Climate Debt

Climate Change: Less ambitious Climate Deal for Copenhagen

"Climate Action Tracker", an independent science-based assessment which tracks the emission commitments and actions of countries, has found the emission reduction commitments made by countries in the Copenhagen climate negotiation next month are still far less ambitious than those needed to limit global warming to 2°C, even to the limit of 1.5°C. These less ambitious reduction commitments mostly made by developed countries, who hardly decrease their greenhouse gas emissions.

The result shown that developed country emission reductions as a whole are currently projected to be 8-12% below 1990 levels by 2020 after accounting for forestry credits, rather than the 25-40% reductions described as necessary by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Moreover, after accounting for forestry credits that developed countries want, the effective target by 2020 for developed countries would be only 3-7% more than the original Kyoto target of a 5% reduction by 2010. It explicitly shows how developed countries are really less ambitious in supporting the climate-neutral proposed by the Maldives and Costa Rica. Another result also shows that some countries already proposed to reduce their emissions, though there is still a special case where the European Union (EU) and United States are considered as “inadequate” since they really have unconditional commitment in reducing their emissions. The worst one related to this issue is that there are some countries who have not yet proposed any substantial actions. They are Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.
Therefore, more ambitious targets are needed if we are to achieve low greenhouse gas concentrations and keep the rise in global temperature within low limits.

Further information:
http://www.climateactiontracker.org/

Climate Change : APEC Leaders Drop Climate Target

World leaders meeting in Singapore have said it will not be possible to reach a climate change deal ahead of next month's UN conference in Denmark. After a two-day Asia-Pacific summit, they vowed to work towards an "ambitious outcome" in Copenhagen. But the group dropped a target to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, which was outlined in an earlier draft. Leaders also vowed to pursue a new strategy for growth after the world's worst economic crisis in decades. They resolved to conclude the Doha round of global trade talks in 2010. In a joint declaration issued at the end of their two-day annual summit, they said: "We firmly reject all forms of protectionism and reaffirm our commitment to keep markets open and refrain from raising new barriers to investment or to trade in goods and services." They also agreed to keep stimulus spending in place until a recovery was seen.

'Staging post'
But leaders have failed to agree a target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) forum. Officials said the leaders - including presidents Barack Obama of the US and Hu Jintao of China - now viewed the Copenhagen summit as a "staging post", and not an end point, in the search for a global deal to cut emissions of greenhouse gases.

“ There was an assessment by the leaders that it was unrealistic to expect a full internationally legally binding agreement to be negotiated between now and when Copenhagen starts in 22 days. ” Mike Froman US Deputy National Security Adviser

"We... reaffirm our commitment to tackle the threat of climate change and work towards an ambitious outcome in Copenhagen," they said in the final declaration. "Global action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will need to be accompanied by measures, including financial assistance and technology transfer to developing economies for their adaptation to the adverse impact of climate change," the declaration said.

A Chinese official involved in the world climate talks said the 50% reduction target was "a very controversial issue in the world community" which could "disrupt the negotiation process". US Deputy National Security Adviser Mike Froman said the leaders had reached the conclusion that "it was unrealistic to expect a full, internationally legally-binding agreement to be negotiated between now and when Copenhagen starts in 22 days".

• 1. Friday 13: Arrived in Japan
• 2. Saturday 14: Joined Apec summit in Singapore
• 3. Sunday 15: Has talks with Russia's President Medvedev before leaving for China
• 4. Tuesday 17: Summit in Beijing with Chinese President Hu Jintao
• 5. Wednesday 18: Ends tour in South Korea

This was unwelcome evidence that the gap between developing and developed nations, between rich and poor, East and West can sometimes be hard to bridge, says the BBC's Rachel Harvey in Singapore. Mr Obama later met his Russian counterpart as the clock ticks for the world's two leading nuclear powers to strike a new arms reduction deal. The deal is meant to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start I), which expires on 5 December. After the meeting, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said he hoped that "as we agreed earlier... we can finalise the treaty by December".

The two leaders also said they were unhappy with the pace of talks over Iran's nuclear programme. "We are running out of time with respect to that approach," Mr Obama said. Mr Obama kicked off his week-long Asian tour in Japan on Saturday. In Tokyo, he pledged Washington's "unshakeable" commitment to the security of the region and said Washington wanted to pursue a policy of "pragmatic cooperation" with China, Asia's rising power.

