Written by: Ashlyn Rodrigues
Climate change is the long-term shift in temperatures and weather patterns. These shifts can be natural, but unfortunately they are mainly caused by humans. The biggest problem is when fossil fuels are burned; they generate greenhouse gas emissions that surround the Earth, trap the sun’s heat and raise temperatures. Climate change is getting worse every year, and if we don’t take action it will be too late to reverse the damage. But there is some good news. Many countries, including Canada, have been working to try and fight climate change.
Firstly, Justin Trudeau’s initial plan to reduce Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions was to cut emissions by 36% by 2030. But his new target now is to try and cut emissions by 40-45% by 2030, which is 4-9% higher than the original goal. Canada has also promised to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. Net-zero emissions means that our economy will either emit no greenhouse gases at all, or will offset its emissions, for example by planting more trees or having technologies that capture carbon before it is released into the air such as carbon-capture or storage systems.
The Bill C12 (or the Net-Zero Accountability Act) has been formally presented for consideration. This bill has the potential to make Canada’s goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 a law, and will also require future governments to continue creating climate plans for Canada consistently. It has also been confirmed that the carbon price will continue to increase year after year post-2022, which is significant because carbon pricing is an essential part of tackling the climate crisis.
Other countries have been working to slow climate change as well. The UK has promised to cut emissions by 68% by 2030, and 78% by 2035. Their greenhouse gas emissions have now been reduced by more than 40% already. China has been quite good with developing new renewable energy resources and supporting electric cars, which has reduced the growth rate of their carbon emissions. India is one of the few countries that are on track to fulfill its climate pledge under the Paris agreement. Much of India’s success is largely due to its use of solar energy. In 2010, the country’s goal was to add 20 gigawatts of solar capacity by 2022, but it has already exceeded that goal as of 2018. It is now set to exceed its goal of supplying 40% of its energy needs with non-fossil-fuel power by 2030.
Here are some more specific examples of what’s being done about climate change: Nova Scotia is restoring salt marshes to help protect people from floods; Canada has promised to plant two billion trees over the next ten years; the UK has been shifting to renewable energy, for example using wind power more and more each year to create electricity; they barely used any coal at all by 2020, whereas they used to get 40% of their electricity from coal a decade earlier; some states in the U.S. have created more financing opportunities for clean and renewable energy.
In general, the expectation right now is that the world will get about 3 degrees hotter by 2100, which is actually an improvement from the previous prediction of 4 degrees. It isn’t much, but it’s progress! Overall, what we are doing so far to stop climate change and global warming isn’t quite enough; we could and should be doing so much more. But I figured we could all use some good news right now, so what better way than to highlight some of the progress that we’ve made with climate change!
Sources:
https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/what-is-climate-change
https://globalnews.ca/news/7779596/climate-change-emissions-targets-canada-2030-trudeau/
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/canada-climate-action-progress/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/net-zero-emissions-1.5807877
https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2019-09-22/how-countries-are-meeting-climate-change-goals
https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/challenges/climate-change/what-is-the-uk-doing-about-climate-change/
https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/climate-change/adapting/plans.html