Madrid (EFE).- The route towards the neutrality of emissions into the atmosphere by 2050 with a view to reducing global warming has been slowed down with the war in Ukraine, in a period in which between 3,300 and 3,600 million people are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, according to the United Nations.
To raise awareness about global warming and adopt measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause the rise in temperature, every January 28 the UN commemorates the World Day of Action against Global Warming, also known as the World Day for the Reduction of CO2 Emissions.
Despite the fact that during the pandemic, with the stoppage in vehicle traffic, there was a reduction in CO2 emissions, they have increased again and returned to “normality”, according to experts consulted by EFE.
The scientists of the sixth Assessment Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the Colombian Paola Arias Gómez and the Argentine Juan Rivera, have agreed on the need to increase efforts to reduce emissions.
“If the situation is not reversed, in 20 years we would exceed 1.5 ºC, which would trigger: rises in sea level, more extreme rains and droughts, heat waves and extreme temperatures.”
Arias has highlighted the need to “increase investments in adaptation, because less has been invested in adaptation than in mitigation” and to eliminate fossil fuels, despite “oil interests”, as in countries dependent on that income such as Colombia.
For his part, Rivera considers it important “to protect the small islands of the Pacific, which will be severely affected by natural disasters due to the rise in sea level and will cause massive migrations.”
In addition, he has stressed the need to impose taxes on the most polluting companies and expand aid for an energy transition to renewable energies, since “we need mechanisms to accelerate the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions,” according to the IPCC expert.
Greenpeace Spain’s climate change spokesman, Pedro Zorrilla, has pointed out that “not only do we not expel fewer gases or do so at a slower speed, but we exceed the emissions record every year.”
Although some regions, including Europe and the US “have reduced them a bit, countries like India or China are increasing them, and every bit of CO2 that we put into the atmosphere counts.”
However, despite the fact that it is the one that registers the most emissions, “China is the country that invests the most in renewable energy, but its new coal plants” mean that its emissions “continue to rise.”
To reverse the fact that gases continue to damage the planet, there are two ways: “Through the COP (Climate Change Conventions)”, with which to reach international agreements, and “that the richest countries finance renewable energy projects in those that They are under development.”
In the cities, “15-minute cities” are being launched, which seek to integrate offices, leisure, homes and shops in a close perimeter, with the aim of being able to visit all these places on foot and not use the vehicle.
Other measures to reduce emissions are in transport, such as promoting the “use of the railway” or “increasing taxes on the activities that pollute the most and improving the insulation of buildings,” according to Zorilla.
“If we want not to exceed the limit of 1.5 ºC” of warming that Science sets so that the consequences are not almost irreversible, in Spain, in 2030, emissions would have to be reduced by 55% “, since otherwise Otherwise, “the effects will cascade, accelerating polar melting and sea level rise” and the number of people highly vulnerable to climate change would increase, which today is between 3,300 and 3,600 million.
According to a Greenpeace study, greenhouse gas emissions grew in Spain by 14% in the first five months of 2022, therefore, from the Spanish Association of Automobile and Truck Manufacturers (Anfac), it is sought that “the vehicle zero emissions is part of the solution”, in the words of its communication director, Félix García.