Climate Change in 2021

What is climate change?

Climate change is the change in the weather conditions usually found in a certain place. Unfortunately, the Earth’s climate is changing continuously over years and this change includes temperatures and rainfall. Obviously, Earth’s climate is getting warmer in general and this is the biggest challenge for humanity for it has many bad effects on nature.

Why is climate changing?

The world’s climate is noticeably changing for many reasons. The main reason for that is the greenhouse effect due to human activities. What is happening is that some sunrays are trapped in the Earth’s atmosphere because of carbon dioxide. More heat is retained and as a result, temperature rises. This is called global warming.

Making electricity, burning gas and coal, driving cars, and industries cause CO2 emissions which stay in the atmosphere for years. Additionally, cutting down trees, animal farms and agriculture add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are rising continuously and that is why it is a serious problem. Limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees is the target and this requires great changes and procedures all countries should carry out. Volcanic eruptions and sunspots are natural factors which also contribute to rising the Erath’s temperature.

2020 is recorded as the hottest year, and that caused several wildfires in the world like the ones happened in the USA and Australia. The heatwave also melted sea ice in Siberia and the arctic freeze was delayed two months.

Climate change in 2021

2021 is a ‘make or break’ moment as Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General thinks. Back in 2015, many countries in the world gathered in Paris and agreed on the necessity of taking serious action to control CO2 emission. Guterres explained that all the global efforts and plans over the past few years are not enough. More efforts should be the priority before a climate catastrophe happens. They decided to meet every five years in a climate conference to continue discussing ways for reducing CO2 to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 C. Due to covid19 restrictions, the conference in Glasgow 2020 was put off till November 2021. This will be a great chance to check countries’ plans and targets.

Several countries have already declared an unconditional commitment to go carbon neutral. Surprisingly, China which is the most polluting country on Earth was the first to announce that followed by many others like the UK, Japan and South Korea. The total number of the countries which will cut carbon activities is now 110 countries, the UN estimated. Details about this point will be discussed further in Glasgow, 2021.

Many countries are planning now to go green. They are planning to use renewable energy sources like wind or solar energy. This reduces carbonization significantly. In fact, the main reason is not to reduce CO2, but it is because renewables are much cheaper than fossil fuel or building new electricity stations. Governments’ investments will help start the process. Businesses also started to think similarly. For example, Tesla, the car company is more valuable now.

Glasgow conference 2021 will introduce ambition as well as certain policies for CO2 emission reduction. Participant countries will need to sign up to them. In spite of covid19, the UN is determined to continue the way to Glasgow and enable virtual negotiations between countries. Serious strategies and credible plans need to get in place to achieve aspirations and guarantee a transition to a carbon-free world before the climate reaches a point of no return.

Keywords: Climate Change, what is climate change? Climate change in 2021