12/13/15
Eleanor Babcock
UNFCCC Week Two!
Final Decision
An agreement was reached at the second week of the UNFCCC meeting in Paris negotiating mitigation and adaptation policies of climate change. Laurent Fabius declared the final agreement on Saturday December 12th which closed discussions on the document. One of the most disagreed upon portions of the document was finally agreed upon as well. These ambitious portions of the document were the debate as to what temperature we should agree on to keep the world under. The three options were, at 2 degrees Celsius, well below 2 degrees Celsius or at 1.5 degrees Celsius. This temperature agreement would be the determining factor for the world and action associated with keeping the warming of our atmosphere under.
It was decided at COP 21, in the second week of negotiations that the global temperature should remain "well below 2 degrees Celsius". I find it comforting that through the agreement there is a large push to keep the temperature increase as low as possible; however, I find that the communication related to this agreement could potentially be skewed in the future. First of all, I believe that the statement "well below" is too ambiguous. I think that in a document, especially one that potentially determines the fate of our world, should be specific as possible. There was an underground push in Paris this year for a stop of global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius but there was not as much support from above. I am excited that an agreement on where to keep our global temperature has been; however, I am skeptical as to how effective this particular decision will be. Along with the ambiguity of the wording of the agreement, 2 degrees Celsius is a very high number. I think that if we had sent the global temperature limit at 1.5 degrees Celsius, there would be a stronger push to develop sustainability and mitigate climate change. The higher the temperature the more time we will take to take collective action.
The agreement is exciting and I feel policy bodies and world leaders have the motivation and potential to succeed in stopping the most major problem of our world, climate change.
Sunday, December 13, 2015
12/12/15
Eleanor Babcock
UNFCCC Week Two!
Sustainable transportation is extremely relevant to climate change. Transportation by car, train, bus plane and other energy consuming vehicles contribute to one quarter to all emissions being emitted into the atmosphere. The United Nations contains a cohort advisory group called the High-Level Advisory Group on Sustainable Transport. The group is comprised of members from all departments of transportation, public and private sectors, and has pledged for success at COP 21. This group has seen success in many areas regarding sustainable development. Martain Lundstedt, one of the members of this advisory board believes that advancements in sustainable transportation will be the driving factory behind sustainable development of cities and countries. The advisory was established for a time span of three years and will oversee all progress with green transportation.
I believe this advisory group is crucial to development in transportation because each sector of development needs communicators. This advisory group has the potential to create major gains for sustainable transportation by taking the agreements from COP 21 and applying them for action.
Further reading: http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2015/12/bans-advisory-group-to-advance-transport-solutions-to-climate-change/
Eleanor Babcock
UNFCCC Week Two!
Sustainable transportation is extremely relevant to climate change. Transportation by car, train, bus plane and other energy consuming vehicles contribute to one quarter to all emissions being emitted into the atmosphere. The United Nations contains a cohort advisory group called the High-Level Advisory Group on Sustainable Transport. The group is comprised of members from all departments of transportation, public and private sectors, and has pledged for success at COP 21. This group has seen success in many areas regarding sustainable development. Martain Lundstedt, one of the members of this advisory board believes that advancements in sustainable transportation will be the driving factory behind sustainable development of cities and countries. The advisory was established for a time span of three years and will oversee all progress with green transportation.
I believe this advisory group is crucial to development in transportation because each sector of development needs communicators. This advisory group has the potential to create major gains for sustainable transportation by taking the agreements from COP 21 and applying them for action.
Further reading: http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2015/12/bans-advisory-group-to-advance-transport-solutions-to-climate-change/
Saturday, December 12, 2015
Eleanor Babcock
12/12/15
UNFCCC Week Two!
The final week of UNFCCC means negotiators are high strung to reach agreements by the end of the week. My focus for this blog post will be on an exciting innovation regarding my specified topic, sustainable aviation. My classmates came back this week with lots of information to share on their topics and on the topics for those of us who did not attend Paris. A classmate in my cluster group on sustainable development brought back information on solar powered airplanes, perfect and relevant to my topic. The airplane was displayed at a museum in Paris.
This innovative technology is called the Solar Impulse project. Their goal was to create an aircraft solely powered by the sun. This aircraft is the first solar powered plane able to be flown at night. Solar Impulse partnered with a company called Solvey, an international chemical group who develops innovative and advanced materiales which aid in the development of sustainable technology. This particular solar powered plane has the wingspan of a typical aircraft, weighs as much as a typical car and is powered without a drop of fuel.
The first around the world test flight by the second prototype of Solar Impulse was scheduled for last March to July 2015. Andre Borschberg was the pilot of this plane and successfully flew the prototype around the world. He was interviewed at COP 21 and gave insight at to how flying the plane and creating the plane went. Borschberg is using the plane as a means to communicate moving forward. He believes that climate change is no longer a question of the present, but has a focus on moving forward which is why this plane has so much potential in future technology. This attitude and excitement about innovative technology is what we will need once an agreement on the global temperature limit is made. This will be important for action and implementation of technology and energy.
