The IPCC’s Repor

In the wake of the IPCC’s (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) special ‘Global Warming of 1.5° Report’, which published the projected outcomes of such a rise in average global temperature, there has been widespread acknowledgement of the vital importance of the COP24 (Conference of the Parties) in Katowice, Poland this December. Reactions among high-ranking climate action officials included that of Patricia Espinosa (Executive Secretary at UN Climate Change), speaking at the Green Climate Fund (GCF) conference, who said that the report “emphasises just how little time remains to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°” and that Finance would play a “central role” in the future climate politics. She recognised the very urgent and clear goal mandated by the Report for the December meet: to finalise the Paris Agreement Work Program. Also notable was a statement from the UNFCCC Secretariat, which aligned tackling climate change with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set out in 2015, to continue and enhance the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). To clarify, 1.5° is the lower limit of global average temperature rise compared to pre-industrial levels set by the Paris Agreement, but keeping to that limit necessitates “unprecedented transitions in all aspects of society”, states the IPCC’s report. These transitions, and their association with the previously mentioned SDGs of 2015 are the topics of my blog today.

Adaptation is a word you might often hear in climate and environmental circles alluding to climate actions. It is not a new term, but has come to be used widely in this context, referring to changes in national, regional, or community practices and structures in response to climate-related effects. Examples of adaptation actions range from impact-reactive actions such as flood-defences and weather warning systems commonly acknowledged as sectors of high vulnerability in developing countries, to switching to heat-tolerant tree varieties and installing reflective roofing materials on houses. However, due to the varied climate needs and risks posed across the world, adaptation must also occur at a local level in order to fulfill SDGs of Good Health and Wellbeing, Sustainable Cities and Communities, and Life on Land (SDGs 3, 11, 15 respectively). Increasing the resilience of vulnerable communities is of vital importance to alleviate poverty and suffering in line with SDG 11, above all in developing regions held back by extreme weather, such as the Caribbean and Central America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South-East Asia.

Another word you might come across in climate action vocabulary is Mitigation. If we take Adaptation to be our method for dealing with climate change already in progress due to past negative actions, e.g. the historical use of fossil fuels as an energy source, then we may consider Mitigation the act of avoiding new emissions and generally reducing our environmental impact. Mitigation actions are a requirement of the Parties to the UNFCCC, and their NDCs (Nationally Determined Contributions), essentially ‘plans’ to reduce emissions, are supposed to reflect the 2020 targets of developed countries, and the NAMAs (Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions) of developing countries. Mitigation actions might include: supplying the national grid with renewable energy sources, improving the efficiency of waste management, and enhancing forest carbon stocks. While Adaptation actions are invariably limited to governments, local authorities and some businesses, Mitigation can be a systematic policy, from the very highest down to the individual level. Individual actions include switching to electric transport for short journeys and reducing aviation emissions by holidaying domestically.

Supplying appropriate funding is fundamental to the success of these processes and so to that end, the GCF, which was set up in 2010, manages over USD 3.5 billion (as of 08/10/18) of climate finance projects around the world. This is the response of the UNFCCC’s Financial Mechanism -to which the GCF is party- to the growing climate threat to vulnerable developing countries where, noted Deputy Prime Minister of Cook Islands Mark Brown at the GCF conference in Incheon, Republic of Korea, the cost of climate action and inaction is often three to five times higher than in developing countries. Nationally-supplied funds like these work towards delivering on SDG 10; ‘Reduced Inequalities’, providing a vital reprieve for the least developed countries in the world. While some may question the necessity of such funds, useful statistics remind us that 13% of the global population lacks access to modern electricity and that 64.4% of products exported from the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) faced zero-tariffs in 2016 (taken from the UN SDG website).

Find more information about the GCF and its work via this link.

To finish today, take some time to read about electricity, food and material waste reduction in the workplace via this link. I’d like to add ‘Buy a wooden toothbrush’ to ScienceAlert’s list, not because it’s entirely necessary at work, but because contributing to the blight of plastic in our oceans is a psychological burden much diminished by making the switch, and one I hardly notice having alleviated.

Regards,

Will Feakes