Electric Vehicles An Opportunity For Local Government

Fairfax - Caitlin Fitzsimmons

Local councils could save money and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by shifting their fleets to electric vehicles, a study by ClimateWorks Australia suggests.
Project officer Claire Connell said more than half of new vehicles sold in Australia in 2017 were purchased by the government and corporate fleets so it was a significant opportunity.

Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore's council has embraced electric cars in their fleet. Credit: Jessica Hromas

"Local governments specifically have an explicit obligation to manage their assets in the best interests of their constituents," Ms Connell said. "A number have significant emissions reductions targets in place."
The research follows the federal opposition's announcement of its electric vehicle policy last week. Labor's plans include spending $100 million to support the rollout of charging stations around the country and a target for electric vehicles to make up half of all new car sales by 2030. A Labor government would also commit to an electric vehicle target of 50 per cent of new purchases and leases of passenger vehicles for the government fleet.
Transport emissions account for 18 per cent of Australia's total greenhouse gas emissions and that figure is rising, according to the Climate Council.The City of Sydney has embraced electric vehicles, with 19 Nissan Leaf and Mitsubishi i-MiEV vehicles in its fleet, as well as 40 hybrid cars and 70 hybrid trucks. Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the council was waiting for electric versions of some larger vehicles such as garbage trucks to become available.
"By using electric and hybrid trucks and vehicles, the City reduced its fleet emissions by 26 per cent between 2010 and 2014, and we are on track to achieve our goal of zero increase in fleet emissions by June 2021," Cr Moore said.
"There are many advantages to moving to electric vehicles. They produce no tailpipe emissions, are quieter, cheaper to fuel and lower carbon if using renewable electricity.
"We know we are fast running out of time to take serious action on climate change, and transitioning to electric vehicles is one way we can reduce our emissions."
The ClimateWorks project engaged 43 local governments across Victoria over nine months, but Ms Connell said she believes councils across Australia have similar drivers. The report recommends a national capacity building program to give councils information and support to make the shift.
Ms Connell said the latest figures, from 2016, found the average emissions intensity of a petrol vehicle was 182 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre. The emissions intensity of electricity from the grid was generally less - in NSW, for example, electricity from the grid contributed 160 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre driven in an electric car.
This would improve as electric cars became more efficient and the electricity grid shifted to renewables.
The study analysed the councils' fleets -  which included hatchback and sedans, larger SUV vehicles, vans, mini-buses and small trucks, utes and small box trucks - and the actual usage patterns. The analysis looked at the total cost of ownership of switching to electric vehicles where an appropriate equivalent was available.
The analysis didn't include the cost of charging infrastructure because different councils planned to deal with this differently.
Some councils would see no financial benefit, the study found, while others would save money, depending on their usage patterns. One council that could switch to electric vehicles for hatchbacks, sedans and vans would save 1-3c per kilometre, based on owning the vehicles for six years, driving 20,000 kilometres a year and energy costs of 15c per kilowatt hour.

Links

• Is Bill Shorten in the driver's seat or just an electric dreamer?
• Coalition are the Luddites on our next great transport revolution
• Electric cars to replace petrol cars in next decade, conference told
• Motorists could pay to reach Labor target for electric cars
• Hewson, Steggall back launch of new electric vehicle
• Electric cars to take up half of market by 2030 under Shorten plan
• Australia in the slow lane as Coalition stalls on EV strategyAustralia in the slow lane as Coalition stalls on EV strategy

Environmental Groups To Sue Shell Over Climate Change

Washington Post - Mike Corder AP

Climate activists pose outside the Shell headquarters, rear, in The Hague, Netherlands, Friday April 5, 2019, prior to deliver a court summons to Shell in a court case aimed at forcing the energy giant to do more to rein in carbon emissions. (Mike Corder/Associated Press)

