Climate Action

SDGs Goal 13 is “Climate Action” - Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

2019 was the second warmest year on record and the end of the warmest decade (2010- 2019) ever recorded. Carbon dioxide (CO2) levels and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere rose to new records in 2019.

Climate change is affecting every country on every continent. It is disrupting national economies and affecting lives. Weather patterns are changing, sea levels are rising, and weather events are becoming more extreme.

Although greenhouse gas emissions are projected to drop about 6% in 2020 due to travel bans and economic slowdowns resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, this improvement is only temporary. Climate change is not on pause. Once the global economy begins to recover from the pandemic, emissions are expected to return to higher levels.

Saving lives and livelihoods requires urgent action to address both the pandemic and the climate emergency.

The Paris Agreement, adopted in 2015, aims to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The agreement also aims to strengthen the ability of countries to deal with the impacts of climate change, through appropriate financial flows, a new technology framework and an enhanced capacity building framework.

As of April 2018, 175 parties had ratified the Paris Agreement and 168 parties had communicated their first nationally determined contributions to the UN framework convention on Climate Change Secretariat. 10 developing countries had successfully completed and submitted their first iteration of their national adaptation plans for responding to climate change. Developed country parties continue to make progress towards the goal of jointly mobilizing $100 billion annually by 2020 for mitigation actions.

Thanks to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change we know:

From 1880 to 2012, average global temperature increased by 0.85°C. To put this into perspective, for each 1 degree of temperature increase, grain yields decline by about 5%. Maize, wheat and other major crops have experienced significant yield reductions at the global level of 40 megatons per year between 1981 and 2002 due to a warmer climate.

Oceans have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished and sea level has risen.From 1901 to 2010, the global average sea level rose by 19 cm as oceans expanded due to warming and ice melted. The Arctic’s sea ice extent has shrunk in every successive decade since 1979, with 1.07 million km² of ice loss every decade

Given current concentrations and on-going emissions of greenhouse gases, it is likely that by the end of this century, the increase in global temperature will exceed 1.5°C compared to 1850 to 1900 for all but one scenario. The world’s oceans will warm and ice melt will continue. Average sea level rise is predicted as 24 – 30cm by 2065 and 40-63cm by 2100. Most aspects of climate change will persist for many centuries even if emissions are stopped

Global emissions of CO2 have increased by almost 50% since 1990. Emissions grew more quickly between 2000 and 2010 than in each of the three previous decades.

It is still possible, using a wide array of technological measures and changes in behavior, to limit the increase in global mean temperature to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Major institutional and technological change will give a better than even chance that global warming will not exceed this threshold

https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/climate-change/

What’s been suggested?

Goal 13 Climate Action has got the following 5 targets (https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/climate-change/).

13.1 Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries

13.2 Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning

13.3 Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning

13.A Implement the commitment undertaken by developed-country parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to a goal of mobilizing jointly $100 billion annually by 2020 from all sources to address the needs of developing countries in the context of meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation and fully operationalize the Green Climate Fund through its capitalization as soon as possible

13.B Promote mechanisms for raising capacity for effective climate change-related planning and management in least developed countries and small island developing States, including focusing on women, youth and local and marginalized communities

Why that’s important?

The link above also had got a brief report “Why It Matters”

The climate crisis continues unabated as the global community shies away from the full commitment required for its reversal. 2010-2019 was warmest decade ever recorded, bringing with it massive wildfires, hurricanes, droughts, floods and other climate disasters across continents.

Climate change is affecting every country in the world. It is disrupting national economies and affecting lives and livelihoods, especially for the most vulnerable.

Doing nothing will end up costing us a lot more than if we take action now. We have an opportunity to take actions that will lead to more jobs, great prosperity, and better lives for all while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and building climate resilience.

How far are we?

Global climate-related financial flows saw a 17% rise from 2013 to 2016, largely due to private investment in renewable energy, which represents the largest segment in total climate-related flows, to the amount of $681 billion. However, investment in fossil fuels continues to be higher than in climate activities to the amount of $781 billion in 2016.

