Saving lives and livelihoods requires urgent action to address both the pandemic and the climate emergency.
Recently I found myself wearing more warm clothes than before because I can’t deal with the cold anymore. Even my covers have gained a new duvet and I am wearing warmer stocking in the house.
My friends who travelled to Nairobi recently came back cursing the weather, only to find it shifting here too.
Climate change is affecting every country on every continent. It is disrupting national economies and affecting lives. Weather patterns are changing, sea levels are rising, and weather events are becoming more extreme. Animals are hiding away from it and dying of hungry.
While attending a media section on SDGs and Climate change I found that Goal 13 calls for urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. And it has actionable things we can do as individuals.
Goal 13 is also intrinsically linked to all 16 of the other Goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
To address climate change, countries adopted the Paris Agreement to limit global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius and the UN Secretary-General proposed six climate-positive actions for governments to take on to build economies and societies that you as mentioned below;
- Green transition: Investments must accelerate the decarbonization of all aspects of our economy.
- Green jobs, sustainable and inclusive growth – deploy more climate enabling projects that are sustainable and effective for future reference.
- Green economy: making societies and people more resilient through a transition that is fair to all and leaves no one behind.
- Invest in sustainable solutions: fossil fuel subsidies must end, and polluters must pay for their pollution.
- Confront all climate risks within the communities and economy facilities like manufacturing and mining bodies.
- Cooperation – no country can succeed alone, let’s work together as communities facing the same problems and change.
Through the above, one can identify what they can do to contribute to the collective action and combat the effects of climate change.
I am not one for warm clothes but sweaters, leg warmers, neck warmers and head gears have taken over my ward rope this whole year.