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Climate activists delivered a court summons Friday to oil company Shell in a court case aimed at forcing it to do more to rein in carbon emissions.
Friends of the Earth Netherlands, one of the groups involved, said it wants a court in The Hague to order Shell to reduce its carbon emissions by 45% by 2030 compared to 2010 levels and to zero by 2050, in line with the Paris Climate Accord.
“Shell’s directors still do not want to say goodbye to oil and gas,” said the group’s director, Donald Pols. “They would pull the world into the abyss. The judge can prevent this from happening.”
The summons, more than 250 pages long and backed up by boxes of supporting documents, was wheeled into the headquarters on a trolley as a couple of hundred activists looked on.
The move comes a year after the Dutch branch of Friends of the Earth sent a letter to Shell’s CEO Ben van Beurden accusing the company of “breaching its legal duty of care” by causing climate damage across the globe.
In a statement, Shell outlined renewable energy projects it is involved in in the Netherlands and said that it agrees climate change action is necessary and that the company is “committed to playing our part.”
“We welcome constructive efforts to work together to find solutions to the challenge of climate change, but we do not believe the courtroom is the right venue to address the global climate challenge,” the company said.
The Shell case, which has more than 17,000 claimants, follows a groundbreaking ruling by a Hague court in 2015 that ordered the Dutch government to cut the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by at least 25% by 2020 from benchmark 1990 levels.
The new case is not seeking compensation; it focuses instead on pushing Shell to take more action to rein in emissions.
Roger Cox, a lawyer who initially represented environmental group Urgenda and is now leading the civil action against Shell, said the two cases are similar because they are based in part on a duty of care enshrined in Dutch law.
“And more specifically the duty to not create dangerous situations for others if these dangerous situations can reasonably be prevented,” he said. “So what we in fact are stating is that Shell is contributing to dangerous climate change because its emissions are not in line with what is needed.”

Links

• Climate Change: Top Lawyer Says Councils May Soon Be Liable For Climate Damage
• Environmental Groups Take France To Court Over Climate Change Inaction
• Trump’s Climate Policies Face 6 Big Legal Battles This Year
• Support Is Surging For Teens’ Climate Change Lawsuit
• Climate Change In Court
• Climate Change-Related Litigation Was Once Seen As A Joke, But It Could Soon Become Business Reality
• These Residents Stopped A Coal Mine, Made History And Sent Ripples Through Boardrooms Around The World
• Australia's Coal Future Under Threat As More Changes Hit Fossil Fuels Globally

Be The Change You Want To See In The World: How Individuals Can Help Save The Planet From Climate Catastrophe

Phys.org - University of Sussex

How energy use demands change through different milestones in life. Credit: HOPE Project

