By Tadiwanashe Mugabe
1.0 Introduction
Climate change refers to long term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. These shifts may be natural, such as through variations in the solar cycle or maybe due to human activities like burning of fossil fuels (Agrawala, 2005). Climate change has various effects which include drought, cyclones, melting of glaciers in Polar Regions, rise in water sea levels. International cooperation is the collaboration between governments, businesses or individuals in whom it is agreed to work together on similar objectives. International cooperation can help fight climate change in several ways. This article fully unpacks how international cooperation is vital in fighting climate change.
2.0 Climate change defined
Climate change has been defined in several ways by different scholars but all definitions mean the same. At Palmetto climate is defined as the long-term increase in the earth’s average surface temperature and the large-scale changes in global, regional, and local weather patterns that result from that increase, caused by a significant increase in the levels of greenhouse gases that are produced by the use of fossil fuels. The University of California, Davis says climate change refers to significant changes in global temperature, precipitation, wind patterns and other measures of climate that occur over several decades or longer.
3.0 Causes of Climate Change
Causes of Climate change can be natural or from human activities.
3.1 Natural causes
• Changes in Solar Radiation – Sun’s rays heat the earth regardless of changes in weather patterns that occur below. As such, any change in the sun’s radiation either an increase or decrease will influence our surface temperatures (Palmetto,2023).
• Greenhouse Gases – When temperature increases, greenhouse gases are released into the air. This traps more heat in the earth’s atmosphere resulting in ozone layer thinning, which means less radiation can escape.
• Drastic Weather Changes – Disasters like cyclones or floods can cause damage to the environment, which in turn can affect the climate.
3.2 Human causes
• Industrialization- Development has led to greater production using energy whichreleasesgreenhousegasesintotheatmosphereingreaterpercentagesthaninthepast.
• Inconsistent Emissions Controls- As technology continues to improve, emissions control standards haven’t kept pace. This means that more harmful greenhouse gases are being released into the air (Palmetto, 2023).
• Deforestation-Plants breathe in carbon dioxide. When increasing amounts of trees are cut down without planting new ones, it means there is going to be an imbalance of gases in the air. Carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere and heats up the environment.
• Agriculture – Farming causes massive deforestation this sends large amounts of carbon dioxide and methane in to the atmosphere.
• Infrastructure development – impermeable surfaces like pavements can absorb solar radiation and warm up their surroundings by re-emitting that radiation as heat.
4.0 Ways of mitigating climate change
4.1 Information dissemination from researches
To start off, international cooperation can help to fight climate change through data and information dissemination from quality research. This is so because there is provision of concrete information and tangible facts from professional researchers. This is important as it widens knowledge on climate change, there is also provision of recommendations which helps in coming up with climate mitigations, for example current research shows that the global average surface temperature over the decade 2006 to 2015 was the hottest recorded since modern records began in the half of the 19th century and is currently increasing by 0,2 degrees Celsius (Hughes,2017). From this research based knowledge we are able to make recommendations therefore we can fully agree that international cooperation can help fight climate change through sharing research based knowledge.
4.2 Monitoring of national progress
Secondly, there is also monitoring of national progress in achieving climate goals. This can be done at international level and is done through periodic meetings, collections and analysis of data coming from all national governments. The monitoring is also done in annual conferences held by international organisations such as the United Nations Climate Change Conference. In these platforms valuable data is shared such as progress in climate goals, successful and unsuccessful methodologies and main challenges are brought out. This helps analyze the existing gaps in knowledge, goal setting and capabilities. There was the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol which obligated developed countries like Germany to reduce emissions by at least 5 % and each party was to show notable progress by 2005 (Brazier, 2017).This protocol promotes compliance of the party’s in the sense that involved party’s will try as much to fulfill the stated objectives of the protocol because there is monitoring and progress observations made to see if emissions are being truly reduced. Hence, we can safely conclude that international cooperation can help fight climate change through monitoring of national progress.
4.3 Funding
Furthermore, international cooperation can help to fight climate change through provision of funds. The less economic developed countries like Zimbabwe receive funds for climate mitigations and adaptations. According to Anna Brazier the Paris agreement reiterated that developed countries shall provide finance to developing countries. Professional scientists also receive funding for research. Scientists are provided with funds from state and other actors which enable them to conduct high quality research which is transparent and accessible to all. The United Nations Environment Program had an annual budget of US$460million in 2020 for researchers (Brazier,2017) This enables them to perform credible and meaningful research.
Some ways in which international cooperation help to fight climate other than the ones mentioned above include building community resilience, creating and supporting all organisations that engage in climate justice international or non international like the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , implementing national goals like the Sustainable Development Goal number thirteen which is Climate Action, use of technology and constant upgrading of existing mechanisms like cyclone detectors.
5.0 Conclusion
Climate change is an ongoing battle which requires an inclusive approach for us to fight. No state or individual should be left behind, we work together hand in hand. This article clearly brought to light ways in which international cooperation can help fight climate change.
References
Agrawala, S. (ed) (2005), Bridge Over Troubled Waters: Linking Climate Change and Development, OE CD, Paris
Brazier A, (2017) Climate change in Zimbabwe: 2nd edition
https://climatechange.ucdavis.edu/climate/definitions
https://palmetto.com/learning-center/blog/what-is-climate-change-definition-causes-effects
https://www.un.org/ldcportal/content/climate-change
https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/reports