Climate Change Flashcards
What is climate change?
“the change in the climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity” (UNFCCC, 1992)
What did the Stern review say and when did it happen?
“the evidence is now overwhelming; climate change presents very serious global risks and it demands an urgent global response” (Stern, 2006)
What evidence is there of anthropogenic climate change?
Sea level rises of 0.19m in the last 100 years
Temperature rises of 0.85C has amplified extreme weather conditions causing flooding and droughts.
In Bangladesh, 8 million people have been affected by flooding (The Guardian, 2018)
What is mitigation?
refers to strategies that prevent or reduce the destructive processes of climate change through the “stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations” (UNFCC, 1992)
How can we do mitigation in general?
more efficient fossil fuel utilisation, or technological advancement to allow the creation of more renewable and efficient energy sources.
What is adaptation?
the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects (IPCC, 2014), to reduce human vulnerability and increase resilience.
What is an example of mitigation?
Implementation of an electric car network
What is an example of adaption?
in Holland, flood defences have been built along the shores to protect the the population that lives below sea level
What is an example of adaption and mitigation acting concomitantly?
coastal wetland restoration, which simultaneously increases carbon storage, hence mitigating climate change, and acts as a storage buffer, adaptively protecting coastal civilians from flooding.
Who offers critique of adaption AND mitigation policies? (As in at the same time) When was this critique published?
Moser (2012) points out that the strategies vary in terms of the means of implementation, and potential outcomes, concluding that overall the tradeoffs between the two causes them to be disharmonious.
What year was Klien et al from? And how do they define the trade off between adaption and mitigation within climate change?
Klien et al (07) defines this trade off as the balancing of adaption and mitigation when it is not possible to carry out both activities fully at the same time, because the supporting means and conditions are unavailable.
What is an example of a disharmoneous trade off between adaption and mitigation? Who noted the lack of harmony? Who promoted a means of avoiding such tradeoffs
reforming building code to ensure increased insulation, which will reduce greenhouse gas production due to less energy use through heating, and help temperature within the house remain constant allowing adaption to more extreme weather.
HOWEVER: UK experts have shown that this is actually a maladaptation, because the cost of rebuilding greater insulated homes will be higher in the event of a flood (Walsh and Hall 2008).
Unrealised tradeoffs such as this can be mitigated by increase of scientific knowledge (Moser, 2012)
How much money would it take to mitigate climate change? Who estimated this?
$500billion a year
Oxfam 2014
Why is mitigation expensive? What is an example of an expensive mitigating investment?
it requires extensive technological advancement and infrastructural reform.
For example the implementation of an electric car network, which developing nations do not have the economic capacity to obtain.
Why can developing nations not afford mitigation climate change?
Developing nations tend to have more pressing policy matters that must be prioritised over expensive climate change approaches, such as primary healthcare and education.
What is an example of adaption? Who wrote of this case study?
Mozambique, a prominent adaption measure that has been implemented is resettlement programmes. It is a measure that increases ease of migration of flood affected families away from flood affected areas.
(Arter and Hillhorst, 2012).
Are there trade offs involved in adaption?
Adaption investments could have been spent of development - fiscal expenditure opportunity costs are present, especially as inequality is rising (OECD.com)
Sometimes it involves leaving behind livelihoods e.g Mozambique resettlement programmes
What is the developmental silver lining to resettlement programmes in Mozambique?
They act as a catalyst for rural-urban migration, which increases the development prospects of those resettling as they are now located in urban spaces where income and public services are more accessible (Arter and Hillhorst, 2012)
