Category: Climate change

Our children are growing up in an unstable climate. It is already hurting their health, wealth and well-being. Universities can be leaders in helping young people acquire the knowledge they need to navigate this uncertain future. Curious Climate Schools, a project that directly connects young people with experts who can answer their questions on climate, is a model for this type of leadership.

Universities around the world are coming together this week to support leadership on climate action in their communities as part of Global Climate Change Week. In Tasmania, our Curious Climate Schools project connected more than 1,000 students, aged 10 to 18, with 57 climate researchers from various disciplines to answer student questions.

Climate change will increasingly affect the lives of our children, even as we take the deep steps needed this decade to avoid the worst. Young people will need to be made aware of the climate for the world they inherit. While it is established that learning about climate change is essential for improving understanding and action, climate literacy education is not compulsory in the Australian curriculum.

Our goal is to enable children to develop essential climate knowledge through a survey conducted by students. Our experts’ answers to questions from schools across the state will be made public on the Curious Climate Schools website on November 1. This will coincide with the COP26 climate summit, connecting local and global climate leadership.

Read more: More reasons to be optimistic about climate change than we’ve seen in decades: 2 climate experts explain

What do young people want to know?

The students submitted questions to our project that ranged from global to local. The key themes of their questions included:

The children had many questions about the science of climate change, but even more about our social and political responses. For example:

” I am 13 years old. What do you think climate change will change in the world in my lifetime, and what can I do about it? “

“Does the climate crisis have the potential to unite humanity in response? “

“As for future generations, what will they think of what we have done? “

While children are interested in the physical science behind climate change, their questions show that they are also concerned about how we should act on climate as a society. This suggests that when climate change is taught in schools, it should be taught holistically. While it is important to understand the drivers of climate change, education should also address the social challenges we face and the decision-making processes that this nasty problem demands.

Read more: Free Schools Guide to Inclusion and Climate Science Isn’t Ideological – It’s Evidence Based

A way to counter climate anxiety

The current silence on the climate in school education is bad for children’s mental health. Research has established that talking about climate change is an important first step in allaying legitimate climate anxiety. An education that empowers students to take action through climate literacy could reduce the mental health burden on young people.

We need young people with climate awareness. Empowering them to talk about climate change could both improve their mental health and help develop the engaged citizens and leadership we need to tackle the climate crisis.

Recognizing that children have a stake in climate action and decision making is vital. Without it, they feel helpless and frustrated. We have seen this in some of the questions submitted to the Curious Climate Schools.

“Do you think that we, the future leaders, are heard enough? For example, Scott Morrison or the other politicians, are they listening? “

These students are our future leaders. They deserve to be heard.

A model of university climate leadership

Many universities are well equipped to address local climate challenges in partnership with their communities. Curious Climate Schools is an example of how universities can engage with the public to improve climate knowledge and action.

Read more: Here’s how universities can lead climate action

Our project mobilizes the knowledge, attention and enthusiasm of 57 experts. They work in a variety of fields including climate modeling, biodiversity conservation, pyrogeography, chemistry, law, social sciences, engineering, geology, oceanography, paleoclimatology, indigenous knowledge and health. .

The Curious Climate Schools website will provide students with holistic climate knowledge and help teachers tackle a topic at the forefront of students’ minds – if not the Australian curriculum.

With initiatives such as Curious Climate Schools, universities can be leaders in climate action. At this critical juncture, it is crucial that we harness our collective talents in every way possible to ensure a liveable world for our children.

The effects of climate change are already being felt, from deadly heat waves to severe flooding, and Asia has been and will continue to be significantly affected. With $ 4.7 trillion in GDP at stake, how can the business world reverse this trend and preserve the longevity of its businesses and human capital? LESA 2021 seeks to solve this problem and more.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, October 18, 2021 / PRNewswire / – With the most to lose from climate change (up to $ 4.7 trillion in GDP according to the recent McKinsey analysis), Asia is at the forefront of the climate crisis. The science is clear and the financial sector has the increased risks of severe floods, typhoons and droughts on its radar. Global, environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) investments have seen a wave of growth in the wake of the pandemic and a new emphasis on sustainability, and ESG assets are expected to represent more than a third of assets under management by 2025 (Bloomberg).

