“There is no hint that help will come (on Earth) from elsewhere to save us from ourselves,“ Carl Sagan in his 1994 book, ‘Pale Blue Dot’.
We are living in the 21st century, the century of climate change and doing nothing anywhere near to limit climate change. Greenhouse gas emissions are rising when they should be falling. The UN Emissions Gap Report 2019, says that global greenhouse emissions would need to fall by 7.6% every year between now and 2030 to stop severe climate crisis in the coming decades.
Countries need to take urgent climate action or should be ready to face a dark future with rising seas, extreme weather events and increased human misery. Climate Neutrality, a climate action, is essential to limit global warming to 1.5 °C by mid-21st century—a target laid down in the Paris Agreement signed by 195 countries.
Carbon neutrality refers to achieving net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by balancing carbon emissions with carbon removal or simply eliminating carbon emissions altogether. It is used in the context of ‘carbon dioxide releasing’ processes associated with transportation, energy production, agricultural and industrial processes. The concept may be extended to include other greenhouse gases (GHGs), in terms of their ‘carbon dioxide equivalence’.
‘Climate Neutral’ was the New Oxford American Dictionary’s Word of the Year for 2006, which reflects the broader inclusiveness of other greenhouse gases in climate change, even if CO2 is the most abundant.
Achieving ‘Carbon Neutrality‘ is very important for all of us because it will help ensure an eco-friendly and sustainable future for us.
Climate neutrality can be achieved if climate change-encouraging ‘greenhouse gases’ are completely avoided or saved elsewhere. According to the UN Environment, the carbon dioxide emissions account for 82% of global warming, and the rest comes mainly from much potent methane and nitrous oxide.
Globally, the average concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) reached 410 parts per million (ppm) in 2019, up from 400.1 ppm in 2015. Methane and nitrous oxide concentrations also rose, along with ozone-depleting CFC-11.
According to the UN Environment, the climate neutrality can be achieved by addressing the climate footprint of an individual, organisation, sector, household, institution, industry or a nation through a 3-step method:
By buying credits to compensate one’s unavoidable emissions, one can:
At grassroots, every individual, household, society, organisation, institution should take responsibility for the carbon emissions that we cannot currently avoid. Try to reduce carbon footprint at the emission stage as much as possible, along with compensating for those that we cannot eliminate.
Climate Neutrality By 2050 | Prabhatmisra's Blog
[…] Note: This story was originally published at Youth Ki Awaaz. […]