Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
Carbon Tax was introduced on the 1st June 2019. The primary rationale in introducing the tax was to introduce a “Polluter Pays” system in order to deter activities that impact climate change in line with SDG 13. Climate change activism is on the increase with a number of boards of Directors being taken to task over these issues.
The year 2017 was one of the three warmest on record and was 1.1 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial period. An analysis by the World Meteorological Organization shows that the five-year average global temperature from 2013 to 2017 was also the highest on record. The world continues to experience rising sea levels, extreme weather conditions (the North Atlantic hurricane season was the costliest ever recorded) and increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases. This calls for urgent and accelerated action by countries as they implement their commitments to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
- As of 9 April 2018, 175 Parties had ratified the Paris Agreement and 168 Parties (167 countries plus the European Commission) had communicated their first nationally determined contributions to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat.
- In addition, as of 9 April 2018, 10 developing countries had successfully completed and submitted the first iteration of their national adaptation plans for responding to climate change.
- Developed country Parties continue to make progress towards the goal of jointly mobilizing $100 billion annually by 2020 to address the needs of developing countries in the context of meaningful mitigation actions.
Clearly Climate Change is a big issue, and we all need to be cognisant of the impact we all have in our day to day consumption. We will keep you posted on developments in this regard.