Individuals have as big a role to play in tackling climate change as major corporations but only if they can be encouraged to make significant lifestyle changes by effective government policy, a major new European study co-authored by a University of Sussex academic has found.
The study notes that voluntary lifestyle choices by well-meaning individuals would only achieve around half the required emission reductions needed to hit the 1.5 C Paris Agreement goal. But the authors suggest that Paris targets could be achieved if voluntary choices were combined with policies that target behavioural change, particularly around eating meat and using fewer cars and airplanes.
The study's authors say the international climate policy debate has so far focused mainly on technology and economic incentives, relegating behaviour change to a voluntary add-on. This is despite the fact behavioural change has the potential for far greater emission reductions than the political pledges made under the Paris Accord.
The study, written by academics from 11 institutions including the University of Sussex, investigated the preferences for reducing household emissions, responsible for about 70% of global greenhouse gas emissions. It involved hundreds of families in four European cities using a specially-designed simulation tool to indicate carbon and money savings from 65 lifestyle choices combined with in-depth surveys with household members.
It found public support for policy initiatives that encouraged more sustainable practices around food production but resistance to initiatives that restricted personal mobility and transport options. The study also found that ironically the areas where greatest lifestyle changes were required and the largest carbon footprints produced, such as aviation and changes to diet, had received the lowest policy attention to date.
Lead author Ghislain Dubois, founder of the TEC Conseil in France, said: "Our research proves that if supported by adequate policies, households can have a decisive contribution to the Paris agreement objectives. This is largely ignored by current climate policies and negotiations, which rely only on macro-economics and technology. We should dare envisaging and doing research on taboos like consumption reduction or sobriety. When you consider the impacts on CO2 emissions, but also on households' budgets and the potential co-benefits, it is worth it."
Professor Benjamin Sovacool, second author of the study and Director of the Sussex Energy Group at the University of Sussex, added: "Our study underscores the contradictions we all have in balancing climate change with other priorities. We want to fight climate change, but stick to eating meat and driving our cars. There are certain changes we can make voluntarily but beyond that we need policy to step in."
The study, published in the upcoming June edition of Energy Research and Social Science, found that the greater the potential actions have to reduce emissions, the less households were willing to implement them. In these areas "forced" solutions such as a considerably higher carbon tax on fuel and regulations encouraging food producers to reduce packaging or increase local and organic farming in addition to voluntary measures will be needed, the academics warn.
Carlo Aall, co-author of the study from the Western Norway Research Institute, said: "There is political room for taking a tougher stand on supporting economically and regulating household consumption to become more climate friendly. Meat consumption and long air trips in particular need to be addressed."
Alina Herrmann, co-author from the Heidelberg Institute for Global Health said: "Strikingly, people were very open to climate friendly solutions in the food and recycling sector. We have found strong support for less packaged food, more sustainable food production and moderate reduction of meat consumption in our study population. Many participants even wished for external support to make such sustainable choices easier for them."
However, in areas such as mobility, the authors recommend limiting the availability of greenhouse gas-intensive consumption through regulative instruments such bans, restrictions or increased taxes; balanced with making low-carbon alternatives more readily available.
Dr. Hermann added: "Changing mobility behaviour was seen as incredibly difficult. To gain acceptance for reduced mobility as part of societal transformation in the face of climate change, and entirely new public discourse would be needed."
Responses from the study revealed household carbon footprints are not static but can fluctuate significantly with major life events such as having children, experiencing illness or retiring.
The authors recommend that targeted interventions at these milestones could be highly effective in bringing about long-lasting change and suggested that intermediaries at these milestones, such as estate agents, car sales staff and retirement planners, could all play a much more active role in identifying carbon-reducing options.

Links

• Climate policies targeting household consumption and behavioral decisions are key to low-carbon futures
• Consumer food choices can help reduce greenhouse emissions contributing to climate change
• Video: Climate change—it (doesn't have to be) what's for dinner
• How important is reciprocity for climate policy?
• Climate-friendly labriculture depends on an energy revolution, study says
• Rapid global shift to renewable energies can save millions of lives
• Solving the e-waste challenge requires global action

The Doomsday Vault’s Home Is Already Altered By Climate Change. A Report Says It Could Get Worse.

Washington Post - Kayla Epstein

A view of the Global Seed Vault in Svalbard, Norway. (David Keyton/AP)

