the emissions of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels would be 1.1 percent higher in 2025 than a year ago. The overall figure is due to reach a record of 38.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide, hitting a new high in history. It warns that curbing global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius would be essentially “impossible,” according to the report.   However, even though more than 80 countries had been pushing for the COP30 final agreement to include explicit reference to fossil fuels, including a roadmap to transition away from energy sources such as coal, oil, and gas, objections from some other countries won out with the final agreement avoiding mention of a shift away from fossil fuels.   Similarly, while more than 90 countries supported the inclusion of a binding roadmap to halt and reverse deforestation, the final text of the COP30 agreement included only the recognition of a need to halt and reverse forest loss, without any mandatory commitments.   The COP30’s Brazil presidency committed to create a science-based roadmap on the transition away from fossil fuels and halting deforestation over the next year, but these would be voluntary and sit outside of the UN system.   In fact, it is international scientific consensus that, in order to prevent the worst climate damages, global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030 and reach net zero, which means emissions and removals are in balance, by 2050. A Shift away from fossil fuels is considered as one of the most important measures to significantly reduce global carbon dioxide emissions. Deforestation is hurting the planet’s ability to naturally remove carbon dioxide. The planet will keep heating for as long as global emissions remain more than zero. Climate damages, caused by global heating, will continue escalating for as long as emissions continue.   Our Pacific island community has reaffirmed for many times at the Pacific Islands Forum that the “2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent” is the region’s collective commitment to a resilient Pacific, and climate change continues to be a matter of priority. Ahead of COP30, many representatives from Pacific countries were optimistic about the progress that the conference would make since the international Court of Justice (ICJ) just issued its advisory opinion on climate obligations this July.   The advisory opinion said countries could be in violation of international law if they fail to take measures to protect the planet from climate change and nations harmed by the effects could be entitled to reparations. The case was actually initiated by a group of students from the University of South Pacific in Vanuatu and backed by more than 130 countries. After years of lobbying by island nations who fear they could disappear under rising sea waters, the UN General Assembly asked the ICJ for an advisory opinion in 2023. In July, 2025, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the historic advisory opinion and said “Young Pacific islanders initiated this call for humanity to the world. And the world must respond.”   Unfortunately, the COP30 results remind us that we can not solely rely on the ICJ document to hold certain countries to account and promote global climate action. As what is still happening in Ukraine, Russia has not stopped its aggression and invasion to Ukraine at all since February 2022, even though the Pre-Trial Chamber of the UN-backed International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin in March 2023.   Mr. Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu’s minister for climate change, has actually described the broader context as “a period of geopolitical upheaval” where militarization is rising, aid spending is falling, and international law is often disregarded, when he talked to the media before COP30.   Since conflicts have been reported in many different parts of the world, Pope Leo XIV has warned in his first overseas trip last month that World War Three is already fought and the future of humanity is at stake. He emphasized that “ambitions and choices that trample on justice and peace” were throwing the world into chaos. He wanted to urge peace for the world and encourage people of different backgrounds to live together in harmony, So, all Pacific islanders must work together to strongly call for de-escalating all tensions emerging in any parts of the world. We have to promote dialogues to resolve problems and avoid conflicts. Any attempts trying to unilaterally change the stable and peaceful status quo around the world should not be acceptable by our Pacific island community.   The only good news from COP30 seems to be a pledge to triple finance for adaptation to climate change, increasing from around $40 billion to $120 billion per year by 2035. It’s part of a larger goal to reach $1.3 trillion in total climate finance yearly by then, alongside operationalizing the Loss & Damage Fund for those most affected and establishing a Just Transition Mechanism, which would support the protection of workers and communities as countries shift to clean energy and a climate-resilient future. Our Pacific island community certainly welcomes the global financial mechanism helping vulnerable countries’ climate mitigation and adaptation. We need to keep following up the progress of the mechanism and ensure the fund will be rapidly raised and the financial aids will be well allocated and used to strengthen climate resilience across the Pacific as soon as possible. http://www.hsvg.org/hot_527443.html * 2025 ends with uncertainty on climate action 2025-12-12 2026-12-12
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Home ﹥ News > News > * Did G20 learn lessons from Delta variant?

(01/17/2022)

Did G20 learn lessons from the Delta?



