Countries all around the world are fiercely trying to combat the effects of climate change by utilizing renewable energy sources.
From wind turbines to solar power, the world is working together to save our planet.
Find out whats happening around the world today:
France
The 21st Conference of Parties (COP 21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is taking place in Paris this year, and over 100 world leaders are expected to attend.
Visitors to the city of love may notice that it is now greener- in more ways than one.
A new law has passed requiring buildings in commercial areas to have a garden or solar panels installed on the roof.
According to authorities, the move is more than ‘green-dressing- these ‘green roofs’ have an isolating effect, and they help reduce the level of energy required to heat and cool buildings.
Germany
Germany instigated Europe’s transition to clean energy with their ambitious goals of phasing out nuclear power and fossil fuels in a generation.
The country has made use of an area with an abundance of strong wind: Schleswig-Holstein.
2,636 wind turbines have been installed and are generating power that’s being fed back into the grid. The Schleswig-Holstein wind farm wishes to increase its output to three time as much, and in 10 years hopes to supply Germany with eight per cent of their energy needs.
Antarctica
Over the past 50 years Antarctica’s average temperature has risen by more than 2.8 degrees, a change that is worrying scientists.
A massive 87 per cent of glaciers have retreated. A recent NASA study revealed that heavy snowfall in eastern Antarctica may be related to western Antarctica’s dramatic ice loss, however the reprieve is expected to be short lived.
Greenland and the Artic is seeing ice melting even faster, and a temperature increase is making the sea water expand. It’s clear that the only way sea levels will be going is up.
California
According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration the drought in California was more driven by natural causes rather than global warming.
However, the American Geophysical Union concluded it was the most severe drought in 1,200 years, and most scientists agree that increasingly high temperatures have exacerbated the drought.
Approximately $2 billion has been spent on the drought, and many fear that this is just a taste of future droughts that could last decades.
Although the sun is the enemy to Californian farmers, entrepreneurs from San Francisco are profiting from it.
Almost 55,000 people are employed by over 2,000 solar companies.
Although oil production is still common, the majority of future investment is going into solar power.
Costa Rica
The army was abolished in 1948 by José Figueres, the Costa Rica president at the time, in order to focus on ‘social investments’ such as conservation, education and a renewable energy focused state power company, ICE.
ICE now has an aggressive target of completely phasing out fossil fuels by the year 2021.
Renewable energy ran the country’s whole power grid for the first 75 days of the year.
Costa Rice still relies on burning fuel to produce some of the electricity, however they hope that sustainable energy sources such as wind, solar, hydro and biogas will supply all the power they need in the future.
Miami
The sea surrounding southern Florida has gone up by around 23 centimetres in the last 100 years according to tidal gauge records, and the rapidly increasing rate is not letting up.
A rise of up to 1.524 metres has been predicted by Miami-Dade County, by the end of this century.
Miami is quite vulnerable to this increase as they are a low-lying area that receives frequent storm surges , not to mention the porous limestone basin it is built on- water can rise up through the ground when sea water rises in extreme tides.
Local governments plan to invest billions of dollars on protection measures such as sea walls, pumps and road raising, however climate change is rarely mentioned when applying for support from the state.
Man-made global warming is ignored by Governor Rick Scott, who says he’s “not a scientist”.
Photo courtesy of Andrea Della Adriano
