What is Your Knowledge about Climate Change?
How much do you know about Climate Change and what actions are being
taken as the world’s crucial
What is causing Global Warming?
By how much has
the average temperature of the Earth's surface increased by and what is
it expected to be by the year 2100?
Have rising temperatures
affected the sea level during the 20th century and what is expected by
the year 2100?
What are the developing
nations asking from wealthy economies in relation to climate change
targets and incentives?
Which country is the
world’s biggest and second biggest carbon emitter per capita?
Which countries
rank in the top 3 Cleantech market for clean energy?
What percentage
of global CO2 emissions
does coal and petroleum
account for?
How many tones of CO2
do coal-fired power plants generate each year?
Which sector
is responsible for the fastest-growing proportion of emissions around
the world?
What is
Bioequestration?
How has the Global
Financial Crisis (GFC) affected carbon emissions?
Have
natural carbon sinks,
which play an important role in buffering the impact of rising emissions
from human activity, been able to keep pace with rising CO2 levels.
Who
are the skeptics of Climate Change?
What is the Kyoto Protocol?
What are the
market-based flexibility mechanisms through which the committed
countries can reach their reduction goals?
Which atmospheric
gases are responsible for causing global warming?
What are the
predicted impacts of Cliamte Change according to the Stern Review of
2006?
How will climate
change impact on women?
What does trading
in carbon mean and what is
What is the
Garnaut Review ?
Responses
A natural blanket of
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere keeps the planet warm enough for life
as we know it — at a comfortable 15°C today. The "blanket" of greenhouse
gases that occurs naturally in the troposphere — representing less than
one percent of the entire atmosphere — serves the vital function of
regulating the planet’s climate. When solar energy in the form of
visible light strikes the Earth, it warms the surface. Being much cooler
than the sun, the Earth emits this energy back out to space in the form
of infrared, or thermal, radiation. Greenhouse gases block the infrared
radiation from escaping directly into space. The resulting "natural
greenhouse effect" keeps the planet some 30°C warmer than it would
otherwise be, which is essential for life as we know it.
The problem we now face is
that since the start of the industrial revolution some 250 years ago our
emissions of greenhouse gases have been making this blanket thicker at
an unprecedented speed. This has caused the most dramatic change in the
atmosphere’s composition for at least 650,000 years. Human-caused
emissions of greenhouse gases have made the blanket thicker, trapping
heat and leading to a global warming. Fossil fuels are the single
biggest source of human-generated greenhouse gas emissions.
Since the late 1800s, the
average temperature of the Earth's surface has increased by 0.74°C, and
it is expected to rise by another 1.8°C to 4°C by the year 2100 if the
necessary safety measures are not taken. Should the minimum predicted
increase take place, this will surpass any century-long development in
the last 10,000 years. Global warming after the last ice age was
globally 4°-7°C degrees and that increase in temperature took place over
5,000 years. (
The rising sea level rose
by 10 to 20 cm during the 20th century, and by the year 2100, another
additional increase of 18 to 59 cm is expected. The higher temperatures
cause ocean volume to expand and melting glaciers and ice caps only
enhance the amount of water.
The maximum area covered by seasonally frozen ground has decreased by
about 7% in the Northern Hemisphere since 1900 — in spring by up to 15
per cent. (UN.org)
The bloc of developing nations have called for wealthy economies to
cut their emissions by at least 40% by 2020 compared with 1990 levels,
and to provide around one percent of their gross domestic product (GDP)
per year, or around 400 billion dollars, in finance.
According to researchers from the Center for International Climate
and Environment Research in
Coal and Petroleum
account for about 40 per cent of global CO2 emissions.
Of the two, however, coal poses by far the larger threat to future
climate. Coal produces more CO2 per
unit of energy than any other fossil fuel - burning natural gas only
generates 60 per cent of the CO2 emissions,
for example. The amount of carbon found in the world's coal reserves is
about triple that locked away in petroleum and natural gas deposits.
(Source: http://www.cosmosmagazine.com)
In 2005, the EPA estimated that the average U.S. coal plant emitted 4.6 million metric tons of CO2 during each year of operation. Estimated emissions of CO2 produced by coal-fired generation of electricity were 1,788 million metric tons in 1999. (Department of Energy, Washington, Carbon Dioxide Emissions from the Generation of Electric Power in the United States, July 2000
According to (Carbon Monitoring for Action (CARMA), the first global inventory of a major, emissions-producing sector of the economy, about 60% of global electricity generation relies upon fossil fuels to generate the heat needed to power steam-driven turbines. Burning these fuels results in the production of carbon dioxide (CO2). CARMA lists the 5 biggest power producing plants in the world and the five biggest power companies in the world at http://carma.org/
CARMA is produced and financed by the
Confronting Climate Change Initiative at the Center for Global Development, an independent and non-partisan think tank located in Washington, DC.
The
transport sector is responsible for the fastest-growing proportion of
emissions around the world.