Few places have served as a locus for the public’s anxiety about climate change as much as the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
The seed ark, popularly known as the “Doomsday Vault,” is embedded deep in the permafrost of a northerly Norwegian island and stores nearly a million samples from around the world for safekeeping in the event of war, famine, disease and, yes, climate change.
It backs up gene banks around the globe, a fail safe for the fail safes.
It is supposed to be indestructible, the frigid landscape serving as a natural coolant for the genetic material it protects.
And yet, climate change has been profoundly affecting the region, causing permafrost to melt, avalanches to strike and, on one notable occasion, water to collect and freeze at the beginning of the tunnel to the vault.
That latter phenomenon led to a flurry of panicked headlines in 2017; on the Internet, where such events can take on an ominous significance, the pessimistic conclusion was that if the Doomsday Vault is doomed, so are we.
The vault is probably going to be okay. But its occasional troubles put a focus on a much bigger problem: Its home is undergoing rapid change thanks to the warming climate.
A report on climate change in the Svalbard archipelago released this year by the Norwegian Center for Climate Services and commissioned by the Norwegian Environment Agency states that “from 1971 to 2017, a warming of 3-5 degrees Celsius has been observed … with the largest increase in winter and the smallest in summer.” The estimated average temperature for Svalbard is -8.7 degrees Celsius.
“We know that the warming in this area has been very fast during the last five decades, seen in a global perspective,” said Inger Hanssen-Bauer of the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, who was one of the editors of the study.
Svalbard’s glaciers are “losing more ice through melting and calving than they are accumulating through snowfall,” according to the report. “All of the well observed glaciers are shrinking.” The warming of the surrounding ocean “has halted sea ice from forming."
But the predictions for the future are even more stark. The report projects changes from a period of 1971-2000 until 2071-2100 based on various scenarios for global warming set out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). “Under medium to high scenarios for future climate emissions,” the annual air temperature will increase by approximately 10 degrees Celsius under high emissions and 7 degrees Celsius under medium emissions, scientists found.
That temperature increase will lead to drastic changes for the region, according to the report. Heavy rainfall will occur more frequently. Avalanches and mudslides will happen more often. The snow season will become shorter. In the high-emission scenario, near-surface permafrost is predicted to melt in coastal and low-altitude areas.
The report does contain a caveat. “Inadequate knowledge of the climate system’s sensitivity and of future natural climate variations, as well as limitations in the climate models, lead to large uncertainties in the projections even under a given emission scenario,” the scientists wrote. “It is still clear that reduced greenhouse gas emissions will lead to reduced changes in the physical climate.”
The Svalbard archipelago, about halfway between the mainland of Norway and the North Pole, is home to one of the northernmost human settlements on Earth, Longyearbyren. The town is a hub for Arctic explorers and scientists and home to the Global Seed Vault. The city has been experiencing anomalies and occasional disasters thanks to the changing climate.
Houses are cracking and shifting because the melting of the permafrost destabilizes their foundations, CNN reported. A 2015 avalanche killed two people and injured nine — the types of avalanches the Norwegian report say will increase in frequency if emissions aren’t brought under control.
The Arctic overall has been highly susceptible to climate change. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 2018 Arctic report card showed that “continued warming of the Arctic atmosphere and ocean are driving broad change in the environmental system in predicted and, also, unexpected ways.” NOAA showed that surface air temperatures in the Arctic were warming at “twice the rate relative to the rest of the globe,” among other concerning changes.
The IPCC has laid out stark projections for what catastrophes await the planet if global emissions are not curbed within the next few years. The problem is global in scale, and the proposed solutions can become mired in international politics.
If it’s hard to keep focus, just think of the Doomsday Vault.

Links

• Climate Change Could Thaw The Home Of Humanity's Doomsday Vault
• Why the world is storing so many seeds in the Doomsday Vault
• Climate in Svalbard 2100 (pdf)
• There's Way Too Little Ice Around Svalbard Right Now
• Threat Of Climate Change Is Forcing Norway To Drop Millions On Its Doomsday Vault
• Scientists Add 50,000 Seeds To Arctic Doomsday Vault Because Everything Is Awful
• The Doomsday Vault Isn't Flooded But We're All Still Going To Die
• Ancient Plants Reveal Arctic Summers Haven't Been This Hot In 115,000 Years
• In the deepest Arctic, sled dogs, polar bears and famed seed vault face melting snow and ice
• Snow in Florida? It’s just hail — and here’s why that’s not as strange as it sounds.
• The Arctic Ocean has lost 95 percent of its oldest ice — a startling sign of what’s to come
• A huge stretch of the Arctic Ocean is rapidly turning into the Atlantic. That’s not a good sign

Australian Insurer QBE To Exit Thermal Coal Over Climate Change

Reuters - Melanie Burton

MELBOURNE - Australia’s QBE Insurance Group Ltd plans to stop offering new policies for thermal coal mines and coal-fired power stations to help encourage a low carbon economy and combat climate change.

