17/01/2010
Halting Global Warming and Climate Change
At the start of a new year and indeed a new decade it is crucial that we look at what has been achieved in the past ten years with regards to halting Global Warming and Climate Change.
Sadly, if like me you read the newspapers and watched the television news reels relating to the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Summit, there is no doubt that you will be aware of the chaos and disarray that emerged from the summit.
Analysing what was agreed at the Copenhagen Climate Summit, it was concluded that to avoid a climate change of catastrophic proportions the global temperature must not rise above 2C which will require a cut of 50 per cent of greenhouse gasses by 2050. China however, was not happy with this so, an alternative agreement was issued stating that ‘deep cuts’ would be made in accordance with science.
Also removed in favour of a more lenient approach was a legally binding target on greenhouse gas emissions which applied to rich nations, these will now set their own targets, which must be submitted by February 2010, developing countries have also been asked to reduce emissions for the first time.
To finance the whole operation it was agreed that an initial £6 billion would be made available by the richer countries to assist the poorer countries to protect themselves against drought and floods over the next three years and Britain has promised to be a major contributor towards this. It is planned that by 2020 the world will allocate up to $100 billion a year through a ‘Copenhagen Green Climate Fund’ which will also assist the developing world to halt deforestation and introduce greener technology.
So, how committed are we to all this and is the Copenhagen Accord legally binding? The answer is no it simply is a political agreement but it does appear that there is a hard core groundswell of good intent by a number of countries in the West and we have to hope that they will not be deflected from their good intentions by other financial and political influences.
Not only do Governments have a part to play but citizens and businesses need to do all that they can to ensure that future generations will be encouraged by the actions being taken now.
Have the last ten years made a difference, I do believe they have we are now all more aware of the damages which have been caused by careless waste disposal and greenhouse gas emissions, and if we continue to do our best to recycle our waste and to reduce our emissions, the final result could indeed be massive.
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