Chapter 13 Climate Change
Adaptation also has some potential limitations
-It is possible that some climate impacts will be severe to manage through adaptation. -could also prove maladaptive (counterproductive) due to uncertainties
European Union Cap-and-trade system
-operates in 28 EU countries and Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway -covers around 45% of the EU's GHG emissions -limits emissions from: more than 11,000 power stations and manufacturing plants -flights to and from EU and Iceland, Liechtenstein and norway -within limit, companies can buy and sell emission allowances -limit on overall emissions is reduced each year
evidence climate is changing from independent measurements
1) Temperature increases in the air measured over land and the oceans using thermometers 2) temperature increases in the air measured by satellites 3) warmer ocean temperatures i.e greater heat content 4) melting glaciers throughout the world 5) species moving where they live and shifting the timing of key life events
Policy topic, climate change boils down to four overacting issues
1) climate is changing 2) people are causing climate change 3) societal consequences of climate change are highly uncertain and include serious impacts 4) numerous policy options for climate change risk management
National Research Council (NRC) steps to manage risks
1) identification of important climate related vulnerabilities for a given region 2) identifying a set of adaptation options that are objectively deemed worthy of pursuing 3) weighing the relative costs of adaptation options against the risks of impacts, as well as determine option that contribute to management goals 4) monitoring effects of their adaptation decisions and update the planning process as new information about climate change, vulnerabilities and effectiveness of adaptation options
policy options for geoengineering
1) research potential options 2) study impacts and potential unintended consequences 3) create punitive measures to discourage reckless or unilateral attempts to geoengineer 4) create policies that promote cooperation and transparency or help ensure that governance issues would be addressed 5) seek to implement geoengineering approaches
environmental stewardship is accomplished in three ways
1) there are the primary persons of action, people willing to physically go into the environment 2) serve as a donor, providing necessary funds to allow an organization to promote sustainable or conservation actions 3) partners who promote environmental stewardship through various programs and education initiatives
Adding price to emissions
1)cap-and-trade, which makers set a limit on the overall quantity of emissions but let sources buy and sell permits so that they achieve the cap at least cost 2) emission fees (or taxes) which policy makers set the price sources must pay when they emit
Kyoto Protocol
37 developed (industrial) nations (referred to as Annex I countries) agreed to reduce emissions of four greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4, N2O and sulfur hexafluoride) plus the gas they produce (hydrofluorocarbons and perflurocarbons). February 2005, industrialized countries that signed committed to stabilization of GHG emissions rather than previously being encouraged.
Offset Exchange
An investor from a developed nation funds a carbon-free energy project, such as a windmill farm, in a developing nation. In turn, the investor is awarded carbon credits in an amount corresponding to the emissions that would have been produced by a conventional coal-fired power plant, same amount of electricity generated by the carbon-free source.
Western Climate Initiative
B.C. California and Quebec entered into a related effort, works to identify, evaluate and implement emission-trading programs at a regional level
climate resilient pathways
IPCC AR5 WG2, development trajectories of combined mitigation and adaption to realize the goal of sustainable development that help avoid dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system
UNFCCC treaty
March 1994 as of 2014, near universal membership of 195 signatories initial action was to establish national greenhouse gas emissions and removal inventories
NRC cites
National Flood Insurance Program Federal, state, and professional engineering standards Coastal Zone Management Program
Paris Agreement
November 2015 150 heads of state and government worldwide met to continue discussions beyond Kyoto and Warsaw changed negotiating strategies to enhance the probability of adherence In Paris, participating countries came prepared to discuss existing reduction strategies while negotiations changed their reduction strategies to a more non-binding agreement more concerted effort by Paris negotiators to convince developing countries that a shift to a non-fossil fuel based economy is not a detriment to existing economic structures.
June 2014
Obama administration announced specific regulatory standards that would aid in decreasing GHG emissions from power plants to 30% below 2005 levels by 2030. focused on electricity sector and coal-fired power plants.
difficulty in enforcing voluntary emissions reductions
Paris negotiators agreed to re-examine each country's reductions approximately every 5 years
1990 Global Change Research Act (GCRA)
Requires National Assessment of climate change impacts and response option every four years established the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP)
Recognizing that developing countries have a more difficult transition to a renewable energy economy, Paris negotiators asked wealthier countries to help
The Obama administration has pledged $100 billion from the U.S. by 2020 to aid this endeavor
Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)
To accommodate developing nations and reject the emissions caps, the EU implemented CDM as a provision of the Kyoto Protocol that consists of carbon trading via offset exchange.
June 2005
U.S. senate passed a resolution recommending establishment of a "comprehensive and effective national program of mandatory, market based limits and incentives on emissions to greenhouse gases that slow, stop and reverse the growth of such emissions."
2007
U.S. supreme Court ruled GHG emissions are, in fact, pollutants and would be subject to EPA regulations, endanger the public's health and welfare.
protocols
UNFCCC treaty calls for updates specify mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions
Montreal Protocol
United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) on substances that deplete the ozone layer 1987. By 2009, all 192 UN member states ratified the original Montreal Protocol.
Incremental decision-making
a process where small changes are made in existing policies or programs
precautionary principle
according to the Science and Environmental Health Network, when an action causes a threat to human health or the environment, precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause-and-effect relationships are not fully established scientifically
Doha Amendment
adopted in December 2012, serves as a follow up, with 10 countries accepting it as of June 2014. Launching a second commitment period (2013-2020) with further cuts in emissions by an average of 18% below 1990 levels by 2020. Added nitrogen trifluoride to the list of GHG.
