Climate Change

It is the long term change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns

over periods of time
Though it has been happening naturally for millions of years, in recent
years it has accelerated due to anthropogenic causes and has been
causing global warming.
UNFCCC defines climate change as a change of climate which is
attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the
composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to
natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods

Global Warming

An increase in the average temperature of Earths near surface air and

oceans since the mid-20th century
4th assessment report of IPCC: global temperature increased 0.74+0.18
degree C during the 20th century.
Caused by greenhouse gases
o Water vapour, Co2, Methane, Nitrous Oxide, Ozone, CFCs (in order
of abundance)
Since the industrial revolution, the burning of fossil fuels has increased the
levels of Co2 in the atmosphere from 280 ppm to 390 ppm.

Climate Change Mitigation

Alternative Energy sources

o Renewable energy
o Nuclear Power
o Reduce the carbon intensity of fossil fuels
Energy efficiency and conservation
o Transport and urban planning
o Building design
o Reforestation and avoid deforestation
o Eliminating waste methane
Geoengineering
o Greenhouse gas remediation
Biomass
Carbon air capture
Carbon capture and storage
Societal control
o Population
o Sustainable life-style

Timeline
http://www.nature.com/climate/timeline/icp/index.html

Inter-governmental action

IPCC
UN Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit), 1992
Agenda 21

An action plan of UN relating to sustainable development adopted

at the Earth Summit, 1992
UNFCCC
Kyoto Protocol
o

IPCC

1988 by World Meteorological Organisation and UNEP

tasked with reviewing and assessing the most recent scientific, technical
and socio-economic information produced worldwide relevant to the
understanding of climate change
Nobel Prize in 2007
The IPCC does not carry out its own original research, nor does it do the
work of monitoring climate or related phenomena itself.
A main activity of the IPCC is publishing special reports on topics relevant
to the implementation of the (UNFCCC)
Till now, it has released four assessment reports (1990, 1995, 2001,
2007)
Fifth assessment report is due in 2014

UNFCCC
1992 at the Rio Summit.
194 members. Secretariat at Bonn.
Parties to UNFCCC are classified as:

Annex I countries industrialized countries and economies in transition

Annex II countries developed countries which pay for costs of developing countries

Developing countries.

Conference
1995 COP1
1996 COP2
1997 COP3
1998 COP4
1999 COP5
2000 COP6 /2001 COP6

Place
Berlin
Geneva
Kyoto
Buenos Aires
Bonn
The Hague/Bonn

2001 COP7
2002 COP8

Marrakesh
New Delhi

Outcome
The Berlin Mandate
Kyoto Protocol
CDM and Joint
Implementation adopted
at Bonn
Delhi Declaration: Calls
for efforts by developed
countries to transfer
technology and minimize

the impact of climate

change on developing
countries
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011

COP9
COP10
COP11/MOP1
COP12/MOP2
COP13/MOP3
COP14/MOP4
COP15/MOP5
COP16/MOP6
COP17/MOP7

Milan
Buenos Aires
Montreal
Nairobi
Bali
Poznan, Poland
Copenhagen
Cancun
Durban, South Africa

Bali Action Plan

Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol has put in place three flexibility mechanisms to reduce emission of Green
House Gases. Although the Protocol places maximum responsibility of reducing emissions on
the developed countries by committing them to specific emission targets, the three
mechanisms are based on the premise that reduction of emissions in any part of the globe will
have the same desired effect on the atmosphere, and also that some developed countries
might find it easier and more cost effective to support emissions reductions in other
developed or developing countries rather than at home. These mechanisms thus provide
flexibility to the Annexure I countries, helping them to meet their emission reduction
obligations. Let us take a look at what these mechanisms are.
What are the three flexibility mechanisms put in place of the Kyoto Protocol for
reducing GHG emission?

The three mechanisms are joint implementation. Emissions Trading and Clean
Development

What is Joint Implementation?

Through the Joint Implementation, any Annex I country can invest in emission
reduction projects (referred to as joint Implementation Project) in any other Annex I
country as an alternative to reducing emissions domestically.