A man waits in front of a QBE Insurance Group headquarters in central Sydney May 19, 2008. QBE Insurance Group Ltd, Australia's top insurer by premium income, raised its bid for smaller rival insurance Australia Group Ltd to $8.3 billion but said it thought the new and final offer would be rejected. REUTERS/Daniel Munoz (AUSTRALIA)

The country’s third-largest insurer said it aims to phase out all direct insurance services for thermal coal customers by 2030, but will still invest in and insure metallurgical coal and oil and gas companies.
Fossil fuel divestment has gathered pace over the past few years as pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and universities have sold oil, gas and coal stocks, especially after the 2015 Paris climate agreement set a goal of phasing out the use of fossil fuels this century.
Eleven major re-insurers including Allianz, AXA SA, Swiss Re, Munich Re, Zurich have restricted underwriting for coal, according to Melbourne-based non-government organization Market Forces.
“We are acutely aware of the risks and opportunities that climate change presents for our customers and our business,” QBE said in a weekend statement.
From July 1, it will no longer offer any new direct insurance services for construction projects for thermal coal mines, coal-fired power stations or thermal coal transport infrastructure, it said.
QBE will also target zero direct investments from the thermal coal industry by July 1, while restricting any coal exposure to half a percent of total funds under management.
The insurer has been restructuring its business after 2017’s record annual loss when hurricanes swept the Atlantic and earthquakes rattled Mexico, selling its Latin American and some underperforming units.
Thermal coal is used primarily for heat, while metallurgical coal is typically used to produce steel.
An insurance division of BNP Paribas, France’s largest bank, said last month said it would no longer finance power generation companies where coal-fired power accounts for more than 30 percent of installed capacity.

Links

• QBE acts on climate change
• Why more insurance companies are taking an ethical stance against insuring coal
• Lloyd's warned over legal risks of underwriting a controversial coal mine project in Australia
• Could climate change make it harder to get insurance in Australia?
• Climate change on track to make world 'uninsurable': IAG
• Insurers act on climate change exposure

Climate Change Threatens Millions Of Bangladeshi Children, Warns UNICEF

SBS News - Charlotte Lam

A new report shows environmental disasters linked to climate change are threatening the lives and futures of more than 19 million children in Bangladesh, including prompting many families to push their daughters into child marriages.



Climate change in Bangladesh could impact the lives of more than 19 million children, according to a new UNICEF report.
The humanitarian agency said on Friday that the country’s flat topography, dense population and weak infrastructure makes it “uniquely vulnerable to the powerful and unpredictable forces that climate change is compounding”.
The report author, Simon Ingram, said the danger was "flooding is extreme and it is almost on an annual basis”.

The lives and futures of more than 19 million children in Bangladesh are threatened by environmental disasters, according to a new report. AP

The report, titled "Gathering Storm: Climate change clouds the future of children in Bangladesh", showed about 12 million children currently live in and around powerful river systems, which flow through Bangladesh and regularly burst their banks.
Another 4.5 million children live in coastal areas, which are regularly struck by powerful cyclones, including almost half a million Rohingya refugee children from neighbouring Myanmar - living in makeshift bamboo and plastic shelters.



A further 3 million Bangladeshi children live in farming communities, which are facing increasing periods of drought.
The report also found a link between climate change and child marriage, child labour and access to education is evident in various parts of Bangladesh.
"Climate change is undoubtedly increasing the number of children who are pushed into the workplace, where they miss out on an education and are terribly exposed to violence and abuse," UNICEF Bangladesh Child Protection specialist Kristina Wesslund said.