In South East Asia, sustainability-driven business models, climate risk assessments and ESG investments are still emerging, but the impacts of climate change are already being felt. Are asia companies equipped to face these challenges? How do we start to mitigate the impact? It’s too late? Teacher. John Sterman, director of the MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative and keynote speaker at this year’s Leadership for Enterprise Sustainability Asia (LESA 2021) conference, is adamant that there is hope.

Sterman will be the anchor of this event, organized by the Asia School of Business located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which focuses on the urgency for businesses in Southeast Asia and the emerging world to take critical action to mitigate climate risks and chart a new course forward. Representatives from organizations such as MIT Sloan, McKinsey & Company, Esquel Group, BlackRock, United Overseas Bank (UOB) and many more will also speak at LESA 2021.

As the region’s business leaders prepare for “the next normal” and Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Singapore recently announced their commitment to become carbon neutral over the next decades, LESA 2021 invites all business leaders, policymakers, entrepreneurs and individuals to join the conversation – both on the challenges and economically viable solutions supported by science. technologies to adapt and cope with this climate economy in an Asian context.

“Instead of leaving things on a ‘wait-and-see’ basis, where individuals depend on businesses, small businesses depend on large conglomerates to take the lead, and governments ask other governments to implement policies , LESA 2021 aims to spread the message that every person and entity has a role and a responsibility to play to steer us in the right direction before the consequences become irreversible ”, said Prof. Charles H. Fine, (Ph.D. Stanford) CEO, President and Dean of the Asia School of Business.

Break down change into small, achievable steps

After spending decades studying people’s responses and efforts to mitigate climate change, Sterman says people care about the environment. “The main problem is that people are overwhelmed by the complexity and the long lead times, especially when we are so used to instant feedback. ”

When we are faced with consequences that seem catastrophic, overwhelming and hopeless, he says, “Most tend to be convinced that ‘the problem is not that bad’, ‘the market will fix it’ or ‘the government will fix it. will settle “.”

To challenge these notions and call for individual and collective action, Sterman has developed the En-ROADS and C-ROADS simulations, which use the analogy of a bathtub (“The amount of CO2 in the air is like the amount of water in a bathtub; if you keep filling it faster than it flows, according to the law of fundamental physics, it will rise until it overflows “) – and has made simulations accessible to the large Just like preparing a pilot for a potential crash, simulations help teach and train pilots so they can make the necessary adjustments to avoid the crash.

“The conclusion of the simulations is always the same – we all play a role, and none are too small. Participants always come out of them empowered,” concludes Sterman, who has also conducted several such simulations for the highest levels of the world. government, business and NGOs in over 80 countries around the world, and for students, including at the Asia School of Business.

This simple but powerful idea – that the cumulative effect of small actions can move mountains – is exactly the key message the Asia School of Business is trying to spread through this year’s LESA 2021 conference.

Action and change come from mindset

“Asia has an excellent opportunity – to chart a new course in the management of social, economic and climate risks. But charting new territory will require new ideas, approaches, courage, agility and a strategic mindset, ”said Professor Fine.

LESA, currently in its 9th year, will be held virtually this year from November 15-18, 2021.

The conference includes over 16 hours of content spread over 4 days and features business leaders, industry experts, academics and sustainability practitioners from around the world who will focus on insights and learnings on the way to embark on sustainable development for Asia.

The conference will also see the culmination of the Iclif Leadership Energy Awards (ILEA), which are sponsored by Maybank and honor people who use their “Leadership Energy in Action” to make a positive and lasting impact in their organizations or communities. . The conference is also supported by associate sponsor Sarawak Energy.

With sustainability as a key pillar for ASB and the urgent need for mass awareness among business leaders, LESA 2021 is extending free Discovery Passes to all interested. The Discovery Pass gives access to a limited number of preselected sessions to make the information shared at the LESA accessible to a greater number of people.

For the full LESA experience, an All-Access Pass which includes access (live and on demand) to all conferences, masterclasses and panel sessions is now available for purchase at https://asb.edu .my / lesa.

Related links:

https://asb.edu.my/

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An official confirmation of Modi’s visit has yet to be announced.