Two early examples are change from a wet to a dry process at a Ukraine cement
works, reducing energy consumption by 53 percent by 2008-2012; and rehabilitation
of a Bulgarian hydropower project, with a 267,000 ton reduction of C02 equivalent
during 2008-2012.

What is Clean Development Mechanism?

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) allows-'l developed country with an

emission reduction or emission-limitation commitment under the Kyoto Protocol to
implement an emission reduction project in developing countries as an alternative to
more expensive emission reductions in their own countries. In exchange for the
amount of reduction In emission thus achieved, the investing gets carbon credits
which it can offset against its Kyoto targets. The developing country gains a Step
towards sustainable development.

To get a CDM project registered and implemented, the investing country' has to first
take approval from the designated national authority in the host country,
establish "Additionally", define baselines and get the project validated by a third
party agency, called a Designated Operational Entity (DOE). The Executive Body
of CDM registers the project and issues credits, called Certified Emission
Reductions (CERs), or carbon credits, where each unit is equivalent to the reduction
of one metric tonne of. C02 or its equivalent. There are more than 4200 CDM projects
in the pipeline as on 14.3.2010. The expected CERs till the end of2012 is
2,900,000,000

What is "Additionality" in a CDM project ?

The feature of "additionality" is a crucial element of a CDM project it means that the
industrialized country that is seeking to establish the CDM project in the developing
country and earns carbon credits from it has to establish that the planned carbon
reductions would not have occurred on its own, in the absence of the CDM project.
They have to establish a baseline of the project. Which is the emission level that
would have been there in the absence of the project. The difference between this
baseline level and the (lower) emission level achieved as a result of the project is the
carbon credit due to the investing country

What are some of the concerns regarding CDM ?

The risk of false Credits" is a cause for concern with regard to CDM projects. If a
project does not actually offer an additionally and the reduction in emission would
have happened anyway Even without the project.

CoP15 (Copenhagen Summit)

Main aim was to establish a global climate agreement for the period from
2012 when the first commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol expires
The conference did not achieve any binding agreement for long term
action
A political accord was negotiated by approximately 25 parties

Collective commitment by developed countries for new and

additional resources , including forestry and investments through
international institutions to a tune of $30 bn for the period 2010-12.
Copenhagen Accord
o Not legally binding and does not commit countries to agree to a
binding successor to the Kyoto Protocol
o Annex 1 parties would commit to economy-wide emissions targets
for 2020 to be submitted by 31 Jan 2010. Delivery of reductions and
finance by developed countries will be measured , reported and
verified (MRV) in accordance with COP guidelines
o Non-annex 1 countries would implement Nationally Appropriate
Mitigation Actions to slow their carbon emissions
o Commits $30 bn for 2010-12
o Copenhagen Green Climate Fund
o The accord shall be assessed in 2015
o

Tarawa Climate Change Conference

In the lead up to COP16, the leaders of the worlds most climate-change

vulnerable countries met in Kiribati in November 2010
Ambo Declaration was adopted
o It calls for more and immediate action to be undertaken to address
the causes and adverse impacts of climate change.

CoP-16/CMP-6, Cancun
COP-16 President: Patricia Espinosa, Mexicos foreign secretary
COP-17 will be held in Durban
Issues
Forestry issues and reducing emissions from deforestation and forest
degradation (REDD) plus
The developed countries are pushing for transparency from countries
where they will fund climate change mitigation.
o The assessment of carbon emission mitigation for developing
countries is right now through domestic communication but is
subject to international consultation and analysis. This push for
transparency is a major contentious issue.
Fast-track finance: $ 30 bn had been committed at CoP-15. A large part of
this funding is yet to come through.

Goals
Agreements Reached
The outcome of the summit was an agreement, not a binding treaty, which
calls on rich countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions as
pledged in the Copenhagen Accord, and for developing countries to plan

to reduce their emissions, to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees

