Climate Change: An Evaluation of Its Impacts and the Encountered Challenges
This study examines climate change within the framework of two dimensions: its impacts and the challenges faced. The extent of climate change’s effects involve categories such as structural changes to ecosystems; water security and food production; human health and welfare; and cities, settlements and infrastructure. When making a global assessment, complex impacts (negative and positive) appear to exist in the category of water security and food production, with the general point of view stating that negative impacts occur at high levels in the other categories. Sharing responsibilities fairly and determining goals ethically are discussed within the scope of adapting to and combatting climate change. However, global initiatives target decisions based on countries’ dominant positions as well as their political and economic strength. Other challenges have appeared due to the inefficient scope of policies, the goals determined according to global initiatives being unclear, and efforts carried out based on voluntary contributions.
İklim Değişikliği: Etkiler ve Karşılaşılan Zorluklar Kapsamında Bir Değerlendirme
İklim değişikliğinin çözüm noktasında, etkilerin doğru anlaşılması ile uyum ve mücadele kapsamında karşılaşılan zorluklar kilit unsur niteliği taşımaktadır. Çalışmada bahsedilen iki boyut (etkiler ve karşılaşılan zorluklar) çerçevesinde inceleme yapılmaktadır. İklim değişikliğinin etkileri boyutunda; ekosistemlerin yapılarındaki değişiklik, su güvenliği ve gıda üretimi, insan sağlığı ve refahı ile şehirler, yerleşim yerleri ve altyapı kategorileri bulunmaktadır. Küresel olarak değerlendirme yapıldığında su güvenliği ve gıda üretimi kategorisinde karmaşık (olumsuz ve olumlu) etkilerin olduğu anlaşılmaktadır. Diğer kategorilerde ise genel olarak yüksek düzeyde olumsuz bir etkinin olduğu söylenebilmektedir. Çalışmanın ikinci boyutu olan uyum ve mücadele kapsamında; hedeflerin doğru saptanmasına, politikaların ölçekler düzeyinde ve kapsamlı şekilde belirlenmesine ve esnek planlama sistemlerine ihtiyaç duyulmaktadır. İklim değişikliğine neden olan taraflar ile etkilenen tarafların her zaman aynı olmaması konunun adalet boyutunu gündeme getirmektedir. Ayrıca çözüm önerilerinde, doğal kaynakların sömürülmesi üzerine kurulu ekonomik yapı yerine etiğin hâkim olması gerektiği belirtilmektedir. Buna rağmen küresel girişimlerde adalet ve etik doğrultusunda alınan ortak kararlardan ziyade politik ve ekonomik gücü ile baskın durumda olan ülkelerin çıkarlarına dayalı kararların etkili olduğu görülmektedir. Küresel girişimler kapsamında belirlenen hedeflerin netlik taşımaması, politika kapsamının yetersizliği ve yürütülen çalışmaların tarafların gönüllü katkısına dayalı olması diğer zorluklar olarak karşımıza çıkmaktadır.
When considering the speed and level of global impact as a result of human activities, climate change is an important issue for all living things. The greenhouse effect and temperatures needed for maintaining life on earth have reached undesirable dimensions. Fossil fuel use, land use changes, and deforestation have increased in line with the increases in industrialization, population growth, and economic growth. These activities have currently accelerated and continue to accelerate climate change. Climate change is a current problem with its emerging impacts as well as a problem for the future due to the longevity of greenhouse gases. Emission trends are monitored in terms of the dimensions of human activities, historical responsibilities, and evaluations of current and future conditions. This study evaluates the anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions with carbon dioxide emissions having the greatest impact on climate change from among the greenhouse gases. When considering the factors affecting the formation of greenhouse gas emissions, fossil fuels and industry are seen to take up the greatest proportion. In terms of sectors, industry, electricity and heating, and other land uses lead the way in greenhouse gas emissions. The long-term trends of carbon dioxide emissions draw attention to coal and oil as having high emission rates. When evaluating the topic in terms of region, East Asia has the highest greenhouse gas emissions, while North America and Europe have the highest carbon dioxide emissions. Climate change can have a wide variety of impacts, with anthropogenic impacts being considered more significant than natural impacts with regard to climate change. Awareness and correct assessments of the impacts of climate change, are a considerable guide toward arriving at solutions. Therefore, this study, examines the categories of structural changes in ecosystems; water security and food production; human health and welfare; and cities, settlements and infrastructure. Almost every region has been adversely affected at a high level with regard to the category of structural changes to ecosystems, and complex (negative and positive) impacts are seen to have occurred in the category of water security and food production. The categories of human health and welfare and of cities, settlements and infrastructure can be said to have experienced a generally high level of negative impacts. The following impacts from climate change are understood once again as a result of the evaluations that have been made for all the categories. Taking the necessary steps is important, especially for anthropogenic impacts. Even if all greenhouse gases are stopped, preventing some of the impacts from climate change will still be impossible due to the long period of time they’ve been occuring. However, taking the necessary precautions will reduce the severity of the negative consequences that will occur on life and the planet.
The study draws a general framework for the challenges encountered within the scope of adaptation to and struggle with climate change and discusses the relationships among factors, global initiatives, planning, institutional arrangements, uncertainty, complex and invisible problems, public support, status quo bias, time delays, and costs and benefits. The issues of justice and ethics have been emphasized alongside these factors, because the parties causing climate change and the parties being affected by it are not always the same. A fair assessment should be made in terms responsibility on this point. At the same time, the solutions to be brought by a system that evaluates natural resources only within the scope of economy will be insufficient. Global initiatives, need to determine the appropriate policies, make joint decisions, and evaluate these decisions in line with the different parties’ responsibilities. In spite of all this, developed countries still dominate global initiatives with their political and economic power. In addition, in global initiatives’ objectives tend to have a general rather than specific nature, and the policies they determine are narrow in scope and lack enforcement mechanisms.
