United Nations Day 2024: United for climate action
Professor Heiko Balzter, Director of the Institute for Environmental Futures at the University of Leicester, reflects on the United Nations’ (UN) critical role in fighting climate change.
As we celebrate UN Day 2024, it is important to reflect on the UN’s critical role in addressing one of the most urgent issues facing humanity: climate change. Founded in 1945 to foster international cooperation, the UN has emerged as a leading force in global climate mitigation and adaptation, working to protect both the planet and future generations. While government efforts in these areas depends very much on the government of the day, the UN have provided a stable long-term direction.
We are witnessing an increasing severity of climate-related events such as intense rainfall, flooding, droughts, wildfires, and heatwaves, leading to crop failures, water wars, mass migration, food price inflation, avoidable direct and indirect disaster deaths. Even many climate scientists are surprised by the intensity of the impacts of climate change that we already see in our day-to-day lives. At this time, global climate action needs to intensify. The role of the UN, working in partnership with academic and scientific communities, is more critical than ever. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has repeatedly stressed the urgency of reducing greenhouse gas emissions down to net zero and adapting to the inevitable impacts of climate change, calling this era "a race we must win."
The UN work in climate mitigation focuses on efforts to reduce the causes of climate change. Climate adaptation means adjusting to its impacts. Both areas of global climate action bring together researchers, including from the University of Leicester, with the UN and its agencies to find new solutions.
The UN has been uniting countries around the world to mitigate climate change. Central to this effort is the Paris Agreement, a historic international treaty signed in 2015 that aims to limit global warming to well below 2°C and pursue efforts to limit the rise to 1.5°C, although the 1.5°C goal is now largely seen as unachievable by scientists due to a lack of progress with the global net zero transition.
Over the years, the University of Leicester has been an important partner in supporting the UN climate mitigation strategies, particularly through its cutting-edge Earth Observation Science and Disaster Risk Reduction research. Led by the National Centre for Earth Observation, the university contributes significantly to monitoring and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by producing maps of the vital signs of the planet – global data on how land surface temperatures, sea surface temperatures, forest biomass and other aspects are changing. University of Leicester scientists, in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA), have been involved in the development and deployment of satellite technologies to monitor carbon emissions, such as CarbonSat, which tracks CO2 and methane emissions globally. Another example is the use of satellite data to study changes in forest biomass around the globe in the ESA Biomass Climate Change Initiative (CCI).
Because of historic greenhouse gas emissions, the world is already committed to some unavoidable level of climate change. Climate adaptation has, therefore, become essential. The impacts of climate change are already being felt, especially by the world’s most vulnerable populations. The UN leads climate resilience efforts through initiatives like the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Green Climate Fund (GCF), helping poorer countries adapt to increasingly severe climate impacts.
University of Leicester researchers are working directly with policymakers and global organisations to find solutions that will protect communities from the adverse effects of climate change, by supporting the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction’s (UNDRR) Sendai Goals through research and awareness raising public engagement global campaign ‘International Awareness Day for Avoidable Deaths’ (launched in 2023 by Avoidable Deaths Network), marked annually on 12 March). Our researchers are also investigating ways to develop climate-resilient agriculture for areas where climate change is causing unpredictable rainfall and temperature patterns. Through collaborations with African universities and the UN, Leicester is involved in creating crop varieties that are more resistant to heat and drought.
University of Leicester scientists are also preparing for the upcoming ESA and UK Space Agency climate satellite missions BIOMASS and MicroCarb in 2025 which are relevant to the global stocktakes of carbon monitored by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).We are working directly on vegetation productivity (solar-induced fluorescence) derived from the carbon dioxide instrument for MicroCarb. It is the first dedicated European mission to characterise greenhouse gas fluxes and will become part of an international greenhouse gas monitoring network of satellites, and collect more precise data on carbon dioxide emissions than ever before.
As we commemorate UN Day 2024, we celebrate the leadership by the UN in its pursuit of a sustainable and just future, but we also recognise the challenges that lie ahead. The University of Leicester is committed to educating future Citizens of Change who can make a lasting contribution to the future of our planet.
Today, I am calling on all organisations and individuals to reaffirm our commitment to climate action and the net zero transition. Together, we can build a more resilient and sustainable world for future generations.