The only thing that helps the earth to revolutionize is to change. Everyone has strived hard to bring a change in our society from common people to celebrities and politicians. The efforts of people for a major cause have never gone in vain. From taking baby steps to taking giant leaps; each step has influenced people to make a change accordingly.
One of the most widespread platforms used to spread a cause nowadays is social media. It only takes a few seconds to send information from one corner of the world to another. But when we talk about those ancient times when technology was not advanced, the ways of spreading the cause were either by rallies and marches by common people and/or by drafting a treaty for nations to bring about a change globally.
The significance of treaties is still prevalent in today’s time. The thing of much importance is reviewing those steps taken by governments worldwide. One of them is the Paris treaty of 2015. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) defines climate change as a shift in climate that is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity, adjusting the composition of the global atmosphere. The Paris agreement is an agreement within UNFCCC, on climate change mitigation, adaptation, and finance signed in 2016.
Human activity includes industrial pollution and other sources that produce greenhouse gases. These gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, can absorb the spectrum of infrared light and contribute to the warming of our planet, excess of it is perilous to our earth’s biodiversity. Although greenhouse gases are necessary to live as they maintain the Earth’s temperature at an optimal level to sustain life, an overabundance of them can heat the planet’s surface. Two major factors that increase greenhouse gases are the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil, and widespread deforestation. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a committee that includes more than 1,300 scientists from the United States and other countries, a temperature rise of 2.5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit over the next century is forecasted. This also means the net annual costs will boom over time as global temperatures increase. In addition to the financial burden our planet will be bearing, it will trigger a chain of catastrophic events that could wipe the entire human race, some of which are –
Desertification i.e the gradual drying of environments, which results in soil degradation and plant life extinction. Another such event is, ice caps and glaciers in Antarctica and the Arctic are slowly melting, the ocean and sea levels are slowly rising. How this works is like the air temperature increases gradually due to global warming, the ocean water expands, and glaciers, ice caps, and ice sheets melt.
Climate change has caused an increase in both the number and intensity of natural disasters. Disasters such as hurricanes, blizzards, earthquakes, tsunamis, and droughts have a destructive effect on human development by damaging a nation’s infrastructure such as houses, roads, bridges, railways, and other essential transportation systems. At times, in the case of natural disasters like floods and droughts, agriculture is wiped out and freshwater sources become contaminated. Developing and underdeveloped nations do not have the finances or the resources to protect themselves against environmental disasters or to recuperate from infrastructural damage. Slowing down climate change may decrease the number and intensity of natural disasters, but the national and international community must come up with disaster prevention and recovery plans to keep their citizens as safe as possible.
But what is the Paris agreement? The ultimate purpose of the Paris Agreement is to improve the global attitude towards climate change by creating an international network of government bodies dedicated to lowering greenhouse gas emissions. As of 2017, 195 UNFCCC members have signed the agreement, with only two countries, the US and Syria, rejecting the agreement. Starting in the year 2020, the countries have pledged to work towards the long-term goal of keeping the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C above industrial levels, ideally aiming to limit the increase to 1.5°C. Although this sounds insignificant, it would put a massive strain on food production, clean water sources, and energy production. The Paris Agreement was a tough achievement, developed with a flexible framework to allow different countries to develop their climate strategies accordingly. While it is criticized for being too lax, it is a step towards an integrated front against climate change. With reduced emission policies, a new element of taxation was added, known as climate taxes. In simple terms, big corporations and industries, the world’s biggest polluters, would be held financially accountable for their contribution to climate change.
But signing an agreement is not only the way we can mitigate climate change it should include small steps like- Carbon emission trading, this mechanism allows countries/countries with excess carbon credits to sell their credits to other countries that have not yet met their limits. Another idea is Joint contribution, this simply means allowing different nations to work together to develop sustainable projects in return for emission reduction credits.
Apart from these solutions we must try hard and reduce energy consumption, invest more in the renewable energy sector, and store carbon dioxide underground. The climate change problem needs proper mitigation through a legal framework since it has surpassed the point where it can be called a crisis. The Paris Agreement was an assurance of the necessary changes to hold countries accountable for their actions. It introduced new warning systems, emergency strategies, and risk insurance policies for natural disasters that could adversely affect the global economy. It will take four years for any country to completely withdraw from the Paris Agreement in the current scenario. This means that the United States would only be officially removed from the Agreement once the current Trump administration ends, creating a lot of uncertainty around the country’s future climate policies. If the US were to pull out of the UN’s climate body the UNFCCC – however, it could remove the agreement in just one year. Currently, there is no sign any other will follow suit.