Following the meeting with Mr Medvedev, Mr Obama will travel to China amid heightened trade tensions between the two countries. The BBC's Chris Hogg in Shanghai says the face-to-face talks Mr Obama will have with China's President Hu Jintao will offer an opportunity to take the heat out of some of those trade disputes, and to pursue areas of co-operation, such as technology transfer from the US to help China build a so-called green economy.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/8360982.stm

Published: 2009/11/15 08:06:00 GMT

© BBC MMIX

Public Lecture Series: The Road to Climate Justice

”Be Aware of the Climate Change!”

IESR and the Climate Project (TCP) Indonesia has collaborative work for the first time to educate and increase awareness of Climate Change to student and faculty member of School of Public Health, University of Indonesia.

The speakers (TCP, IESR, and Public Health Faculty University of Indonesia

Jakarta, 23/10/09. IESR, The Climate Project Indonesia (TCP), and School of Public Health of University of Indonesia organized a half-day event: “Public Lecture on Climate Change,” in conjunction with the “United Nations Day” and “The International Day of Climate Action,” organized internationally by 350.org (www.350.org). This activity is part of TCP Indonesia activity on the public lecture on Climate Change in 34 universities across Indonesia. IESR has been trying to engage wider public on climate change awareness, and this event is a part of IESR’s Climate Justice Program. This event is taken place in the auditorium of the School of Public Health, University of Indonesia on 23 October 2009.

Nadia Hadad from TCP Indonesia presented the climate change evidences and humanity challenges. Nadia, who is Indonesia Project Coordinator of Bank Information Center (BIC), is alumni of The Climate Project training. Prof. Dr. I Made Jaya, SKM from the School of Public Health of University of Indonesia made presentation on Adaptation and Mitigation of Climate Change, while Febi Dwirahmadi, an alumni of the school and associate researcher of IESR who is working on climate adaptation project for urban, presented the impact of climate change to the public health. The lecture is moderated by Dr. dr. Rahmadi Purwana, SKM, from the School of Public Health.

One of messages conveyed in this lecture, that the current carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere has reached 386 part per million (ppm) based on findings from NASA’s climate scientist (NASA 2008). This level exceeds the 350 ppm level that some scientists said about the safe upper limit to avoid catastrophic impact to the ecosystem. So far the impacts of climate change have occurred in many part of the world and are projected to worsen in the future. It contributes to the reducing number of glacier in Alaska, Argentina and also New Zealand; inducing forest fire in Riau, Indonesia and Australia, sea level rise due to ice melting, flood and drought, and other extreme weather and the extinction of wildlife.

From public health aspect, climate change has the potential to affect population health either directly or indirectly. The examples of direct impact of climate change are : climate change will increase the frequency and the intensity of climate extreme events such as heat wave or cold wave in which may result in deaths or injuries. It also has been reported that climate change will intensify the climate related natural hazards such as storms, high tidal wave, and hurricane in which may not only impact human health but also building and infrastructure. Indirectly, climate change can also impact human health. This may happen because climate change will disturb the ecological system. This will include disease transmission and distribution, hydro-agronomical system, air pollution, water availability, and others. This for example, the global dengue fever which will increase during the La Nina phenomenon. In Indonesia dengue fever has significantly increased doubled during La Nina year in 1973, 1988, and 1998 (UNDP, 2007). Since Indonesia already experienced the impact of Climate Change, the government should design a mitigation and adaptation strategy including energy sector, land use, forest, and also ocean to reduce green house gases in atmophere.

Further, it was explained also about the climate debt concept. Based on the historical emission, industrial countries that represent only ¼ of world population already occupied ¾ of atmosphere with their carbon emission. Meanwhile developing countries who are the majority of the world population only produce ¼ of the historical emission. Further it constitutes a term that called as “climate debt”. Industrial countries ran up debts to developing countries due to their over-using the right to emit.

