Climate Change

Since the 1800’s there has been a steady shift in long-term temperatures and weather patterns, and human activity has been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to burning fossil fuels like coal and gas. Burning fossil fuels generates greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that act like a blanket around the Earth, trapping heat and raising the temperature.

2011-2020 was the warmest decade on record, with global average temperatures reaching 1.1°C above pre-industrial levels in 2019. The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C (SR15) published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) included over 6000 scientific references by 91 authors from 40 countries. The key finding from the report was limiting global warming to 1.5°C would reduce challenging impacts on ecosystems, human health, and well-being and that a 2°C temperature increase would exacerbate extreme weather, rising sea levels, and a number of other impacts. Modeling showed that for global warming to be limited to 1.5°C, emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching ‘net zero’ around 2050.

For nearly three decades the United Nations (UN) has been bringing together almost every country for global climate summits, called COP’s, which stands for ‘Conference of the Parties’ and in that time climate change has gone from being a fringe issue to a global priority. At the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference (COP21), the Paris Agreement was drafted and adopted by 196 Parties. Its goal is to limit global warming to well below 2°C, preferably 1.5°C, compared to pre-industrial levels. To achieve this long-term temperature goal, countries aim to reach global peaking of GHG emissions as soon as possible to achieve ‘net zero’ by 2050. The Paris Agreement works on 5-year cycles of increasingly ambitious climate action and on 31st October 2021 COP26 once again brought together the Parties in Glasgow under the UK’s Presidency to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement. The two-week conference concluded with all countries agreeing to the Glasgow Climate Pact which seeks to keep 1.5°C alive and finalizes the outstanding elements of the Paris Agreement. For the first time, COP agreed on a position on phasing down unabated coal power and focus on driving action on four goals:

• Mitigation - reducing emissions

• Adaptation - helping those already affected by climate change

• Finance - enabling countries to deliver on their climate goals

• Collaboration - working together to deliver even greater action