Climate change and its challenges

More than at any other time in our recent history, it is our society’s responsibility to pay due attention to climate change and all its consequences. Raising public awareness of this serious problem is essential and aims to increase enthusiasm and support for this cause, while encouraging action and mobilizing our country’s knowledge and resources.

After all, not all stakeholders are aware and informed about their vulnerability and the measures they can take to proactively adapt to climate change.

Sustainable development is a universal agenda that aims to build a fairer (and better) world. Every country in the world is witnessing the serious impacts of climate change, which is causing damage to our planet’s biological diversity and people’s lives. If we do not act now, the catastrophic effects of climate change will be far greater than the current situation we are experiencing.

Droughts, floods, rising sea levels and cyclones: global warming is being felt more and more on our planet. The negative consequences, especially for development, are well known, especially in agricultural production, which is already suffering significant losses that threaten food security. In fact, when the temperature rises by 1 degree, cereal production decreases by around 5%; therefore, climate change will have a negative impact on the availability of food and make it more difficult to access, disrupting the livelihoods of millions of rural producers who earn their income from agriculture. Sustainable development and the fight against poverty cannot therefore be dissociated from the fight against global warming and the protection of the environment or biodiversity.

The Paris Agreement aims to limit global warming to 1,5°C. This requires global emissions to fall 45% from 2010 levels by 2030 and continue to fall sharply to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. The world is far from meeting this target. At the same time, emissions from developing countries increased by 43,2% between 2000 and 2013. This increase is largely attributed to increased industrialization and rising economic output measured in terms of GDP.

It’s easy to think that our small, everyday actions can’t make a big difference. However, when we as a community act together, we have the power to create meaningful change. Choosing to use environmentally responsible products, consuming less energy, and opting for greener modes of transportation may seem insignificant, but when these activities are adopted on a large scale, they can have a huge impact on our environment.

We must also protect forests, which are the lungs of the planet. They store a considerable volume of carbon and help mitigate the effects of global warming, especially by producing moisture that is essential for the ecosystems they shelter.

Fertilizers play a key role in this context. First, as a product that allows for increased food production, ensuring food security on our planet. In addition, fertilizers allow for the maintenance of productivity on land already used for agriculture, preventing forests from being cut down in order to exploit new areas. In addition to these aspects, fertilizers help to grow more than one crop in the same area, thus reducing the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, i.e., reducing one of the main greenhouse gases.

In this context of climate emergency, we all find ourselves in a moment of action, in which we need to encourage actions in favor of the climate, raising awareness among the people around us to support ecological policies and adopt an environmentally friendly lifestyle. After all, together, we can ensure a greener and healthier future for future generations.

*Per Valter Casarin, general and scientific coordinator of the NPV initiative