Carbon
Sequestration is the
process of removing carbon from the atmosphere and depositing it in a
reservoir. Bioequestration is a natural complement to technological
developments to mitigate greenhouse gases. To
help reduce the build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere,
Biosequestration of carbon can be accomplished by planting
more trees, reducing the rate of deforestation., protecting existing
forests from disturbances such a fire.
According
to CSIRO’s Dr
Mike Raupach. “CO2 emissions
from fossil fuel combustion are estimated to have increased 41 per cent
above 1990 levels with emissions continuing to track close to the
worst-case scenario of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC).
"There will be a small
downturn in emissions because of the GFC, but anthropogenic emissions
growth will resume when the economy recovers unless the global effort to
reduce emissions from human activity is accelerated."
According to the Global
Climate Project’s Executive Director,
CSIRO’s Dr Pep Canadell, natural carbon sinks have not been able
to keep pace with rising CO2 levels.
“On average only 45 per cent of each year’s emissions remain in the
atmosphere,” Dr Canadell said. “The remaining 55 per cent is absorbed by
land and ocean sinks. However, CO2 sinks
have not kept pace with rapidly increasing emissions, as the fraction of
emissions remaining in the atmosphere has increased over the past 50
years. This is of concern as it indicates the vulnerability of the sinks
to increasing emissions and climate change, making natural sinks less
efficient ‘cleaners’ of human carbon pollution.”
Dr David Suzuki, an award winning scientist and environmentalist considers this question in much depth. Below is what he has to say as Founder of the David Suzuki Foundation.
Despite the international scientific community’s consensus on climate change, a very small band of critics continues to deny that climate change exists or that humans are causing it. Widely known as climate change “skeptics” or "deniers", these individuals are generally not climate scientists and do not debate the science with the climate scientists directly – for example, by publishing in peer-reviewed scientific journals or participating in international conferences on climate science. Instead, they focus their attention on the media, the general public, and policy makers with the goal of delaying action on climate change. Not surprisingly, the skeptics have received significant funding from coal and oil companies, including ExxonMobil. They also have well-documented connections with public relations firms that have set up industry-funded lobby groups to - in the words of one leaked memo - "reposition global warming as theory (not fact)."Over the years, the skeptics have employed a wide range of arguments against taking action on climate change - some of which actually contradict each other. For example, they have claimed that:
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Climate change is not occurring
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The global climate is actually getting colder
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The global climate is getting warmer, but not because of human activities
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The global climate is getting warmer, in part because of human activities, but this will create greater benefits than costs
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The global climate is getting warmer, in part because of human activities, but the impacts are not sufficient to require any policy response
After 15 years of increasingly definitive scientific studies attesting to the reality and significance of global climate change, there has been a noticeable shift in the skeptics' tactics. Many skeptics no longer deny that climate change is happening, but instead argue that the cost of taking action is too high - or even worse, that it is too late to take action. All of these arguments are false and are rejected by the scientific community at large.To gain an understanding of the level of scientific consensus on climate change, a recent study examined every article on climate change published in peer-reviewed scientific journals over a 10-year period. Of the 928 articles on climate change the authors found, not one of them disagreed with the consensus position that climate change is happening or is human-induced.
These findings contrast dramatically with the popular
media's reporting on climate change.
One recent study analyzed coverage of climate change in four influential
American newspapers (New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, and Wall
Street Journal) over a 14-year period. It found that more
than half of the articles discussing
climate change gave equal weight to the scientifically discredited views
of the skeptics.
This discrepancy is largely due to the media’s drive for balance in
reporting. Journalists are trained to identify one position on any
issue, and then seek out a conflicting position, providing both sides
with roughly equal attention. Unfortunately, the “balance” of the
different views within the media does not always correspond with the
actual prevalence of each view within society, and can result in
unintended bias. This has been the case with reporting on climate
change, and as a result, many people believe that climate change is
still being debated by scientists when in fact it is not. While
some level of debate is of course useful when looking at major social
problems, eventually society needs to move on and actually address the
issue. To do nothing about the problem of climate change is akin to
letting a fire burn down a building because the precise temperature of
the flames is unknown, or to not address the problem of smoking because
one or two doctors still claim that it does not cause lung cancer. As
the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
acknowledges, a lack of full scientific certainty about some aspects of
climate change is not a reason for delaying an immediate response that
will, at a reasonable cost, prevent dangerous consequences in the
climate system.
Irrefutable evidence from around the world - including extreme weather events, record temperatures, retreating glaciers, and rising sea levels - all point to the fact climate change is happening now and at rates much faster than previously thought. The overwhelming majority of scientists that study climate change agree that human activity is responsible for changing the climate. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is one of the largest bodies of international scientists ever assembled to study a scientific issue, comprised of more than 2,000 scientists from 100 countries. The IPCC has concluded that most of the warming observed during the past 50 years is attributable to human activities. Its findings have been publicly endorsed by the national academies of science of all G-8 countries, as well as those of China, India and Brazil. The Royal Society of Canada – together with the national academies of fifteen other nations – also issued a joint statement on climate change that stated, in part: "The work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) represents the consensus of the international scientific community on climate change science. We recognize IPCC as the world's most reliable source of information on climate change.
