{"id":1773,"date":"2019-01-16T18:00:03","date_gmt":"2019-01-16T18:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/johannaomolofoundation.org\/Africa\/?p=1773"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:16","slug":"combating-climate-change-hope-lies-ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2019\/01\/16\/combating-climate-change-hope-lies-ahead\/","title":{"rendered":"Combating Climate Change: Hope Lies Ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"

What does 2019 have in store for the global climate?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Weather patterns in countries around the world caught many by surprise. Kenya, for example, usually starts of the year with high temperatures. Surprisingly we have had a bit of light showers, cloudy skies and some chilly breeze. This is just an\u00a0example\u00a0of the manifestations of climate change we will be experiencing, all caused by human activities.<\/p>\n

The Reality<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Not only weather patterns have changed over the decade. Sea levels have been rising, glaciers have been melting and greenhouse emissions are at the highest level in history. 2018 recorded extreme weather occurrences globally,\u00a0from wildfires in the US, typhoons in South East Asia to drought in the UK and heat waves in Northern hemisphere that caused\u00a0wildfires in Sweden. Scientists went ahead to call for curbing measures warning that the temperature\u00a0is steadily rising. The heat wave was the fourth hottest wave ever recorded. Climate change has spared no country. The effects being felt by people\u00a0across the globe, leading\u00a0to\u00a0disrupted national economies,\u00a0rise in\u00a0cost of living that is still costing both communities and countries.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change<\/a>\u00a0recently released a report\u00a0signalling that we have 12 years to mitigate climate change. The report tried to weigh what it would look like for us if temperatures rose to 1.5C. Nevertheless, the urgency of why we should maintain the global warming temperatures below 1.5C. seems to have not been grasped yet. As an individual, you will not notice\u00a0the drastic change of temperature. However, the changes\u00a0soon will be felt widely.\u00a0It will further exhibit the mass die-off of coral reefs, rise in sea levels, extinction of some species both on land and in water and in some cases cause an\u00a0increase certain species<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Steps\u00a0taken to Mitigate and Adapt to Climate Change.<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Nevertheless, not all is doom and gloom, and most of the time the negative news on sustainability overshadows the positive happenings. Since 2015, global leaders have been\u00a0working on achieving sustainability on 17 different pillars, framed as the\u00a0Sustainable Development Goals. SDG 13:\u00a0Climate Action\u00a0showcases combatting climate change, so that our planet may incur fewer pessimistic impacts on frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, on\u00a0security of resources, ecosystems, biodiversity, food security just to mention a few.<\/p>\n

To further put SDG 13 into action, all countries globally signed the Paris Agreement at COP21 in 2016. At that time, countriesagreed to limit the global temperatures below 2 degrees Celsius. When\u00a0President Trump decided\u00a0to withdraw\u00a0from the Paris\u00a0<\/a>agreement<\/u><\/a>\u00a02017<\/a>\u00a0<\/u>it\u00a0was, and still is, feared that his actions may in the future affect the achievement of SDG 13 due to the USA\u2019s dominance in the\u00a0world economy, particularly in the manufacturing sector. The industrious country has\u00a0recorded high Co2 gas emissions<\/a>\u00a0this year after three years of decline.<\/p>\n

Despite the fact that Trump withdrew from the Agreement and the countries\u2019 emissions increased, his actions caused a reverse effect and did not stop various states from implementing policies to help mitigate and adapt to climate change. U.S leaders came together to form the U.S Climate Alliance after President Trump\u2019s withdrawal from the Paris agreement to continue upholding the objectives of the 2015 agreement.<\/p>\n

But not only leaders in America have taken action.\u00a0Last year, China showed the world that they are determined to reach the targets, as they took a\u00a0huge step\u00a0by deploying\u00a060,000 military personnel to reforest land<\/a>\u00a0on 6.66 million hectares of land. This was in addition to the reforestation of 338,00 square\u00a0kilometres reforested in the past 5 years.<\/p>\n

\"\"Costa Rica took a\u00a0progressive step<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0by being the first country worldwide that committed to\u00a0become completely carbon-neutral by 2021, in addition to the fact that the country has been running on renewable energy sources for 99% since 2014. New York plans to\u00a0divest its pension funds from fossil fuels<\/a>\u00a0to pull $5 Billion on investments from oil, gas and coal.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Israel pledged to\u00a0<\/a>eliminate\u00a0the usage of coal, gasoline and diesel<\/a>\u00a0by 2030. The Energy Minister citing that within 12 years Israel will be fully relying on natural gas.<\/p>\n

The pace of quickening adaptation efforts is increasing at a fast rate. The world has shown that it has the technology needed to combat climate change and the combination of wind and solar energy to pass 1000 gigawatts equivalent to 1600 Coal plants induces the certainty of this conclusion.<\/p>\n

In Africa progress has been made on climate change mitigation. Here in Kenya, county governments such as Machakos County have integrated the adaptation measure into the County Government Development Plan creating awareness to the community on the importance of mitigating and adapting to climate change.<\/p>\n

It is\u00a0clear that economical scalable solutions exist to enable countries to take a step\u00a0toward achieving resilient and low-carbon economies. Therefore, despite the\u00a0setbacks and the negative news that dominates the headlines,we should not lose focus on the positive things that are happening out there. Let\u2019s make\u00a02019 the year that we focus on that, and keep striving to make things better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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