Free Market
allocates and prices established based upon individual voluntary exchange among producers and consumers supply, demand and price tend toward a state of equilibrium
Government Regulation
an alternative to a completely free market system is either partial or total government regulation.
Significant amounts of ODSs...
are sequestered in older refrigeration and air conditioning units as well as building insulation and fire suppression systems.
Mitigation efforts can be further pared down, below the state level
at the country and city level, municipalities are designing or implementing climate action plans. Hoboken, NJ and Staten Island, NY not waiting for fed. govt. to adopt strategies
Risks of geoengineering
attempts to engineer the earth system on a large scale could lead to unintended, adverse consequences
Canada renounced Kyoto
because it was part of Annex I group but the average cut emissions was 5% and they were unable to cut the emissions.
climate policy choices require policy makers
become more informed about the societal risks posed by ghg emissions
Knowledge base expansion
can also reveal entirely new opportunities for protecting the climate system or reducing the risks of climate change
goal of carbon removal and sequestration
capture some of the increased carbon in the atmosphere that results from human activities and store that carbon away from the atmosphere, most likely below ground
Cost-benefit analysis
compares all the gains or benefits of a project with all corresponding losses or costs of that project
COP
conference of the Parties
Holistic perspective
considers a problem in its entirety and addresses coexistent problems related to it as a whole
According to many climate science
dangerous disruptions to the environment and society can be avoided if the rise in global mean temperature by 2100 is limited to less than 2 Celsius degrees
Mixed-market economy
describes a system that combines private, competitive enterprise with some government involvement
Sustainability
developments that meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs
Mitigation
does little to help with these ongoing, committed changes in climate
Department of Energy's Energy Innovation Hubs, Energy Frontier Research Centers and Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy
encourage clean energy and high risk, high reward projects
Green Climate Fund
established in hopes of providing a chief gateway of financing for developing countries
Clean Air Act
in place since Nixon administration in the early 1970s and amended in 1990 during President G Bush. The act requires the regulation of pollutants that are emitted and "endanger public health and welfare"
PaMs (policies and measures)
individual nations designed their own unique strategies to control emissions
Adaptation
involves planning for climate impacts, building resilience to those impacts and improving society's capacity to respond and recover. Help reduce damages and disruptions associated with climate change.
Release of halons by fire extinguishers
likely explains the continued increase in the concentration of halons in the atmosphere although the rate of increase is slowing.
Cost-effectiveness analysis
makes no judgement regarding the desirability of a project. Goal: economist tries to determine how the goal can be achieved for the lowest cost
Policy can deal with changing climate through
mitigation adaptation geoengineering knowledge base expansion
Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative
nine northeastern states and eastern Canadian provinces, limit CO2 emissions from large power plants and allowed trade of carbon credits
Often decisions are based...
on considerations that have little to do with the issue at hand. Partisan politics Elections the basis of government representation
2010
president obama established the Interagency Task Force on Carbon Capture and storage
Mitigation
proactive (reactive) risk-management strategy for dealing with climate change by reducing GHG emissions. Reducing emissions helps alleviate the core problem in proliferating changes in climate and ultimately increases the likelihood that societal impacts will remain manageable.
REDD
program helps countries mitigate emissions from deforestation, also agreed at Warsaw, Poland 2013 meeting.
NOAA, 2012
proposed National Climate Service to provide information to state and local decision makers about climate change vulnerabilities
Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007
raised fuel efficiency standards for vehicles and phased out incandescent light bulbs
negative externalities
refer to the cost of undesirable side effects of some activity that must be borne by people who are not directly involved Tragedy of the Commons, Garret J. Hardin (ecologist)
geoengineering
refers to deliberate, often global scale, manipulations of the climate system counteract the effect of human greenhouse gas emissions or their consequences could potentially help lower ghg concentrations in the atmosphere, counteract the physical impact of increasing ghg concentrations address specific climate change impacts or offer desperation strategies in catastrophic events
Ozone-depleting substances (ODSs)
responsible for the depletion of stratospheric ozone observed in polar regions (the "ozone hole" above Antarctica) and in the middle latitudes
United States ignored Kyoto
signed under Clinton administration, Bush administration claimed that the high cost of compliance would harm the nations economy and objected.
two categories of geoengineering are most prevalent within scientific and policy discussions
solar radiation management carbon removal and sequestration
Prototype Carbon Fund
the world bank invests in carbon-cutting projects mostly in developing nations
Public Policies
to be those actions that governments enact or decide not to enact.
Another COP22
took place in November 2016, Marrakech Morocco where negotiators will take specific actions related to the Paris Agreement, including those related to "adaptation, transparency, technology transfer, mitigation, capacity building and loss and damages."
externalities
un-reflected consequences, either positive or negative
Transformations
usually mean a change in form, appearance, nature or character
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
was produced at the UN Conference on Environment and Development convened in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June 1992. the principal objective of the treaty was "stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system."
positive externalities
we are advantaged by what someone else does, we reap external befits and enjoy
Risk-Benefit analysis
weighs the risks of an activity against its benefits to determine whether the activity should be allowed. Appeals to people who are involved in environmental decision-making
environmental stewardship
which as defined by the U.S. EPA is the responsibility for environmental quality shared by all those whose actions affect the environment
Environmental Modification Convention
(ENMOD) prohibits some forms of geoengineering
Hydrochlorofluorocarbons
(HCFCs) are one set of replacements used in the 1990s, they were later found to impact the ozone hole.