Carbon Emission and Climate Change

This paper discusses the issue of climate change caused by carbon emissions and its impact on the world. It explores the need for renewable sources of energy and efficient technology to reduce carbon emissions.

Running head: CARBON GAS EMISSIONS 1
Carbon Emission and Climate Change
Student’s name
Institution affiliation

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Carbon Emission and Climate Change
The problem or issue to be discussed in the paper is climate change which is caused
by carbon emissions which have led to global warming effect in the entire world. The
temperatures in the world have been on the rise due to the emission of carbon gases from
various human activities. Most of these emissions are coming from the industrial activities
and use of fossil fuels. This has affected the temperatures of the earth to rise and eventually
leading to a drastic change in climate (Alexander, 2015). Eventually, it affects the lives of
people as well as animals and even percentage covered by forests starts to decrease. Many
people end up destroying forest areas and the environment in order to set up industries in
various areas. Sometimes even rivers are affected as people try to divert them and change the
flow of water sources to suit their industry constriction leading to loss of lives of aquatic
animals.
Climate change has, therefore, become one of the main problems in the twenty-first
century all over the world. This has been caused by many industry activities which are in
increasing exponentially over the decades leading to concentrations of greenhouse gases
being produced in the atmosphere increase. There are also cases of different human activities
which are emitting carbon gases as well as fossil fuel usages like oil, coal and gas becoming a
determining element (Hulme, 2016). There have been several organizations coming up to
fight against the rise of carbon gas emissions to reduce the rise in temperatures in the world
to ensure companies and industries reduce the use of fossil fuels. These institutions are
creating awareness to industries and people to adopt the use of renewable sources of energy
which are environmentally friendly.
This problem of climate change is significant in the entire world as a whole as it
affects the lives of every living creature. Temperatures increases which make the earth
become hot and unfavourable for people and animals to survive. The emission of the carbon

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gases is also harmful to the people and animals living in the surroundings since they contain
dangerous chemicals and minerals like lead and mercury which can easily cause diseases like
cancer and respiratory illnesses (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2014). A
study carried to investigate the air pollution which was produced by a thermal power
company in Turkey which produced various concentrations of nitrogen dioxide, ozone and
sulphur dioxide. There were also (VOC) volatile organic compounds which were emitted by
the thermal plant. The three sampling groups classified were industrial, urban and rural areas
which showed winter pattern had increased (Artun, Polat, Yay, Üzmez, Arı, Tuygun, &
Dawood, 2017).
Countries and unions have been in the front line in making policies which are against
the change in climate and promotes conventions which have been set internationally by
organizations like the United Nations. All these agreements are aimed to support reduce
environmental problems brought by fossil fuels and thus encourage countries and people
adopt the use of renewable sources of energy in their human and industrial activities. This
will in a great way reduce the carbon emissions in the atmosphere decreasing greenhouse
emission of gases like carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide which are the commonly
known greenhouse gases (Antilla, 2010). Climate change may also be caused by waste water
which is contaminated and released to water bodies affects the aquatic life of people and
animals occupying the area. The polluted water causes deaths of living animals in the water
once it is discharged thus affecting them and causing deaths (Welch, 2002).
Global warming has diverse effects on the lives of people and animals living in the
earth which range from health, ecological and physical impacts which include severe weather
occurrences for instance heat waves, floods, storms and droughts which interrupt water
structure and growth of crops (Chavez, 2015). The level of water starts to reduce due to high
temperatures which affect the aquatic animals as well as people and animals living in the

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land. Most of the industrial wastes released without treatment are harmful and end up
polluting the water sources which eventually leads to the death of people animals consuming
the water. These international agreements also recommend industries and companies to treat
their industrial waste before releasing it to prevent pollution of water sources.
A company by the name Iberdrola has been at the forefront of creating awareness to
industries on ways decreasing greenhouse effect by encouraging the use of renewable sources
as well as adapting technology which is efficient in production. The company works hand in
hand with the international agreements which have been established to promote consuming
energy responsibly and carry campaigns against the use of non-renewable sources of energy.
Iberdrola has shown its support in backing agreements set up by nations which are aimed at
attaining climate goals and missions both in the long and medium term. Additionally, the
company works together with other international conventions of ensuring the world
temperatures rise below two degrees Celsius which is aimed at reducing the carbon dioxide
gas emitted in the atmosphere.
Iberdrola clearly showed its commitment to fighting climate change when it agreed to
adhere to the (CDP), the Carbon Disclosure Project which was aimed at the Paris project of
2015. The company further ratified its strong dedication in fighting against climate change at
the time of Paris Agreement which was held in April 2015, New York. The main goal of the
agreement was to ensure world temperature increase of the century goes below two degrees
Celsius which is above industrial revolution levels. The Paris Agreement also decided to limit
the increase in temperature to one point five degrees Celsius.
The (UN), United Nations produced environment emission gap report of the year
2017 which shows the current assessment of national reduction efforts together with
aspirations nations have provided in their determined contributions nationally which make
the basis of Paris Agreement. All these efforts show how significant climate change is to the

