This document provides an overview of climate change impacts and solutions through a series of cartoons and captions. It discusses: - Temperature and sea level rise that has already occurred and is projected. - Impacts on wildlife such as extinction rates exceeding any time in the past 65 million years. - Effects on food including potential reductions in fish catches and crop yields. - The remaining carbon budget and timeline for action to limit warming given current emissions rates. - Progress needed on renewable energy, electric vehicles, and other solutions to meet long-term decarbonization targets. - Behavior changes around diet, transportation, housing that can significantly reduce emissions.

1. Everything you need to know
about climate change, in cartoons!
Suzanne Chew, Little Climate
#lepakinsg, 28th
April 2016

2. Agenda
● What's already happened & expected impacts
● Carbon budget remaining – do the math!
● Timeline and Targets
● Progress & Solutions
● Questions

3. Agenda
● What's already happened & expected impacts
– Temperature
– Sea levels
– Wildlife
– Food

4. How hot is it getting?
● According to UN, the planet has warmed by +0.85o
C from
1880 to 2012. This is now > +1o
C.
● Noticed more warm nights and days than before?
● Arctic region warmed by > +2o
C

5. Trends in mean surface air temperature
1960 - 2011
The trend over this 50 year period is for an increase in air temperature of more that 2° C
(3.6° F) across much of the Arctic, which is larger than for other parts of the globe.
Source: U. S. National Snow and Ice Data Center. “All About Arctic Climatology and Meteorology:
Climate Change in the Arctic”.

6. How hot is it going to get?

7. Looking into the crytal ball...
today

8. How high will sea levels rise?
Already risen by 19 cm
(1901-2010):
● 50% melting ice
● 40% expanding hot water
● 10% flushed groundwater

9. How high will sea levels rise?
● IPCC predicts up to 80 cm in late-century under business-as-usual
Source: UN IPCC report 5th
Assessment Report

10. Jim Hansen's 2016 paper
● “Sea level reached +6–9m in the
Eemian, a time that we have concluded was probably
no more than a few tenths of a degree warmer than today.”
● “Our analysis paints a very different picture
than IPCC (2013) for continuation of this Hyper-
Anthropocene phase, if GHG emissions
continue to grow.”
● “In that case, we conclude that multi-meter sea
level rise would become practically
unavoidable, probably within 50–150 years.”
Photo credit: Global Justice Now, CC BY 2.0, https://www.flickr.com/photos/wdm/2827229183
Source: Hansen, J. et al,, 2016, "Ice melt, sea level rise and superstorms: evidence from paleoclimate data, climate modeling,
and modern observations that 2 C global warming could be dangerous", Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

11. The 6th
Great Extinction: already underway

12. The 6th
Great Extinction
● The evidence is incontrovertible that recent extinction rates
are unprecedented in human history and highly unusual in
Earth’s history.
● Our analysis emphasizes that our global society has started
to destroy species of other organisms at an accelerating
rate, initiating a mass extinction episode unparalleled for 65
million years.
● If the currently elevated extinction pace is allowed to
continue, humans will soon (in as little as three human
lifetimes) be deprived of many biodiversity benefits.

13. Running faster than climate change!
● Species running “uphill and poleward” to cool areas
● Slowpokes like trees, plants, frogs, small mammals likely left
behind unable to flee or adapt so fast

14. What will happen to our wildlife & nature?
● 2o
C – 3o
C: One-fifth to one-third of plant & animal species not likely to survive
● 3.5o
C - 4o
C: Three-fifths of birds, frogs, corals at risk. Who will lose half the
land they live on today? Half of all plants, one-third of all animals.

15. 20
C by 2050? What happens to our fish?
● Lower global fish catch! -US$17bn to -US$40bn/yr
● Fish getting smaller! -14% to -24%
● Different fish as they move to cooler waters! Dominant fish in
Sea of Japan used to be sardines, now anchovies!