IESR now is working on a campaign on climate debt and preparing to release a post card campaign to ask developed countries leader to take serious and meaningful action to cut their emission. The post-card targeted the top 5 largest emitter countries and will be sent through the embassy or representative offices in Indonesia. This is part of our effort to make industrial countries responsible to their debt. IESR has asked student to participate in this campaign and raising their voice to demand the climate justice.

About more than 120 students and faculty members participated in the event. Some students claimed that this is a meaningful event for them since their understanding and knowledge on climate change issues are improved, and this lecture help them to have better analytical skill on their observation of public health issues that are closely linking with climate change.

Written by SB & FT

For more information, please contact:
Siti Badriyah, Program Officer Climate Change
(siti@iesr-indonesia.org)

Climate Change: Greenhouse Effect and Greenhouse Gases

Four-billion years ago, this earth was covered by large amount of hydrogen and oxygen which became water and united as glacier. At that time, the earth’s temperature was -180˚ and unable all living creatures lived on the earth. However, every single day, the energy received from the sun affects the increase of the earth’s temperature, thus the heat is returned back to the atmosphere as infra-red waves and some of the energy is absorbed by 'greenhouse gases'. This process enables the average temperature of the earth increases into ±15 ˚ and, consequently, also enables the earth to be habitable.

The greenhouse effect is best explain by referring to circumstances where the short wavelengths of visible light from the sun pass through a transparent medium and are absorbed, yet the longer wavelengths of the infrared re-radiation from the heated objects are unable to pass through that medium. The trapping of the long wavelength radiation leads to more heating and a higher resultant temperature. Moreover, the greenhouse effect has also been widely used to describe the trapping of excess heat by the rising concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The carbon dioxide strongly absorbs infrared and does not allow as much of it to escape into space. It means, in essence, actually greenhouse effect is really useful for the earth to be habitable.

However, there is not only one gas, carbon dioxide, which trapped by greenhouse effect, but also other gases. Briefly, there are two kinds of gases cause greenhouse: controlled and uncontrolled as shown by the following table:

*Not all greenhouse gases are to be controlled under the Kyoto Protocol (see IPCC list of greenhouse gases for further understanding of greenhouse gases).
**The three major greenhouse gases
(http://www.climatechangesask.ca/html/learn_more/Emissions/GHGs/index.cfm)

Climate Change: Global Warming

We realize that the earth is getting older; however, human activities are also one of the important accounts that are worsening the condition. Human modern lifestyles are subsequently adding greenhouse gases, especially the three major one, to the atmosphere, which made the world warmer than it normally should. This unnatural additional warming is called the "enhanced" greenhouse effect which further called as global warming.

In addition to global warming, the researches show that human activities since the industrial revolution have increased the atmospheric concentration of various greenhouse gases, leading to increased radiative forcing from CO2, methane, tropospheric ozone, CFCs and nitrous oxide. The atmospheric concentrations of CO2 and methane have increased by 36% and 148% respectively since the mid-1700s. These levels are considerably higher than at any time during the last 650,000 years, the period for which reliable data has been extracted from ice cores. Less direct geological evidence indicates that CO2 values this high were last seen approximately 20 million years ago. Fossil fuel burning has produced approximately three-quarters of the increase in CO2 from human activity over the past 20 years. Most of the rest is due to land-use change, in particular deforestation.

Furthermore, CO2 concentrations are expected to rise continually due to ongoing burning of fossil fuels and land-use change. The rate of rise will depend on uncertain economic, sociological, technological, and natural developments. The IPCC Special Report on Emissions Scenarios gives a wide range of future CO2 scenarios, ranging from 541 to 970 ppm by the year 2100. Fossil fuel reserves are sufficient to reach this level and continue emissions past 2100 if coal, tar sands or methane clathrates are extensively exploited.

In brief, the major contributors to global warming are fossil fuels (such as coal and oil) since they release carbon dioxide, the most important greenhouse gas, when it’s burned. Further, there are also other main contributors to possible climate change; they are:

1. deforestation: where the trees are released carbon dioxide when the wood is burned.
2. rice paddies, cattle, coal mines, gas pipelines, and landfills produce methane, another greenhouse gas, which today causes about 30% as much warming as carbon dioxide.
   
3. fertilizers and other chemicals release nitrous oxide, which today causes about 10% as much warming as carbon dioxide. (http://www.gcrio.org/gwcc/part1.html).

