The International Council for Science (ICSU) will offer grants in 2017 aiming to bolster multi-directional approaches to the problem of climate change. Amending school and university teaching curricula to scientifically tackle the problem; making the public aware of climate change and its impacts, and share in mitigating its effects; and promoting sustainable and equitable development are all part of the ICSU's goals. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) held in December 1997 in Kyoto (Japan), the surface air temperature increase experienced in the 20th century was around 0.6°C, and that projected for the 21st century ranges between a 1.5 and 4.5°Crise. Global climate change has profound impacts on people and the ecosystem. These pose serious social challenges in turn. It affects biological diversity and the geographical distribution of plants and animals. This problem requires immediate action through multi-directional approaches that promote sustainable and equitable development. Climate change is now part of everyday discourse; we recognise the need for new policies on agriculture, transport, energy and trade. We now have to understand climate change not as a discrete environmental problem, but an event that affects everything around us. Factual evidence has transformed climate change from a long-term issue of uncertain consequences to a pressing issue of immediate concern. The issue has received attention worldwide. There are many manifestations of the perils of climate change, from human migration to the rise of sea levels and the encroachment of sea water on terra firma, the decrease in the thickness of icebergs in Antarctica, and the abatement of coral in the Red Sea. In the Arab region, the heat of the surface air rose 0.2-2°Cacross the period 1970-2004. Climate change also spurs flooding, as in 2000 in Mozambique, killing 700, and in the UK in 2007, wreaking havoc and causing deaths. In Egypt, the shore in Damietta displays signs of erosion, the cultivated land suffers salinisation that may lead to desertification, and the cultivation of some crops is not in a sound condition. In August 2015 some 110 Egyptian citizens died from heat stroke in a few days in the face of exceptional temperature rises. On the whole, the origin of climate change is increasing emissions of greenhouse gases. Such gases include carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, chlorofluorocarbons, nitrous oxide and water vapour. Carbon dioxide is the principal greenhouse gas. The developed world, as a consequence, embarked on a project that entails radical changes in the global economy — the process of taking carbon out of the energy we use. The result of decarbonising the economy is what is now known as “climate capitalism”. The transformation is needed, but there are many who would lose out from such a transformation (coal companies, miners, oil companies, or policymakers who do not like to bear the burden of such change), and so resist it vociferously. They moved into high gear, hiring lobbyists and forming coalitions to defend their interests. Organisations like The Heritage Foundation deny the existence of climate change. Meanwhile, some countries contribute to the problem disproportionately, while others bear the brunt of its effects. Among the main measures that tackled the problem was the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) that was founded in 2001. In December 2007, the project released a report in Amsterdam that aimed to reduce emissions and buy offsets for emissions that could not be reduced. By 2008, the CDP was backed by $57 trillion worth of assets from over 3,000 financial institutions. Now, like it or not, responses to climate change are going to be shaped by the way that capitalism works. In Egypt, we have to enhance our mitigation strategies and intensify the usage of wind turbines and solar panels, reducing our use of fossil fuels. For example, the use of coal in cement factories should be under strict control, or banned. Also, the burning of garbage and agricultural waste should be avoided. And car exhaust emissions should be controlled. Recycling has also become key. In the German city of Köln, an international exhibition and conference was held in July 2000. Some 1,350 international specialised institutions displayed the most recent technologies for recycling industrial waste. Technological solutions continue to be developed. Egypt's participation a few weeks ago in the high-level meeting of the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative (EREI) — launched during the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) on climate change — focussed on advocating for a fund to achieve its national objectives related to climate change. The ICSU initiative offered to the developing world is premised on the concept of “climate capitalism”. The concept is here to stay and should become part of our national planning. The writer is professor at the Faculty of Science, Ain Shams University.