Rohingya Muslim girl Afeefa Bebi, holds her brother as doctors check her mother Yasmeen Ara at a community hospital in Kutupalong refugee camp, Bangladesh 2017. AP

Bangladesh has one of the world's highest rates of child marriage, with nearly a third of girls married before the age of 15.
Child protection specialist Gyas Uddin agreed with the report's findings.
"Climate change makes people poorer and poverty is a major factor behind child marriage," he told AFP.
In 2007, a powerful cyclone killed nearly 4000 people and impacted hundreds of thousands more.

Bangladeshi children walk along streets submerged by rainwater in Old Dhaka city last year, after heavy monsoon rains flooded parts of the capital. EPA

The most recent flooding of the Brahmaputra River in 2017 damaged 50,000 tube wells, which impacted safe, drinking water and had almost 500 health clinics bursting at the seams with residents needing urgent medical treatment.
"This had an enormous effect not just in terms of displacing families and pushing them out of their homes,” Mr Ingram said, adding the “destruction that it caused to health facilities and to basic services like water and sanitation”.
UNICEF also said a change in climate was pushing poorer Bangladeshis from rural areas and into the capital Dhaka and other major cities for resources, where children's rights can be violated.

Rohingya Muslim women, who crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, hold their sick children. AP

Mr Ingram said there were already six million climate refugees in Bangladeshi cities, a number that could double by 2050.
Rising sea levels leading to unchecked saltwater intrusion also posed a threat to pregnant women, with the report showing an increased risk of medical conditions, including pre-eclampsia and hypertension, identified among mothers-to-be at the coast.

Links

• Millions of Bangladeshi children at risk from climate crisis, warns UNICEF
• Climate change threatens lives and futures of over 19 million children in Bangladesh
• Climate change threatens 19 million Bangladesh childrens’ lives, future: UNICEF report
• Climate change threat to millions of Bangladeshi children
• How climate change is forcing vulnerable children into sex trafficking
• Climate change blights children's lives in Bangladesh
• Climate Change Creates A New Migration Crisis For Bangladesh
• Bangladesh Kids Turn The Tide On Climate Change Aboard Floating Schools
• Government 'failing' on climate change: poll

Climate Change Helped Destroy These Four Ancient Civilisations

World Economic Forum - Sean Fleming

Are we next?
Image: REUTERS/File Photo 

Ignorant, malign and evil. This is some of the unapologetically harsh criticism directed at climate change deniers by Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Her point is as simple as it is blunt: “Climate change undermines the enjoyment of the full range of human rights – from the right to life, to food, to shelter and to health. It is an injustice that the people who have contributed least to the causes of the problem suffer the worst impacts of climate change.”

