Summary For Policymakers: An Attempt to Save the Climate of the World - Term Paper Example

Summery For Policymakers: An Attempt to Save the Climate of the World Abstract During the recent years the changes that are evidenced in the climate of the world, are a matter of great concern for the scientists and the common people of the world. The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report attempts to find out the ways of mitigation of climate change. For the sake of conveniences, the report renders various aspects of climate change, such as social, environmental, economic aspects, in order to accomplish the task of mitigation fruitfully. The report mainly focuses on the following topics: the trend in the emission of Greenhouse Gas, its mitigation in different terms, policies and steps to prevent the change, and some other crucial factors that pose hinders in the way of the mitigation of climate change. Summery For Policymakers: An Attempt To Save the Climate of the World In the context of growing concern for the global warming “Summery For Policymakers” is an attempt to save the environment from further disasters caused by global warming. During the recent years the changes that are evidenced in the climate of the world, are a matter of great concern for the scientists and the common people of the world. The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report attempts to find out the ways of mitigation of climate change. For the sake of conveniences, the report renders various aspects of climate change, such as social, environmental, economic aspects, in order to accomplish the task of mitigation fruitfully. The report mainly focuses on the following topics: the trend in the emission of Greenhouse Gas, its mitigation in different terms, policies and steps to prevent the change, and some other crucial factors that pose hinders in the way of the mitigation of climate change. Studies show that emissions of Greenhouse Gas have increased seventy percent over the years from 1970 to 2004. Both man-made and natural factors are responsible for the increase of the emission of the Greenhouse gas. Among the human activity related factors development of science and increasing use of technologies are the major factors that are the most responsible for the apparently abrupt growth rate of green house gases- carbon dioxide, Methane, Nitrous Oxide, etc. “The emissions of these gases have increased at different rates” (IPCC, 2007, p. 3). In the study, a thing is remarkable that the emission of greenhouse gases was violent around the years from 1990 to 2004. During these years the violent emissions of Greenhouse gases occurred mainly in the energy supply sector. The emission rate is about 145 percent. The emission scenario is as following: 120 percent from transport, from industry 65 percent, from land use 40 percent. But between 1970 and 1990 the emissions from agriculture and from building are 27 percent and 26 percent. As the use of electricity is high in the building sector, “the total of direct and indirect emissions in this sector is much higher (75%) than direct emissions” (IPCC, 2007, p. 3). The increase in per-capita income of growing world population contributed a lot to the increase in the emission of the greenhouse gas in the environment. Measures taken to prevent the emissions of ozone depleting gases and others that are detrimental to the environment have been effective to decrease the emission. As it is said in the report, policies, on climate change, energy security etc. “have been effective in reducing GHG emissions in different sectors and many countries” (IPCC, 2007, p. 3). But it is also true that these measures are not adequate enough to face the problem of the increase in the emission of Greenhouse gases. Consequently change mitigation measures will fail to prevent the increase in the level of greenhouse gases in the environment over the next few decades. In the report the Box SPM 1 to SPM 4 show that non-mitigation factors will contribute to increase “global GHG emissions by a range of 9.7 GtCO2-eq to 36.7 GtCO2-eq (25-90%) between 2000 and 2030” (IPCC, 2007, p.4). It is obvious that the emissions of greenhouse gas from the fossil fuels are assumed to be higher over these years than the target amount that these policies attempt to reduce. During these thirty years the growth of the carbon dioxide is assumed to be 40 to 110 percent. According to the report: Two thirds to three quarters of this increase in energy CO2 emissions is projected to come from non-Annex I regions, with their average per capita energy CO2 emissions being projected to remain substantially lower (2.8-5.1 tCO2/cap) than those in Annex I regions (9.6-15.1 tCO2/cap) by 2030. (IPCC, 2007, p.4) Some Box SPM’s are used in the report to describe the interrelationship between the increase of global population and the rapid introduction of technologies and their impact on climate change. Storylines and scenario family depicts a picture of the future world where there is a rapidly growing population with rapid economic growth. In some of the SPM’s various possibilities and prospects are explored to the congenial factors behind the climate in order to help the policymakers. These boxes are helpful enough to assess the possibilities of the fruitful and all embracing measures to mitigate the change in the climate. The “Mitigation in the Short and Medium Term” portion of the summery explores the prospect and possibilities economic potential for the mitigation of global greenhouse gas emissions over the next decades “that could offset the projected growth of global emissions and or reduce emission below current level” (IPCC, 2007, p. 9). In the assessment of these possibilities and prospect some uncertainties pose challenges. These uncertainties are shown in tables. They reflect the rates of