According to Carbon Brief the number of global climate change laws has increased 20-fold since 1997. A database produced by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and the Sabin Center on Climate Change Law includes more than 1,200 relevant policies across 164 countries, which account for 95% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
The number of laws regarding climate change continues to grow rapidly. There were just 60 laws in place back in 1997, but the figure in 2018 stands at 1,260. During that period, the number of climate laws in existence doubled every four to five years. This rapid and consistent growth in CO2 regulations around the globe indicates a substantial opportunity for carbon-neutral technologies, and that general interest in CO2 legislation is increasing exponentially. The interest and political drive in this field is increasingly converted into policies and enforcement.
There will undoubtedly be an exponential increase in the value of companies and technologies that help reduce CO2 production as these policies continue to be implemented.
UK targets
Official statistics estimate that there has been a 38% reduction of annual CO2 emissions in comparison to the figures from 1990. The Climate Change Act of 2008 set legally binding targets to push this reduction up to 80% by 2050, and the country is currently on course to achieve this. This currently makes up the UK’s contribution to EU-wide targets of 20% reductions by 2020, though after Brexit the UK may not be a part of this legislation.
Other noteworthy legislation
Sweden’s ambitious new climate change legislation, The Climate Act, came into force in 2018. It is a complex framework aiming to make the country a net zero emitter of greenhouse gases by 2045. It is one of the most comprehensive and ambitious emissions legislations in the world, and, if successful, it would be a strong example for others to follow.
At the other end of the spectrum, highly-publicised changes to US environmental protection policies have seen the government place the importance of American jobs above addressing the issues of climate change. President Donald Trump said he believed that the government can protect American jobs AND regulate climate change, but that the former is more important than the latter. This reflects a larger picture of his government looking to compete more with countries like China, and feeling that climate change laws inhibit that.
Switzerland is pursuing a rigorous policy to reduce greenhouse gases with the CO2 Act, aiming to achieve 20% reductions in emissions by 2020 in comparison to their 1990 level. It primarily targets fossil and motor fuels and assigns the federal government to coordinate the changes.
When governments fail to meet their targets, they are being increasingly held to account by environmental groups. The changes we are seeing worldwide are being enforced by litigation, which means there are genuine consequences when targets are missed. Silent-Power is a renewable energy technology company working to implement solutions that will help cut carbon emissions in a wide range of ways. Companies like Silent- Power facilitate the changes necessary for countries and companies to meet their emissions targets.
What it all means
Switzerland and Sweden have been early adopters of policies and regulations regarding climate change, setting an example that the rest of the world is likely to follow in the coming years. Swedish plans to become a zero-emissions country by 2045 are ambitious, but so comprehensively constructed that they show how the entire world could one day function without doing greater harm to the environment. It is necessary to adopt new technologies and infrastructure for countries to achieve radical targets for climate change litigation, and the consequences for failing to do so are very real.
We are seeing climate changes drastically, and we are losing animals and landscapes to the degree that our grandchildren may never know a world like the one we now enjoy. Governments are increasingly offering levies to give companies and households the opportunity to engage with new environmentally-friendly technologies through companies like Silent-Power, helping everyone work together to provide hope for the future of the planet. We risk that few hundred years of human interference are destroying what has existed for billions of years — any denial that our interference with our environment is destroying the planet is folly. The good news is that we actually can change our behaviour, but we all need to work together to identify and implement working solutions.