India, China, Brazil and some other developing countries have strongly advocated maintaining carbon credits, which allow companies to offset their greenhouse gas emissions, as part of the Paris Agreement of 2015, an ambitious global action plan to fight climate change.

The carbon market mechanism, mainly the guidance of Article 6 (market and non-market mechanisms) of the Paris Agreement regulations, is the new voluntary climate change mitigation mechanism that aims to help organizations reduce their carbon footprint.

At the 2019 UN climate summit, countries failed to reach unanimous agreement on Article 6 on the carbon market system as long negotiations remained inconclusive despite 48 hours past the deadline official.

Describing the agenda for the 26th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Patricia Espinosa, UN Chief Climate Officer, said the one of the main subjects of negotiation is the conclusion of the negotiations underway around the rules of article 6. to finally allow market and non-market tools to launch their operations.

The Article 6 Rules Agreement maintains environmental integrity, including guidance for cooperation under Article 6.2, a new UN mechanism under Article 6.4 and a program of work on non-market approaches under Article 6.8.

Explaining the mechanisms of the carbon market, the UNFCCC says that when countries set a limit or ceiling on greenhouse gas emissions, they create something of value: the right to emit.

What happens if we apply the principles and rules of the market? Countries or companies that cut their emissions below their cap have something to sell, unused emission allowances, measured in tonnes of CO2 equivalent.

Countries and companies that fail to meet their target can buy these one-ton units to fill the gap. This is called emissions trading, or cap and trade. The net effect on the atmosphere is the same, provided the measurements are correct, i.e. each unit represents a true reduction of one tonne below the ceiling and each unit is only used. ‘once. It requires clear rules and transparency.

Article 6 carbon market rules will replace the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto Protocol, the predecessor of the Paris Agreement.

In India, 1,669 projects were successfully registered under the CDM, millions of Certified Emission Reduction Credits (CERs), better known as carbon credits, remain unsold with the CDM market collapse .

One CER is equal to one tonne of carbon dioxide. CERs help companies earn billions of dollars by trading them. Currently there is a market but no political platform.

At the last UN climate summit, the developed world took a stand against allowing the “spam” carbon market, which allows the buying and selling of carbon emissions, and emerged as part of the of the Kyoto protocol adopted in December 1997 to continue in the existing mechanism under the Paris Convention An understanding.

They blamed the faulty mechanism and loopholes in the existing system that failed to prevent double counting of carbon credits and called for a new mechanism to be put in place.

Several countries such as India were demanding to carry over old carbon credits also earned by companies to meet new climate targets.

The carbon credit system allows countries to reduce their emission reduction targets by accumulating and trading carbon credits.

According to rough estimates, countries have nearly 4 billion unsold Certified Emission Reductions (CERs). India has a depository of 750 million and China has much more than India.

Climate negotiators say there is a need to increase transparency in COP26 to trade carbon credits, as the current mechanism has been “strewn with scandals”.

A latest report from an international task force led by UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance, Mark Carney, and chaired by Bill Winters, CEO of Standard Chartered Bank, indicates that to achieve the goals of Paris aiming to limit global warming, the world community must reach “net zero” by 2050 at the latest.

This will require an economic transition as a whole: every company, every bank, every insurer and investor will have to adjust their business models, develop credible plans for the transition and implement them.

The report, Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets, says that given the demand for carbon credits that could arise from global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it is evident that the world will need a voluntary market. carbon that is vast, transparent, verifiable and robust to the environment.

Limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius requires that annual global greenhouse gas emissions be reduced by 50% from current levels by 2030 and reduced to “net zero” by 2050.

(Vishal Gulati can be contacted at [email protected])

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Sidney’s chief executive said there is still a lot of work to be done for the community to meet its carbon emissions targets in the municipality’s climate action plan and proposed but not yet formalized numbers for the new plan. official community.

“Given that community-wide (greenhouse gas) emissions decreased 9.4 (percent) from 2007 to 2018, it would take a reduction of about 40 (percent) to achieve the goal of 50 (percent) by 2030, and about 90 percent reduction by 2050 to become carbon neutral, ”Randy Humble said in an emailed statement.

On October 12, council received and considered two reports dealing with climate change and the municipality’s approach to it. The second notes that the community has shown support for the following emission reductions during OCP’s current engagement process: a 50% reduction in community GHGs below 2007 levels by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050.

