Climate Crisis Terms

1992 Earth Summit in Rio

3 different conventions (international treaties)

on Climate, Biodiversity, and Desertification

Convention on Biodiversity 
UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
UN Convention to Combat Desertification

Albedo

The reflective capacity of a surface to bounce energy/radiation from the sun back to space

Ex Pristine snow reflects nearly 90% of the Sun’s energy back into space

vs dark ocean will absorb more heat from the sun instead of being reflected back into space

Anthropocene

The new geological epoch that we are entering defined by humanity's impact on the earth as a whole

Evidence in the geological record that tells us there has been an abrupt change

Replacing the holocene epoch of 11,500 years

Attribution science

quantifying the role of climate change in an extreme weather event

Ex hurricane - att scientists will say chances of this happening would be 5% if we didn’t have climate change

X% more intense than this would have been or has lasted this much longer

Biomass

organic matter that can burn to generate energy. Wood, animal droppings

Only form of energy that humans had access to up until the discovery of coal

Carbon border adjustment mechanism

Carbon tax on imports into the EU

When something is imported into the EU, they will look to see what kind of climate policies that they have. Will add climate tax to those imported goods. Starting next year 

Carbon budget

how much CO2 we can emit without going over a certain temperature threshold

Ex. no more than 2 C above pre industrial levels

We have seen 1.4C compared to that benchmark

Carbon offsets

Action a company takes to offset emissions

Could be in the form of credits you purchase, action like planting trees

Carbon sinks

absorbs CO2 

ocean and land (forest +soil) each 25%, other half stays in the atmosphere

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)

A way of siphoning off CO2 emissions from industrial processes 

Rather than let CO2 escape into atmosphere, they store it underground in used up gas and oil fields 

Not taking CO2 out of the air, preventing additional CO2 from going in

Direct Air Capture (DAC) - carbon removal

Extracting CO2 out of the atmosphere 

Negative emissions 

1- growing trees - natural CO2 absorbing mechanisms

2 - mechanical, technical ways to do it - very expensive but people investing in it

Still goes into the ground (under land or water)

CBDR (Common But Differentiated Responsibility)

UNFCCC 1992 originated
Acknowledging differing responsibilities between rich and poor countries

Rich got rich from burning fossil fuels and its not fair to tell low income countries they can't do that because of climate change

Climate adaptation vs climate mitigation

Adaption = How we cope with the effects

Mitigation = Preventing it
Reducing GHG emissions, stop adding to the problem

Climate system’s five interconnected components

Biosphere- all living things

Atmosphere- 

Cryosphere - anything frozen - glaciers, ice sheets

Lithosphere- outer crust of the earth’s surface - volcanic activity, permafrost

Hydrosphere- water 

CO2 emissions as an ‘externality’

No consequences from the companies emitting CO2

Polluting is cost free

No longer possible

William Nordhaus contribution - CO2 should now have a cost

CO2 Annual emissions

40 billion tons

All GHG emissions

55 billion tons or its equivalent in another gas

CO2 main sources

Burning fossil fuels (oil and gas) 90%

Deforestation 10%

Concentration of CO2 in the air (in parts per million/ppm)

424 ppm of CO2

% increase in CO2 concentration since 1750 (preindustrial)

50% increase - was about 280 before

Cyclones vs. hurricanes vs. typhons

All exactly the same thing, happening in different parts of the world
Great big tropical storms over the ocean
Surface of the ocean has to be at least 25 degrees C to start one

Surface of ocean has gotten significantly warmer

Storms wandering into areas that they used to not go to

‘Demand-side’ vs. ‘supply-side’ solutions

Changing human behavior vs finding technical solutions

Ex. beef industry - supply side feeding cows something to produce less methane
Demand side - getting people to eat less meat

Difference between correlation and cause & effect

Earth’s energy balance

Energy in and energy out

Normally the same - earth tends to be balanced
GHG emissions disrupt that

More energy coming in than going out. Energy imbalance. Mostly in the ocean

Ecosystem services (three examples)

Clean air, pollination (helps agriculture), clean water

Embedded carbon (when assessing national carbon emissions)

The amount of a country's emissions that come from goods manufactured in the country but are exported or consumed abroad? 

How do you attribute emissions - to the company that manufactures or those who consume those goods? 

Taken into account in negotiations

Emissions Gap

Gap between where we are and where we need to be in terms of reducing emissions

Ex if our target is capping at 2C, how quickly we need to draw down.