16. 20
C by 2050? Fish inequality by 2055
● High-latitude countries expected to catch 30% to 70% more fish.
● Countries in the tropics expected to catch 40% to 60% less fish.

17. Harvest inequality
● Crop yields fall faster in the tropics as it warms, because it's already hot.
● Rice harvest in China: +1o
C = -10%, +3o
C = -20%
● South Asia, southern Africa expected to be worst hit, poorer harvests in
Southern Europe, parts of U.S. & Central America. But:
● Longer growing season in Russia, S. America, Canada, N. Europe, Finland

18. Agenda
● What's already happened & expected impacts
● Carbon budget remaining – do the math!
● Timeline and Targets
● Progress & Solutions
● Questions

19. What's a “safe” level of warming?

20. What do policymakers say?
Paris Agreement pledged 2 degrees, with 1.5 degrees an aspirational goal.
Source: UN Climate Change, CC BY 2.0, https://www.flickr.com/photos/unfccc/23692333176

21. What do those most affected say?
“1.5 To Stay Alive”...represents a level of global warming beyond which many
vulnerable small island states will be overwhelmed by severe climate impacts.”
Source: Climate Visuals, http://www.education4sustainability.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/a-girl-in-Tuvalu.jpg

22. What do scientists say?
“If humanity wishes to
preserve a planet similar to
that on which civilization
developed and to which life on
Earth is adapted...
CO2 will need to be
reduced...to at most 350 ppm,
but likely less than that.”
- Prof. Jim Hansen
Photo credit: Global Justice Now, CC BY 2.0, https://www.flickr.com/photos/wdm/2827229183

23. How much have we emitted already?
Over 2,000 gigatonnes
(from 1750 to 2011)

24. Where's it all gone?

25. ~30%
stored in land –
forests, peatlands
and soils.

26. ~30% stored in our oceans –
causing acidification.
As it warms, oceans also deoxygenate.

27. ~40% stored in our atmosphere -
warming us up, melting the ice caps,
causing sea level rise

28. How different is our air today,
compared to 1750?
● Carbon dioxide
● Methane
● Nitrous Oxide (N20)
● Fluorinated gases (F-gases)

29. +40%

30. How fast has CO2 concentration grown?
(ppm = parts per million)

31. Keeling Curve – CO2
through the ages
Source: https://scripps.ucsd.edu/programs/keelingcurve/

32. Keeling Curve – CO2
through the ages
Source: https://scripps.ucsd.edu/programs/keelingcurve/

33. Keeling Curve – CO2
through the ages
Source: https://scripps.ucsd.edu/programs/keelingcurve/

34. Keeling Curve – CO2
through the ages
Source: https://scripps.ucsd.edu/programs/keelingcurve/

35. Keeling Curve – CO2
through the ages
Source: https://scripps.ucsd.edu/programs/keelingcurve/

36. +150%

37. +20%
+20%

39. Today, the air we breathe is
very different!

40. How fast are we pumping in more
greenhouse gases?

41. +49 gigatonnes in 2010!

42. It's doubled from 1970 to 2010...

44. Source: www.globalcarbonatlas.org

45. How much more can we pump in?

46. 630 – 1,180 gigatonnes
This carbon budget gives us at least a 2-in-3 chance
of limiting warming to 2 degrees

47. How long do we have left?
(assuming current rate of burn)
13 to 24 years

48. Agenda
● What's already happened & expected impacts
● Carbon budget remaining – do the math!
● Timeline and Targets
● Progress & Solutions
● Questions

49. How fast do we need to #ActOnClimate?
Source: Tesla Car: Wendell, CC by 2.0, | Indian solar engineer: UN Women/Gaganjit Singh (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) |
Cyclists: Colville-Andersen (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)| Solar power: 10:10 (CC BY 2.0) |

