Understanding policies and their role in climate action and relevant advocacy strategy – Introduction

In Units 1 and 2 you learned about climate change and its social, environmental and economic impacts, with a specific focus on human health, agriculture and food security and livelihoods. These factors are usually interconnected and inter-related, and climate action strategies and policies must take this relationship into account. This unit describes global climate change policy, climate action being taken in countries in Africa and Asia and local-level advocacy strategies that communities can use to influence and support climate action.

Outcomes

On completion of this unit you will be able to:

• identify deficiencies in local and global policies for mitigating climate change and climate change impacts by exploring the following topics:
  • Climate action: Mitigation and adaptation
  • Climate change policies at the global level
  • Climate change policy and climate action at the local level

Terminology

Disaggregated data:  Information or data broken down into smaller components to show information about specific groups within a larger data set — for example, breaking down data about the number of students in a class to show the number of boys versus girls.

Adaptation:  Changing aspects of our behaviour and how we live our lives in response to how climate change is negatively affecting our lives, the economy and the environment.

Mitigation:  Efforts to prevent further warming of Earth by reducing — and ideally preventing — emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Renewable energy:  Energy derived from natural sources that are replenished at a higher rate than they are consumed. Sunlight and wind are examples of renewable energy sources.

Nationally determined contributions:  A climate action plan to cut emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.