Extinction Rebellion

UK founded movement using civil disobediance to influence policy makers to take action against climate tipping points

Five sources of zero-emissions energy

Wind, solar, hydro (like a river dam. Pressure creates energy), waves (tidal movement), nuclear, geothermal

Global emissions by sector

60% from energy and manufacturing (30% each)

20% from agriculture 

Less than 10% Buildings

About 15% Transport

‘Great Acceleration’

Hockey stick effect - sudden rise 

Where does the anthropocene begin

1950’s - middle of 20th century

Greenhouse effect

Gases prevent heat from escaping back into the space

Greenhouse gases (three main ones)

CO2, methane, nitrous oxide

Greenwashing

Greta Thunberg

Swedish teenage climate activist 

Global figure in climate action

Heat island effect

where urban areas experience higher temperatures than their surrounding rural areas.

Historical carbon emissions: concept

Total CO2 emitted over time (by country)

Historical carbon emissions: top four emitters

US, China, Russia, Brazil

Holocene

Hothouse Earth

Runaway climate change - it escapes our control and we can’t stop it

If climate too destabilized - Earth will start releasing carbon in the earth's system 

Ice cap (why we care)

In the ocean

Ice sheet (names, definition, sea level rise potential)

On land

They are in Greenland, Antarctica

If they melt, additional 65 meters of sea level rise

Inflation Reduction Act

Biden’s legislation

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 is a United States federal law which aims to reduce the federal government budget deficit, lower prescription drug prices, and invest in domestic energy production while promoting clean energy.

IPCC projected 2100 sea level rise

Up to a meter

IUCN Red List

As close to we have to an official list to species threatened, going extinct

Kyoto Protocol (1997)

an international agreement linked to the UNFCCC that commits industrialized countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

CDBR

Loss & damages (within context of UN climate negotiations)

Payment for damages that have already occurred
Example from a cyclone

In the context of negotiations under UN umbrella we have mitigation and adaptation 

Adaptation was at once seen as a future problem. Fastforward, a lot of countries (especially developing) are seeing impacts now. 

A new category called loss and damages

Mass extinctions

Montreal Protocol

International treaty to restore the ozone layer - 1989

Ozone layer still on the mend

Negative emissions (2 examples)

Pulling out of the air

Planting trees, chemical and mechanical

Net-zero targets

Even if we do emit something, we can compensate for those emissions by pulling CO2 out of the air

Overshoot

Our target has been to cap at 1.5C. We are not going to do that - we are going to overshoot that target

Paris Agreement temperature goals

1. Limit warming well below 2 degrees C (Hard target)

2. Aspiration target - 1.5C

Per capita CO2 emissions of four biggest emitters

Europe (6) , China (8), US (15), India (3)

Tons CO2 Per person emissions per year

Global average is about 7

Permafrost

frozen ground in very cold regions that holds greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, which cause climate change.

Planetary boundaries

Biophysical thresholds for nine processes that together regulate the state of the Earth system

A safe operating space for humanity

2024 6 boundaries breached

Species & ecosystems

Climate change

Nitrogen and phosphorus 

Land use change

Fresh water

Manmade chemicals

Scope 1, 2 & 3 emissions

a way of categorizing a company’s emissions

1 direct emissions

2 indirect emissions

3 how their products are used - account for about 95%

Social cost of carbon

Carbon an externality, needs to be cost associated with it

A way of attaching a number to the social impact of CO2

Social tipping points

Positive changes in society

Solar radiation management (SRM)

Reducing amt of radiation coming from the sun

deviate sun's energy away from the earth

White roofs, injecting aerosols into the stratosphere, growing more reflective plants, etc

Tipping points in the climate system (name three near-term TPs)

Amazon Rainforest is reaching a tipping point fast

No longer a sink- its a source of CO2

Turning from tropical forest into savannah

Coral Reefs - bleaching, ocean acidification

Coral reefs predicted to decline 70-90% at 1.5C and 99% at 2C

Greenland Ice Sheet scientists have a high confidence of tipping point

Ice on land - will melt and cause sea levels to rise

Greendland holds 6 meters

West Antarctica holds 7 meters 

critical threshold that, when crossed, leads to large, accelerating and often irreversible changes in the climate system

Top-down vs bottom-up approach in climate talks

Tradeoffs (two examples)

Unintended consequences of climate solutions

Tragedy of the commons

Example- open oceans

UNFCCC

1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change

Voluntary carbon markets

Company can buy credits per ton of carbon emissions to compensate

Weather vs. climate

Climate - long term vs weather is short term forecast

Climate - averages & extremes of weather

Wet bulb temperature

a measure of heat that includes humidity

We care because It can kill you - lethal heat, deadly heat

Concern that we will begin to see heat waves that cross that threshold of tolerance

William Nordhaus

2018 Nobel for economics

“The climate change problem is an unintended by-product of economic growth”

Looking for optimal balance

Cost today of reducing emissions          vs           Benefits of reducing future warming

World’s four biggest emitting countries/blocs

China, US, EU, India

IPCC

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

Purpose is to inform policy makers about climate change and help them make informed decisions