Brief introduction to climate change issues.

1. Climate Change for Dummies

2. Setting the Scene
• This presentation aims to inform the uninitiated into the
basics of climate change. This will be done by looking at the
following items.
1. Links between CO2 levels and temperature.
2. Anthropogenic (human) effects on current CO2 levels.
3. What the effects of increased CO2 and Temperatures are
likely to be.
4. What is being done to tackle rising CO2 (and other GHGs).
5. Finally looking at opportunities and threats to controlling
climate change

3. Correlation Between Co2 levels and temperature
However please remember Co2 is only one of the group know as
Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)

4. Current CO2 levels
• As can be seen the preceding slide high CO2
levels do correlate with higher temperatures.
• Fluctuations in CO2 and temperature have
been happening for 100s of thousands of
years, why should we be worried.

5. The Human Factor
• The concern with current CO2 levels are the rate of
increase and that they are probably at their highest
levels in at least the last 800,000 years.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5314592.stm
• The rate of CO2 emissions has increased significantly
in the industrial era due to the burning of fossil fuels,
deforestation and the loss of peatlands.
• Current CO2 levels are now over 400ppm and rising
at around 2ppm/ year.

6. The Likely Effects
• CO2 is building up in the oceans this is causing a decrease in oceanic pH as
the CO2 dissolves forming a weak acid, this is know as ocean acidification
• Oceans are also being affected by a warming or the surface layers and this
along with the acidification is having effects such as coral bleaching which
is a serious threat to ocean biodiversity.
• The warming of the ocean along with melting ice caps and glaciers is
causing rising sea levels which has often catastrophic effects due to
flooding in low lying countries, especially less developed countries which
can not afford expensive flood defences.
• The added energy in the earths atmospheric system due to the additional
greenhouse effect of CO2 and other gases trapping additional solar
radiation is likely to mean quite significant changes in the worlds weather
patterns with some areas becoming much drier and others becoming
much wetter.
• The likelihood is that extreme weather events will become more frequent.

7. What’s Being Done? (International)
• 1992 – Earth Summit in Rio set out the aim to stabilise Greenhouse gases.
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was
opened for signature .
• 1995 – Berlin. specific emission targets were outlined.
• 1997 – Kyoto. Broad outline of emission targets agreed.
• 2002 - Russia and Canada ratify the Kyoto Protocol to the UNFCCC bringing
the treaty into effect on 16 February 2005.
• Kyoto targets apply to the four greenhouse gases Carbon
Dioxide(CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), sulphur
hexafluoride (SF6), and two groups of gases, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)
and perfluorocarbons (PFCs).
• These gases are translated into CO2 equivalents for determining
reductions in emissions.

8. What’s Being Done?
• Carbon Taxes, either on upsteam producers such as
oil companies or downstream consumers for
example duty on fuel at the pump.
• Emission trading schemes allowing entities to trade
in allowances of emitting GHGs.
• “Green” incentives for consumers to reduce GHGs by
less reliance on fossil fuels, for example financial aid
for house insulation or solar power, renewable heat
initiatives etc.

9. Opportunities and Threats
• The main opportunities are for channelling efforts into mitigating climate
change by developing renewable sources of energy, building material,
clothes etc. This is also important as CO2 producing processes such as
burning fossil fuels are using a finite resource which will run out one day.
Better to use renewable sources.
• The main threats to action on climate change are political, these can be;
– Change in government reversing mitigation policies, for example
Australia reversal on Mining tax and Emission trading scheme.
– Major players not signing up to international agreements due to fears
such as making their national industries uncompetitive. This was the
reason USA did not sign up to Kyoto.
– Still an unwillingness in some quarters to admit there is something to
worry about. For example ïn the Cambrian era 500 million years ago
CO2 levels were at 7000ppm!” This does of course miss the point that
life on earth was very different at this period in time.

10. Final Thoughts
• It may just be possible to control climate change from going too far but it
does depend on a number of things;
1. There is no time for prevaricating, we may already be too late to prevent
irreversible damage to the earths natural systems.
2. Everybody needs to act on this, self interest must be put aside and the
better off must be prepared to help the less able.
3. We all need to adapt to deal with the climate change that is happening
now and will continue regardless if full mitigation measures are put in
immediately
In other words we have to;
• Act now
• Act together
• Act Differently