50. We need to deploy solutions faster...
Scientists say we have 14 years until 2030 to get
ahead of the problem

51. For 2 degrees,
3 targets,
by 2050
● Primary energy: > 60% low-carbon
– Electricity: >80% low-carbon
– Liquid fuels: ~30% low-carbon

52. 2050 target for 2 degrees:
>60% primary energy is low-carbon
Source: IPCC, 5th
Assessment Report, Working Group 3, Technical Summary

53. 2050 target for 2 degrees:
>80% electricity is low-carbon
Source: IPCC, 5th
Assessment Report, Working Group 3, Technical Summary

54. 2050 target for 2 degrees:
30% liquid fuel used is low-carbon
Source: IPCC, 5th
Assessment Report, Working Group 3, Technical Summary

55. Agenda
● What's already happened & expected impacts
● Carbon budget remaining – do the math!
● Timeline and Targets
● Progress & Solutions
● Questions

56. House of Solutions!
Decarbonize!
Uselow-carbon
energycarriers
Preserveforests
&peatlands
Geoengineer?
Smarter habits
Smarter processes Smarter design

57. House of Solutions!
Decarbonize!

58. Windpower growth – 432 GW installed

59. Solar PV growth – 178 GW installed

60. Great progress, but still far to go!
Modern renewables make 10% of total energy.
Source: REN21, 2015, Renewables 2015 Global Status Report
Need a price on
carbon

63. What makes up Singapore's electricity?
Source: Singapore Energy Statistics 2015

64. House of Solutions!
Uselow-carbon
energycarriers

67. House of Solutions!
Preserveforests
&peatlands

69. House of Solutions!
Geoengineer?

74. House of Solutions!
Smarter processes

75. What are smarter processes for industry?
● Energy efficiency! Adopt industry best practices e.g.
● Internet server farms: Dynamic power management
● Cement, iron and steel plants: Waste heat recovery

76. What are smarter processes for industry?
● Manage non-CO2 greenhouse gases better! Some examples:
● Destroy: Making nylon and chemical fertilizers releases N2
O that can
be destroyed cheaply right at the source
● Safely dispose: Refrigerants used
in car aircons and fridges are F-
gases – what if they were
extracted and safely disposed
before the landfill or scrapyard
● Substitute: R410A is 2,000x more
powerful than CO2

77. What are smarter processes for agriculture?
Regenerative agriculture!:
● Less chemical fertilizer through deep pellet placement. Use
biochar or organic fertilizers
● Less soil tilling to
preserve soil
carbon
● Dietary
supplements and
biogas digestors
● Agroforestry

78. House of Solutions!
Smarter design

79. What's smarter design?
● Designed to run on less!
– Efficient home appliances, smart thermostats, super-insulation for the
home, skyscraper roof gardens
● Designed to be made with less!
– Light-weight design (2/3 weight, but work just as well)
– Bricks that bake in the sun, mushroom packaging, cement using waste ash

80. Smarter business models by design
● Circular economy
– Businesses that close the loop by designing for re-use and repair, and
responsibility during disposal.
● Sharing economy
– Businesses that benefit those willing to share their homes, cars, offices, and
other things we own, making the carbon embodied in things go further!

81. House of Solutions!
Smarter habits

82. What difference could households make?
● What and how we consume makes a difference!
● “We highlight the importance of environmental
pressure arising from households with their
consumption contributing to more than 60% of
global GHG emissions and between 50% and 80% of
total land, material, and water use.”
● “Mobility, shelter, and food are the most important
consumption categories across the environmental
footprints.”
Source: Ivanova et al., Environmental Impact Assessment of Household Consumption, 2015, Journal of Industrial Ecology

83. Carbon footprints of household
consumption across countries
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Belgium
Denmark
Ireland
United Kingdom
Greece
Finland
Canada
Australia
Luxembourg
United States
Carbon Footprint of household consumption per person per year
(tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent)
Out of 43 countries assessed,
these are the top 10 consumption emissions/pp/yr
Source: Ivanova et al., Environmental Impact Assessment of Household Consumption, 2015, Journal of Industrial Ecology

