PL
The United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP (Conference of the Parties), is one of the most important and largest international meetings devoted to combating climate change.
It is a cyclical event, held every year. The agreement was created to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, over time, new provisions were added and now the conference also deals with climate issues in general.
The COP29 conference lasts from November 11 to 22, 2024 and is held in Baku. It is one of the most important events in the fight against climate change, attended by representatives of states, non-governmental organizations and experts from various fields. There was also a Polish presence there, in the form of President Andrzej Duda, the Ministry of Climate and Environment Paulina Hennig-Kloska, and Polish entrepreneurs. At the conference, Polish companies will present themselves at a series of ministerial meetings with representatives of developing countries, presenting technologies that have been proven to work in our country. They will also appear in a high-level panel, where they will discuss, together with ministers and the national and international banking sector, the possibilities of scaling the potential of the private sector in achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement.
The main topic of this year’s summit is actions which can be taken to ensure sustainable development and adaptation to climate change. The main goal is to establish new challenges regarding the transfer of funds to combat the effects of climate change in developing countries. Without the help and involvement of all countries, achieving the assumptions related to reducing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions and stopping the ongoing increase in temperatures could prove to be much more difficult for the international community to achieve. Talks are also underway on raising the ambitions of countries and corporations related to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The Presidency is appealing for all countries to create national plans for adaptation to climate change by 2025 as part of their internal actions. It also emphasizes the need to increase financing for adaptation actions. In addition, COP29 encourages global financial institutions and the private sector to increase their involvement in climate change initiatives and to support investments in green innovations to combat extreme phenomena such as floods and droughts.
Therefore, great attention is paid to providing assistance to countries that need financial support to continue their fight against climate change. This will allow them to implement, among others, retention measures that counteract drought.
The reason why droughts are such an important topic is their direct impact on our daily lives. Droughts are becoming an increasingly common and dangerous phenomenon with negative consequences for the environment, economy and quality of life. Climate change, which causes a decrease in rainfall and an increase in global temperatures, leads to the depletion of water resources. This has a negative impact on many areas of human and natural life, including agriculture, access to drinking water and ecosystems.
In response to the growing problem of droughts in Poland is the project “Stop the Drought! Start retention!”, which aims to develop a catalogu of activities that have a real impact on improving water management in the country and increasing the retention capacity of ecosystems. The aim of the project is to identify the areas which are most at risk of drought in Poland and to develop various types of activities to prevent it.
Among them, we can distinguish:
– promotion of practices that build natural retention, such as tree planting and protection of wetlands
– building retention reservoirs
– modernization of existing drainage systems.
Thanks to such activities, it is possible to retain water in the landscape and reduce the effects of drought, which are so devastating for the natural environment and human life.
Another important measure is educational activities that aim to deepen the knowledge of the project’s stakeholders as well sa children and young people in the field of good practices in water resource management. The society should be made aware that each of us can be involved in counteracting drought. This will significantly contribute to increasing the level of retention, and consequently, reduce the negative effects of drought on human life.
Both COP29 and the project “Stop the Drought! Start Retention!” show how important it is to properly approach the problem of water management in the context of climate change. The conference serves as a platform for the exchange of knowledge and experience between countries and organizations, which contributes to the creation of effective, modern adaptation strategies that mitigate the effects of climate change. Joint actions for sustainable development and protection of water resources are becoming crucial in the fight against the challenges that a changing climate brings.