The current OCP calls for a 15% reduction from 2007 levels by 2020; 30% below 2007 levels by 2030; and 80% below 2007 levels by 2050.

The new numbers are more ambitious and Kira Gill-Maher, Sidney’s climate action coordinator, said in a report that they would align the municipality’s goals with recommendations from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (IPCC) to keep warming below 1.5 C.

But they would also require a larger effort, as the community is expected to quadruple its GHG emissions from 2007 levels in nine years, an effort that would also require help from senior levels of government.

“These goals can only be achieved through community-wide effort and climate action programs across multiple levels of government,” Humble explained. “For example, an improved bus service could be a deciding factor for community members to drive their vehicles less. “

He added that carbon offsets could help to a small extent. “(But) the biggest opportunities to reduce carbon emissions in Sidney involve changes in transport (such as increased use of public transport and active transport) and the renovation of existing buildings.”

According to a staff report, transportation accounts for 56 percent of community GHG emissions, while buildings account for 29 percent.

Humble has also made it clear that he believes the goals are achievable, pointing to the recently released report setting out the key directions that have emerged from the OCP review so far.

“The model (present in the report) also shows that with aggressive action a significant reduction in emissions is possible, reaching, compared to 2007, a reduction of 41% of emissions by 2030, a reduction of 60% emissions by 2040 and a 78% reduction in emissions by 2050, ”he said.

Last Tuesday’s meeting saw the council take further action. The council first unanimously approved the staff’s approach to updating the municipality’s climate action plan, followed by a unanimous vote to establish a climate action reserve fund that dedicates a annual funding to help implement the climate action project following the update of the climate action plan, with the board to decide on the annual funding level in the next budget process.

Staff recommend $ 50,000.

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Saanich Peninsula Sidney

There’s a new warning about the growing climate change crisis: that the Coachella Valley could one day be underwater due to sea level rise as temperatures warm globally.

Notable new scientific predictions from the nonprofit Climate Central research group show that major coastal cities are largely submerged in the ocean. The base of the Statue of Liberty and the Santa Monica Pier would be submerged.

“What we do over the next 10, 20, 30 years is going to trigger what will happen over the next 100,000 years,” said Benjamin Strauss, CEO and Chief Scientist at Climate Central.

Strauss predicts that if global emissions are not halved over the next decade, the global average temperature will warm by 3 degrees Celsius within a century.

If the earth warms by 4 degrees Celsius, models show the Coachella Valley could also be inundated.

“The valley is really low – the Salton Sea is below sea level, but it’s protected by the mountains,” Strauss said. “The problem is, if the sea level rises enough, the ocean can connect from the south … You would be facing a disaster overnight because everything could fill up very quickly.”

Cindy Yanez, 24, of Cathedral City, is a graduate researcher in Earth Systems Science at UC Irvine. Last year, she published a climate change study predicting big hits to local tourism due to rising temperatures.

She said the extreme heat in our area will only get worse. “The extreme heat in itself would cause great stress in people’s lives and jobs,” Yanez said.

Experts say this is currently a turning point in the growing global crisis, offering responsibility and an opportunity to change climate change.

“What we do can affect countless generations into the future,” Strauss said. “We have a change to improve all of these lives through the decisions we are making right now.”

The potential impacts are made more urgent with the United Nations Climate Summit to be held on October 31 in Glasgow, where world leaders will discuss how aggressive they are with the new climate policy.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) continues to ask the question: What will the future climate look like under several different emission scenarios?

In a regular series of reports dating back to 1990, scientists have given the same answer: the more greenhouse gases we emit, the warmer the world will be. The repetition becomes boring. The only difference over the past 30 years is that as data accumulates, science advances, models improve, and computers get more powerful, there is more confidence and more details in this answer.

What was “probable” just a few years ago is now “practically certain”, to the point that UN Secretary General António Guterres has called the latest AR6 report a “red code for humanity”. He found that human activities have unequivocally warmed Earth’s climate across the planet, and that these changes are widespread, rapid and intensifying.

Advances in climatology and high-performance computing have enabled the continuous improvement of climate models. In 1990, climate simulations could only offer rough representations of the atmosphere, without the possibility of taking into account dynamic oceanic or terrestrial processes.

