South Africa can only meet its commitments to reach net zero emissions with help from local and transnational financing, from both the public and private sector
The science of climate change is well established:
Climate change is real and human activities are the main cause. (IPCC)
The concentration of greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere is directly linked to the average global temperature on Earth. (IPCC)
The concentration has been rising steadily, and mean global temperatures along with it, since the time of the Industrial Revolution. (IPCC)
The most abundant greenhouse gas, accounting for about two-thirds of greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide (CO2), is largely the product of burning fossil fuels. (IPCC)
Methane, the primary component of natural gas, is responsible for more than 25 per cent of the warming we are experiencing today. It is a powerful pollutant with a global warming potential over 80 times greater than CO2 during the 20 years after it is released into the atmosphere. (Methane Emissions fact sheet, UNEP)
Oceans the very bodies of water that make up 70% of the world's surface bear the brunt of global temperatures that have been steadily warming for decades.
Gary John Norman/Getty Images(NEW YORK) Oceans do so much to sustain life on Earth, including bearing the brunt of global temperatures that have been steadily warming for decades. An IPCC special report published in 2019 found that oceans which make up more than 70% of the world's surface have absorbed between 20% and 30% of human-made carbon dioxide emissions since the 1980s. They're also responsible for absorbing more than 93% of the "combined heat stored by warmed air, sea, and land, and melted ice" since the 1970s, according to the Fifth Assessment report published in 2013 by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The tipping point is near, experts told ABC News. But there are collective actions to take that could revitalize oceans to a healthier state the theme of the United Nations World Oceans Day 2022. "We really see oceans as the biggest ally in the climate change crisis," Lea d'Auriol, founder of nonprofit Ocea
(NEW YORK) — Oceans do so much to sustain life on Earth, including bearing the brunt of global temperatures that have been steadily warming for decades. An IPCC special report published in 2019 found that oceans — which make up more than 70% of the […]