Climatic Change and the City of London - Term Paper Example

Running Head: Tackling climatic change Examine (in reference to a named city in Europe. Its key current key approaches to talking the challenges of climatic change. Introduction. The city of London is one of the worst affected by climatic changes according to the UN Habitat report on cities (Middleton, 2003). The city has been affected by amongst others, environmental pollution by motor vehicle and industrial smoke emission, green house gases effect, climatic and weather changes occasioned by the erection of very tall buildings, climatic changes resulting from human activity and over population of the city. There is a need for a proper, informed and sustainable responses and solutions to the over changing climates in many places of the world. Only effective and sustainable responses to the imminent climatic problems and a readiness to solve climate problems will deliver the cities of Europe and indeed the entire countries from the negative effects of the uncontrolled climatic changes. Governments have a responsibility to develop policies, regulations and laws aimed at causing environmental degradation to the climate which is the leading cause of climatic change (Middleton, 2003). Climatic change is referred by (Middleton, 2003) as the variation of weather patterns of a geographical area for reasons which are either man made or natural. Such may include climatic changes such as changes in the ozone layer; changes in the poles such as ice melting, volcano eruptions, changes in the rainfall amounts, changes in temperatures such as the occurrence of heat waves, as well as changes in the sea levels. Not to mention changes in flora and fauna. All the above happenings have an effect on the lives of human beings due to the fact that they affect how man does business, how a country spends its money, how individuals spend their money as well as how a countries respond to the effects at climate change. In order to tackle the above challenges brought about by climatic changes, there is a need to first tackle the root causes of the changes especially in cases where by such changes are as result of human activity. This is necessary due to the fact that, no matter how much resources are put in tackling the challenges in climatic changes, no matter the amount of resources involved, failure to understand root causes to the problem will mean that all well intentioned efforts, no matter well articulated the policies, the problem of climatic change will keep on recurring and those cities shall continue to suffer and loose money to ineffective measures which can not generate reasonable effects (Middleton, 2003). On top of the above, the climatic changes resulting from economic activities in the towns have also contributed to climatic changes. Such have included the use of highly mechanized farming methods which emit unwanted chemicals to the air as well as erosion and over exploitation of natural resources such as water as a result of high population of human beings competing for minimal resources. To address the above mentioned challenges, London under the auspices of the Mayor as well as the Department of Environment has committed itself to the following changes and actions which aim to particularly tackle the problem of transportation, chemical and smoke emissions. Smoke emission reduction is becoming a significant and relevant and therefore the city has in the recent past signed several agreements aimed at easing climatic problems. By using technology or promoting the use of technology which is more efficient and economical as well as environment friendly, being a signatory to Kyoto agreement, the introduction of special programmes aimed at offering solutions to the problems, London has shown commitments to solving the problem of climatic change (Middleton, 2003). Coming up with environmental policies as well as designing sustainable strategies to help in achieving a minimization of environmental degradation is as well a good step towards controlling climatic effects. The other point worthy mentioning is the constant research towards sustainable climatic solutions, collaboration between the government, and businesses aimed at promoting initiative towards halting or minimizing the effects of climatic changes, increasing research and development expenditure on climate science, use of renewable energy technologies therefore moving away from the traditional fossil fuel energy which is famous for air pollution are all efforts by the city of London to solve the problems. By increasing the amount spent on climate programmes, adherence to the global change research Act of 1990, emphasis on new technologies for clean energy generation the city of London has continuously responded to the challenge. Policies in place for Londoners include tax incentives for any company investing in climate friendly technology. Private sectors and especially business can contribute by showing commitment and concern towards climate friendly measures such as reducing emissions as well as signing new agreements to that effect. Environment friendly measures include the promotion of use of clean fuels so as to reduce the impact of transportation on climatic change. The other approach being used by the city of London is that of joint ventures and corporations with other cities of Britain as well as other cities of the world. London has responded to climatic change challenges through the teaming up of both the political class and the business