84. 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
India
Indonesia
China
South Africa
Russia
Taiwan
Sweden
South Korea
France
Japan
Italy
Norway
Switzerland
Netherlands
Germany
Denmark
United Kingdom
Canada
Australia
United States
Carbon Footprint of household consumption per person per year
(tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent)
Selection of countries:
Consumption emissions/pp/yr
World average = 3.4
Source: Ivanova et al., Environmental Impact Assessment of Household Consumption, 2015, Journal of Industrial Ecology

85. What kind of behaviour changes matter?
● Study on carbon potential of behaviour changes in
Europe: 36 changes identified, 11 assessed in detail
● Mobility, shelter and food are the key areas
● “The maximum realistic abatement potential of the
measures that can be implemented simultaneously
amounts maximally to about 600 Mt CO2 in 2020”
Source: J Faber et al., “Behavioural Climate Change Mitigation Options and Their Appropriate Inclusion in Quantitative Longer
Term Policy Scenarios”, Delft, CE Delft, April 2012

86. 50
200
266
11
43
22
45
39
40 (35 - 45)
47
84.5 (56 - 113)
88 (80 - 96)
135 (96 - 174)
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Less animal protein (one meat-free day per week)
Shift to a healthy diet
Shift to a vegetarian diet
Optimised thermostat settings
Optimised ventilation behaviour
Reduction of room temperature by 1°C
Reduction of room temperature by 2°C
Virtual meetings
Teleworking
Fuel efficient driving style
Buying and using an plug-in hybrid
Buying and using a smaller car
Buying and using an electric car
CO2 Million tonnes (Maximum realistic mitigation potential in the EU)
Potential of Mobility, Shelter, Food Behaviour Changes
Source: J Faber et al., “Behavioural Climate Change Mitigation Options and Their Appropriate Inclusion in Quantitative Longer
Term Policy Scenarios”, Delft, CE Delft, April 2012
Carpool
Bike
Bus &
Trains
Less hot
water use
Optimize
aircon use
Less food
waste
Less food
miles

87. What kind of behaviour changes matter?
● Demand for meat and dairy is set to double by 2050, clearing more forests and
peatlands, using more water, and releasing more carbon.
● Want to halve what it takes to keep warming to 20
C? Just follow a healthy diet as
per the Harvard Medical School, of eating 90g of meat, fish and eggs a day.

88. What's the impact of a different diet?
● “...almost half of the emissions from the current diet [in Europe]
are associated with meat consumption.”
Source: J Faber et al., “Behavioural Climate Change Mitigation Options and Their Appropriate Inclusion in Quantitative Longer
Term Policy Scenarios”, Delft, CE Delft, April 2012

89. How high-carbon are different foods?
Pound for pound, beef is:
● 4x - 5x more carbon-
intensive than pork
● 8x more carbon-intensive
than chicken and eggs.
Source: UN IPCC report 5th
Assessment Report

91. Talk!
In the last week, how many of you spoke with your
family or friends about climate change?
Research by Yale University shows that only 4% of
Americans hear someone they know talk about
climate change once a week
If we can't even talk about it,
how are we going to solve it?

92. Find out more!

93. Find out more!
Participants, use “FEELTHELOVE” for a 25% discount :)

94. Agenda
● What's already happened & expected impacts
● Carbon budget remaining – do the math!
● Timeline and Targets
● Progress & Solutions
● Questions

95. Questions already answered
● How can vegetarians help to solve climate change?
● What are some of the most critical areas that we should
focus on, which will the greatest impact in reducing /
reversing the effects of climate change?
– Put a price on carbon --> clean energy
– Behavioural change #ActOnClimate
– Talking about it! @work, @schools, @gov
– Example of climate wedges

