Memo 6

Cape Verde's Stance on Climate Change

"Science has spoken. There is no ambiguity in their message. Leaders must act. Time is not on our side," said by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon¹ The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), founded in 1972 has been leading the constitution for combating Climate Change. The United States of America (USA) and China are the largest emitters of greenhouse gases in the world and committed to work together to help stop the rising problem of climate change.

In 2009, China and the USA were at the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit when their agreement fell flat, blaming each other for dropping the agreement. Currently, China and the USA have announced unilateral measures to reduce their greenhouse gases. China has promised to combat Climate change by completely stopping their greenhouse emission by 2030. The United States of America has promised to reduce its gas emissions up to 28% by 2025. These two countries are going to push more negotiations at a Climate Change Conference in Paris this year in 2015. All countries have an obligation to work at ending climate change. "The China-US Climate Change Agreement Is a Step Forward for Green Power Relations." (Hansen, 2014)

Countries with Veto power need to cooperate, as China and USA are to reduce their countries emission of greenhouse gases. All countries need to set restrictions to the amount of greenhouse gases emitted every year which 82% of those emissions are created by humans.This problem is so crucial that it was placed on the list of Millennium Development Goals.

Developing countries such as India are quickly acquiring more citizens making it harder

to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions.There has been physical evidence of Climate Change which is caused by the increase of CO₂ which is due to emissions from fossil fuels such as coal, oil, petroleum, and gasoline. The global warming effect was very noticeable throughout 2014 making it the most scorching year since 1880. Extreme weather, heat waves and storms can affect human health and even kill people. Rising temperatures, snow and longer droughts affect the amount of water in lakes, streams, rivers etc. Sea ice and glaciers melting can affect rising ocean levels. Over the past 100 years the sea levels around the world have rose 7 inches.

During the 40th session in 1988, The World Meteorological Organization’s Executive Council has established The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to further the research and knowledge of Climate Change as well as prepare a plan of action to implement solutions. In 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) created the United Nations Framework Convention on climate change in order to implement solutions to reduce the emissions of CO2 and the effect of climate change. In 2000, The United Nations created the Millennium development goal 7 (Climate Change) to ensure environmental sustainability around the world including reducing the carbon emissions and the energy used. In 2012, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development was held in Rio de Janeiro which was later nicknamed Rio + 20 which was to honor the twentieth anniversary of the United Nations. The goal of Rio + 20 was to adopt further sustainable development in their nations.

Cape Verde is affected by climate change because of the rising pressures making water resources even more scarce than they already are. 80% of Cape Verde’s residents are vulnerable to the rising sea levels due to their houses being built out of non-resistant materials. Scientists have noticed that Cape Verde’s average annual temperatures have increased by 0.6°c since 1960.  

The government of Cape Verde has created a plan to achieve 100% of renewable energy by 2020. The Cape Verde will attempt to achieve this goal with the help of the European Union (EU). The EU has provided €51 million ($71.4 million CDN)for Cape Verde to achieve Millennium Development Goal 7. Even though 25% of the energy used in Cape Verde is covered by climate change, Cape Verde aims to make it 100%. Now Cape Verde is on track to complete nearly all Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Currently, the only challenge for Cape Verde is eradicating poverty due to 26.6% of the population are currently living to poverty.

There are many ways for humans to help, especially by consuming less products and another big way is to go vegetarian. The more people the more gas is emitted so humans should start to have less children. We could also unplug everything when they’re not in use. The earth is 70% water so we should use oceans and the sun’s heat to create thermal energy and mechanical energy from the tides. In places that have lots of sunlight, we should start building solar panels to save lots of energy and stop the gas emissions by a little. Turbines could help take wind energy to turn it into energy. If we use things like wind, sunlight, and the ocean for saving energy we will also stop part of the gas emissions. If these rules apply all over the world we could save so much energy and reduce the gas emissions.

If the humans can modify their way of life, living beings could live on the earth longer and in a more efficient way. But until Cape Verde can apply major changes, other major countries and their leaders must step up and make boundaries to be more efficient.

Hansen, Simon. “The China-US climate change agreement is a step forward for green power relations | Simon Hansen.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 14 Nov. 2014, www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/14/the-china-us-climate-change-agreement-is-a-step-forward-for-green-power-relations.