INTLSTD 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Ocean Heat Content, Kyoto Protocol
Document Summary
Options to deal with climate change: mitigation, adaptation, suffering, already occurring but action on both mitigation and adaptation now too. Efforts to adapt to and prepare for ongoing climate change: Improved technologies for water/energy efficiency: seed varieties that perform well in droughts/floods/heat, prioritize lands to preserve and manage multiple threats, emergency response plans, early-warning alert systems, develop social safety nets, regional assessments. It"s about equity: the poor will suffer most and contributed the least: historical cumulative emissions, 64% high-income countries, 36% developing countries. Impact damage costs: 20% high-income, 80% developing countries. Today: an unsustainable world: >1 billion people in poverty, a quarter of children malnourished, a quarter of women illiterate, > 1 billion without modern energy, 1/6 without clean water. Tomorrow: climate change exacerbates inequities: most impacts will be negative, especially or poorest, most vulnerable nations, water resource, coastal infrastructure, health, agriculture, and ecosystems will be challenged in virtually every region of the globe.