96. 1 wedge = -1 billion carbon tons by 2060
Efficiency
● Double fuel efficiency of 2 billion cars from 30 to 60 mpg.
● Decrease the number of car miles traveled by half.
● Use best efficiency practices in all residential and commercial
buildings.
● Produce current coal-based electricity with twice todays
efficiency.
Solar
● Install 100 times the current capacity of solar electricity.
● Use 40,000 square kilometers of solar panels (or 4 million
windmills) to produce hydrogen for fuel cell cars.
Source: Princeton University, Carbon Mitigation Initiative
1
2

97. 1 wedge = -1 billion carbon tons by 2060
Wind
● Increase wind electricity capacity by 10 times relative to today, for
a total of 2 million large windmills.
Biomass Fuels
● Increase ethanol production 12 times by creating biomass
plantations with area equal to 1/6th of world cropland.
Nuclear
● Add double the current global nuclear capacity to replace coal-
based electricity.
Fuel Switching
● Replace 1400 coal electric plants with natural gas-powered
facilities.
Source: Princeton University, Carbon Mitigation Initiative
3
4
5
6

98. 1 wedge = -1 billion carbon tons by 2060
Carbon Capture and Storage
● Capture AND store emissions from 800 coal electric plants.
● Produce hydrogen from coal at six times today's rate AND store the
captured CO2.
● Capture carbon from 180 coal-to-synfuels plants AND store the
CO2.
Natural Sinks
● Eliminate tropical deforestation.
● Adopt conservation tillage in all agricultural soils worldwide.
Source: Princeton University, Carbon Mitigation Initiative
7
8

99. ● What can students do within the school
environment, besides spreading awareness?
● Education, talks, documentary screenings are key
● SEC School Green Award, WWF Eco-Schools Green Flag, BCA has
Green Mark Award for existing schools
● Calculate schools carbon footprint to identify key drivers
● Initiative to switch off lights, computers – energy monitors
● Recycling projects – electronics, paper, cans
● School garden to green spaces and grow vegetables
● Explore going green via solar panels
● http://climatechangeconnection.org/resources/climate-friendly-schools/what-to-do/
● https://www.nwf.org/Eco-Schools-USA/Become-an-Eco-School/Pathways/Climate-Change/Tips.aspx

100. ● Can we build a social enterprise around that?
● India: Sustaintech cookstoves
● Indonesia: Nazava water filters
● Africa: Solar Sister
● Global: Ecosia (search engine)
● Camodia: Kamworks (solar)
● Singapore: CarbonStory (offsets)

101. Questions
● As an educator, what has been your experience with
educating people about climate change via social media
thus far?
– UNESCO focus on education, key to attitude and
behaviour change.
– http://climate.nasa.gov/resources/education/
● How to make solar energy work effectively in humid
conditions?
– SolarNova initiative
– Local companies: Sunseap, REC, Phoenix Solar, etc

102. Is 2o
C a reasonable target?

103. Pathway to Zero exists
The Deep Decarbonization
Pathways Project (DDPP)
is a global collaboration of
energy research teams
charting practical
pathways to deeply
reducing greenhouse gas
emissions in their own
countries.
It is predicated on taking
seriously what is needed
to limit global warming to
2°C or less.
Keep up the pressure

104. Is it realistic for the world
– or at least Singapore –
to attain zero emissions in our lifetime?

105. Are we doing our fair share?
● Climate Action Tracker ranking:

106. Photo credits:
Maldives tree planting: The Global Work Party – Maldives, CC BY 2.0, https://www.flickr.com/photos/nios/5069989882/
US solar kids: BlackRockSolar, CC BY 2.0, https://www.flickr.com/photos/freethesun/8553349450
Taiwan kids farming: Michel Bish, CC BY 2.0, https://www.flickr.com/photos/whirledkid/4509909152/

107. Thank you!
Suzanne Chew, Founder
suzanne@littleclimate.com
www.littleclimate.com
Questions?