celsius above pre-industrial levels.
There should be no gap between the first commitment period of the Kyoto
Protocol, which expires in December 2012, and the second phase.
The agreement calls on the developed countries to raise the level of
ambition of the emission reductions to be achieved by them individually or
jointly, with a view to reducing their aggregate level of emission of green
house gases
Allows flexibility in choosing the base year for setting emission reduction
targets
Emissions trading and the project based mechanism under the KP shall
continue to be available to Annex 1 parties as a means to meet their
quantified emission limitation and reduction objectives.
The agreements recognize that in all climate change related action,
human rights must be respected. They also recognise the need to
engage with a broad range of stakeholders, including youth and persons
with disability, and call for gender equality and effective participation of
women and indigenous people in effective action on all aspects of climate
change.
The BASIC group softened the three demands it had before the talks
began
o Necessity of a second commitment period to the Kyoto Protocol
o Need to accelerate disbursement under the fast start finance in the
form of new and additional resources through a multilaterally
supervised mechanism
o Continued dialogue on IPRs as part of the technology development
and transfer issues.
REDD is a part of the package and proposed mitigation actions include
conservation and enhancement of forest carbon stocks and sustainable
management of forests.
o REDD is a set of steps designed to use market/financial incentives in
order to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases from
deforestation and forest degradation. Its original objective is to
reduce GHGs but it can deliver co-benefits such as biodiversity
conservation and poverty alleviation
o REDD+ calls for activities with serious implication directed towards
the local communities, indigenous people and forests which relate
to reducing emission from deforestation and forest degradation. It
goes beyond deforestation and forest degradation and includes the
role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and
enhancement of forest carbon stocks
A Cancun Adaptation Framework has been proposed to strengthen and
address implementation of action, and various kinds of assessments, apart
from R&D and host of other issues.
Green Climate Fund established. The fund will be designed by a
transitional committee, with 15 members from the developed countries
and 25 from the developing nations.
Pledge by the developed countries to provide $100 bn annually till 2020.

Conclusion
UNFCCC secretary-general Christian Figueres emphasised that the main
achievement of the Cancun meet has been to restore some degree of faith
in the multilateral process.
The agreements dont mention any reduction targets.
Though the agreements recognize the need to reduce the GHG emissions
and curb the increase in global average temperatures below 2 degrees
Celsius above pre-industrial levels, in the absence of any firm target, this
could be an inadequate and vague provision
Bolivia has rejected the agreement, saying that it wont support
agreement without binding emission cuts.
In a sense, the summit was both a major step forward as well as a failure
It was a step forward because in recent years climate change negotiations
had stumbled and this meeting helped overcome that
It was a failure because it failed to reach an agreement for binding
restrictions that are required to avert global warming.
There was no agreement on how to extend the Kyoto Protocol, or how the
$100 billion a year for the Green Climate Fund will be raised or whether
developing countries should have binding emissions reductions.
Assessment articles
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article948372.ece
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/article948370.ece
Under the Cancun Agreements, the targets set by industrialised countries for
reduction of greenhouse gas emissions are recognised as part of the multilateral
process. They must now draw up low-carbon development plans and strategies
and also report their inventories annually. In the case of developing countries,
actions for emissions reduction will be recognised officially; a registry will record
and match their mitigation actions to finance and technology support from rich
countries; and they will report their progress every two years. These form a good
preamble for target-setting for all member-countries under an agreed framework
at Durban next year.
Trivia
A large amount of energy used during the conference came from
renewable sources
Around 10000 trees and bushes will be planted in Cancun
Role of India and its relevance
India can act as a mediator between the developing and developed
countries
Indias approach to climate change negotiations has been governed by
three factors how to protect the countrys economic interest and
environment agenda, to use climate change as a tool of global diplomacy
and consolidate its position on world forums.

At Cancun, India was responsible for having made five insertions into the
Agreement
o In the section on shared vision, the figure of 50 pc has been
dropped from identifying a global goal for substantially reducing
emissions by 2050
o The phrase access to sustainable development has been introduced
in the context of working towards identifying a time-frame for global
peaking of greenhouse gas emissions based on the best available
scientific knowledge
o International Consultation and Analysis (ICA) finds mention the
agreements. It proposes to enhance the reporting for the nonAnnex 1 parties or developing countries on mitigation action and its
effects and support received
At Cancun, India also proposed legally binding emission cuts.

Climate Change related facts

From 2001 to 2010, global temperatures have averaged 0.46 degrees
Celsius above the 1961-1990 average and the highest value ever recorded
for a 10-year period.

