Immediate Action Needed To Combat Climate Change

Climate change and global warming pose a major threat to the sustainability of the earth. As a recent United Nations report notes, rising greenhouse gas emissions and climate change are occurring at rates much faster than anticipated.
“While there are positive steps in terms of the climate finance flows and the development of nationally determined contributions, far more ambitious plans and accelerated action are needed on mitigation and adaptation.” The UN report notes. “Access to finance and strengthened capacities need to be scaled up at a much faster rate, particularly for least developed countries and small island developing states.”
According to the UN, increasing greenhouse gas emissions are driving climate change. In 2017, greenhouse gas concentrations reached new highs, with globally averaged mole fractions of CO2 at 405.5 parts per million (ppm), an increase from 400.1 ppm in 2015. This level represents a 146 percent over pre-industrial levels. Looking ahead toward 2030 emission rapid reductions are needed.
Progress is being made toward a unified global effort on climate change. To date, 185 parties have ratified the Paris Agreement, which brings all nations together to combat climate change and adapt to its effects, with enhanced support to assist developing countries to do so.
Parties to the Paris Agreement are expected to prepare, communicate and maintain successive nationally determined contributions, and 183 parties had communicated their first nationally determined contributions to the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Under the agreement, all parties are required to submit new nationally determined contributions, containing revised and much more ambitious targets, by 2020.
“Climate change doesn’t care if we’re left wing, right wing, or in the center,” says Patricia Espinosa, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary. “It doesn’t care who is prime minister of what country, whether you were born in this generation or the last, what your race is, or how much money you make. It’s coming all the same. It’s already here. And it’s a global emergency.”
Espinosa says all global stakeholders need to re-double their efforts to combat climate change: “2020 must be the year we collectively show—through concrete action—that we are truly committed to build a healthier, safer, more sustainable and resilient future for all people.”
Posted: February 28, 2020 by admin Leave a Comment
Ensuring More Sustainable Production and Consumption
Ensuring sustainable consumption and production requires a commitment to resource and energy efficiency, investments in infrastructure, and better access to basic services and jobs.
Goal 12 of the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs) addresses complex problems, ranging from population growth to diminishing natural resources. The UN notes that if the global population reaches 9.6 billion by 2050, the equivalent of almost three Earths would be required to provide the natural resources needed to sustain current lifestyles.
Water, energy, and food three areas that will be pivotal in helping the UN – and the world – make progress toward the targets set for Goal 12 by 2030.
Less than 3 percent of the world’s water is fresh and drinkable, and most of that is frozen in Antarctica and the Arctic and glaciers. While humans must rely on less than 1 percent of all the water on the planet, pollution continues to foul rivers and lakes faster than nature can recycle and purify. What’s more, the UN reports, more than one billion already lack access to fresh water. While water is free from nature, the infrastructure needed to deliver it and purify it is expensive.
Energy presents another challenge. According to the UN, despite technological advances that have promoted energy efficiency, demand continues to grow. In fact, commercial and residential energy use is the second most rapidly growing area of global energy consumption. The fastest growing demand sector is fuel for transportation. According to the UN, A 32 percent increase in vehicle ownership is expected by 2020, and global air travel is projected to triple during the same period.
Food and energy consumption are tied together, too. As the UN report notes, The food sector accounts for around 30 percent of the world’s total energy consumption and about 22 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions.
Waste is big problem, too. Each year, an estimated one-third of all food produced – equivalent to 1.3 billion tons worth around $1 trillion – ends up rotting in the bins of consumers and retailers, or spoiling because of poor transportation and harvesting practices
More attention is also needed to combat land degradation, declining soil fertility, water use, overfishing and pollution of marine environment. The overall goal is to increase the ability of the natural resource base to supply enough food to feed a growing world population.