Source: http://www.davidsuzuki.org
The
The
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Emissions trading. The countries may trade the quotas they have been allocated, meaning that one country, e.g.
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Joint Implementation (JI). Through the Joint Implementation, a developed country can receive "emissions reduction units" when it helps to finance emission reducing projects in another developed country (realistically, the recipient state will be a country with an economy in transition).
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The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Through the Clean Development Mechanism, developed countries may finance their emission reduction or removal projects in developing countries and receive credits for doing so which they may apply towards meeting mandatory limits in their own emissions.
(
Response to Question 16
The Kyoto Protocol covers six greenhouse gases - carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride. Of these six gases, three are of primary concern because they are closely associated to human activities.
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Carbon dioxide
Methane is produced naturally when vegetation is
burned, digested or rotted without the presence of oxygen. Large
amounts of methane are released by cattle farming, waste dumps, rice
farming and the production of oil and gas.
Nitrous oxide, released by chemical fertilizers and burning fossil fuels, has a global warming potential 310 times that of carbon dioxide.
(
Examples of climate
change impacts
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By 2020, some 75 to 250 million people in
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About 20-30 per cent of plant and animal species will likely face increased risk of extinction if global average temperature increases exceed 1.5°-2.5° C.
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Widespread melting of glaciers and snow cover will create risk of flash floods and, over time, reduce annual melt water from major mountain ranges (i.e.: Hindu-Kush, Himalaya, Andes), where more than one billion people live.
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Seven of ten disasters are now climate-related.
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More than 20 million people were displaced by sudden climate-related disasters in 2008 alone. An estimated 200 million could be displaced as a result of climate impacts by 2050. (Sources: IPCC, UN, Stern Review 2006)
Women farmers, particularly in poor countries will be worst hit by
climate change as they make up the larger share of the agricultural
work force and also because they have fewer access to income-earning
opportunities, a new UN report has said. The
report, Facing a changing world: Women, Population and Climate, released
here, stressed that the majority of the 1.5 billion people living on one
dollar a day or less are women, and they have so far been overlooked in
the climate change debate.
The term ‘trading’ when
applied to carbon
emissions refers
to companies’ ability to buy and sell their greenhouse permits. This is
why carbon trading is sometimes referred to as ‘cap and trade’.
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that around 30% of potential revenue go towards compensating industry and power stations. A further 16% is allocated to the reduction of fuel taxes. This could amount to $53 billion in revenue foregone.
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that those industries that would face significant (greater than 4%) cost increases under a $20 a tonne carbon price represent only around 2% of national production and 2% of employment.
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that a price of $20 per tonne of carbon pollution, but to provide the necessary incentive for cleaner energy, a carbon price of around $45 per tonne will be required. Recent CSIRO analysis found a carbon price of around $45 a tonne could put
The Australian Government's Department of Climate Change states the following:
The Australian Government is acting to reduce carbon pollution, create the jobs of the future and secure Australia’s future prosperity.
The Government has set ambitious targets to reduce Australia’s carbon pollution emissions. The goal for Australia is to reduce carbon emissions to 25 per cent below 2000 levels by 2020, if there is a fair contribution from all emitters around the world to take strong action to reduce the risk of dangerous climate change by restraining atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases to 450 parts per million. That’s reducing the average emissions of every Australian by almost a half over the next ten years.
If the world is unable to reach agreement on a 450 parts per million
target, we will still reduce our emissions in Australia by between 5 and
15 per cent below 2000 levels by 2020.
To deliver these targets, prepare our economy for the future and protect
our environment, the Government will introduce the Carbon Pollution
Reduction scheme in 2011.
We recognise our responsibility to act on behalf of future generations.
We will strengthen our effort to prepare Australia for a low carbon
pollution future through the Renewable Energy Target, research and
development of clean energy, and measures to help households,
businesses, communities and regions transition to a low carbon future.
We are also preparing Australia for the impacts of climate change that are already ‘locked in’ due to the carbon pollution already released into the atmosphere. We are investing in the science, research, information and skills needed to help communities, industries and governments adapt to a changing climate.
We are also continuing to work with other countries to develop a global
solution to this global problem. An investment of more than $15 billion
in climate change initiatives is putting Australia on track to a low
carbon future where our society is prosperous, our economy is strong and
our environment is protected.
Australia can create jobs and protect the environment at the same time –
and the Government’s plan for cutting carbon pollution will deliver this
while setting Australia up for a better future. (Source: http://www.climatechange.gov.au)
The
Garnaut Climate Change Review presented its Final
Report to
the Prime Minister of Australia and the eight states and territories on
30 September 2008. The
Review was an independent study conducted by economist Professor Ross
Garnaut, commissioned by
Effects of future warming
on rainfall patterns are difficult to predict because of