What is REDD
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD)
is a set of steps designed to use market/financial incentives in order to reduce
the emissions of greenhouse gases from deforestation and forest degradation. Its
original objective is to reduce green house gases but it can deliver "co-benefits"
such as biodiversity conservation and poverty alleviation.
REDD+ is being criticised by indigenous people and activists because it is
designed to give more control over indigenous peoples forests to state forest
departments, miners, companies etc resulting in violation of rights, loss of
livelihoods etc.
REDD is presented as an "offset" scheme of the carbon markets and thus, will
produce carbon credits. Forest degradation accounts for 15% of greenhouse gas
emissions, about the same as transportation sector. Mitigation cannot be
achieved without the inclusion of forests in an international regime. Hence, it is
expected to play a crucial role in a future successor agreement to Kyoto Protocol.

Cancun climate agreement at a glance

Cutting carbon emissions: Scores of rich countries made pledges over the last year to cut their greenhouse gas
emissions by 2020 under the Copenhagen accord but they were not incorporated in the official UN process.
Cancun now formally puts those pledges into UN documentation, although they may increase or decrease in
future.
For the first time, developing countries also agreed to look at how they can cut emissions in the future but did
not make specific pledges.

Crucially however, none of the cuts are legally binding.

Climate aid: A new climate green fund was agreed at Cancun to transfer money from the developed to
developing world to tackle the impacts of climate change. Poorer countries saw this as a success because they
will outnumber rich countries on a supervisory panel for the fund, which is due to be set up in 2011. But no
figure was put on how much money will go into it.
Separately, ministers repeated their political promise made last year at Copenhagen to raise $100bn in climate
aid by 2020, starting with $30bn by 2012 for fast track financing.
Forests
Formal backing was given for the UN's deforestation scheme, Redd (reducing emissions from deforestation and
degradation), under which rich countries pay poorer nations not to chop down forests and so lock away carbon
emissions.
But details on when and exactly what form the scheme will take particularly whether developed countries
will be able to use it to offset their emissions rather than make cuts at home are still vague.
Kyoto protocol: Decisions on the future of the Kyoto protocol, the current international treaty binding rich
countries to cut emissions, were effectively deferred until South Africa next year. Whether countries will sign up
for a second commitment period to cuts beyond 2012 remains to be seen.
Decisions on the role that the protocol will play in an ultimate future legal document that binds the world's
countries to emissions cuts the holy grail of the UN negotiations were delayed.
Technology transfer
The idea of transferring knowledge of clean technology between countries was backed at Cancun. A technology
executive committee and a climate technology centre and network are to be set up, but there are no details on the
money, where they will be based, when or by whom.
Countries agreed to the principle of having their emissions cuts inspected. Such monitoring, reporting and
verification will depend on the size of the country's economy, though who will carry out the inspections was
not specified.

COP 17, Durban

An agreement among by more than 190 nations to work towards a future

treaty that would require all countries to reduce emissions that contribute
to global warming.
o To be decided by 2015 and to come into force by 2020
o The process for doing so, called the Durban Platform for Enhanced
Action, would develop a new protocol, another legal instrument or
agreed outcome with legal force that will be applicable to all Parties
to the UN Climate Convention

Agreed to launch a work plan to identify options for closing the ambition
gap between countries current emissions reduction pledges for 2020 and
the goal of keeping global warming below 2 degree C
New arrangements for making more transparent the actions taken by both
developed and developing countries to address their emissions
Also agreed to on the creation of a fund to help poor countries adapt to
climate change, and to measures involving the preservation of tropical
forests and the development of clean energy technology
The deal looks to renew the Kyoto Protocol for several more years. This will
be decided
o The second commitment period will run from 2013 to end of 2017
Next summit in Qatar

Important Organisations relating to environment/climate

change
Name
Centre for International
Forestry Research
(CIFOR)

HQ etc
Bogor, Indonesia

General info
Had received the
Queens Award for
Forestry

View of different parties on climate change mitigation

Developed countries
Developing countries
Most vulnerable countries/ AOSIS countries
Activists/Environmental Groups

Activists
Activists have offered a serious criticism of market based measures like
CDM, emissions trading and REDD as they will affect the developing
countries and indigenous people adversely.