When the world welcomed 2022, many people were actually calling the new year “pandemic year 3.” If we have had it enough and do not want “pandemic year 4,” year 5 or year 6, let’s encourage Indonesian government step forward with its Group of 20 (G20) presidency to call for an international campaign helping people around the globe fearlessly live with the coronavirus and adopt the new normal as soon as possible.


Quite a number of public health experts had advised before COVID vaccines became available that the human society was inevitably going to live with the coronavirus for a while and only sustainable measures would help everybody get through the pandemic. Unfortunately, most governments , with certain high-profile scientists and celebrities, put so much faith in lockdowns and looked forward to seeing COVID vaccines would work perfectly like a silver bullet even though, at that time, almost every vaccine developer was apparently targeting at lowering the numbers of severe patients and death victims instead of guaranteeing no infections after getting vaccinated.


The Delta variant’s attack last summer was a wake-up call. Many countries, after enjoying reopening and sort of returning to normal brought by successful vaccine rollouts, experienced the Delta variant of the coronavirus caused a new wave of case surge, made hospitals overwhelmed again, and, sadly, took many people’s lives. It was the time that people started being familiar with a term called “breakthrough infections.”


For example, Singapore surprisingly reported 28,901 new infections and 40 deaths in September 2021 after the vaccination rate was beyond 80%. Their COVID death number was zero in September 2020 when there was no CIVID vaccine at all. The epidemiological investigation and laboratory results concluded the changed situation was mainly caused by the Delta variant.


Singapore was not the only place having a bad September last year. As of 31 August 2021, 80.43% of the residents 12 years and older were fully vaccinated, but Guam, an US island territory in the Pacific reported 47 COVID-related fatalities in September 2021. The figure was higher than the death number of 39 reported in September 2020 when no vaccine was available at that time.


With almost the same land size, Guam is home of less than 200 thousand residents and Singapore has a population of 5.7 million. It means the highly-contagious Delta variant was influencing everywhere, no matter a busy and crowded city or a relaxed and rural place. In addition, obviously, vaccines alone are not suppressing the coronavirus. Europe’s experience reminded that nobody should drop his/her guard even thought the population reached a high vaccination rate.


European Union has been leading its member states to keep precautions and try reopening in a gradual way. The continent has maintained a basically downward curve of infections as well as hospitalizations and deaths since its successful vaccine rollouts in association with well-managed medical capacity, even though the Delta variant did make a noticeable, but not really harmful, spike.


However, it seemed that most parts of the world did not learn lessons from the Delta and implement proper measures when the Omicron came. The World Health Organization did not wait for sufficient morbidity and fatality data to be collected. Its warning message on the Omicron variant released late November last year triggered many countries’ panicked decisions of tightening COVID restrictions. It’s sad that South Africa’s variant identification efforts, which should have been appreciated, made its people punished by the almost worldwide travel ban.


The wait wasn’t even long. Before last Christmas, at least three scientific researches caught the media’s attention and proved the Omicron variant may be much more contagious but it’s mostly causing mild cases. However, the chaos has hurt people. For example, Guam, which finally saw a little bit tourism recovery last November, immediately suffered from more than 5000 travel booking cancellations right after the Omicron panic widely spread.


More variants will definitely come and we definitely do not want more chaos. While the Omicron has shown the new variants in the future are very likely to be less lethal and the COVID vaccines are actually promisingly reducing severe cases, plus the antiviral medicines are available, the whole world really needs a leadership that urges every jurisdiction to guide people fearlessly living with the virus by using more appropriate strategies to respond to every emerging variant.


Let’s try to recall whether the system was encouraging people to get tested during the flu season to try to contain flu viruses. Were we worried so much when we experienced flu-like symptoms or got diagnosed as having flu? Wasn’t the goal of flu control to avoid severe complications and save people’s lives? The best tools helping us achieve the goal are always personal hygiene and flu vaccines although so-called “breakthrough infections” did happen to flu vaccines as well.


COVID is not flu, but flu control experience could apply to COVID response, especially to the current situation of “pandemic year 3,” a year that G20 presidency returns to Asia, where people totally have no issue with wearing a mask and helped prove this measure could effectively prevent COVID spread. Indonesian government needs to work with its G20 partners and make history.


(Published in The Jakarta Post on January 11, 2022)


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