D- The responses to climate change
i. ‘Livesimply’ campaign
· UK schools, initiated by Catholic Church
· Ran throughout 2007
· Encourage students to evaluate how they make choices in life
· Students were encouraged to think about their impacts on the world and sustainability
· Energy efficient water and central heating systems run by renewable sources
· Notices to turn off lights
ii. School 10% group (aims to reduce 10% of electricity used)
· Used idea of reducing 10% of electricity
· Air conditioning units were changed so they could be set to temperatures
· Electricity is shut down by the school daily
· ‘No resources day’ encouraged students and teachers to use less resources
· Moved on to encourage reduced usage of paper – paper quota
· Notices on light switches
· Changed lights to fluorescent lights (energy saving light bulbs)
· Money saved was used to further increases sustainability of the school environment
iii. ‘Manchester is my planet’ local group in UK
· ‘pledge campaign’ to encourage people to reduce their carbon footprint
· ‘Green Badge Parking Permit’ – parking discount of 25%
Only people who were recognised as low carbon emissions could apply for this... (hehe VIPs)
i. Kyoto protocol
ii. UNCC meetings (United Nations Climate Change meetings)
iii. NGOs (B-I-NGO, B-I-NGO, B-I-NGO and bingo was his name-o!) Non-Governmental Organisations eg. GREENPEACE
· Trying to make governments change their policies
· Creating energy in a more sustainable way
· Inefficient power stations waste energy in cooling towers àuse combined heat and power stations
· High carbon emissions from cars -> low carbon cars are needed, public transport efficient
· High carbon emissions from planes ->higher flight taxes, no more new airports = less carbon emissions
i. Earth Summit – 1992 led to treaties and eventually....
ii. Kyoto conference 1997, obviously about the Kyoto protocol
· Countries signed the Kyoto protocol and promised to reduce their carbon emissions (eg. EU – by 8%, US – by 7%)
· However, some countries have signed but not ratified it (eg. US and Kazakhstan)
iii. Climate Change conference in Bali, Indonesia - Dec 2007
Representatives of 180+ countries
Resulted in the ‘Bali Roadmap’ Bali Action Plan (BAP)
· Long term global goal for emission reduction
· Consensus - a need for “deep cuts for global emissions”
· Policy approaches in REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) in developing countries (LICs / MICs)
· Nations will consider how to facilitate the development & transfer of renewable energy technologies in LICs / MICs
iv. Climate Change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark – Dec 2009
· Copenhagen accord by China, US, India, Brazil and South America judged ‘meaningful agreement’ by US (isn’t that sort of dumb, you help write it and then praise yourself again.....)
· Failed in the end, no consensus was met
· Wikileaks said China and US joined forces and hindered every attempt to reach an agreement