           Image: NASA 

It is widely accepted that the Earth’s climate is in a near-constant state of flux. There have been seven ice age cycles, featuring the expansion and contraction of glaciers, over the last 650,000 years. The last major ice age ended approximately 11,000 years ago, ushering in our modern climate era, the Holocene. Since then, the climate has been mostly stable, although there was a Little Ice Age that took place between 1200 and 1850 CE.
But there’s more to climate change than the spread of glaciers and many once-mighty civilizations have been devastated by the effects of locally changing climate conditions.
The Mayan civilization in Mesoamerica lasted for some 3,000 years. Their empire was spread throughout the Yucatan Peninsula and modern-day Guatemala, Belize, parts of Mexico, and western Honduras and El Salvador. Agriculture was the cornerstone of Mayan civilization, with great cities being built as the population grew. Religion was an important part of Mayan life; sacrifice – including human sacrifice – was a regular ritual, intended to appease and nourish the gods and keep the land fertile.
However, somewhere around 900 CE, things started to go wrong for the Mayans. Overpopulation put too great a strain on resources. Increased competition for resources was bringing the Maya into violent conflict with other nations. An extensive period of drought sounded the death-knell, ruining crops and cutting off drinking water supplies.
They were not the only ancient people catastrophically caught out by climate change.
More than 4,000 years ago in Mesopotamia – the area currently made up of Iraq, north-east Syria and south-east Turkey – the Akkadian empire ruled supreme. Until a 300-year-long drought quite literally turned all their plans to dust. It was part of a pattern of changing climate conditions in the Middle East around 2,200 BCE that was constantly disrupting life and up-ending emerging empires.
When the effects of drought began to be felt, people would leave the stricken areas and migrate to more abundant ones. These mass migration events, however, increased the pressure on remaining resources, leading to yet more problems.
The iconic Angkor Wat temple is a reminder of the prowess of another of history’s lost civilizations – the Khmer empire of south-east Asia, which flourished between 802 and 1431 CE. It too was brought down by drought, interspersed with violent monsoon rains, against the backdrop of a changing climate.
Even the Viking settlers of Greenland, in the far north Atlantic, are believed to have been affected by climate change. Some 5,000 settlers made the island their home for around 500 years. But they may have had their way of life disrupted by climate change. Temperatures dropped, reducing substantially the productivity of their farms and making it harder to raise livestock. They adapted their eating habits, turning their attention to the sea as a source of food. But life on Greenland became unbearably difficult, leading to the eventual abandonment of the island colony.
The natural cycle of climate change is an ongoing and unavoidable part of life. But history seems to be telling us that when past civilizations have overstretched themselves or pushed their consumption of natural resources to the brink, the effects of climate change soon become amplified. With dire consequences for those caught up in it.
Since the advent of the Industrial Revolution, increasing amounts of polluting gases have been pumped into the atmosphere, triggering an unprecedented rate of warming. According to the IPCC, human activity has caused around 1°C of global warming (above pre-industrial levels). The likely range is between 0.8°C and 1.2°C. Between 2030 and 2052, global warming is likely to hit a 1.5°C increase.
That increase of 1.5°C could put between 20% and 30% of animal species on the fast track to extinction. If the planet warms by an average 2°C the damage will be even worse. For the human population, one of the threats climate change poses is rising sea levels and eight of the world’s 10 largest cities are in coastal locations.
Another is the risk of climate-driven drought leading to mass migration events similar to those seen thousands of years ago. The Climate & Migration Coalition has warned that countries caught up in armed conflict or civil war are particularly vulnerable to famine in the event of drought. The Horn of Africa, home to Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia is an area that has been hit hard by both man-made conflict and climate change. Around 13 million people there face serious food shortages.
In volatile parts of the world, it is exceptionally difficult to address the challenges of drought and famine; getting aid to people in a conflict zone is fraught with difficulty and danger. This can make the effects more profound and longer-lasting, which will, in turn, increase the likelihood of large numbers of people uprooting themselves in search of somewhere they can live.
The challenge facing our world due to climate change is something that should not be underestimated. But neither is it cause for despondency. Because unlike the Mayans, the Mesopotamians and other ancient civilizations, here in the 21st century, we are in a position to do something constructive.
The Paris Agreement was one significant milestone in the fight back against climate change. Signed by 195 members of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, it has put in place a serious of goals and commitments to keep the increase in average global temperatures below 2°C. Despite a high-profile decision to leave the Paris Accord, there is now a growing movement in the US political sphere to rejoin. There is also talk of the European Union refusing to sign trade deals with countries that are not signatories to the agreement.

Links

• Climate change denial is evil, says Mary Robinson
• Climate change: How do we know?
• The Maya Empire
• Collapse of Earliest Known Empire Is Linked to Long, Harsh Drought
• Angkor Wat’s Collapse From Climate Change Has Lessons for Today
• The Fate of Greenland's Vikings
• IPCC Special Report: Global Warming Of 1.5 ºC
• UN Atlas Of The Oceans 2002-2016
• Climate, drought and conflict in the Horn of Africa
• This is how our changing climate could increase the risk we face from hurricanes
• Jakarta is slowing sinking into the Earth
• From Sweden to India, school climate strikes have gone global