Madrid, (EFE).- The route towards the neutrality of emissions to the atmosphere by 2050 with a view to reducing the global warming It has been slowed down by the war in Ukraine, in a period in which between 3.3 and 3.6 billion people are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, according to the United Nations.
To raise awareness about global warming and adopt measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause the rise in temperature, every January 28 the UN commemorates the World Day of Action against Global Warming, also known as the World Day for the Reduction of CO2 Emissions.
Despite the fact that during the pandemic, with the stoppage in vehicle traffic, there was a reduction in CO2 emissions, they have increased again and returned to “normality”, according to experts consulted by EFE.
INCREASE EFFORTS
The scientists of the sixth Assessment Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the Colombian Paola Arias Gómez and the Argentine Juan Rivera, have agreed on the need to increase efforts to reduce emissions.
“If the situation is not reversed, in twenty years we would exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius, which would trigger rises in sea level, more extreme rains and droughts, heat waves and temperature extremes.”
Arias highlights the need to “increase investments in adaptation, because less has been invested in adaptation than in mitigation,” and to eliminate fossil fuels, despite the “oil interests” in countries dependent on that income such as Colombia.
For his part, Rivera considers it important “to protect the small islands of the Pacific, which will be severely affected by natural disasters due to the rise in sea level and will cause massive migrations.”
In addition, he stresses the need to impose taxes on more polluting companies and expand aid for an energy transition to renewable energies, since “we need mechanisms to accelerate the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions,” according to the expert.
SOME SOLUTIONS
Greenpeace Spain’s climate change spokesman, Pedro Zorrilla, points out that “not only do we not expel fewer gases or do so at a slower speed, but we exceed the emissions record every year.”
Although some regions, including Europe and the United States, “have reduced them a bit, countries like India or China are increasing them and every bit of CO2 that we put into the atmosphere counts.”
However, despite the fact that it is the one that registers the most emissions, he comments that “China is the country that invests the most in renewable energies, but its new coal plants” mean that its emissions “continue to rise.”
To reverse the fact that gases continue to damage the planet, he points out two ways: “Through the COP (Climate Change Conventions)”, with which to reach international agreements, and “that the richest countries finance renewable energy projects in those that They are under development.”
Where “15-minute cities” are being launched, to integrate offices, leisure, homes and shops in a close perimeter, the objective is to be able to visit all these places on foot and not use the vehicle.
Other measures to reduce emissions are in transport, such as promoting the “use of the railway”, or “increasing taxes on the activities that pollute the most and improving the insulation of buildings”, according to Zorilla.