Those contributors, undeniable, have enhanced the concentration of the three major greenhouse gases particularly CO2 to absorb the sun’s heat excessively since air pollution because of activities of industry, transportation, the increase of vehicles’ volume (which then worsen with traffic jams), and forest fire have contributed large amount of CO2concentration to the air.

On the other hand, methane, another major gas, which created by microbial activities in swamps, scrapheap, septic tank, and also industrial processes, has also increased the heat excessively since methane absorbs the heat around 20 times more than CO2 does. Furthermore, nitrous dioxide (N2O) that naturally produced by bacteria, livestock waste, vehicles’ smoke, and plastic industry processes has contributed 300 times more heat than CO2. SO2 (dioxide sulfur), from industrial and vehicles’ smoke and CFC (chlorofluorocarbon) from the use of AC, refrigerator and aerosol, has also gradually decreased the ozone layer, so that the infrared can’t be filtered maximally.

Climate Change: Climate Change and Its Impacts

Continuous and rapid global warming then would directly affects the earth’s natural water cycle. The faster the water cycle contributes to wind directions and also precipitation frequency. Moreover, the warmer the earth will fasten glaciers melting and also the ice-cover at North Pole (can be seen from below Figures). These direct effects of climate change would then cause the following:

More droughts and more floods. When the weather gets warmer, evaporation from both land and sea increases. This can cause drought in areas of the world where the increased evaporation is not compensated for by more precipitation. The extra water vapour in the atmosphere has to fall again as extra precipitation, which can cause flooding other places in the world.

More extreme weather incidents. The warmer climate will most probably cause more heat waves, more cases of violent rainfall and also possibly an increase in the number and/or severity of storms.

Rising sea level. There are two reasons of sea level rises. First, it is because of the melting ice and snow, and second it is because of the thermal expansion of the sea due to temperatue increased. Thermic expansion takes a long time, but even an increase in temperature of two degrees Celsius is expected in time to cause a rise in the water level of almost a metre.

Temperature Changes. Global temperatures have increased by 0.75 °C (1.35 °F) relative to the period 1860–1900, according to the instrumental temperature record. This measured temperature increase is not significantly affected by the urban heat island effect. Since 1979, land temperatures have increased about twice as fast as ocean temperatures (0.25 °C per decade against 0.13 °C per decade). Temperatures in the lower troposphere have increased between 0.12 and 0.22 °C (0.22 and 0.4 °F) per decade since 1979, according to satellite temperature measurements. Temperature is believed to have been relatively stable over the one or two thousand years before 1850, with possibly regional fluctuations such as Medieval Warm Period or the Little Ice Age.

Disease. Extensions of the geographical range and season for some organisms could result in increases of diseases like malaria, dengue fever and yellow fever. If the temperature increases by 3-5C the number of people potentially exposed to malaria could go up from 45% to 60% of the world population and result in an extra 50-80 million cases a year. Air pollution and exposure to greater extremes in temperature could lead to a greater frequency of asthma and respiratory diseases.

Ecosystems. Scientists predict that composition and range of many ecosystems will shift as species respond to climate change. Research models project that a substantial fraction of the world's forests, and possibly up to two thirds, will undergo major changes. They say the species composition will change and some forest may disappear all together.

Deserts are likely to become more extreme and result in increased soil erosion. Mountain glaciers could retreat and inland wetlands would be affected by global warming with resultant changes in habitat for the current species.

Researchers suggest that there will be a myriad of other changes and even a few surprises. But both the scientists and environment campaigners say human impact on the climate can be reduced by a number of measures.

Climate Change: Let’s Save the Earth

By knowing the importance of restoring the earth due to the climate change, we need to use energy effectively such as turn off the lamp and electronic devices when we don’t use it, limiting the use of AC, unplug any chargers and stop-contact of any electronic devices, use natural energy: sell solar, biogas, water and wind mill.

To decrease air pollution, we can also use public transportation or biking as the best solution. Planting many trees around schools and houses would also be an advantage since it can absorb CO2 and process it into O2.

The other important thing is by asking the developed country to cut their emission. Send their leaders postcard, email attack as a way of showing our care to the earth. Help them to understand the danger that is waiting us in the future.