In contrast, the latest report assesses large sets of high-resolution models that couple all components of the real climate: atmosphere, ocean, land / vegetation, and sea ice. Today’s climate models synthesize and digitally represent all of the climates. latest scientific knowledge on radiation, cloud microphysics, turbulence and other processes that together determine climate.

As a result, our ability to predict the climate response to any particular future emissions scenario (or “forcing”) has become much more robust. The main question now is, what will these emissions really be?

For any specific trajectory of future greenhouse gas emissions, climate models project what the climate response would be. We speak of climate “projections” instead of “forecasts” because the climate over the next few decades depends to some extent on human-controlled emissions, and we cannot be sure how humans will choose to. ‘exercise this control.

Ireland’s contribution

Ireland contributes in particular to the IPCC reports through its participation in a consortium of several northern European countries that are developing and running one of the 50 or so global climate models that feed into the IPCC assessments.

The Irish Center for High End Computing (ICHEC) has conducted centuries of global climate simulations with the “EC-Earth” climate model. As a “model of the earth system” it represents all of the most relevant physical processes that operate in and between the atmosphere, ocean, land surface and sea ice. The simulations go from the historical past, so that model performance can be compared to actual climate records, until the end of the 21st century. This work is supported by the EPA, the Met Éireann and the Marine Institute.

Over 50 different global climate models have been developed by different research centers around the world, including Ireland, through ICHEC and the Met Éireann. Like Formula 1 cars, they can share certain parts, but each is also different in its own way.

Their real strength, however, is that they are collectively organized to each perform the same simulation experiments. As far as the particular design of each model allows, they all use the same initial configuration, the same boundary conditions and the same future emission scenarios. Collectively, they generate sets of several thousand sample climates for each scenario.

This number is high enough to generate high confidence that something close to the full range of possible climates is being captured. Dr Pangloss de Voltaire would be impressed. Multi-model sets like this are great examples of the whole greater than the sum of its parts.

These coordinated climate simulation projects also reflect how climate research has become ‘big science’, without a single person or even a single institute being able to do it all. The ICHEC simulations alone consumed tens of millions of computer core hours, and the resulting datasets occupy more than 1.5 petabytes (equivalent to the storage capacity of well 1,500 modern laptops. endowed).

The potential for more extreme events

Almost every model from 30 years ago to now predicts that the world will continue to heat up if greenhouse gas emissions continue on their current path. An average warming of 2 or 3 degrees may not seem like much, as temperatures can vary much more than that from day to day. However, even this level of warming is likely to cause widespread and even dramatic changes in ice cover (especially in the Arctic) and in the natural world of plants and animals.

Additionally, a changing climate tends to alter the full range of expected weather conditions, not just the average. Even more dramatic future changes are projected for the extremes, or “tails”, of the frequency distributions of each climate sample. Thus, a rain event so intense that it only occurred once every 100 years or so in the past, may occur every 20 years in the future. Likewise, long, deep freezes (such as during the winter of 2010-2011) could become even rarer in a warmer future world.

What does this mean for Ireland?

Scientists at ICHEC supplemented the global projections with another set of regional simulations (each nested within a larger global simulation) to provide a set of ultra-high-resolution future climate projections for Ireland. These provide a wealth of detail on the likely characteristics of Ireland’s future climate. Selected results of this to study are that by the middle of this century (2041-2060) we should expect:

– Temperature increase of 1.0-1.6 degrees (compared to 1981-2000) with the largest increases in the east;

– More frequent summer heat waves, especially in the south;

– About 50% less frost and ice days;

– More variable precipitation, with drier periods and more intense precipitation episodes;

– A decrease in snowfall of 50 percent or more;

– Weaker surface winds, as well as a reduction in the energy content of the wind by 120 meters (height of the turbine) in all seasons;

– The annual growing and grazing seasons are expected to lengthen by 12 to 16 percent. Likewise, crop heat units and growing degree days for a range of crops (and pests) are likely to increase dramatically.

The capacity of supercomputers has increased by more than seven orders of magnitude, or a factor of 10 million, over the past 30 years. This has enabled advances in climate science that would have been unthinkable even as recently as 1990. Given the computational resources currently available and other scientific advances, model simulations can provide very accurate indicators of our climate.

