{"id":6425,"date":"2019-11-07T08:21:16","date_gmt":"2019-11-07T05:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=6425"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:40","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:40","slug":"how-small-states-can-cut-their-carbon-emissions-to-net-zero-wales-has-already-started","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2019\/11\/07\/how-small-states-can-cut-their-carbon-emissions-to-net-zero-wales-has-already-started\/","title":{"rendered":"How Small States Can Cut Their Carbon Emissions To Net Zero \u2013 Wales Has Already Started"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>By Filippos Proedrou<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Efforts to tackle climate change often focus on\ninternational agreements and the actions of large countries such as the US and\nChina. But most of the world\u2019s countries or autonomous states have fewer than\n10m people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What happens in small states is critical to the world\u2019s\ntransition to low-carbon energy. This isn\u2019t necessarily because of the amount\nof emissions small states can cut (although that is important). Instead,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/chapter\/10.1007\/978-3-319-93360-3_4\">their\npolicies<\/a>&nbsp;can help develop the renewable energy infrastructure the\nwhole world needs, and send important signals to other governments, private\ninvestors and the general population about how the fight against climate change\nis developing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Welsh government&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-wales-48583917\">recently became<\/a>&nbsp;the\nlatest small state authority to announce an ambition to become carbon neutral\nby 2050. Looking at what Wales is already doing and what it still needs to do\nto reach its carbon targets can provide some useful lessons for other small\nstates hoping to decarbonise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">First, Wales has not just an ambitious target but also a\nunique legislative framework for climate policy through the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/futuregenerations.wales\/about-us\/future-generations-act\/\">Well-being\nof Futures Generation (Wales) Act 2015<\/a>. This act emphasises the value of\npreventing problems from occurring rather than addressing them after they\nemerge. It aims to&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www2.euromemorandum.eu\/uploads\/proedrou_a_public_policy_approach_to_climate_policy_the_case_for_a_de_centralized_model_of_energy_transition.pdf\">merge\npolicy issues<\/a>, such as public health, climate change and economic\nprosperity, and mandates that all policy must contribute to sustainability and\nnot undermine long-term goals. And it says people must be seen as part of the\nsolution to climate change, not part of the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/how-small-states-can-cut-their-carbon-emissions-to-net-zero-wales-has-already-started-126049\">Read\nmore\u2026<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Filippos Proedrou Efforts to tackle climate change often focus on international agreements and the actions of large countries such as the US and China. But most of the world\u2019s&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}