Photo Courtosy of Ellie Debliek
Further Reading: http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/details/beitrag/cop21-interview--reliving-the-tension-of-solar-impulses-round-the-world-attempt_100022397/#axzz3u7nGbTqW
12/12/15
UNFCCC Week Two!
The final week of UNFCCC means negotiators are high strung to reach agreements by the end of the week. My focus for this blog post will be on an exciting innovation regarding my specified topic, sustainable aviation. My classmates came back this week with lots of information to share on their topics and on the topics for those of us who did not attend Paris. A classmate in my cluster group on sustainable development brought back information on solar powered airplanes, perfect and relevant to my topic. The airplane was displayed at a museum in Paris.
This innovative technology is called the Solar Impulse project. Their goal was to create an aircraft solely powered by the sun. This aircraft is the first solar powered plane able to be flown at night. Solar Impulse partnered with a company called Solvey, an international chemical group who develops innovative and advanced materiales which aid in the development of sustainable technology. This particular solar powered plane has the wingspan of a typical aircraft, weighs as much as a typical car and is powered without a drop of fuel.
The first around the world test flight by the second prototype of Solar Impulse was scheduled for last March to July 2015. Andre Borschberg was the pilot of this plane and successfully flew the prototype around the world. He was interviewed at COP 21 and gave insight at to how flying the plane and creating the plane went. Borschberg is using the plane as a means to communicate moving forward. He believes that climate change is no longer a question of the present, but has a focus on moving forward which is why this plane has so much potential in future technology. This attitude and excitement about innovative technology is what we will need once an agreement on the global temperature limit is made. This will be important for action and implementation of technology and energy.
Photo Courtosy of Ellie Debliek
Further Reading: http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/details/beitrag/cop21-interview--reliving-the-tension-of-solar-impulses-round-the-world-attempt_100022397/#axzz3u7nGbTqW
Sunday, December 6, 2015
Eleanor Babcock
12/6/15
UNFCCC Week!
The UNFCCC in Paris continues on for another week, however, my classmates serving as delegates at the conference come back to our unusually warm Minnesota winter to share their experiences and shed knowledge from COP 21 this past week. Before they left for Paris, our class was assigned to write a white paper on a topic of interest related to climate change and the negotiations in Paris. I wrote an extensive paper covering the problems and limitations of air travel on the climate. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is the public body in charge of aviation and reductions in emissions from international air travel. Aviation as a form of public transportation has a large impact on the environment and climate talks are slowly but surely making progress on how to reduce this impact. For this blog post I will be highlighting some advancements and agreements made by the public transportation sector at the UNFCCC meeting.
In order to avoid projected growth of public transportation which could increase emissions into the atmosphere by one third by 2050, delegates at COP 21 have come up with a list of initiative to be implemented to reduce these emissions. Some of these initiatives include:
Further reading: http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2015/12/transport-industry-present-10-initiative-to-reduce-carbon-emissions-at-un-conference/
12/6/15
UNFCCC Week!
The UNFCCC in Paris continues on for another week, however, my classmates serving as delegates at the conference come back to our unusually warm Minnesota winter to share their experiences and shed knowledge from COP 21 this past week. Before they left for Paris, our class was assigned to write a white paper on a topic of interest related to climate change and the negotiations in Paris. I wrote an extensive paper covering the problems and limitations of air travel on the climate. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is the public body in charge of aviation and reductions in emissions from international air travel. Aviation as a form of public transportation has a large impact on the environment and climate talks are slowly but surely making progress on how to reduce this impact. For this blog post I will be highlighting some advancements and agreements made by the public transportation sector at the UNFCCC meeting.
In order to avoid projected growth of public transportation which could increase emissions into the atmosphere by one third by 2050, delegates at COP 21 have come up with a list of initiative to be implemented to reduce these emissions. Some of these initiatives include:
- Global Fuel Economy Initiative---65 countries committed to improving vehicle efficiency
- MobilizeYourCity--- 100 cities and 20 nations committed to creating sustainable development plans including a 50-75% reduction in urban transportation related emissions
- ICAO---74 actions plans have been proposed by states to reduce international aviation emissions. These plans will account for 80.2% of aviation emissions
Further reading: http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2015/12/transport-industry-present-10-initiative-to-reduce-carbon-emissions-at-un-conference/
Eleanor Babcock
12/3/15
UNFCCC Week!
As the climate negotiations rage on, I remain in lovely Minnesota enjoying the heavy snowfall we got on Tuesday and watching it slowly melt away. This week in my environmental science lab we are analyzing tree population variety in our very own St. Johns arboretum. The existence of our arboretum makes me value our ability to have access to trees for timber, oxygen and protection. One of the major questions being asked at Cop 21 is how and what is the best way to protect our forests. Deforestation is a leading problem to of climate change because it reduces our carbon sinks, increases out planets reflective of solar radiation and decreases natural forest habitats.
In an article published by Grist written by
12/3/15
UNFCCC Week!
