What is climate change?

Why is our planet’s climate changing and what can we do to mitigate it?

Climate change is how we describe the process that has led to rising temperatures around the world since the Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century.

What causes climate change?

Temperatures around the world have always gone up and down over long periods of time in the past. However, temperatures are climbing more quickly today. This is because too much carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gasses (GHGs) are being released into the atmosphere. This amplifies something called the ‘greenhouse effect’.

What is the greenhouse effect?

The greenhouse effect is what happens when GHGs like CO2 trap heat in the earth’s atmosphere. Because that heat cannot escape, it makes the planet warmer. This causes the average global temperature to rise.

Scientists believe that an increase of more than 2 degrees Celsius above average temperatures from the pre-industrial era could lead to catastrophic conditions on our planet.

That is why governments and international organisations are making huge efforts — such as the Paris Climate Accords — to make sure the rise in global temperatures does not go beyond this 2-degree limit.

How do humans make climate change happen?

Two words: fossil fuels. Since the industrial revolution, many industries have used huge amounts of coal, oil and other fossil fuels. Our roads and railways, our farms, our power stations, our factories and offices have all relied on fossil fuels to do their work.

When these fossil fuels are burnt, they release large amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere. This amplifies the greenhouse effect and contributes to climate change. CO2 levels are now higher than they have been for hundreds of thousands or even millions of years.

Why do rising temperatures damage our planet?

The Earth has experienced many periods of extreme weather conditions. It’s easy to forget that the last Ice Age only finished 12,000 years ago.

However, the higher temperatures we’re seeing today are affecting every aspect of the natural world:

· Rapidly rising temperatures can cause ice sheets to melt. This leads to higher sea levels, which can contribute to more violent storms, threatening the homes and lives of hundreds of millions of people around the world.

· The rapidly warming planet could see many more extreme weather events — like bushfires. These could destroy homes, damage agriculture and lead to lower air quality. Climate change could also threaten animal species and ecosystems, as well as the habitats on which they depend.

What can we do about climate change?

One thing we can do is to reducing CO2 emissions. This will require industries around the world to decarbonise. They’ll need to use less fossil fuels such as coal and oil, and switch to new lower carbon sources of energy.

This will depend on new Government policies such as the carbon tax to promote investment in new cleaner technologies and to deter investment in more polluting industries.

These policies and initiatives will support the development of carbon neutral and even carbon negative ways to create heat, generate electricity and power industry and vehicles. New developments like carbon capture use and storage (CCUS) will also need to be a critical part of the solution too.

To mitigate the effects of global warming, business, countries and economies will have to work together to reach shared goals around the climate. This collaboration will also encourage and enable individuals to take action themselves on a smaller scale.