A prosperous future for any nation will depend on its decision about the environment, green spaces, waste cycling infrastructures, air quality and energy efficient homes. Ultimately, steps to reduce carbon emissions will have a positive impact if individuals can engage in local and political advocacies around issues of climate change.
People who wish to reduce their carbon prints especially in high-income countries with high consumption lifestyles can take actions. These actions may include: avoiding petroleum fueled vehicles, eating mainly plant-based diets, home electrifications among others.
In Nigeria, more than half of the adults claim to have taking actions to protect the environment, but will individual actions be enough to address the massive, translational challenges of climate change? No. Almost all experts agree that governments not just individuals or private businesses play a critical role against the fight. However, several policies which has aimed at combating climate change include:
Carbon tax System:
Greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon-dioxide pollute the atmosphere and change the climate. Carbon taxes attempt to minimize those emissions by requiring the largest greenhouse gas producers to pay for the damage they cause. This is done by attaching fees to emissions which encourages people and businesses to pay lesser. The government uses these revenues to pay for social programmes, invest in clean energy or lower taxes for the public.
However, some experts believed that carbon taxes cause economic strain for the people in lower income brackets. For example, if electric companies respond to carbon taxes by raising prices, the increase can unequally affect the lower-income households who on average spend greater percentage of their earnings on utilities. Since 1991, Sweden has implemented the carbon taxes successfully thereby lowering its greenhouse emissions by 27%.
Although, critics believed that the tax would hinder the growth of the economy, but Sweden’s GDP has since doubled. Today, more than 40 countries of the world have implemented a national carbon tax including Argentina, Canada, Japan and Ukraine.
Cap and trade System:
The term “cap and trade” refers to a government programme designated to limit private sector greenhouse gas emissions. Here, governments allocate or sell a set of permits each of which represents the right to emit a specific amount of greenhouse gas. If a company needs more permits to make its products, it has to trade with another company to buy them. The same with a carbon tax, companies directly pay for their pollutions.
Unlike carbon taxes, cap and trade ensure emissions in a city or country do not exceed a designated limit. Today, 13 US states, China, Mexico, European Union has implemented cap and trade system, and experts disagree whether these policies are more effective than the carbon taxes at limiting emissions.
Clean Energy Standard:
These law encourages utility companies to generate a certain percentage of their electricity from low-emission energy sources such as solar and wind. Texas in US instituted a clean energy standard in 1999 to source 10,000MWs of electricity which is enough electricity to power about 1000 homes for a year from renewable energy by 2025. This standard has helped to kick-start growth in Texas’ renewable energy sector, and generate around 38% of electricity from renewable sources despite that fossil fuel sector still leads the country.
Renewable Energy Investment:
Majority of the world’s energy comes from fossil fuel such as petroleum, natural gas and coal. In recent decades, many governments have begun investments in low-emission alternatives to fossil fuels called renewable energy technology which harnesses energy generated by natural resources including wind, hydropower and the sun. On the 4th March 2024, Federal Government of Nigeria through the Energy Commission sensitized rural dwellers on improved cooking stove as part of climate change innovations. That means changing our main energy sources to clean and renewable energy is the best way to stop using fossil fuels.
Adaptation Policies:
Extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, heat waves are getting worse. To address these, government should institute adaptation policies aimed at making cities, states and even countries less vulnerable to disasters. Such adaptations include: creating evacuation plans to build roads and bridges that can withstand rising sea levels and extreme weather conditions. Some governments can turn to innovative and strategies by building public parks that can absorb and store water in the event of flood.
International Agreement:
In 2015, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres announced that the world needed to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 in order to limit global warming to 1.50C, clearly showing that climate change is a global problem that requires a global response.
It is easy to feel overwhelmed, and to feel that climate change is too big to solve; we already have the answers. Now, it’s a question of making them happen.
