The rapid evolution and industrialization of many sectors of our planet have brought about irreversible effects on our environments and ecosystems. Human beings have a primal instinct, greed, and more times than not, it has taken its toll on the land we live on. The earth is definitely not what it used to be, our global scenario is constantly changing and so is our climate, the temperatures are rising beyond measure and causing extreme disruptions to our ecosystems. There have been records of high temperatures and heavy snow, rainfall all over the world, and all of it has stemmed from the intense greed of the human population to industrialize and profit off of the earth’s resources. Carbon Dioxide emissions have been at the frontline of the causes of climate change and global warming, there is an immense amount of heat trapped in the earth’s atmosphere.
This has resulted in the melting of the polar ice caps, which in turn is destroying the Arctic ecosystems, polar bears and arctic animals are losing their habitat and are dying due to malnutrition. If carbon emissions are not reduced it could rapidly speed up the ‘Antarctic Melt’ which would as a result start an unrelenting rise in sea levels for the years to come, which in turn would submerge most of the planet underwater. Climate change is an extremely important issue, it is also internationally recognized and the following efforts have been made by world councils to try and combat it.
The Paris Agreement is also known as the Paris Accords or the Paris Climate Accords is an international climate treaty that stated that “its goal is to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius as compared to pre-industrial levels.” This treaty was signed by nearly 200 countries at COP 21 in Paris on 12th December 2015 and was enforced on 4th November 2016. The overall aim of the agreement was to achieve a ‘Climate Neutral World’.
This was the first time so many governments and countries had aligned on a single thought and was marked as a monumental moment in the fight against climate change.
All the countries present there decided to meet every five years to re-evaluate and update their goals in order to fit the current world scenarios after screening the carbon emission levels.
And then came COP 26
The Glasgow Climate Pact (COP26)
This summit was held in Glasgow but was held a year later as a result of the pandemic. They had intense discussions as a follow-up to the previous COP, carbon emissions had not reduced as they were required to and there was a dire sense of urgency relating to the future of the climate protocols. They recognized that the effects of climate change could be felt in every region and the pre-determined carbon budgets were depleted.
The Glasgow climate pact urged the countries to put forward stronger and more concrete plans in the next year rather than 2025. Overall they recognized the need to act quickly if they wanted any chance of keeping the world healthy.
COP26 also announced the hosts of COP27 and COP28 which are Egypt and The United Arab Emirates respectively.
Even though there are steps being taken by all the worlds governments and leaders to try and curb climate change, there are always people who shun it and believe that climate change is a hoax and a political ruse. Many industries do not buy into environmental restrictions and guidelines and continue to exercise deteriorating methods in order to gain profits. This is the main problem, the world isn’t going to get any better if the people living in it do not want it to.
References
1 – Unfccc.int. (2020). The Paris Agreement | UNFCCC. [online] Available at: https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement.
2 – Nations, U. (2020). COP26: Together for our planet | United Nations. [online] United Nations. Available at: https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/cop26
My BCM workshop 