Causes and Effects of Climate Change
What are the triggers of current climate change? What will be the effects? Are there solutions to these environmental changes? Here is Up2You's analysis of the current state of the climate crisis and the solutions to be put into practice.
Climate Change and the Conference of the Parties (COP)
Negli ultimi 150 anni l’uomo ha riversato in atmosfera milioni di tonnellate di anidride carbonica e di altri gas, determinando un’alterazione della naturale composizione atmosferica. La conseguenza di questa variazione è l’aumento della temperatura terrestre e il cambiamento del clima.
Nel tentativo di affrontare questa situazione, da tre decenni, l’ONU riunisce annualmente la quasi totalità dei Paesi del mondo per la Conferenza delle Parti (COP), il vertice più importante per le questioni relative al cambiamento climatico.
Tra le COP più significative vi è quella del 2015 di Parigi, nella quale 195 Paesi hanno firmato un accordo per impegnarsi a mantenere il riscaldamento globale ben al di sotto di 2ºC rispetto al periodo preindustriale, possibilmente entro 1,5ºC.
Nell’ottica di perseguire questo obiettivo, le Parti si sono riunite a dicembre 2022 a Sharm el-Sheikh in occasione della COP27.
Questo white paper analizza il tema dei cambiamenti climatici soffermandosi sulle cause che li hanno determinati e sugli effetti per gli ecosistemi naturali e umani. Particolare attenzione viene data al delineare lo stato corrente della situazione climatica, prendendo in considerazione i dati scientifici, i trend futuri e le decisioni prese durante la COP27.
Considerando il ruolo da protagonista che ogni componente della società ha nell'affrontare la crisi attuale, sono state riassunte le azioni che governi, aziende e cittadini possono implementare per favorire la transizione verso una società più sostenibile.
The science behind climate change
Climate change refers to long-term changes in Earth's weather patterns and temperatures. Although changes in the Earth's climate have had a natural origin throughout history, the current changes are anthropological and are caused by an increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
The concentration ofCO2 in the atmosphere is, in fact, at its highest level in 2 million years and continues to rise. The impacts of climate change are many, the most important of which are:
- temperature rise;
- Stronger and more frequent thunderstorms;
- increased drought;
- Rising temperatures and rising ocean levels;
- Increase in catastrophic events;
COP 27 in Sharm El-Sheikh
COP27, held in Sharm El-Sheikh from Nov. 6-20, 2022, opened with a series of warnings from the scientific community about the general worsening of climate impacts and the existence of a significant gap between the current situation and the measures to be taken to achieve mitigation and adaptation targets.
The conference concluded with a package of decisions reaffirming the commitment to limiting temperature increase to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels and fortifying countries' actions in cutting greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to the inevitable impacts of climate change, as well as increasing support for developing countries.
In the perspective of loss and damage, the parties also defined that a new financing method and a new dedicated fund will be established.
The COP27 outcome document mentions the urgent need for deep, rapid and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.
Concerns were raised, however, that no significant progress had been made since COP26 either from a goals point of view or from a climate change mitigation point of view.
Countries were, therefore, urged to report or update their nationally determined contributions.
Reduce your environmental impact with Up2You
Up2You is the B Corp certified greentech that helps companies measure and reduce their environmental impact.
We accompany each company through a path aimed at sustainable development: from measuring its carbon footprint to communicating its commitment, we also enable the involvement of teams, clients or suppliers in the company's environmental protection goals.
We guarantee transparency and reliability by certifyingenvironmental commitment: in fact, we are theonly reality in Europe to combine the quality of internationally certified carbon credits, with the use of blockchain. We support sustainable projects with social and environmental impact capable of capturing CO₂, but also of preserving forests, protecting ecosystems and developing sustainable technologies.
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