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{"id":1374,"date":"2020-05-31T13:56:18","date_gmt":"2020-05-31T12:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nowadays.org.uk\/?p=1374"},"modified":"2020-05-31T13:56:19","modified_gmt":"2020-05-31T12:56:19","slug":"covid-19-presents-an-opportunity-to-take-real-action-against-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nowadays.org.uk\/covid-19-presents-an-opportunity-to-take-real-action-against-climate-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Covid-19 Presents an Opportunity to Take Real Action Against Climate Change"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
By Nathan Reid<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In less than 6 months since the beginning of the year, 3.5 billion people have been placed in lockdown conditions due to the spread of coronavirus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A worldwide lockdown has the potential to spark a decrease of 0.3% in global CO2<\/sub> levels, with a 2.5-billion-ton reduction form the fossil fuel industry during 2020. But\u00a0there is a huge risk that this enormous step forward could be written off as an anomaly, as the world returns to normal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This sharp short-term decrease, and subsequent swift increase has been seen before as a consequence of the 2008\/09\u00a0financial crisis. Global GDP dropped by 1% as a result of the crisis and greenhouse gas emissions followed suit with a 1.3% decrease,\u00a0the following year in 2010 carbon emissions increased by 6%.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The drop in carbon following the financial crash was unrivalled until 2020. This year its been predicted that emissions will fall by 4-8%, the equivalent of 2-3 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas. According to the IEA (International Energy Agency) global electricity demand will drop by 5% this year, resulting in a knock-on effect on global coal demand which is expected to fall by 8%. This drop is the equivalent of losing the entire energy demand of India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In order for the world to stay on track for to stay under 1.5\u00b0C this century, the world needs similar cuts for the foreseeable future. \u201cIf COVID-19 leads to a drop in emissions of around 5% in 2020 then that is the sort of reduction we need every year until net-zero emissions are reached around 2050.\u201d said Glen Peters from Cicero (Centre for International Climate Research) while being interviewed by the BBC. A reduction of that magnitude may be hard to achieve, even more so now that the long-term discussion of climate change has been side-lined for the more pressing concern of saving lives during the pandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The banning of mass gatherings has\u00a0hampered the usual physical protests about the environment that\u00a0we have\u00a0become accustomed to in the previous years,\u00a0such as the Extinction Rebellion protests in London and Edinburgh in 2019.\u00a0The largest blow to climate activism has been\u00a0the postponement of COP26\u00a0in Glasgow\u00a0from March to November.\u00a0COP is the UN\u00a0International\u00a0Conference on Climate Change and\u00a0draws around 30,000 world delegates, climate scientists and campaigners\u00a0to help implement policies associated with\u00a0reducing the effect of climate change.\u00a0The failure of COP25 in Madrid last year to finalise key\u00a0emissions targets\u00a0from the Paris Climate Accord in 2015\u00a0has made COP26 the most important; the pandemic\u00a0could not\u00a0have hit a worse time for long term\u00a0climate planning.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n