Climate Change
The UN Secretary General said recently:
"Climate change is a serious threat to development everywhere. Today, the time for doubt has passed. The IPCC has unequivocally affirmed the warming of our climate system, and linked it directly to human activity. Slowing or even reversing the existing trends of global warming is the defining challenge of our age.”
Climate change is caused mainly by the release of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the burning of fossil fuels. The CO2 has been trapped in the coal, oil and gas for many millions of years, but is now, as a result of human activities, being released over a few hundred, causing a massive increase of CO2 in the atmosphere.
The increase in CO2 is causing a "greenhouse effect", whereby more of the Sun's energy is trapped within the Earth's atmosphere, increasing global temperatures during the 21st century.
The only way to reduce the rate of global warming is to reduce our rate of burning fossil fuels.
More information on the causes and effects of climate change can be found on the BBC Weather Centre's excellent Guide to Climate Change.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
Over the years there has been much controversy over the causes of climate change, how fast it is happening and what can be done about it. The UN therefore setup the IPCC as a body of the most respected scientists from across the world in the many fields related to climate change in order to form a consensus view.
These scientists have now all agreed that the cause of climate change is human activity and that it is happening faster than we'd previously thought. Their latest report, published on the 17th November 2007, provides a powerful call to action, before its too late.
They state very clearly that we all need to reduce our emissions of carbon dioxide, mainly as a result of burning fossil fuels, and that we need to do this at a more rapid rate than we are currently on track for.
The charts on the left show how climate change has already impacted temperature, sea level and snow cover and these rates of change are predicted to increase over the next few years.
This will inevitably lead to more floods, famines and water shortages in large parts of the world. Extreme weather events are predicted to increase significantly across the world.
There is a possibility that continued warming could cause a complete loss of the ice sheets which could be catastrophic for global weather and sea level rise.
Read More
- BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7098902.stm
- Times: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2886538.ece
- Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/nov/17/climatechange.carbonemissions
- Independent: http://environment.independent.co.uk/climate_change/article3172144.ece
Progress Since Kyoto 1997
It is now ten years since the first Kyoto protocol was adopted in 1997 - the single most important milestone in the debate relating to greenhouse gases, climate change and sustainable energy production.
Originally proposed as a protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Kyoto was ratified by participating members on the 15th February 2005 with specific targets being set by individual nations to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases.
In particular, the European Union has committed to reducing their emissions of a basket of six greenhouse gases by 8% from a baseline level in 1990 to a target level calculated as an average between 2008 and 2012.
EU directives have been interpreted through individual European national policies that have taken on-board the responsibility for sustainable energy production. Each country has a target to meet. Now is the time for implementation.
Meeting Targets - The Challenge Ahead
Research by the European Environment Agency shows that meeting the targets for the reduction in greenhouse gases emissions will be a major challenge for many countries.
In the 1997 White Paper "Energy for the Future, Renewable Sources of Energy", renewable energy sources were given a target of 12% for their contribution to the EU's gross inland energy consumption by 2010.
For the EU to double its production of sustainable energy from 6% to 12% represents a considerable challenge. Forward-thinking companies such as Segen are working together with European governments to help meet this target.
What you can do
Below is our recommended three step process to doing something yourself, rather than waiting for the world's Governments to rise to the challenge by themselves.
In Mahatma Gandhi’s words:
“Be the change you want to see in the world”
- Learn More. The first step in any process of change, is to more fully understand the issues. There are numerous sources of information on climate change. We suggest you start with the BBC's Guide to Climate Change, which gives an very good overview and then read the IPCC Summary Report which goes into the details.
- Save Energy. The Energy Saving Trust (EST) provides some excellent guides to how we can all reduce the amount of energy we use and therefore reduce our carbon emissions. The EST has created a web site on which you can select from a range of energy saving ideas which you can easily implement and allow you to join over 150,000 other people and make a commitment to saving your own 20%.
- Generate Your Own Energy. What you cannot reduce through energy saving you can seek to generate yourself using clean technologies, thereby also reducing your own carbon emissions. There are many technologies now available to householders, businesses and schools for on-site generation of clean energy. Read the EST guide to renewable energy to learn more about the options and browse Segen's site to see if a small wind turbine, micro-hydro system or solar PV system is for you.
