In the time it will take you to read this post,
approximately 200,000 tonnes of anthropogenic CO2 will be released
into the atmosphere (World Bank) – that’s nearly 1,500 blue whales worth of carbon dioxide. Although to most of us the exact nature of how global
carbon emission reductions will be achieved remains a mystery, one thing is
clear: collaborative effort is going to be key, with countries, communities and
individuals needing to work alongside one another for the good of the planet.
Living just outside Brighton, and having spent three
years as a resident of Bristol, I have been fortunate enough to experience two
cities that are both substantially involved in fighting environmental issues.
Brighton is host to the sole Green Party-held constituency in the UK, a telling
summary of a city that is wildly known for its accepting views and passionate
values; Bristol was named European Green Capital 2015 due to its longstanding pioneering for green schemes
Despite these cities, the UK as a whole appears
to be slipping in its responsibilities for carbon reduction. The government
have given permission for fracking to go-ahead in Lancashire, slashed renewable energy subsidies and become the only G7 country to increase their fossil fuel subsidies.
Denmark, meanwhile, has pledged to reach 100% renewable energy in all sectors
by 2050,
and has a wind power network capable of powering its entire country with energy
to spare.
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| Denmark's shift to fully renewable energy Source: Greenpeace |
COP21
Last December saw the 2015 United Nations Climate Change
Conference take place in Paris. This was the 21st Conference of the Parties
(hence its well-known, alternative title of COP21), an annual summit aimed at
reviewing the global issue of climate change. Previous major outcomes of the
meeting have included the Kyoto Protocol (COP3), the Montreal Action Plan (COP11),
and the Green Climate Fund (COP17).
In the build up to the event, the conference was seen by
many to be the most significant of all time. Its objective was principally simple but infinitely more problematic in reality: to draw up a legally binding
plan to combat climate change, agreed to by all 195 member parties. 146 of the
195 countries submitted draft proposals before attending and, to the surprise
of some (due to the calamitous shortcomings of COP15, where talks completely
broke down and the US government was accused of espionage), an agreement was
reached to limit warming of the planet to 2oC, whilst “pursuing
efforts” to limit the warming to 1.5oC.
Perhaps unbelievably, given the vast complexity of the
negotiations, reaching an agreed target was only a microscopic step towards the
end goal. The intimidating task of actually reducing emissions to the level
required for the 2oC objective to be achieved now has to begin. The urgency of
this is possibly best stated by the fact that global CO2 levels have
now passed 400ppm for almost certainly the final time in our lifetimes.
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| Global CO2 levels will not dip below 400 ppm again in our lifetimes. Source: Guardian |
Climitigation
This blog will focus on techniques to combat global
warming and carbon emissions, including the triumphant (and less successful)
methods of the past, the strategies currently in place, and those that may be
implemented in the future in order to achieve the COP21 target. Climate change
can be typified as fundamentally an environmental issue, though it obviously
carries with it powerful social and economic ramifications, and so these will
be touched on too, hopefully utilising some of my own experience in
sustainability to review how different schemes could minimise the effect on
local and global populations.
I’ll start next week with a brief breakdown of the wider
picture and why climate change mitigation needs to be introduced. In the
meantime, if you have any questions or comments then please submit them below!
Finally, here’s a nice little tool which summarises the potential warming from different
emission scenarios.
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