technological changes, and other factors specific to the mitigating approaches. Indeed these studies are two-ended: bottom-up and top-down. According to some studies, “mitigation opportunities with net negative costs1 have the potential to reduce emissions by around 6 GtCO2-eq/yr in 2030” (IPCC, 2007, p.9). It is assumed that it is impossible for one sector alone to face the entire mitigation challenge because of the property and financial lack. Rather, as Figure SPM 6 shows, it is the task of all of the sectors as whole to face it. In the figure SPM 2 and SPM 5B top-down approaches in these studies determine and gauge the prospect of an emission reduction for the 2030. There is a concatenation between the top-down approaches and the bottom-up approaches in these studies as to the global economic potentials, though differences are discernible within the sectoral level. It is evident from the SPM 4 that “macro-economic cost for multi-gas mitigation, consistent with emissions trajectories towards stabilization between 445 and 710 ppm CO2-eq, are estimated at between a 3% decrease of global GDP and a small increase, compared to the baseline” (IPCC, 2007, p. 11). Studies show that decrease of GDP becomes amplified with the inflexibility of the stabilization target. Again the studies also show that the tax system of a country can play a significant role in motivating people to promote low-carbon technologies. As Sawin says, “Tremendous opportunities await, and those countries that begin down this path early on will see the greatest benefits as markets around the world open up for clean energy technologies” (Sawin 2007). The assumption prevails here that if the trading cost of the low-carbon technologies is lower than the carbon taxes and revenues, the people will be forced to adopt these technologies. Studies again show that climate change policy should include an attempt to introduce the enhanced technological change, because enhanced technological change contribute to the lower cost mitigation process. But such steps demand the requirement of a higher upfront investment in order to attain the goals of cost reductions. Sometimes it is estimated that this policy will contribute to GDP losses. In reverse, some studies shows that GDP will increase because “they assume that baselines are non-optimal and mitigation policies improve market efficiencies, or they assume that more technological change may be induced by mitigation policies” (IPCC, 2007, p. 11). The ways that are suggested to reduce the emission of the greenhouse gases can be applied fruitfully to a great extent to save the climate of the world in general. It is said earlier that no one single sector can face the challenge of climate change. But it is also true that the cumulative effort of the single sector and country can contribute to a major change. The following measures can be taken to prevent the greenhouse gas emission: changes in lifestyle can contribute in reducing the greenhouse gas emission. An attempt to grow awareness through education and mass media can help it to reduce. Innovation and introduction of environment-friendly technologies is necessary to reduce the emission. As the report says, “Changes in occupant behavior, cultural patterns and consumer choice and use of technologies can result in considerable reduction in CO2 emissions related to energy use in buildings” (IPCC, 2007, p. 12). According to the report, the emission of the greenhouse gas level of the world can be reduced to a great extent by developing a new environment friendly infrastructure. Consequently investors will be inspired, investment in low-carbon technologies proves to be profitable. Several measures can be taken to reduce the emission in the transport sector such as introduction of improved vehicle efficiency, shifting of transportation from road to rail, etc. The emissions preventive measures can be upheld in a way that people become able to perceive its importance as well as its economic potentials. For example forest related mitigation of emission, energy efficiency options for buildings, agricultural practices can provide people with both financial environmental benefits. The energy efficient buildings not only limit the level of carbon dioxide but also promote a healthy condition for human habitat. Forest oriented mitigation can be conveyed at low cost but in the long run individual can benefit from it. Besides these measures, national policies will prove fruitful to mitigate the climate change. National policies are to be taken depending on the national circumstances. All out efforts of the governments to perceive their interactions and to apply experiences from other countries can make the attempts to reduce emission successful. “Four main criteria are used to evaluate policies and instruments: environmental effectiveness, cost effectiveness, distributional effects, including equity, and institutional feasibility” (IPCC, 2007, p. 19). The implementation of the climate policies will be easy, if they are integrated with the development policies of the government. In order to make the climate policies more popular and more acceptable the economic potentials can be highlighted. Taxes and charges can force and at the same time inspire people to turn towards low-carbon technologies. Governments should frequently use financial incentive to inspire the innovation of new climate friendly and low carbon technologies. References IPCC, (2007) Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2007: Mitigation. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [B. Metz, O.R. Davidson, P.R. Bosch, R. Dave, L.A. Meyer (eds)], Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA. Sawin, L. Janet, (2007), “The Benefit of a low carbon future” retrieved Nov 24, 2008 from http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5373 Read More