identities. Carbon dioxide emission This is a situation whereby because of the increased burning of fossil fuels, a lot of carbon dioxide is emitted into the environment. This eventually leads to an imbalance in the ozone gases therefore causing a change in weather patterns. In such circumstances, several climatic changes are experienced particularly the patterns of rainfall, changes from a regular and usually predictable pattern to an unpredictable and irregular climatic patterns. The above may result to increased cases of torrential rains, unusually hot days and very cold nights as well as a change in the natural flora and fauna of the city. For London, the above conditions have particularly been experienced in terms of corrosion, erosion as well as weathering of buildings. The rampant weathering of the materials used in the buildings has been cited as one of the greatest sources of carbon dioxide in London city. This field in the light of climatic change can be termed as ‘A disaster in waiting’ and therefore calls for quick and urgent measures to counter any possible problems. On a positive note, the city of London is responding to these challenges in a number of ways. Specifically, the formation of the London Climate Change Agency in 2005 can be said to be one of the major actions taken by the city authorities to solve the problem of climatic changes. The above mentioned agency draws together representatives from the government as well as representatives from the business sectors such as business entities like BP, Lafarge and HSBC. With such an integrated approach, significant changes seem more likely and it is approximated that by the year 2020, a downward trend will be realized in climatic effects on the environment. Having identified the root cause of carbon dioxide emission as buildings, the government quickly moved in to put new building regulations aimed at checking as well as controlling the emission (Hall, 2006). Green house gas emissions The city of London is making concerted efforts towards reduction of green house gas emissions. This especially targets the transportation sector and it’s being realized by the city through promoting and popularizing the use of energy saving products which considerably reduce the emission of green house gases. Technological approach The city of London is investing a lot of money in research as well as development of products aimed at solving the climate change problems. Also by hiring experts the city has shown commitment to finding a long term solution to the problem. The ICT approach Information and communication technology cannot be wished away. The same has been instrumental in offering solutions to most of the problems facing other sectors. The city of London has adopted computer-based systems which are able to improve and facilitate the sharing of crucial information as well as data amongst different stakeholders, something that has contributed to the knowledge necessary for solving the climate change problem. The use of ICT promises to be successful in that computer-based systems as opposed to the traditional approaches have proved to be efficient, more accurate and very reliable in predicting climatic changes. Other key steps include: - Improved electric grids designed with the capability to emit very little or no green gases at all. This is seen as a resolve to the green house problem. Careful and well designed street electric lighting has been adapted in the city of London. This is done with an aim of solving the green house gas problem. Improved recycling of waste as well as storage of garbage. The city of London has invested heavily on renewable energy as well as biomass through investing in environment friendly waste recycling technology. This has been seen as a move in the right direction towards offering a long term solution to the climatic change problem. The enactment of regulations, laws and codes – The city through the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor has been at the forefront in designing passing of laws which have guided the construction of buildings in the city with climatic effects in mind. Recent studies have shown that intervention in construction can significantly contribute to the reduction of carbon dioxide emission. The city of London has embarked on efforts which have been successful in reducing the problems associated with emissions from motor vehicles. This is crucial for the city since it has one of the largest numbers of motorists in the world. Therefore by solving the problem of traffic congestion the city can be said to have contributed to solving climatic change problems. The city recently innovated and initiated a state of the art sewerage system designed to minimize green house gas emission into the environment. This can be termed as a move in the right direction. Conclusion. The cities of the world will need to commit more resources into solving the environmental challenges currently being experienced. The city of London has been at the forefront of these efforts and can be said to be a role model. This is evidenced by the full support of its mayors into finding sustainable solutions. That is the only way in which the city can avoid the catastrophe in waiting if emissions into the environment of hazadours chemicals and gases do not stop. REFERENCES Hall, T. (2006) Urban Geography (2nd Ed). London: Routledge (ISBN 0415344468) Middleton, N. (2003) The Global Casino: An introduction to environmental issues (3rd Ed.) London: Edward Arnold (ISBN 0340809493). Read More