Changing weather pallerns, stronger storms, longer droughts- these are just a few signs that our climate is changing rapidly.
Recently, lawmakers in New Zealand signed the Zero Carbon Bill, which lays out a path for the country to reduce its carbon emissions to zero by 2050.
Net-zero is the balance between the amount of greenhouse gases a country releases into the atmosphere and how much is removed from the atmosphere.
A reasonable way to achieve net-zero is to divide the goal into two parts. To reduce emissions, countries can gradually adapt their economies to be less carbon dependent. This can be done by developing renewable energy, improving transportation and food production, stopping deforestation and restoring lands, reducing food wastage, and consuming less meat.
Countries can then address remaining emissions with carbon removal, a process that removes greenhouse gases directly from the atmosphere. This can be done by planting more trees and developing technologies that capture and store carbon.
New Zealand's Zero Carbon Bill aims to reduce fossil fuel usage and replace it with renewable energy sources. The government has also focused on promoting electric vehicles, public transportanon, biking, and walking. Additionally, New Zealand is committed to planting 1 billion trees by 2028.
The country wants to include agriculture into its climate solution. The government will tax farmers who do not decrease their carbon emissions by 2022. Currently, agriculture in New Zealand accounts for over half of its greenhouse gas emissions.
Methane is a greenhouse gas produced by the decomposition of organic matter from crops and livestock such as sheep and cattle — known as biogenic (生物的) methane. New Zealand will reduce biogenic emissions by 10% before 2030 and between24% to47% before2050. Here, the country is being denounced for not doing enough as methane is a much stronger greenhouse gas, even though it does not stay in the atmosphere as long as carbon dioxide.
Sixty countries have already committed to net-zero, yet they only make up 11% of global emissions. We need convince our leaders that our planet cannot survive if we don't take action.
