Environment Issue of Climate Change - Coursework Example

Environment Issue Student Name Course Tutor Date Contents Page number 1.0 Executive summary 3 2.0 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 4 2.1 Introduction 4 3.0 Activities of IPCC 4 4. 0 IPCC’s Contribution to Debate on Climate Change 5 5.0 IPCC’s values and interests 7 6.0 Advocacy versus Use of Science by IPCC 8 7.0 My take on IPCC 10 8.0 Conclusion 10 9.0 List of references 11 1.0 Executive summary Climate change is a topic that has gained a lot of popularity and interests from all groups of people all over the world. A number of organizations have been formed that are looking into this issue form various perspectives. This paper looks at Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an organization that was established under the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). IPCC has made various contributions to the debate on climate change particularly on global warming which the body attributes to increasing human activities. However, the interests and values of the organization have been questioned. The body has also been seen to stand as an advocacy body rather than a scientific organization. 2.0 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2.1 Introduction The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an international body that was established under the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) with the mandate of updating the world with information regarding climate change and its potential impact on the environment and socio-economic situation. The body assesses and reviews any scientific and technical information that has been produced from all over the world that may provide any insights on climate change. However, IPCC does not carry out research related to climate change nor does it monitor the climate. The body relies on information contributed voluntarily by scientists from all over the world. The main part of IPCC’s processes is to review a range of information so that they can know the current situation regarding the state of the climate (http://www.ipcc.ch/). 3.0 Activities of IPCC The main activity of IPCC is to prepare and issues comprehensive reports with all the knowledge regarding climate change. This includes the scientific, technical and socioeconomic knowledge and also the causes, likely impacts of climate change and possible response mechanisms. Other activities of IPCC include producing special reports on specific issues, producing methodology reports which contain guidelines for making greenhouse gas inventories. Since the body was formed in 1998, it has so far produced four voluminous assessment reports and is currently in the process of completing the fifth one (http://www.ipcc.ch/). 4. 0 IPCC’s Contribution to Debate on Climate Change IPCC has been contributing to the current debate on climate change through its assessment reports which give the state of knowledge on climate change. In its fourth assessment report, IPCC made a number of conclusions regarding to issues of global warming as follows: There is explicit warming of the climate system which is clearly indicated by the increase in the average temperatures of the air and the oceans, the melting of ice and snow and the rising sea level (IPCC 2007). Human activities have contributed to much of the global warming that has been experienced since the mid 20th century Even though there are both benefits and costs of climate change to the human society, the overall negative effects are strong and will increase as the warming continues (IPCC 2007). The range of the evidence of climate change that has been published indicates that the negative impacts of climate change are likely to be more significant and will continue to increase with time (IPCC 2007). Many ecosystems are likely to exceed their resilience this century due to the continued climate change and its associated disturbance as well as other drivers of global warming such as pollution, changes in land use and excessive exploitation of the natural resources (IPCC 2007). In another report titled mitigation for climate change, IPCC has listed various sectors that have a role to play in mitigating climate change as well as some of the technologies that the sectors can adopt to help change the situation. Some of the sectors listed include the energy sectors with a suggested technology of helping switch fuel usage from coal to gas or other renewable sources of heat and power. The other sector is the transport sector which can adopt the use of vehicles that are more fuel efficient such as electric vehicles, or shift of transport form road to rail among others. The building sector has also been listed with the suggested technology of producing and use of more efficient appliances for lighting such as solar. The industrial sector has also been listed with suggested technologies that will promote recycling of materials, control of non-carbon dioxide gas emissions and efficient electrical equipments (http://www.ipcc.ch/). The agricultural sector can also adopt technologies that promote better land management to improve carbon storage ability of the soils used for crops and grazing. The sector can also adopt improved cultivation techniques and management of manure to minimize methane emissions. The other listed sector is the forestry sector that can promote afforestation and management of forests and harvested wood products. The sector can also come up with technology that will promote use of forest products to produce bio-energy that will replace the fossil fuels. The last is the waste management sector that should come up with technologies that will combine waste incineration and energy recovery. The sector should be able to manage treatments of waste waters, promote recycling of wastes and also minimization of the waste release (IPCC 2003). Even though some of the mitigation technologies listed will incur substantial costs, the report states that the mitigation cost will be offset by the benefits that will be incurred in things such as improved health and reduced pollution. Other things such as improved agricultural production and use of efficient energy services will also result in reduced cost of production (IPCC 2006). 5.0 IPCC’s values and interests IPCC believes in comprehensiveness, objectivity, transparency and openness of information based on scientific, technical and socio-economic nature that is relevant in helping understand the scientific al risks of climate change that is induced by humans. It also uses the same principles in assessing the impacts of that nature of climate change as well as its potential impacts and the available options for mitigation. IPCC also believes in neutrality in reporting with respect to policies. The body also believes in review that is conducted by experts and governments (IPCC 2006). All the reports that are released by IPCC must undergo three levels of endorsement by a working group and a panel that meets in the plenary session. The first level is approval where the material undergoes line by line detailed discussion. The second level is adoption where the report is endorsed one section after another and lastly acceptance which signifies that the material presents a comprehensive, objective and neutral view on the subject of discussion (IPCC 2007). The above values reflect an organization whose interests may be to empower the whole world about the state of climate