Mitigation and adaptation for climate change Flashcards
What does it mean to mitigate?
to prevent something i.e., rebalance the carbon cycle and reduce any impacts of climate change
How might climate change be mitigated?
Afforestation
Recycling
Renewables
CCS
Efficient tech
Carbon tax
How does afforestation mitigate climate change?
Increase the carbon store
How does recycling mitigate climate change?
Paper= fewer trees deforested
Cans= less mining/ reduced deforestation
Plastic= less oil used/ reduction in GHGs
How will using renewables mitigate climate change?
Reduction in GHGs
How much carbon will be saved per year by reducing house temp by 1*C?
1/3 of a tonne
How does CCS prevent climate change?
Prevents CO2 entering atmospheric store
How can efficiency help mitigate climate change?
efficient appliances reduces GHGs
What is adaptation? (Climate change)
passive, adopt new ways of doing things in order to live with the likely outcomes of climate change
What does the IPCC say are the main 2 ways of dealing with climate change?
Adaptation
Mitigation
What are some adaptation examples?
Land use planning
Solar radiation management
Water conservation and management
Resilient agricultural systems
What are the players in mitigating climate change?
Government
Business
Individual
How are the government a player in mitigating climate change?
Sign up to agreements
Join IGO’s
Make decisions (Trump and Bush pulled out of agreements)
Taxation on pollution (clean air zones)
What is an example of a business mitigating its climate impact?
How do google mitigate climate change?
electric cars for staff (solar charged)
Biodiesel shuttles
Campus covered in 9200 panels of solar (30% of load)
Encourage cycling (charity credits)
How can the individual help mitigate climate change?
Vote for governments with greener policies
Lobby governments
Subscribe to charities (Donate)
Veto businesses who aren’t green
What is the role of charities and environmental groups to mitigate climate chnage?
Greenpeace
Lobby/ pressure government into making change
Not very powerful unless combined
When was the Kyoto protocol signed?
December 11th 1997
What was the point of the Kyoto protocol?
making industrialized countries and economies in transition to limit and reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions in accordance with agreed individual targets.
What was the main part of the Kyoto protocol?
Carbon credits that developing to sell to developed nations so the developed nations could release more carbon
How much carbon is one carbon credit worth?
1 ton
Was the Kyoto protocol successful?
No developed nations were able to get around emissions by buying lots of carbon credits
What was the main reason the Kyoto protocol wasn’t successful?
China and India never signed
USA left in 2001these are the 3 biggest polluters
What was the replacement for the Kyoto protocol?
the Paris agreement 2016
What was the aim of the Paris agreement?
not to go above 1.5c pre-industrial average as anything above 2c rise is thought to be harmful
Net 0 emissions by 2065
What is the rise in average temperature thought to be by 2100?
2.1*c
What was the reason for America leaving Paris agreement?
Trump being a climate change denier
How much did rich nations pledge to poor nations in the Paris agreement?
US$ 100 billion
Why is the Paris agreement not successful?
No force to meet targets and reporting may be inaccurate
USA pulled out under trump
What might make the most polluting countries more likely to follow the Paris agreement?
Bottom-up internal pressures as the population is affect by climate change
How much will it cost to take carbon out of the atmosphere in 2030?
US$ 16.5 trillion
What 2 types of adaptation strategies are there?
Hard- using tech
Soft- legislation (building on flood plains)
Which type of adaptation strategy is used by countries?
varies between countries
Democracies may encounter more delays than authoritarian led countries (China) because of public debate and changed in policy following election
Is adaptation a short or long term solution?
Short term
What is solar radiation mangement?
managing intensity if solar radiation through geo-engineering
What is an example of solar radiation management?
Adding sulphur particles to the stratosphere: aerosol particles formed would reflect suns energy back into space
What are the problems with using sulphur to manage solar radiation?
May cause unpredictable weather changes (reduce evaporation)
May effect stability of the ozone layer
Increase acid rain risk over a large area
What is an example of a river that requires water conservation and management?
The Lower Mekong river basin ( Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam)
How many people rely upon the lower Mekong?
60 million for rice and fish
What problem has the lower Mekong faced?
In 2016 there were no transboundary agreements for its use and only 11% of national plans considered it
What is a example of adaptation by resilient agriculture systems?
North China plants crops early or late to match climate change (crops designed to withstand higher temps)
How much could Chinas maize yield increase by 2050 due to resilient agriculture?
15.2%
How can land use planning be a climate adaptation strategy?
Areas of increased risk from coastal or river flooding can be zoned through urban planning and laws so that people and valuable property are not in them
What is an example of an area that is taking flood risk management very seriously?
Australia
What is Australia doing to manage its flood risk?
Making all housing on flood plains more flood resilient with raised floors, stronger pile foundations and water resilient material
Where possible people relocated
Wetlands become overspill
what are the problems with Australia’s flood management?
High cost of relocation
Reduced property value in redzone areas
Locals contesting changes