The level of detail and consistency achieved gives confidence in these projections and allows an ever more convincing evidence-based consensus to emerge that humans are forcing rapid climate change in well-understood ways.

How to respond to this consensus now is a question primarily for governments (since they can have the most impact) as well as for individuals.

Dr Enda O’Brien and Dr Paul Nolan are based at the Irish Center for High End Computing in Galway

A network of international researchers is launching a European collaboration this week (October 14, 2021). This collaboration will train a new generation of scientists to understand the impact of past climate change on Antarctica

The new innovative European research and training network “DEEPICE” aims to equip the next generation of scientists with a solid background in climatology related to ice cores, with a particular focus on Antarctica. It will also tackle major technological and scientific challenges in order to make the best use of the Beyond EPICA – Oldest Ice Core which will be mined by a large European team in Antarctica in the years to come, to recover up to 1.5 million. years of climate data. Ultimately, these initiatives will answer key questions about the major climate changes that the Earth has faced in the past and their impacts on the Antarctic ice sheet.

Climate change in Antarctica can have significant consequences for our society, as these can impact future global sea levels due to the large volume of fresh water stored in the ice cap. Thus, on the eve of the next Conference of the Parties (COP26), understanding climate change and the vulnerability of the Antarctic ice sheet is more than ever a priority issue. As the younger generations inherit a planet that will be far different from today, they need to be provided with the right information to help them take action to tackle one of the greatest environmental crises facing us. humanity is facing. Not only will DEEPICE prepare a network of young climate scientists, but it will also give them the skills needed to effectively communicate the issue of climate change to the general public.

Thanks to the doctoral projects of 15 fellows, the new program will prepare the tools for an optimal use of the very old ice core, by developing cutting-edge instrumental techniques, cutting-edge statistical tools for signal reconstruction and coupled climate models. . These results will directly contribute to a better understanding of past processes of the climate system and, thus, to improved prognosis for the future. This European network will also offer unique links with many non-academic partners who will provide these young scientists with the broad skills now required to pursue academic and non-academic careers.

Dr Amaëlle Landais is CNRS research director at the Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Sciences (LSCE) and principal coordinator of the DEEPICE network. She says:

“Climate change is a major challenge for society today. The new generations must be given the best tools to meet this challenge.

Dr Emilie Capron is a CNRS researcher at the Institute of Environmental Geosciences (IGE) and co-coordinator of the new research and training network. She says:

“Studying the past climate is essential to understanding how our climate system works and how it might change in the future.”

Professor Carlo Barbante of the University of Venice is the leader of the BE-OI project. He says:

“The quest for the oldest ice is one of the most intriguing and enigmatic challenges in climate science. To tackle it, we need the best talented young scientists.

Dr Louise Sime, climate change specialist at the British Antarctic Survey, who is supervising a new DEEPICE doctoral student, says

“It’s wonderful to be part of DEEPICE – it provides the ideal inter-European training network for the exciting new generation of climate and ice core scientists. “

This innovative European research and training network includes 10 research organizations and universities as well as 10 partners from the academic and non-academic sectors. It started in January 2021 and will run until December 2024.

Beneficiaries: CNRS (Coordinator), France; Alfred Wegener Institute, Germany; University of Bergen, Norway; University of Bern, Switzerland; University of Utrecht, The Netherlands; Ca ‘Foscari University in Venice, Italy; Free University of Brussels, Belgium; University of Copenhagen, Denmark; University of Lund, Sweden; British research and innovation – British Antarctic Survey, United Kingdom

Partner organizations: TOFWERK AG, Switzerland; Past global changes, Switzerland; Schäfter & Kirchhoff GmbH, Germany; University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy; Air Liquide, France; PICARRO, United States; University of Art London – Central Saint Martins, United Kingdom; Teledyne CETAC Technologies, United States; Interscience SPRL, Belgium; Risk Management Solutions, United States.