change and also make them more knowledgeable. The publications by IPCC have attracted a lot of public interests especially with the increasing popularity of the discussions on climate change. However with its key role in climate change gaining a lot of popularity and public interests, IPCC seems to be representing the interests of policy makers. These policy makers include governments, environmental organizations, countries producing carbon-based fuels and those manufacturing energy efficient technologies. This is evident in its report on “Implications for Global Climate Change Policy” where the body outlines the possible regulatory instruments that may be used under the climate change policy and their implications for the relevant interest groups. The body goes further to explain how the policy makers, who are the interest groups in this case would be affected by possible regulatory instruments. The body does not show any positive impact that the adoption of policies will have to the members of the public but only explains the policy implications to the government and the interest groups such as manufacturers (IPCC WGII 2014). In the early years when IPCC was formed, there was very little public interest on climate change. The only interest was from the governments and they were the only interest groups that were following the IPCC’s reports. However, nowadays there is increased interest on IPCC’s reports since a lot of parties feel that they have a stake in the debate on climate change. Corporations and members of the public are also interested so much in IPCC’s report. But on the other hand, IPCC’s objective has not changed and it still reports what is of more interests to the governments and manufacturers. 6.0 Advocacy versus Use of Science by IPCC Advocacy involves collection of useful data and information from various sources and analyzing that data to come up with theories to explain various situations without considering other alternative explanations. On the other hand, science involves looking at the possibilities and coming up with conclusions after a thorough assessment of all the available data and information putting into consideration the quality of such data. Their conclusion is guided by the results of the analysis. A number of IPCC’s assessment reports have appeared to be more of advocacy than scientific. IPCC seem to have taken a position of being an active advocate of some claims on climate change and an opponent for others. Regarding the climate policy, the reports produced by IPCC do not offer an impartial and comprehensive assessment of climate science that is needed for a complex and sensitive issue like climate policy. Instead, the reports represent a single-minded focus on human activities as the main cause of the current and the anticipated climate change. The reports have also provided just rough information to policy makers regarding the potential future disaster that may happen if the human emission of greenhouse gases is not reduced. The reports have gone further to provide very rough information justifying some of the highly costly and basic policy responses on climate change such as prohibiting the use of coal for fuel (Johnson 2012). Comparing the IPCC reports and peer reviewed climate science literature, the IPCC reports have minimized or failed to acknowledge some of the major claims that that are contained in the established climate articles. This is because IPCC has become biased and want to report what is favorable for the policy makers. Also, before IPCC releases a full assessment report, they first release summary reports for policy makers which do not fully portray the actual uncertainties that are contained in the full reports (Mulvaney 2011). In its synthesis report released on 17th November 2007, there was an addition sections that talked about “reasons for Concern”. In this section, there was a huge discussion on a lot of uncertain potential consequences of global warming. Some of the stated consequences included increase in the number of severe weather seasons, rapid melting of ice, which in their previous reports, they had described as unlikely (Pachauri & Reisinger 2007). IPCC as an institution has resulted to giving authoritative seriousness to some contested views in climate science, and its scientists instead of objectively reviewing such work, they influence its development. The body has created conflict of interest between lead scientific authors and the authors of the IPCC reports. The IPCC scientific authors are supposed to write the current state of the matter in regard to climate change but instead they write on one side which they feel that it is correct and will represent their values and those of the policy makers (Johnson 2012). 7.0 My take on IPCC I believe that IPCC needs to change its way of looking at climate change to a more objective manner. Climate change is a scientific subject that should be reported based on facts and quality data that is well researched. Knowledge in science and particularly on climate change is ever expanding and therefore IPCC also need to change their focus form human activities as the cause of global warming to more adaptable ways of reducing global warming. Their reports also need to reflect on all the sides of research both positive and the negative sides so that they can truly be comprehensive. Referring to their reports as comprehensive is misguiding because they only report on what may interest the policy makers. 8.0 Conclusion Climate change has become a highly debated issue globally with many organizations taking positions on the debate. However, the various organizations represent different values and interests. Some take positions that represent the interests of the members of the public while others represent just a few individuals and organizations. IPCC being a reported of information collected from all scientists worldwide, the body needs to tell the truth to the public without being biased and to give facts as they are to members of public. IPCC also needs not to take stand as this makes it appear to be more of an advocacy body rather that a body that reports based on scientific facts. It is also important to ensure that the members of IPCC who review the information are expert reviewers to ensure that the information rereleased is objective. The role and contribution of mankind to global warming should be reported without bias and any possible mitigation should be well considered and made adaptable to the societies. 9.0 List of references http://www.ipcc.ch/ Johnson, JS 2012, Institutions and Incentives in Regulatory Science, Lexington Books, Lanham, MD. IPCC 2006, IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), Kanagawa Japan. IPCC 2003, Good Practice Guidance for Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), Kanagawa Japan. Pachauri, RK & Reisinger, A 2007, Climate Change 2007: Synthesis report, Summary for Policy Makers, IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland. IPCC WGII 2014, Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability Summary for Policymakers. https://ipcc-wg2.gov/AR5/images/uploads/IPCC_WG2AR5_SPM_Approved.pdf IPCC 2007, Climate Change 2007: Working Group III: Mitigation of Climate Change, in IPCC Fourth Assessment Report: Climate Change 2007 http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg3/en/ch13s13-5.html Mulvaney, D 2011, Green Politics: An A-to-Z Guide, SAGE, London. Read More