As the climate negotiations rage on, I remain in lovely Minnesota enjoying the heavy snowfall we got on Tuesday and watching it slowly melt away. This week in my environmental science lab we are analyzing tree population variety in our very own St. Johns arboretum. The existence of our arboretum makes me value our ability to have access to trees for timber, oxygen and protection. One of the major questions being asked at Cop 21 is how and what is the best way to protect our forests. Deforestation is a leading problem to of climate change because it reduces our carbon sinks, increases out planets reflective of solar radiation and decreases natural forest habitats.
In an article published by Grist written by
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
Eleanor Babcock
12/1/15
UNFCCC Week!
This is the week my Climate Studies class and the world have been anticipating for so long! Climate negotiations began yesterday on November 30th. agreements and statements of innovation have already been made by many nations. One of the first binding agreements nations have made is to double research and development for clean energy in private and public sectors in the next five years. This agreement, called Mission Innovation is a landmark agreement to increase production of renewable energy sources. The announcement for this agreement was made at the opening of the UNFCCC meetings.
Twenty of the worlds major economies are bound to this agreement. This commitment includes The United States, Germany, Australia, India, Indonesia and 14 other important nations. These economies account for 80% of renewables research. Once the five years is over up to $2 billion will be invested in global clean energy research and development. This initiative has high hopes to expand particularly in the private sector. So far 28 investors from 10 different nations have expressed commitment to this treaty. It is essential that this agreement includes privite business sectors because it will spur economic growth in smaller businesses and target growth from beneath to expand and support the economy.
Mission Innovation is significant to the beginning of the climate talks because it is progress from solely the first day of the negotiations. Nations such as the United States, one of the world's largest greenhouse gas emitters, are eager to express commitment to the salvation of our atmosphere. This initial agreement to further research and development in clean energy is just the first step to the future of our planet. I am very excited to see the bud of agreement in these negotiations at UNFCCC and am anticipating more successes and commitments from nations to hold us fast to our 2 degree Celsius temperature limit.
Further Reading:
http://newsroom.unfccc.int/clean-energy/mission-innovation-clean-energy/
12/1/15
UNFCCC Week!
This is the week my Climate Studies class and the world have been anticipating for so long! Climate negotiations began yesterday on November 30th. agreements and statements of innovation have already been made by many nations. One of the first binding agreements nations have made is to double research and development for clean energy in private and public sectors in the next five years. This agreement, called Mission Innovation is a landmark agreement to increase production of renewable energy sources. The announcement for this agreement was made at the opening of the UNFCCC meetings.
Twenty of the worlds major economies are bound to this agreement. This commitment includes The United States, Germany, Australia, India, Indonesia and 14 other important nations. These economies account for 80% of renewables research. Once the five years is over up to $2 billion will be invested in global clean energy research and development. This initiative has high hopes to expand particularly in the private sector. So far 28 investors from 10 different nations have expressed commitment to this treaty. It is essential that this agreement includes privite business sectors because it will spur economic growth in smaller businesses and target growth from beneath to expand and support the economy.
Mission Innovation is significant to the beginning of the climate talks because it is progress from solely the first day of the negotiations. Nations such as the United States, one of the world's largest greenhouse gas emitters, are eager to express commitment to the salvation of our atmosphere. This initial agreement to further research and development in clean energy is just the first step to the future of our planet. I am very excited to see the bud of agreement in these negotiations at UNFCCC and am anticipating more successes and commitments from nations to hold us fast to our 2 degree Celsius temperature limit.
Further Reading:
http://newsroom.unfccc.int/clean-energy/mission-innovation-clean-energy/
Sunday, November 29, 2015
Eleanor Babcock
11/27/15
Thanksgiving week
This week, the week before the ever anticipated UNFCCC meeting I was not present in class because I traveled to West Yellowstone, MT to train for the upcoming Nordic ski season. Next week, fifteen of my classmates along with my professor will depart for Paris to partake ans sit-in on the negotiations. This week I was able to take time to reflect on the status of the world. I was in one of the prettiest places in the country. With overlooks of the Rockies, within reach of Glacier National Park and surrounded by Lodge Pole Pines I really got to take in the reality of our world.Our pristine wilderness seems untouched, but in reality, our atmosphere reaches these obsolete places. Our atmosphere is a common resource which touches all parts of our world. This is why the changing climate is so relevant to us as a population, because nothing is really protected from our human actions.
11/27/15
Thanksgiving week
This week, the week before the ever anticipated UNFCCC meeting I was not present in class because I traveled to West Yellowstone, MT to train for the upcoming Nordic ski season. Next week, fifteen of my classmates along with my professor will depart for Paris to partake ans sit-in on the negotiations. This week I was able to take time to reflect on the status of the world. I was in one of the prettiest places in the country. With overlooks of the Rockies, within reach of Glacier National Park and surrounded by Lodge Pole Pines I really got to take in the reality of our world.Our pristine wilderness seems untouched, but in reality, our atmosphere reaches these obsolete places. Our atmosphere is a common resource which touches all parts of our world. This is why the changing climate is so relevant to us as a population, because nothing is really protected from our human actions.
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