August 16, 2021

UN climate change report demands immediate action

topic:	Climate action
editor:	Bob Koigi

The planet is hotter today than it has ever been since the dawn of modern civilisation - a change in global climate attributed to human activity.  From the blistering heat-waves in the United States and Canada, the devastating floods in Germany, China and Mozambique to the raging wildfires witnessed in Turkey, Siberia and Greece that have claimed several lives, the world is witnessing a climatic crisis of monumental proportions.

In a recently released hard-hitting United Nations–led report authored by hundreds of climate scientists across the world, the assessment warns that human-driven climate catastrophes are bound to worsen unless the world invests in reducing greenhouse-gas pollution to zero, embracing clean technology and energy, looking for innovative ways of carbon capture and storage and planting more trees.

Anything short of this will see close to one billion people sweltering in deadlier heatwaves, the loss and extinction of certain plant and animal species, mass bleaching and death of coral reefs that sustain marine life and severe droughts that will compromise access to water for millions of people. 

The focus, the report notes, is to cut global carbon emissions by half by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050. 

The onus is therefore on global leaders to walk the talk in pushing for clean energy policies and legislation and harmonising global efforts to tame any more release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. 

Multinationals should join governments in championing for a carbon-free world. The first and crucial step should be to urgently move away from fossil fuels and then focus on removing the carbon earth’s atmosphere. 

The report has provided food for thought for global leaders, private players and citizens of the world in the months leading up to COP26 global climate summit set for November.

Image by: Kelly Sikkema