Reduction in CO2 emissions requires people engagement

Owing to ever-growing anthropogenic activity, the concentration of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere has been quickly increasing over the last century, resulting in drastic increases in the Earth’s temperature, causing global warming. Keeping in mind numerous reports on carbon emissions, the onus of reducing the same falls on cities of the world

Pooja UPadhyay | Trainee Reporter

Forests, power generation (fossil fuel combustion), transportation (fossil fuel combustion), agriculture (livestock, farming, rice cultivation, and crop residue burning), water bodies (wetlands), industry, and urban activities (building, construction, transport, solid and liquid waste) are all substantial sources of GHG. The GHG footprint is calculated by combining CO2 and non-CO2 gases and converting them to carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). As a result, the GHG footprint is a measurement of the impact of human activities on the environment in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.

According to Worldometer, developed nations like the United States of America, Australia, United Arab Emirates produce the highest amount of per capita CO2 emissions. It has been noted that the world’s cities generate most of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions due to concentrations of population, buildings, factories, and commerce.

It is being estimated that by 2050, about 70 per cent of the world’s population will go about their daily lives in urban spaces only. This puts stress on the need to introduce sustainable practices and development in cities across the world, especially considering the fact that as of 2019, urban dwellers were responsible for around three-quarters of all greenhouse gas emissions.

Extreme weather phenomena have begun to strike Indian cities with alarming regularity. If global warming continues, a record 360 million people would be exposed to excessive heat in 142 Indian cities by 2050. Temperatures in three Indian cities—Chennai, Mumbai, and Delhi—have steadily increased during the last five decades. Since 1960-70, the temperature in Chennai has risen by an incredible 0.9 degree Celsius.

Experts believe that cities require radical decarbonisation measures such as banning fossil-fuel vehicles, transitioning to mass transportation, and progressively switching to 100 per cent renewable electricity, all of which can dramatically reduce carbon emissions. According to a dataset prepared by Norwegian University of Science and Technology in collaboration with Shinshu University, Yale, and Lund University, per capita carbon footprint is highest in Hong Kong. Same was found to be lowest in cities like Yingkou (China), Nottingham (England), Leipzig (Germany), and Dublin (Ireland).

Leipzig

A structural change panel in Germany that advised that coal be phased out completely by 2038 opened up the possibility of a post-fossil fuel transformation for Leipzig, which is located in a mining region. Leipzig began an energy upgrading procedure in its housing sector several years ago, and the city now plans to phase out coal-fired district heating by 2023. This heat transition can make Leipzig one of the first post-fossil fuel cities.

To begin with, Leipzig has attempted to cut GHG emissions in the municipal building stock using a ‘self-governance’ model. Second, Leipzig has been attempting to minimise GHG emissions by enlisting the help of others.

The municipal government provides advice services to private property owners, housing firms, and renters in order to enable and encourage them to make energy-saving improvements to their buildings or reduce their energy use. The city has also introduced advisory services for janitors. Furthermore, the city has enhanced citizen involvement, such as through the civic platform ‘Leipzig think farther’, which was founded in 2012 and focuses on energy retrofitting.

Nonetheless, the city has made relatively limited use of its resources, and there has been no general and long-term strategy for increasing the retrofitting rate in the city since the early 1990s. Nottingham

Nottingham City Council has established the goal to become the first carbon-neutral city in the United Kingdom by 2028 in response to the climate and environmental crises. In 2017, Nottingham had managed to reduce total CO2 emissions by 41 per cent (49 per cent reduction in per capita emissions) from 2005. In response to the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2018 Special Report, the City Council issued a public proclamation on the climate emergency and replied in January 2019 with a new carbon-neutral aim.

While Nottingham does have the lowest ownership of cars for a city outside of London, its efforts in shifting towards clean public transport and innovative commercial and domestic vehicle trials are seemingly paying off. To assist decarbonisation of transportation, Nottingham City Council has invested in a fleet of hydrogen and biogas buses, a £15 million investment in one of the UK’s largest electric bus fleets, and a cycle hire programme and bike storage centres. It has additionally switched its entire tram network to 100 per cent renewable power and introduced a Workplace Parking Levy for residents driving their cars to work, where all revenues earned by the charge are used only for public transportation projects.

The city is also home to the UK’s first Energiesprong homes, a unique approach to housing rehabilitation that provides existing homes with netzero energy performance. Moreover, the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Energy Grants provide energy audits and related efficiency grants to local businesses in the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire area.

Dublin

The Climate Change Action Plan for Dublin City Council was endorsed by City Council members in May 2020, making it the first time when the city’s four local authorities collaborated to create unique Climate Change Action Plans for their respective districts. Energy and Buildings, Transportation, Flood Resilience, Nature-Based Solutions, and Resource Management are all included in this Climate Change Action Plan. Since one of the biggest challenges in tackling climate change is public acceptance of the risks and the associated demand for solutions to reduce these risks through policy and services, Codema, energy agency of Dublin, worked with the four Councils and the Dublin Climate Action Regional Office to run a number of public engagement events in each local authority area. In a leading example, younger citizens have also engaged with the climate change agenda by participating in the #FridaysForFuture campaign, including rallies outside government buildings. With the aim to develop further links with younger citizens in enhancing climate change awareness, the city started working on developing educational initiatives in partnership with schools and youth organisations.

Conclusion

Much like the cities mentioned above, Indian cities have also been developing specific action plans of their own on climate change since 2009. Well laid out plans that are visionary and can keep the work going every year towards reducing carbon emissions are essential to save the planet. However, any city council’s direct activities and plans can account for only limited reduction in a city’s CO2 emissions. Therefore, a city’s policies and plans can only hope to succeed if it is something the whole city can embrace, engage and be involved in. The contributions from residents, community, the business sector and all organisations of the city are critical. The Community Council can help, lead, and set a positive example, but in order to reduce carbon emissions, the entire city must participate. Therefore, partnerships, engagement, behavior, and cultural changes are to be included at the core of any agenda or development plan.