The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released its first report on human-induced actions to mitigate climate change.
The report is to help provide an in-depth assessment of how human behavior, choices, and consumption can contribute to climate change mitigation.
The report looks at what can be done to limit and prevent human-caused emissions that cause global warming, where emissions come from and provide pathways that show the impact of human decisions today and how it affects the planet in the near future. A summary of the report dubbed: “Mitigation of Climate Change” was presented to Policymakers at a virtual press conference held on Monday, April 4, 2022.
The report examines emissions from all aspects of society, from how energy is used to power homes; to how sustainable buildings are and the materials used to build them; how cities and towns are planned; and how humans travel. It considers the culture and lifestyle choices, from how people get to work to what they buy and eat and provides options to manage better the land people live on; from using the land to provide food and energy to building new towns and cities; and how the land can also be part of the solution by removing carbon from the atmosphere.
Different parts of society can work together across all these areas to be more efficient and sustainable, reduce carbon emissions through financing and investment for zero net economies, cooperate across borders, develop effective policies, and harness technology and innovation. Most importantly, it identifies options to build a sustainable future for all.
The era of climate emergency
Speaking at the virtual Press Conference, Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization, said the world is on a quick journey to climate disaster.
“We are on a fast track to climate disaster. The widespread water shortage and the extinction of species; all are not fiction. They are real. Some governments and corporations are saying one thing but doing contrarily. We are in an era of climate emergencies. Climate scientists said we are tipping into a world of not being able to recover from climate change impacts, and that means moving investments from biofuels to non-renewables as these are climate-friendly. It does not have to be like this.”
Petteri Taalas
Akkufo Addo calls for balance between low and high emitters of Carbon
Ghana is poised to help in the fight against climate change impacts. It can be recalled the President made a call on stakeholders to fight hard against climate change despite the daunting challenges. President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said in an interview that even though Ghana acknowledges the importance and effects of Climate Change and the urgent need to combat it, a “balance must be struck and maintained between its social, economic and environmental imperatives.”
The President said Agriculture, water, energy, and the extraction of mineral resources are essential drivers of developments in African countries, which are at the same time characteristically sensitive to changing climate.
“The African Continent has been blessed with abundant natural resources, and it would be wholly unfair for the world to demand that Africa abandons the exploitation of these same resources needed to finance her development to help cope better with the threat of climate change, at a time when many countries on the continent had only just discovered them.”
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo
The quest is on to mitigate climate change impacts. Still, a balance must be struck, thus a solution that levels the playing field and recognizes the historical imbalances between high emitters and low emitters and charges them accordingly.
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