Tasks of the 2030 Agenda

UN Sustainable Development Goal 13 is to urgently take as much action as possible to combat climate change and its effects. Today, basically every continent on Earth is struggling with the effects of climate change in the form of various weather anomalies and in particular with heat waves, droughts and floods. Further deterioration of the climate situation carries great risks. So the concept began to function in circulation Earth's climate debt, which implies an imbalance between how much humanity exploits natural resources and emits greenhouse gases and the planet's ability to regenerate and absorb them. In other words, it is a situation where we consume more than the Earth can reproduce in a year, and we also emit more CO₂ than ecosystems - forests, soils and oceans - are able to absorb.

Climate debt has a primarily ecological dimension, but also an ethical-political dimension, as it points to the responsibility of wealthier countries and societies for overburdening the climate system and the consequences most felt by developing countries, which have the least share of global emissions.

The Sustainable Development Goals created by the United Nations together with the 2030 Agenda (the deadline by which these goals are to be achieved) are mostly linked in some way precisely to nature and climate. Even if one of the goals was responsible consumption and production - we wrote about it in the last article, which you can read at this link: Sustainable Development Goal: Responsible consumption and production - it is always, after all, he talks about the fact that for the realization of each of them we need a complete change of thinking about our planet.

Objective 13 focuses specifically on climate action and takes a comprehensive look at various aspects. These are the tasks set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development:

adaptation and resilience to climate change,
a policy strategy to combat climate change,
climate education and awareness,
mobilizing USD 100 billion per year for climate action in developing countries and fully mobilizing the Green Climate Fund;
strengthening the capacity of least developed countries and small island States to plan climate action, taking into account women, youth and marginalized groups.

What is important for this purpose is the global nature of the actions - the responsibility lies not only with individual countries, but with the entire Earth community. This challenge is difficult not only because of the need to develop a single policy agenda on climate, but also because of the problem of accounting for the big corporations and the richest who are the biggest contributors to climate change.

Who is really responsible for climate change?

Climate change is primarily responsible for the combination of lack of decisive political decisions or deliberate negligence and the great interests of the world's wealthiest. Of course, the consumer market, production, tons of wasted food and clothes - we all participate in this, but the filming of capitalist industry comes mainly from the most privileged. Does that mean we have no influence on anything? Not necessarily. The greatest force of opposition to politicians and big companies is the people themselves gathering for the purpose of protest. Social influence has repeatedly shown its revolutionary effectiveness; proof of this is the anti-racist marches, the influence of the change in the law concerning the LGBT community, a series of legal changes that have made feminism and equality go forward.

Today, about 1.8% of the total CO₂ emissions of the aviation sector are responsible for around 1.8% of the total CO₂ emissions of the aviation sector, a small part of global emissions, but with a very uneven distribution of responsibility - concentrated in the hands of a few users and harmful from the point of view of climate justice. However, if we look at which social group uses these flights, we will quickly see that the largest percentage are the private flights of the richest people, which have a much greater impact on the environment than the average citizen, which highlights the enormous inequality in emissions and highlights the need for climate policies that take into account social justice.

According to a report by Oxfam, the richest 1% of the population is responsible for about half of global aviation emissions. In 2023, private aircraft emitted about 19.5 million tons of CO₂, which accounted for 4% of the total emissions of the aviation sector. Of these emissions, 65% came from flights within the United States. For comparison: the 50 richest billionaires in the world in 2023 made an average of 184 flights on private jets, giving a total of 425 hours in the air and an emission equal to that of the average citizen for 300 years. In addition, their yachts emitted as much CO₂ as the average citizen produces in 860 years

However, aviation, as we mentioned at the beginning, is only the tip of the iceberg, although the topic is very media, for example thanks to the famous singer Taylor Swift, who recently covered an extremely short route by plane, and her private flights have brought public attention to the problem of emissions from the aviation sector. In reality, however, the biggest sources of emissions are the burning of fossil fuels in energy and transport, meat production, deforestation and heavy industry - and aviation, although visible, is responsible for only a small part of the global carbon footprint.

Combustion of fossil fuels It has disastrous effects on the climate. Not only combustion itself, but also sustainable production, which often, by the way, compromises the work ethic, continues the exploitation of workers and lands. Fossil fuel deposits are also a gold mine and an ace up the sleeve of politicians who can, like Russia, make many other countries dependent on their resources. In 2024, energy-related CO₂ emissions reached a record high of about 40.8 gigatons. Without further action to develop alternative, renewable energy sources, the problem will only get worse.

The transport sector is also not without significance. Transportation was responsible for about 29% of CO₂ emissions in the United States in 2022. According to the EPA United States Environmental Protection Agency: The largest sources of transport-related greenhouse gas emissions include passenger cars, medium- and heavy-duty trucks, and light trucks, including SUVs, pickups and minivans. These sources account for more than half of the emissions from the transport sector.

Most greenhouse gases from transportation are carbon dioxide (CO₂), which is produced when fossil fuels, such as gasoline or diesel, are burned in internal combustion engines.

Another problem is the question agriculture and food productionThe sector is responsible for almost one third global greenhouse gas emissions, mainly due to deforestation, animal husbandry and excessive land use. As for the deforestation itself: land use changes, such as deforestation, account for approximately 11% global CO₂ emissions. Finally, let's add the production of clothes - fashion is, after all, a huge and extremely ecological industry. Clothes are often made from polyester, which is de facto petroleum and therefore of poor quality, is produced in excess and many are later burned or thrown away. All this is destroying the natural ecosystem and at the same time ourselves.

What is the Paris Agreement?

The Paris Agreement, adopted in 2015 as part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, is a global agreement aimed at limiting the increase in Earth's average temperature to below 2°C, and preferably to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. As of April 2018, 175 countries have ratified the Convention, 168 of which have provided the UNFCCC Secretariat with information on climate action. At that time, 10 developing countries submitted their first national adaptation plans, and developed countries mobilized $100 billion annually for climate change mitigation actions. The agreement emphasizes both emission reduction and financial and adaptation support for the most vulnerable countries. However, as GRID Warszawa reports based on the report The Gathering Storm (Adaptation Gap Report 2021): The implementation of adaptation measures continues to grow slowly. The scale of activities is increasing — as are the number of projects with funding of more than $10 million. Despite this progress, the report concludes that further ambition is needed in terms of funding and implementation.

This shows that adaptation plans, even though they formally exist, are somewhat more factual than actually affecting change. And keep in mind that these proceed extremely quickly.

What can help? Activities in the country

Of course, one of the most important things we can do is put pressure on politicians. Activities of the Last Generation, which present to the government its Law LEX Last Generation on the reconstruction of Polish railway and bus transport, or A Plan for Generations Initiatives East Speaking, which raises issues of sustainable industry, agriculture and energy as well as suggests changes in the area of public transport and nature protection - these are all Polish, local proposals that realistically, often through civic, public involvement and protests, try to attract the attention of politicians. Another example of development in the positive direction is, for example, the Polish offshore - i.e. the construction of Polish offshore wind farms in the Baltic Sea. The sector is not only new jobs, but also a strong branch of renewable energy. You can read more about it here: Conference “Safety in Renewable Energy”.

Polish business also has more and more to offer in terms of sustainable development, as exemplified by the growing number of companies implementing strategies to reduce CO₂ emissions, investing in renewable energy sources, implementing a circular economy and reporting their activities under ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance).

summary

Climate change requires global cooperation, the responsibility of the largest emitters and local action in a spirit of sustainable development. Adaptation, emission reduction and financial support for the most vulnerable communities are essential to achieve the goals of the 2030 Agenda and reduce the catastrophic effects of climate change.

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