Green Transformations: The Best of Climate Initiatives

Turkey's Climate Resilient Schools

In 2017, Turkey collaborated with the World Bank, the European Union (EU), and the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) to build climate-resilient schools. 

Fifty-seven such schools were built, and these school buildings saved many lives when an earthquake struck Turkey in 2023. They withstood even the worst of the tremors. 

The World Bank says that about 40000 people in Turkey now have access to safer and more resilient schools.

Turkey updated its seismic code in 2018 to align with international standards, and the new school buildings were built in compliance with them. 

In the 2023 earthquakes of 7.5 and 7.8 magnitude, accompanied by many large aftershocks, not even a small crack appeared on these structures. 

The school resilience programme comes under the country’s Education Infrastructure for Resilience Project (EIRP), part of an international programme, the Global Program for Safer Schools (GPSS). This has been a green transformation that the world could replicate.

The Countries that Reduced Forest Depletion

The world has been losing its tropical rainforests for a long time without any sign of a reversal on the horizon. Now, Brazil and Columbia have achieved an amazing feat. 

They have been able to considerably reduce the loss of their primary forests. Brazil lost 36% less forests in 2023 than in 2022. Observers attribute this welcome change to the political change in Brazil, that is, the power transition from the government led by Jair Bolsonaro to the government led by Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. 

Columbia reduced its forest loss by 49% during 2022-23, and there was a coinciding leadership change- the Presidentship of Gustavo Petro Urrego, the first left politician to become the President of the country.

Another Green Transformation

London City was declared Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) in August 2023. This step intended to ensure that Londoners breathed fresh and unpolluted air. London's rate of deaths caused by air pollution had been quite high, hence the initiative. 

All vehicles plying the city now follow the emission standards set by ULEZ. Non-compliant cars are mandated to pay a daily fine. Announced in 2014, the project covered only a small part of London.

The two major air pollutants in London’s atmosphere were particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide. The city administration put limits on the age of private and hired vehicles, introduced bus retrofit schemes, and took many such steps to make vehicles compliant with the low-emission protocol.

South Australia's Green Transformation

The city of Adelaide in Southern Australia now operates on 100% renewable energy. As a result, greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by 11000 tonnes a year. The World Economic Forum says this is equivalent to taking 3500 cars off the road.

South Australia is also a world leader in solar and wind energy now. Only 20 years back, this state was entirely dependent on fossil fuels. Now, 60% of the electricity consumption comes from renewable energy production centres. 

The Labour government elected in 2002 was instrumental in pushing for renewables. The state's coal companies have been closed, and the region is fast processing towards a 100% transition.

Norway, Chile, and Denmark

Norway, Chile, and Denmark are the planet's leading climate action countries. They made revolutionary transformations in energy production and consumption and topped the Climate Change Performance Index 2023. 

Denmark has halved its greenhouse gas emissions without sacrificing economic growth in the last few decades. The economic growth during this period was 100%. Denmark moved the money its yearly budget had set aside to explore oil and gas into green technologies and training green workers. 

Now, the country produces half of its required energy from wind and solar projects. It exports this clean energy as its companies supply one-third of the world's total wind energy.

Denmark has created an entire island in its coastal sea with two goals- 1) to protect the port of Copenhagen from storm surges and 2) to establish a huge wind energy project there.

Interestingly, two-thirds of Denmark's energy needs are met with bioenergy. The raw materials used for bioenergy are straw, manure, wood chips, wood pellets, and animal fat.

Norway and Chile have been implementing similar policies and projects. Such green transformation projects show the path to a new world where climate change is not a threat.

The Green Transformation of the Island of Samso

Samso is an island municipality in Denmark that has found itself a remarkable place in the world’s climate mitigation map by being the first renewable energy island on the planet. It runs 100% on renewable energy and does not use any fossil fuels at all. Renewable energy investments are 100% locally owned.

The above are just a few examples that spread hope and inspire us to work more on the climate front.

References

How Safer and More Resilient Schools Withstood the Earthquakes in Turkiye, June 7, 2023, worldbank.org

Tropical forest loss drops steeply in Brazil and Columbia, but the high rate persists overall, Mikaela Weisse, Elizabeth Goldman, and Sarah Carter, April 4, 2024, World Resource Institute.

Against the odds, South Australia is a renewable energy powerhouse. How on earth did they do it? Michael McGreevy and Fran Baum, February 25, 2021, theconversation.com

The Climate Change Performance Index 2023.