Climate change is the change in the usual weather of a place. Weather can be defined as everyday changes happening in our environment, for example, it might rain one day and sunshine the next day. This pattern of usual weather over a period of time for a particular place is termed climate. Climate change shifts the usual patterns in weather and this shift can have devastating ramifications.?
Climate changes are natural and have been occurring since the inception of our beloved Earth. But recent changes are larger in scope and scale instigated by human activities like excessive burning of fossil fuels. The fossil fuels consist of coal, oil and natural gas and when burnt they emit greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide. These greenhouse gases trap heat and prevent it from escaping the earth¡¯s atmosphere which leads to global warming.?
In today¡¯s liberal and globalised world, each sector is on the path of worsening the climate change crisis be it energy, industry, transport or agriculture. While scientists, activists and governments are looking forward to limiting the global temperature rise to no more than 1.5¡æ, the current scenario estimates a temperature increase around 3.2¡æ by the end of the century.
The path that humans are on with their greed and power having little concern for the very platform they exist on is leading each one of us to our own graveyard.
Climate change sets up extreme weather conditions that are consequential and threatening to each and every one's livelihood. Farmlands turning into deserts, wildfires becoming frequent, bleaching of corals, frequent floods, extreme heat, melting of glaciers etc. are just a glimpse of all the possibilities relating to climate change.
For the developed countries, it is relatively easy to adapt or even make changes to counter climate change but developing countries find it very difficult to maintain their position on various remedies and suggestions as unlike the self-sustainable developed nations, the developing nations have an economy to support. This bias is highly useful in politics but the reality of climate change is bigger than our mere nation-states, and if not addressed with care and consistency, the fruition of nature as an ally to humans will change.
Climate adaptation safeguards people, their homes, businesses, livelihoods, infrastructure, and natural ecosystems but to reach the point of adaptation on par with a non-deteriorating climate change is a
States and their governments have come forward to acknowledge and counter the climate change crisis. This effort¡¯s pinnacle was the Paris Climate Accords in 2015 in which limiting the global temperature to no more than 1.5¡æ (ideally) was agreed upon. The countries agreed to reduce greenhouse emissions and their progress and actions are monitored through Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), a report submitted by each country every five years.?
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is a binding international convention to counter climate change that came into effect in the year 1994. Since then UNFCCC has been instrumental in acknowledging, addressing and countering climate change.?
Today almost all countries have signed and ratified the convention making them members to the various protocols and agreements stemming from the convention.?
The Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Accords, the Glasgow Pact are a few monumental consequences of the convention that are the only real action oriented response to climate change on a global scale.?
The mechanism of the Conference of the Parties (COP) meeting every year to review and suggest changes is dogmatic in the discourse of countering climate change. The first COP meeting was held in 1995 and the latest being COP 26 held in Glasgow from which the Glasgow Pact emerged.?
Last week, the UNFCCC celebrated its 30th anniversary. The statement on the occasion read, ¡°We know collective success is only possible when the voices of individual people ¡ª people representing all genders, all generations, all sectors and all political stripes ¡ª are included in our efforts to address climate change¡±.
All of us as individuals can also contribute to countering climate change in our own capacity by changing our lifestyle to a more sustainable and efficient way of living by avoiding things that act as a factor contributing to climate change.
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