The unprecedented increase in climate-related disasters has led more than 13,000 scientists from 153 countries to sign a declaration of climate emergency, according to an article published in September 2021 in a leading biological science journal. The call for such severe action as the declaration of a climate emergency is justified by the Sixth Assessment report (AR6) of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the climatology organization of United Nations (UN) which produces a climate report every seven years or so. The report has been described by British newspaper “The Guardian” as “its most blunt warning yet” of “major climate change that is inevitable and irreversible”. Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary general called the report “a code red for humanity”. The alarm bells are deaf, and the evidence is irrefutable: greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel combustion and deforestation are choking our planet and putting billions of people in immediate danger ”. The importance and urgency of addressing climate change is also reflected in 2021. Nobel Prize in Physics which has been awarded to three scientists — Syukuro Manabe from Japan, Klaus Hasselmann from Germany and Giorgio Parasi from Italy— which laid the foundation for current climate models to understand climate change and warned against climate change disasters Climate Change-related disasters include rising sea levels, increasing global warming, arctic melting, devastating floods and cyclones, record heat waves and forest fires. These disasters are believed to be caused by uncontrolled emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG)—- Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide which, in the earth’s atmosphere, prevent heat from escaping. This is called the greenhouse effect. These gases keep the Earth warm. The increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere caused by the combustion of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas alter the natural greenhouse effect. These changes cause the atmosphere to trap more heat than before, leading to warming of the Earth. The increase in global average Earth’s surface temperature in 2020 was 1.2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures. Climate change is real and has been unequivocally brought about by human activities, largely the release of polluting gases from the burning of fossil fuels. The Paris Agreement adopted in 2015 reaffirms the goal of limiting the increase in global temperature to well below 02, preferably 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures. To prevent warming beyond 1.5 ° C, we need to reduce emissions by 7.6% each year until 2030. According to the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)2021 published on August 09, 2021, the global warming limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius could be exceeded by 2040. This is because the countries that have been signatories to the Paris Agreement have not kept their promises . The call for a declaration of climate emergency by a large number of scientists in September 2021 is gaining importance as the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is scheduled from October 31 to November 12, 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland. The COP, the supreme decision-making body of the UNFCCC, has 197 member countries. Each year, a meeting of member countries is organized, known as the Conference of the Parties (COP).

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What challenges do developing countries face in achieving the goal of net zero emissions by 2050?

When the world does not add new emissions to the atmosphere, it is called “net emissions”. The United Nations has set a target of halving emissions by 2030 and achieving net zero emissions by 2050 to meet the Paris Agreement target of 1.5 degrees Celsius . The extreme and persistent adverse effects of global climate change have posed a serious threat to both the biosphere and to humanity. But the devastation caused by climate change is greater and more pronounced in developing countries and they are least able to bear the consequences. Multiple factors are responsible for their vulnerability to climate change which can limit their ability to prevent and respond to the devastation caused by it. In 2009, at the Conference of the Parties on Climate Change in Copenhagen, a financial commitment of $ 100 billion per year by 2020 was made by developed countries to help developing countries reduce emissions of gas. greenhouse effect, build resilience to climate impacts and achieve the goal of zero carbon in the future. This target of 100 billion dollars was to be raised before 2025. The modalities of financing from a wide variety of sources – public and private, bilateral and multilateral, and from alternative sources of financing are ill-defined. The proportions of funding from public and private sources are not specified, nor is it clear how different financial instruments such as grants and loans should be counted. They have such serious flaws that developed countries exploit them to their advantage. For example, the bulk of climate finance provided by developed countries to developing countries consists of loans, not grants. Loans must be repaid, with interest. There is no agreed system for measuring the amount of climate change finance provided by developed countries to developing countries. Regarding the commitment to mobilize US $ 100, the fact remains that it was not met. in his “Remarks to the pre-Cop26” on September 30, 2021 in Italy, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said developed countries were slow to commit to providing US $ 100 billion a year in funding climate for poor countries by 2020.

India, the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases after the United States and China, is also vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. As part of its commitment to Paris Agreement, India plans to reduce its carbon footprint by 33-35% from its 2005 level by 2030.