Climate finance provided by developed to developing countries continues to increase, reflecting an ongoing commitment to support the global transition to a low-emission and climate-resilient future. Total climate finance reported by Annex I Parties to the Paris Agreement reached an annual average of $48.7 billion in 2017–2018. This represents an increase of 10% over 2015–2016. While over half of all climate-specific financial support for 2017–2018 was targeted at mitigation, the share of adaptation support is growing, and many countries are prioritizing adaptation in their provision of financial support. Two thirds of financial support provided in 2017–2018 (equivalent to an annual average of $32.3 billion) flowed through bilateral, regional and other channels, while the remaining third was channelled through multilateral institutions and funds, such as the Green Climate Fund (GCF).

In 2019, at least 120 of the 153 developing countries had undertaken activities to formulate and implement National Adaptation Plans to enhance climate adaptation and resilience, an increase of 29 countries over the previous year. Furthermore, progress in meeting the 2020 disaster risk reduction target has been slow.

The world remains woefully off track in meeting the Paris Agreement target of limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and reaching net-zero CO2 emissions globally by 2050.

In the face of looming catastrophe, climate action is gaining momentum. In June 2020, the Race to Zero campaign was launched to form a coalition of businesses, cities, regions and investors around net-zero carbon emission initiatives, and set out specific near-term tipping points for more than 20 sectors of the global economy. As of December 2020, over two thirds of the world’s GDP was being generated in places with actual or intended “net zero by 2050” targets, covering over half of the world’s population and emissions.

In 2015, 196 Parties to the Paris Agreement committed to transforming their development trajectories towards sustainability and called for limiting global warming to well below 2°C – ideally 1.5°C – above pre-industrial levels. To meet these goals, global CO2 emissions need to be reduced by 45% by 2030 from 2010 levels, and reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Greenhouse gas concentrations reached new highs in 2020, with globally averaged mole fractions of CO2 exceeding 410ppm.

The voluntary efforts countries are making to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change are described in their nationally determined contributions (NDCs). Each Party to the Paris Agreement is requested to prepare, communicate and maintain successive NDCs that it intends to achieve. As of May 2021, 192 Parties had submitted their first NDCs to the Framework Convention on Climate Change secretariat. Moreover, as of December 2020, 48 of them were submitted as new or updated NDCs, representing 75 Parties and accounting for 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2017.

An increasing number of countries are also prioritizing the formulation and implementation of national adaptation plans to boost their efforts to adjust to a changing climate. These include building flood defences, setting up early warning systems for cyclones, or switching to drought-resistant crops.

“IPCC’s working report” has got comprehensive descriptions regarding the relationship between greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. I summarised it in Japanese in the “previous post”

Key studies

Here are some key studies relevant to Goal 13.

Co-benefits and trade-offs of climate change mitigation actions and the Sustainable Development Goals (Cohen et al., 2021) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2020.12.034

Urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts (SDG 13): transforming agriculture and food systems (Campbell et al., 2018) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877343517302385

Food system actions can have synergies and trade-offs, as illustrated by the case for nitrogen fertiliser. SDG 13 actions that reduce emissions can have positive impacts on other SDGs (e.g. 3, 6, 12, 14, 15); but such actions should not undermine the adaptation goals of SDG 13 and SDGs 1, 2, 5 and 10. Balancing trade-offs is thus crucial, with SDG 12 central: responsible consumption and production. Transformative actions in food systems are needed to achieve SDG 13 (and other SDGs), involving technical, policy, capacity enhancement and finance elements.

Finding and fixing food system emissions: the double helix ofscience and policy (Rosenzweig et al., 2021) https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ac0134

…the food system isresponsible for between 21% and 37% of total GHGemissions caused by human activities.

Natural climate solutions (Griscom et al., 2017) https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1710465114

“natural climate solutions” (NCS): 20 conservation, restoration, and/or improved land management actions that increase carbon storage and/or avoid greenhouse gas emissions across global forests, wetlands, grasslands, and agricultural lands. We show that NCS can provide over one-third of the cost-effective climate mitigation needed between now and 2030 to stabilize warming to below 2 °C.

The technological and economic prospects for CO2 utilization and removal (Hepburn et al., 2019) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1681-6?proof=t

Pathways that involve chemicals, fuels and microalgae might reduce emissions of carbon dioxide but have limited potential for its removal, whereas pathways that involve construction materials can both utilize and remove carbon dioxide. Land-based pathways can increase agricultural output and remove carbon dioxide. Our assessment suggests that each pathway could scale to over 0.5 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide utilization annually.

Future prospectives?

How do my interests and career options relate with it?

…It’s such a big topic obviously, I will read studies and reports relevant to this goal and keep updating this post!