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By Laurie Goering [[link removed]] | Climate Change Editor

Pakistan promises - or action?

Many of the world’s biggest democracies are holding elections this year – and climate change pledges, finally, are taking up more space in party platforms [[link removed]], particularly in climate-vulnerable countries already feeling the pain of a hotter world.

After catastrophic flooding in 2022, which left a third of the country underwater and raised fears about future climate impacts, the frontrunners for Thursday’s general election in Pakistan are promising measures ranging from boosting renewable energy to investing in early warning systems for floods and heatwaves.

One party president described climate change as a “development, economic, human and national security issue”. The World Bank has warned failure to act on climate impacts could shave a fifth off Pakistan’s GDP.

But are the political promises of action genuine? Pakistan’s renewable energy push is lagging and the power to adapt the country’s crucial agriculture, and its water, energy and transport systems lies largely in provincial rather than national hands, analysts told correspondent Waqar Mustafa.

A man pulls his animals while others go to salvage their belongings amid rising flood water, following rains and floods during the monsoon season on the outskirts of Bhan Syedabad, Pakistan September 8, 2022. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro

(Still) not the top worry

Indonesia – one of the world’s bigger climate polluters but also home to big stands of carbon-absorbing rainforests – is also holding elections this month, on Feb. 14.

There, too, candidates are talking about the urgent risks posed by climate change – a change from previous elections [[link removed]], writes our correspondent Michael S. Taylor.

“All three candidates have mentioned climate goals, which shows that climate change is not a polarising issue,” said Tiza Mafira, director of the Climate Policy Initiative think-tank.

But the plans presented so far to address the problem lack detail and ambition, say critics, including young Indonesian climate activists, many of whom will be first-time voters.

Analysts say one problem is that many political candidates in the Southeast Asian nation, the world’s biggest palm oil producer, have or develop close ties with natural resources companies to finance their political ambitions – which can influence their climate and economic policies.

And then there’s the reality facing many green-minded politicians around the world: Even faced with hard-to-ignore evidence of surging climate risks, many voters will still cast their ballots on the issues that affect them most today, particularly the economy and jobs.

Aeshnina Azzahra Aqilani discusses the letters with students from Muhammadiyah 1 Wringinanom elementary school, Gresik, Indonesia on January 13, 2024. Thomson Reuters Foundation/Asad Asnawi

Less gas, fewer jobs?

Jobs will be a big issue in U.S. elections later this year as well, and President Joe Biden’s move to “pause” expansion of fossil fuel gas export permits [[link removed]] may have an impact on those, our correspondent Carey L. Biron reports.

The U.S. last year overtook Qatar as the world’s largest gas exporter – a move at odds with both global climate goals and the pledges countries made at COP28 to begin transitioning away from fossil fuels, with the richest polluters going first. Many more U.S. export terminals are in the pipeline.

Biden’s pause, which aims in part to consider that inconsistency, has made some residents on the southern coast of Louisiana happy that nearby massive gas plants, with their flaring and other pollution, won’t be expanding. But others say the new facilities could have created much-needed jobs.

“This is a metro area that is really struggling right now” after being hit by four major disasters in recent years, including Hurricane Laura in 2020 and Hurricane Ida in 2021, said Loren C. Scott, an emeritus economics professor at Louisiana State University.

But climate change, driven by fossil fuel use, is of course making such disasters worse as warming oceans drive worsening storms. Bigger disasters in turn have their own rising costs, which can threaten economies, jobs and homes, while investment in clean energy carries fewer risks, analysts say.

Just ask the residents of wildfire-flattened Paradise [[link removed]], California, who face soaring insurance premiums, rising rebuilding costs and uncertainty about the future value of their properties in a wildfire risk zone, which is pushing many to think of leaving for good.

See you down the road!

Laurie

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No ambition: Youth bemoan green pledges ahead of Indonesia poll [[link removed]]

Ahead of presidential elections in Indonesia, environmentalists say the candidates have failed to outline clear green policies

As Pakistan votes, farmers want climate change action - not words [[link removed]]

Pakistan's parties are promising climate action ahead of Thursday's election, but will they deliver for those most at risk?

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