Climate Change - Europe's "fighting methods"

Paula Stöckelle, 18th March 2021

 

As most of you probably already know, our planet’s climate is changing for the worse. And even though it has only been made public over the last few years, the change reaches back quite some time until the early 19th century when mankind began to work with new, fossil fueled machines that produced harmful substances like carbon dioxide.

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Right now, it is worse than ever: maximum temperatures are increasing drastically and with that the ice on the polar caps is melting, the sea level rises and cities are threatened to drown, there are more and more natural disasters destroying landscapes, cities, houses and lives.
These are just a few of the many negative aspects the climate change triggers, so if we don’t act now the future is going to bring even worse things with it.

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Especially the youth is trying to get adults to act, since the younger folks are the ones with the most time left on this earth. There are Petitions, Fund raising actions, climate demonstrations called Fridays for Future, but it doesn’t seem like there is much effect. However, the EU, for example, has come up with some arrangements that should help reducing this change.

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First of all, there is the Parisian climate agreement. It gives a global frame for fighting climate change like keeping the global warming way under 2°C and helps member countries with the adaptation to the effects. The agreement tries to incorporate both economic and environmental aspects in order to work properly and make sure the goals are reachable. In 2015 it was founded at the UN-climate conference by 197 states from all around the world.
For more information about the individual actions, you can follow this link.

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While the Parisian climate agreement is more concentrated on the whole

world, the next activity aims to make Europe the world’s first climate neutral

continent in 2050: The European Green Deal. The plan is to create policies

for a more efficient exposure to resources which only works with a clean

and circular oriented economy, that overrides the loss of biodiversity and

reduces pollutant load drastically. It should be executed in all economic

sectors like traffic, energy, agriculture and industry. On the picture you can

see all the main goals of the Green Deal like the supply of clean and safe

energy, building or renovating energy- and resources-preserving or a fast

adjustment to a sustainable and intelligent mobility.

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Now, there are many more actions that Europe is taking part in or brought into the world but just because some climate activists, politicians and other important people are making these plans, doesn’t mean we can just live on like we did and climate change will go away eventually. Only if every single one of us is doing something good for the planet, and if it is just going to work by bike or public transport or relinquishing plastic as well as possible, we can stop this madness and provide a beautiful planet as we know it for all the generations to come.