What did United Nations do Regarding the Climate Change?

The beginning of 19th century came along with the realization that excess carbon dioxide emissions such as the greenhouse effect that increases the planet’s temperature. The carbon dioxide emissions were a side effect of the industrial revolution that was happening all around the world. The process of global warming brought about by the human action of increased production of greenhouse gases was accelerating halfway the 20th century, and this was becoming worrying. Scientist all around the world shares a similar opinion that steps should be taken in order to reverse this process before the situation worsens and life on earth becomes hard to bear. However, some of the effects of carbon dioxide emissions have become more eminent in the last two decades.  These effects climate change are characterized by natural catastrophes such as the heat wave in Europe that over 30000 people dead. Elevated water temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico resulted in the deadly Hurricane Katrina.  Various organizations have joined in the fight against climate change. One such global organization is the United Nations family that has been in the forefront in the fight to save our planet. In partnership with other global organizations such as world meteorological (WMO) and UNESCO, the UN has come with the solution to climate change. The paper discusses how the UN has done to help in climate change.

 

Science and Assessments

For the society to understand the impact of climatic change, they should have science and knowledge. Those who are responsible for decisions making need to have critical information about the climatic change from scientific research to be done. Another thing that is important is sound information about the possible social and economic challenge of climate change especially to the vulnerable group in the society such as the poor.

The United Nation has facilitated many researches that give information about the climate change. In addition, it has come up with vulnerability and also impact assessment methods that are suitable for different purposes including climate change. The assessments that made were responding to the government's demand. The aim of the assessment is to develop effective options to create clarity for solutions available to decision makers based on knowledge and science. The United Nation scientific and assessment research is critical for laying their policy support and building work

Knowledge Policy and Support Integration

There are constraints and barriers to implementing climate solutions in the developing countries. The challenges are brought about by limited technical resources and knowledge and also the ability to implement these solutions. The United Nation has come up with solutions to address these challenges that developing countries are facing. Therefore, developing countries have been able to implement climate solutions based on their technical information and knowledge.

In order to improve knowledge adaptation, the United Nations focus on mobilizing the existing information and also good practices at the regional and global level. The United Nations is also providing the capacity building and advices to the government or any other institution to ensure that the important information and technical services is well-informed to the decision makers. Therefore, they can make better decisions.

The United Nations is also engaging directly countries in order to help them integrate adaptations into their planning process. Their process involves identifying political and institutional contexts to adapt their solutions that they have provided for climate change. The United Nations help countries to identify a gap in their legislation and nations are helped to develop better legislative and policy to help them comply with the UN treaties.

Ecosystem-Based Adaptation

In order to prevent environmental degradation, the ecosystem should not be damaged. However, with the increase in the rate of environmental degradation activities, the ecosystem has reached its limit. The evidences are all over the world, for instance; the ice in the Arctic part of the world is melting as a result of global warming. In addition, overexploitation of natural resources has led to the reduction of these resources by more than 60%.

Therefore, due to the increase of human activities such as pollution and deforestation, there is a need to restore the ecosystem. Having a healthy ecosystem has a positive impact on climate change. For example, a healthy ecosystem reduces the rate of environmental degradation. To achieve a healthy ecosystem, there are several ecosystem-based management programs that offer solutions for adoption for climate change. The approach involves using ecosystem services and biodiversity as adaptations that will help people adapt to negative effects that are brought about the climate change.

Moreover, the ecosystem adaptation for climate change provide other advantages to the communities such providing ecosystem services that will help in improving the environment thus improving the health of individuals. In addition, the appropriately designed ecosystem adaptation can reduce the rate of environmental degradations by reducing the rate of emission of green gases.

Through the ecosystem adaptation, the United Nations work to develop effective programs that will help developing countries to have better management policies about their ecosystem. UN is helping these countries to come up with better strategies and also actions plans to achieve the ecosystem adaptation. The main areas where they target to improve include the river basins, mountains, forests coast just to mention a few.

Economics and Finance

The impact of climate change has a result of economic loss across the world. Countries are spending a lot of money in order to restore their ecosystems. For example, in the deforested areas tree plantation programs help to restore the forests. However, all restoration programs are expensive and only countries with enough resources can restore their ecosystem. Therefore, these activities to improve the ecosystem are expensive and the need to finance these programs is important. On the other hand, developing countries face challenges in implementing these programs due to inadequate finance. United Nation is helping developing countries to understand the risks that are brought by climate change and help them with the finances. Hence, this assists these countries in implementing programs that aim to restore their environment. Through financial help and education by UN to improve their environmental management, developing countries can come up with better solutions and strategies for their development.

The UN is also providing support to developing nations to access the fund for adaptation policies. The countries are assisted to develop adaptation proposal for funding. The UN has also responded to countries’ request through which nations can access UN fund directly after presenting their proposal. In addition to the financial support, the UN is also providing technical support in order to help the nations to implement their proposals. They have a team of experts who are ready to advise countries that are submitting their proposal for funding. 

Methodologies to Reduce Carbon Emissions

The objective of this program is to help people in reducing pollution from their household. There are methodologies that are developed in order to monitor the emission of black carbon. The methodologies that were developed by the UN will help in allocation of money for projects that have a positive impact on the environment at the local level. Black carbon that is an unwanted byproduct of burning diesel, firewood, coal just to mention a few is tried to be reduced at the local level. People are advised to use other sources of energy that are environmental friendly. Therefore, the aim of this methodology is to reduce the carbon emission at the domestic level. According to UN, domestic emission also contributes to the change in climate. Studies have shown that the household emission has contributed to more than 20% of the earth’s global warming and it is the second largest contributor to the climate change. Therefore, these emissions should be reduced to live in a safer environment. 

Improved in Technology

With the advance in technology, there are both the negative and positive results that have been noted. For example, illegal logging can be easily detected by the forest rangers. However, this is not the case with developing nations; illegal logging has increased due to technological advances. It is possible to use machines that do not produce a lot of noises. The UN understands the need of these countries, and it is helping developing nations to acquire advanced equipment that will help in monitoring the natural resources.

Going Green

The UN is also encouraging people to go green. If people can be planting a tree in their compound, these would improve the quality of air. One, trees are known to produce oxygen while consuming carbon dioxide. The Increase in carbon dioxide emission result to an increase of greenhouse gases that increase the global warming. It is believed that if individuals can take a step and go green, the global warming would be reduced.

To sum up, climate change has a negative impact on the environment such as flooding and increase of the earth’s temperature.  The UN has done a lot to improve the climate. There are policies that are put in place to help the world to restore the environment. Among the solution that the UN is taking to help climate change is to finance different proposals that aim to improve the environment available. Another solution is to come up with policies that will help countries go green. Another thing is educating people about the need to conserve the environment.

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Nov 1, 2019 in Research
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