Climate change has been a pressing problem for a number of years now with many officials and young people all over the world fighting to be heard, there has been one person at the forefront of a new wave of climate change protestors. 16-year-old Greta Thunberg has used her star power to meet with world leaders to discuss the effect that their corporations are having on the environment. In this article, we will be looking at how businesses are being invited to fight climate change before it is too late.
Climate Change Congress Meeting
This past week environmental activist Greta Thunberg attended a hearing at the House Of Representatives following a six-day visit to Washington D.C with a clear message about climate change and their need to “wake up” and understand the effects they are having on the world. When speaking about the effects of climate change Thunberg said:
“ I don’t want you to listen to me. I want you to listen to the scientists.”
This is a strong message from the 16-year-old activist that again highlighted the need for immediate change surrounding the subject. This meeting comes shortly after the 16-year-olds appearance at the UN summit in New York City where she delivered a passionate speech to world leaders of their “betrayal” of young people who are fighting to be heard about this pressing issue. This leads many to take note and begin to implement new strategies to begin the fight on climate change and reduce the production of fossil fuels.
Since the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement, the company has received a large amount of criticism as they are now the top producer of carbon emissions in the world with may seeing this as a growing problem that needs to be resolved. With a recent tweet by Carbon Brief clearly stating this win an animation, there is increased pressure on the US as well as the rest of the world to begin taking responsibility for their carbon production.
Past Innovation
Innovation has been a deeply rooted part of history, not only for the UK but for America and Europe also. With ground-breaking changes made during the industrial revolution, the world saw the invention of mass production as well as the invention of the modern steam engine in the 1700s that helped to revolutionise transportation and daily life during this period. Since the industrial revolution, there has been a significant change in onsite technology to dramatically reduce the environmental impact of the mining process such as 3D mapping software.
In addition to this, the use of hydraulics within the mining industry has begun to make positive changes to the environmental impact of the industry as they are specially designed to maintain a healthy balance between energy consumption and peak performance to reduce the carbon emissions significantly. But is this enough change to prevent the rapid effects of climate change?
Future Innovation
With temperatures estimated to rise 1.5 degrees centigrade by 2030, the time is now to reverse the effects that we are having on our world and reduce the fossil fuels being produced, but what plans are being put into place to achieve this? With a number of emissions taxes implemented by the British Government to encourage businesses such as OPEC and other leading businesses to monitor their carbon emissions as well as improving the supply chain, energy used and transportation methods to reduce the carbon footprint of their business.
One of the biggest ways of achieving this is the emissions reduction targets as well as business plans to reduce the amount of waste produced by a number of leading businesses internationally. With only 45.2% of all waste being recycled, this is a serious issue that needs to be combatted to help prevent general waste from ending up in landfill sites. This is crucial to the success of a greener world as future innovation is needed to combat this growing issue and reduce the number of greenhouse gases.
Economic Growth In the Fight For Climate Change
By abiding by the Paris Agreement and limiting the average temperature increase to 0.01 degree per year will only reduce the global income by 1.07% by 2100. Though this may seem like a big hit to the global income, this is significantly smaller than the 7.22% hit to the global economy if the temperature rises by 0.04 degree as this could affect the production of food as well as a number of other industries. Therefore, immediate change must be made to prevent the economic damage that a rise in temperature could have on the eco-system. Whether this is the nurturing of livestock or growth of some of our basic food groups, this can all be affected by a slight temperature change.
Though it will take time to find greener and more efficient ways of powering businesses and producing more sustainable energy, this is a significant step to reducing carbon emissions and sticking to the guidelines as stated in the Paris Agreement signed by 194 states.