Quiz 3 Flashcards
Climate impacts
- Global
- National
- Regional
- Communal
- Family
- Personal
different ways to look at emissions data
- National per capita emissions
- Emission intensity
- Historic Emissions
- Future Emissions
- Emissions growth rates
- Sectoral emissions
- Emissions from human activity
- Emissions from land-use and land-use change
what does the Paris climate agreement ask of countries?
The UN Paris Climate Agreement is based on voluntary country pledges.pressures developing countries
to control their future emissions.
-agreement commits countries to formulate and communicate long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategies and to update actions ever five years
what is missing from the Paris agreement?
- No legally binding emission targets
(abandons Kyoto Protocol approach) - No specifics on financial support (beyond Copenhagen target)
- No liability provision on financial compensation for loss and damage
- No change in basic policy premises (no questioning of neo-liberal, free-market
paradigm, and emissions trading)
what is an INDC?
intended
nationally determined contributions
basics of US climate and energy policy
The United States is the only major developed country with no integrated
energy, environment, and climate policy approach:
- No energy taxation based on environmental and climate objectives
- No link of regulatory frameworks for energy security, air pollution and
climate action
US energy policy
Energy Policy Conservation Act enacted in 1975
- Establishes CAFE standards (Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency)
- Tax credits for conservation and renewable energy technologies
This failed so US signs Kyoto protocol to reduce emissions but Bush gets rid of it and starts political battle with environmental groups
What was in the Waxman-Markey Climate Bill of 2009 and what was the bills fate?
The Waxman-Markey Climate Bill
passes the House Energy and Commerce Committee
(Chairmanship of Henry Waxman) include emissions
reduction targets and a tax-and-trade provision to
reach them. The bill would have required a 17-
percent emissions reduction from 2005 levels by
2020; and electric utilities to meet 20% of their
electricity demand through renewable energy sources
and energy efficiency by 2020.
(Note that this bill never came into being!)
What are the goals of Obama’s Clean Power Plan?
States must cut emissions by 30% from 2005
levels by 2030.
The EPA will set individual reductions targets for each
state, taking into account their energy mix.
States have until 2016 to come up with a strategy for
meeting the targets and rules will not come into force
in all states until 2020, according to one individual
briefed on the plan.
global warming trends(impacts)
- inundation
- contamination of fresh water resources
- extreme weather events(droughts, floods,storms)
- shifts in climate patterns
- stress to ecosystems
- spread of tropical diseases
- socio-economic impacts
what is considered a safe warming target?
2 degrees celsius, this prevents the earth from becoming too warm. we are half way there we are currently at .8 degrees celsius
What does 565 gigatons mean?
thats the number of how many more carbon dioxide we can pour into the atmosphere without going over 2 degrees celsius
What does 2,795 mean?
the number of fossil fuels we are planning to burn, which is 5x greater than what we should be burning in order to keep the earth from warming to 2 degrees
what is todays CO2 concentration?
it is 384 ppm but we should go back to 350 ppm
key sources of GHG emissions
- electricity production:electricty comes from burning fossil fuels
- tranportation:burning fossil fuels for our cars
- industry:burning fossil fuels for energy
- Commercial and residential
- agriculture
- land use and forestry
