Global Concerns on the Envirornment

Risk Multipliers

climate change is dangerous because it heightens vulnerabilities: population growth, increase of global weapons, mass migrations

Dilemmas in global environmental governance

- few policies have been made to bring down GHG emissions
- public opinion has become more indifferent to climate change than 2007-2008
- including industrial countries who has to make the most actions because they release the most gases

UNFCCC means

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

UNFCCC purpose

- an international environmental treaty
- to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic (pollution caused by humans) interference with the climate system
- 198 parties as of July 2022

COP meaning

Conference of the Parties

COP purpose

- governing body of an international convention such as the UNFCCC
- It is the supreme decision-making body of the convention
- all parties are represented at the COP and they review the implementation of the Convention and take necessary decisions to promote the effective implementation of the Convention
- review national communications and emission inventories
- the COP then assesses the effects of the measures taken by Parties and the progress made

COP3

Kyoto protocol: developed countries reduce ghg emissions in the period 2008-2012

COP16

Cancun agreements: future global warming should be limited to below 2.0C relative to the pre-industrial level

COP18

Doha Amendment: Kyoto protocol was modified to encompass the period 2013-2020 as second commitment period

COP21

Paris Agreement: governing emission reductions from 2020 on through commitments of countries in ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions

COP27

Sharm El-Sheikh: held by the Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt with a goal to build on previous successes and pave the way for future ambition to effectively tackle the global challenge of climate change

Republic Act No. 9729

AKA the Climate Change Act of 2009 created the Climate Change Commission which is the lead institution that oversees and evaluates government programs on climate change and makes sure that government units are working together for a climate-resilient and climate-smart Philippines

Disputes

- The biggest polluting nations (e.g. US and China) want to reach a target of 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial revolution levels
- Weaker nations most at risk want a target of 1.5C which would require the global economy to transform away from fossil fuels and fully rely on renewables by 2050
- Around 20 percent of the Amazon rainforest has been destroyed in recent years

DRR meaning

Disaster Risk Reduction Management

Republic Act No. 10121

DRR means reducing disaster risk through systematic efforts to analyze and manage the causal factors of disasters through reduced exposures to hazards, lessened vulnerability of people and property, wise management of land and the environment, and improved preparedness for adverse events

PDRRM meaning

The Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act; The Philippine Disaster Act of 2010

PDRRM purpose

* gives importance to the reduction of the adverse impact of disaster through preparedness
* empowers local government units to use 70% of their total calamity fund for risk reduction and the remaining 30% for immediate response activities


* transforms the National Disaster Coordinating Council, which was created in 1978, into the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC)

NDRRMC meaning

National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council

NDRRMC purpose

* oversees the Philippine disaster management system
* oversees the implementation of Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Plans
* supervise the transport and distribution of relief good to areas devastated by calamities

PDRRMC meaning

Provincial disaster risk reduction and management council

CDRRMC meaning

City disaster risk reduction and management council

MDRRMC meaning

Municipal disaster risk reduction and management council

LDRRMP meaning

Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Plans

Climate Change definition

* the aggregate and general change in the climate of regions
* changes in weather elements such as temperature, precipitation, humidity, wind, cloudiness, and snow cover

Greenhouse Effect definition

* the warming of the Earth’s surface and the lower atmosphere due to the occurrence of gases such as __water vapor, methane, nitrous oxide, and carbon dioxide__
* a natural phenomenon that keeps the temperature of the Earth
well suited to existing life forms
* Without GHG effect, the average global temperature of the Earth
would be -18C

Joseph Fourier

A French mathematician who discovered in 1872 that the Earth’s atmosphere traps heat much like a greenhouse

Svante August Arrhenius

* A Swedish chemist and physicist who said that the Earth’s average temperature would rise due to the additional carbon dioxide caused by the burning of fossil fuels
* This is attributed to the Industrial Revolution

Charles David Keeling

After consistently monitoring the carbon dioxide emission in Mauna Loa, Hawaii in 1958, he said that carbon dioxide became 35% more than it was before the Industrial Revolution

Global Warming

* the increase in the temperature of atmosphere due to natural causes such as volcanic eruptions and the variation of the output of the sun
* carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and halocarbons
* intensification of the effect of greenhouse due to human activities prevents the Earth from naturally balancing itself, leading to global warming

3 schools of thought

1. Skeptics
2. Alarmists
3. Green Movement

Skeptics

insist that the world is essentially robust: there’s nothing human beings can do about it, we cannot make much difference

Alarmists

the earth is like a wild beast and we are busy prodding that wild beast with sticks and it will react violently towards us

Green movement

the earth is vulnerable, we are damaging the earth and we must repair that damage