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nations and world at large (Hayhoe, Wake, Huntington, Luo, Schwartz, Sheffield, & Troy,
2009). It needs efforts from each nation to promote the use of effective technology in their
industrial production to combat carbon dioxide emission. All these international agreements
are a clear indication of the significance of climate change to the world which requires efforts
from each nation to fight against activities encouraging change in climate.
The issue of climate change is relevant to me and to the world at large due to the
increasing industrial activities in different areas of the country. All these companies are
producing different products which in the end emit dangerous gases and products which lead
to global warming. The waste products and gases produced contain carbon which increased
carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere (Bilgin, 2009). When we look at the
amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in the past two thousand years, the
concentration levels were low. However, since the beginning of the industrial revolution, the
levels of carbon dioxide concentrations in the earth have increased rapidly leading to the
increased temperatures. This can be attributed to the diverse human and industrial activities
which have been on the rise over the years. These activities have been using and operating
using fossil fuels and heavy metals mostly containing lead which have a high percentage of
carbon.
All these gases have diverse impacts on the lives of animals and human beings as they
cause different diseases which are deadly if not discovered in the early stages and have led to
a mass loss of lives. Although there have been frantic efforts to create awareness and promote
the use of renewable sources of energy as well as efficient technology in production, the
concentration levels of the gases in the atmosphere continue to rise. It is believed that the
concentrations in the atmosphere have gone past the threshold of 400ppm which has been
considered as the greatest level for the past three million years (Brody, Zahran, Grover, &
Vedlitz, 2009). This is a clear sign that serious action needs to be taken to ensure the levels of

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carbon dioxide concentrations goes down significantly as well stabilise emissions from these
human and industrial activities.
The carbon emissions to the atmosphere have a great impact on the lives of animals
especially the aquatic life. Most of the water sources have become contaminated making the
water creatures to die due to the harmful chemicals in those industrial wastes. There are cases
of people trying to move and divert the river and water bodies to fit for industrial
infrastructure which affects the environment at large (Hughes, 2010). People are forced to
shift to other areas to give spacious land for the construction of industries. Forests and water
catchment areas are destroyed in order to pave way for the construction of the industries and
roads to enable transport of the products produced. Some of these activities have led to
natural disasters and calamities occurring like landslides and lead to loss of lives (Cox, Betts,
Jones, Spall, & Totterdell, 2010). Moreover, the quarries where mineral are produced
sometimes collapses killing the people working in those mines. Some of the products produce
harmful gases during the processing which is emitted into the atmosphere leading to
increased levels of carbon dioxide.
The high concentration levels lead to global warming increasing the earth
temperatures. Due to the high temperatures, water bodies end up drying faster causing people
and animals lack water. The production of these minerals and heavy metals consume a lot of
water and in some cases, the industry ends up limiting or pumping the big percentage of the
water in the companies leaving little or no water for the animals and people (Goldthau, & Jan
2010). The climate change is, therefore, a relevant issue to be discussed and looked into
seriously to prevent more and future damage of ozone layer which will have harmful effects
to the living creatures in the earth. The increased level of carbon dioxide concentrations and
other greenhouse gases causes air pollution which depletes the ozone layer and leads to

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exposure of ultraviolet rays which causes skin cancer and is harmful to the eyes (Cowen, &
Smith, 2009).
There is so much learning from the climate change issue which is affecting the world
as a whole and great measures need to be put in place to curb activities promoting climate
change. Although there are established measures which have been in place, more strategies
are required to fight against climate change (Dimitrov, 2016). All the nations need to start
with themselves in ensuring carbon emission activities are reduced as much as possible by
promoting and creating awareness of renewable sources of energy. In this twenty-first
century, technology has become so advanced and companies need to adopt efficient
technology ways which are environmentally friendly and use them in production processes.
Governments can also give incentives to companies and provide assistance for industrial
development by promoting renewable sources of energy like sun, wind, hydroelectric and
geothermal sources to generate energy (Chavez, 2015). Government parastatals concerned
with energy also need to put up regulations and measures to ensure fuels produced contained
little amount of carbon and heavy metals to ensure reduction of carbon emission in the
atmosphere.
There are various scholarly sources which highlighted and discussed ways on how
this issue of climate change can be combatted. Several organizations have come together to
establish policies which should be followed to ensure the reduction of carbon emission in the
atmosphere (Barrett, & Helmut, 2011). The United Nations is a good example where all the
members in the organization follow certain policies and are encouraged to set up strategies
which investors and people setting industries should meet before authorized to start the
construction. European Union has been involved in combatting this issue and reports are
produced each year from the member states on what is being done to curb carbon emission.

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The reports explore various ways which should be implemented and followed to
reduce carbon dioxide emission and harmful gases to mitigate the change in climate.
Additionally, the reports also provide opportunities for combatting emissions and pollutants
to limit global warming rate (Change IPCC Climate, 2012). All these carbon dioxide
emission reductions will help in limiting short and long-term global warming. Member states
also give options which can be adapted to gradually phase out coal which contains a lot of
carbon emission in the atmosphere.
In conclusion, more policies and strategic measures need to be established to help
reduce the global problem of climate change. From the various sources, more is required and
nations across the world are required to adopt the advanced technology in their industrial
production processes and use renewable sources as well as fuels containing little or no carbon
content. This will help in the reduction of carbon emission in the atmosphere. One can apply
reasoning and intellectual standard in the fight against climate change by creating awareness
on the need to use renewable sources of energy which are free from carbon dioxide and
environmentally friendly. This will greatly help in the emission of carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere. However, there are still critical questions which remain unanswered like which
policies should be used and put in place to reduce climate change which has become rampant
in the modern world.
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