Here's Why Climate Scientists are Hopeful on Solving Climate Change

It could be challenging to have a positive attitude when it comes to climate change. The humanity is on the brink of global catastrophe brought on by years of inaction and irresponsibility by the world's largest economies, according to the letter signed by 11,000 scientists in the journal of the American Institute of Biological Sciences in November 2019. 

However, the authors rejected fatalism in their conclusion. They noted that a recent wave of concern worldwide might lead to the transformative changes required.

Here five positive climate stories that remind us we have the power to turn things around:

5) The Ozone Layer Is Healing

In 1985, the British Antarctic Survey discovered a massive, continent-sized hole in the Earth's protective ozone layer. Two years later, 196 states and the European Union signed the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer to regulate ozone-depleting gases such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). 

NASA scientists, as a result, set the goal to recover the Antarctic ozone's 1980 levels by 2070. The benefits of the protocol are wide ranging. The phasing out of CFCs and other ozone-depleting compounds, which has a warming effect ten of thousands of times higher than that of CO2, could also potentially have a significant impact on the climate change fight.

4) Green Energy Is Now The Investors' Top Pick

A latest research in the United Kingdom, as reported by Forbes, discovered that investments in renewable energy are regarded as the hot pick for 2020 among investors looking for long-term growth. The survey conducted by U.S. firm GraniteShares reported that renewable energy investments are among the top picks of all age groups.

PricewaterhouseCoopers stated that renewables investment in Latin America exceeded US$16 billion in 2015, and massive inflows of private placements expect to transform the energy sector in different countries such as Argentina. An Ipsos survey, which examined citizens in 28 countries earlier this month, discovered that three-quarters of respondents saw public and private investment in renewables as being vital to their nation's economic growth.

3) Renewables Are Growing Faster Than Any Other Form Of Energy

More than 500,000 solar panels were installed per day worldwide as of 2015. The growth in renewable energy in 2016 had overtaken coal as the world's largest source of installed power capacity. New Zealand reported in 2015 that 82 percent of its electricity came from its renewable resources.

Renewables now supply 44% of Germany's electricity, 54% of Sweden's, and more than 55% of Portugal's. The U.K. this week announced a further milestone: renewables have overtaken gas to become the leading form of power generation in the country. These and other successes stem from a virtuous cycle whereby the falling costs of materials and tech increase the deployment of renewable projects, which in turn enable the industry to develop more efficient, more cost-effective tech.

2) Developing Countries Are Emerging As Climate Heroes

Other nations are stepping up in fighting climate change, while rich countries such as the U.S. and Australia were refusing to take the climate emergency seriously. 

For example, India produces 22 percent of its power from renewables and is on track to have 175 gigawatts of renewable power capacity installed by 2022. Morocco, meanwhile, built one of the world's largest solar farms near Ouarzazate, which makes the country one of the world leaders in renewable energy. Ethiopians, earlier this year, planted a world record 353 million trees in a single day as part of the country's Green Legacy initiative. 

ALSO READ: India Eyes Shifting to Hydrogen-Based Fuel Use to Tackle Air Pollution Problem

Rich industrialized nations are running out of excuses for inaction while historically poor developing countries are powering ahead on their green commitments, rich industrialized nations.

1) The Paris Agreement

Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said of the Paris Agreement at the close of the COP21 talks in 2015, that "this [Paris Agreement] is [the] most complicated, most [challenging], but most important for humanity by any standard."

However, the agreement's successes are not to be overlooked. Paris set a target of limiting temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and placed the burden of responsibility on the most developed nations to lead on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In the words of UN environment chief Erik Solheim: "the green transformation started in Paris is irreversible and unstoppable."