It is a known fact that climate change is largely due to the historic emissions of rich developed countries over a long period of a century and a half. Many developing and underdeveloped countries were colonies of rich, developed countries. The colonies contributed significantly to their wealth which enabled them to design and develop technologies which in turn helped them achieve the industrial revolution. The industries mainly obtained the raw material from the colonized countries and sold them the finished products. This has added disproportionately to the wealth of developed countries. After gaining independence, the settlers continued to derive energy from fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas to support their economy. But unfortunately, burning fossil fuels has turned out to contribute to climate change. The UN continues to urge them to reduce the use of fossil fuels and switch to renewable energies. But it is simply not possible for them to quickly switch from fossil fuels to renewables due to financial constraints and lack of technology. At the same time, it is not possible for developed countries to tackle climate change and make the transition to a cleaner, greener future without 152 developing countries representing some 6.5 billion people.

The bottom line is that developed countries have a moral responsibility to review the US $ 100 billion a year commitment to climate finance and increase finance to a sizable level. Given the gravity of the problem of climate change, it is inevitable to help developing countries reduce greenhouse gases. emissions, building resilience to climate impacts so that they meet the goal of net zero carbon and ensure human security in the future. All the loopholes, ambiguities and pitfalls of engagement mentioned above must be eliminated. Recently, India stressed that the goal of achieving zero net emissions by 2050 should be based on the principle of equity.

Hopefully, the COP26 at the UNFCCC scheduled for October-November 2021 in Glosgow would witness significant new commitments to the global climate change agenda.

Through,
Dr Aqueel Khan,

Former teacher and director,
Postgraduate University Education Department of Biochemistry,
RTM Nagpur University,
Nagpur,
Maharashtra
E-mail: [email protected]
Mobile: 9890352898

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Climate change: Need to review the US $ 100 billion climate finance commitment to developing countries

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Climate change-related disasters include rising sea levels, increasing global warming, melting the Arctic, devastating floods and cyclones, record heat waves and forest fires.

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POLITICAL TIMES

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A DOCTOR from Henley says people’s health will suffer and there will be more disease unless stronger action is taken to tackle climate change.

York Road Hart Surgery partner Philip Unwin said it would put increased pressure on the local health system, at which point the situation would be irreversible.

He said: “It takes a big change in government policy to make a difference.”

Dr Unwin is the latest city figure to speak out in favor of the Climate and Environmental Emergencies Bill, due for second reading in the House of Commons later this month .

He said: “You hope it doesn’t affect your life, but I think we’re almost getting to the point where we need to do something to make a difference.

“It’s very difficult for some people, but if everyone did something it would be a lot easier.

“Obviously this affects countries where there is extreme weather conditions. These are people who are struggling because of crop failure and famine. Global warming affects the poorest people.

“If we look at Henley, we see more flooding and extreme weather conditions, but nothing that particularly affects our health. We are relatively well protected.

“By the time we, in our very privileged and protected situation, begin to feel the effects of climate change on health, it will have gone too far and will be irreversible.

“We had a crisis with covid and the whole country came to a standstill, but climate change is a much bigger problem. It is not yet high enough on the political and social agenda.

Zero Hour Oxfordshire, formerly CEE Bill Alliance Oxfordshire, is promoting the private member’s bill, but Henley MP John Howell declined to support it.

He believes the proposed legislation is flawed and says the government has already put in place targets to achieve net zero carbon and reverse the impact on nature.

Supporters say the bill “provides a framework for the decarbonization of the UK economy” and makes it a legal obligation for the government to commit to measures that limit the temperature rise to 1.5 degree above pre-industrial levels.

Last month, the editors of 200 health journals around the world issued an emergency call for action.

Dr Unwin, who has worked at Hart Surgery for over 30 years, says the link between climate change and health should not be underestimated.

He said: “There is no doubt that if the current climate trend continues, we will see an increase in disease patterns and health conditions directly related to the climate and ecological emergency with resulting pressures on our healthcare system. here in Oxfordshire.

“I am not an expert on climate change, but I am convinced that we should do whatever we can. It takes a big change in government policy to make a difference and achieving the goals they set is going to be really tough.

“Henley trying hard could be a good role model for other cities to follow and I think we should do as much as possible.

“I stopped a lot of the waste we had at home. I drive an electric car and make every effort not to use fuel unnecessarily.

Other local supporters of the bill include Brakspear CEO Tom Davies, Bremont co-founder Nick English, Ella’s Kitchen founder Paul Lindley, naturalist Professor Richard Fortey and broadcaster Ben Fogle, who lives to Fawley.

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@ henleystandard.co.uk