By: Miranda Gregory
The world has had a rough year–that is something, regardless of background, that the whole world can agree on. In respect to the climate up to January of 2020, sea levels were rising, carbon emission were increasing, and weather patterns were shifting in growing record scales. Now in the year 2021 (and still in the thick of COVID-19), the way people act, or more specifically the new way people act, has had a significant effect on global warming and therefore climate change.
One concept that should be clarified is that global warming is not climate change, although they are connected. Global warming, according to NASA, is “the unusually rapid increase in Earth’s average surface temperature over the past century primarily due to the greenhouse gases released by people burning fossil fuels.” Climate change on the other hand, also according to NASA, is “a long-term change in the average weather patterns that have come to define Earth’s local, regional and global climates.” In a sense, global warming is the leading cause of climate change.
One change that should be noted is the drop in the daily global CO2 emissions back in April of 2020. Just 4 months into the pandemic and the world had dropped a total of 17% in global CO2 emissions, according to Carbon Brief. That is a staggering amount compared to last year’s 0.6% increase, according to Carbon Brief. This is mostly due to the huge decreases in transportation and industrial activity, like airplanes, cars, and busses, due to everyone staying in their homes. New data also just came out for the global CO2 emissions for 2020 as a whole. The global CO2 emissions dropped anywhere from 7% to 8.8%, according to Carbon Brief. Now, that doesn’t sound very staggering, but considering the global CO2 emissions have been increasing since 1983, according to WorldOMeter, it offers a rare opportunity to see how Earth responds to cuts on carbon emissions.
But while daily global CO2 emissions have been decreasing, so has the international cooperation between countries in dealing with global warming. The Paris Climate Accord, as stated by the EU “sets out a global framework to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2°C and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5°C. It also aims to strengthen countries’ ability to deal with the impacts of climate change and support them in their efforts.”
This accord was pushed back a year to deal with COVID-19 in 2020, and as such, many countries have enacted plans or goals that put the environment in the back seat. The World Conservation Congress and Convention on Biological Diversity have also been shifted back to 2021, all of these delays allowing counties to shift their priorities away from the climate.
In all, while the year 2020 gave many a headache, it did give climate scientists valuable information regarding the climate and how to continue the trend of decreasing global carbon emissions for the future years. Although that all depends on how adequately the counties of the world can cooperate together and create new inventions and solutions.