Why is everyone so concerned about Global Warming? Join us as we look closer at this unnatural phenomenon and how Europe is dealing with its effects on an international scale.
What is global warming?
Global warming is often defined as the gradual increase of the Earth’s overall temperature. It is commonly attributed to the so called “greenhouse effect”. This is the effect which occurs when certain gasses do not allow the release of heat outward. Instead, they are kept in our atmosphere and projected downwards.
The greenhouse effect has been studied immensely since the discovery of its effects in 1824. It was 1895 that a Swedish chemist had discovered that carbon dioxide makes the production of greenhouse gases worse.
Why is global warming a problem?
As the world continues to heat up, it alters our terrain and our climate. Heat is not conducive to keeping snow and ice exactly where they are. Early this year, around July, an Antarctic iceberg broke off Larsen ice shelf. It is one of the largest break offs ever recorded. It is supposedly quadruple the size of London. Global warming contributed to the berg breaking away. The saddest thing is that this isn’t the first time we’ve seen global warming affect our climate and our topography.
In 2003, Europe experience the hottest summer in 500 years. This resulted in 70,000 deaths. Many more may follow.
How has Europe contributed to global warming?
The EU was once the world’s leading importer of oil and gas. The emissions which this led to were abominably high.
What is Europe doing about it?
In 2014, the EU went into an agreement to target a 40% emissions reduction by 2030. The European Commission launched The Energy Union Strategy. Its purpose was to handle the transformation of the energy supply of all European nations. The overall aim is to secure sustainable and affordable energy.
One of the goals of the EU is now the full integration of the European energy market. Doing so will provide a simultaneous standardization of how energy is created and distributed. Europe is also aiming to develop a smart electricity system. A smart grid is a sort of electrical grid that has a variety of operational and energy measures. If successfully developed and launched, it presents a system that helps boost the rate of issue detection. It should also be able to work out issues without the intervention of specialists.
Another goal is to significantly lower the EU’s dependence of foreign energy exports.
The European Union Emission Trading scheme enacted a directive which clarified national caps on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and other sources. There are several other committees and policies which have been made to lower the gas emissions of EU as a whole.
Europe is well on its way to developing smarter systems which yield better long-term effects for our energy issues. It is only a matter of time before renewable energy will be massively available to far flung parts of the EU.
