17: Mitigating GHG emissions In Cities Flashcards
Key types of strategies
Mitigation:
Reduce emissions from any source (transport, construction, land use, solid waste, electricity and buildings)
ESEM: tech approach
Earth systems and engineering management
Large scale tech efforts
Adaptation: New behaviors: prepare cities to manage effects of climate change
Why are all current strategies inefficient?
Sum total of commitments globally is too small
Example of Regional Mitigation
California emissions mandate to reduce emissions to 1990 levels through a variety of strategies, including cap and trade programs and raising Appliance Efficiency Standards.
Why does mitigation not work?
Reducing our dependence on fossil fuels is difficult to fathom without an alternative that meets the high level of productivity in which our economy is able to thrive.
What are the 3 world leading sources of energy?
Oil, gas and coal. All carbon-based.
City Scale: What obstacles must be dealt with at a local scale?
City footprint measurements are not totally accurate due to the negligible disclosure regulations in place that allow for varying degrees of motivation and data availability from city to city.
What are three types of joint agreements made to set goals and commit to emission reduction?
- Community level: reduce community-wide footprint
- Lobby at state and fed levels
- Support US emissions trading system
ESEM key proposition
Humanity must recognize the damage they’ve done in the past, accept it and play a role in designing responsible global systems NOW
Mitigation in Transportation
reduce overall VMTs by promoting alternative travel methods
use cleaner vehicles (electric, hybrid, etc)
use less carbon intensive fuels
Mitigating Waste and Water Treatment
- Increase recycling of materials
- Waste to Energy conversion technologies
- Electricity generation from landfill methane
- Living machines for water treatment (Ethel Chocolate factory mimics natural wetlands to clean its own waste water)
Mitigation via urban forests
direct sequestration of CO2 through photosynth.
–>INDIRECT EFFECTS like building cooling and reduced waste water become even greater GHG reducers.
What are Dynamic Models ad how are they used?
Dynamic models are tools to visualize behavior over a period of time. Used to set reduction emission goals by layering all GHG sources and their coinciding emission levels into one graphic timeline.
