Subject: METEOROLOGY Can someone please help answer these discussion questions p
ID: 296541 • Letter: S
Question
Subject: METEOROLOGY
Can someone please help answer these discussion questions please!
Meteorology 10 Module 10 Discussion: Climate Change Policy As Earth's Climate System continues to change due to Human Activity, governments all across the world have spent the past 30 years trying to combat the negative impacts that we are having on our environment and on our climate system. This has resulted in a large number of local, state, federal and international climate policies. For this weeks discussion, research one of the environmental/climate policies below (please cite your sources) and answer the following questions: 1.(2pts) What is the policy, and who (what cities/states/countries) does it affect? 2.(2pts) What are the goals of the policy, and what are the key "rules"/features of the policy. 3.(2pts) What is the role that meteorologists and scientists played in creating the policy? 4.(2pts) Was the policy successful? If not, what where the main reasons for it's failure? Choose between one of the policies/governing bodies below: 1. The Kyoto Protocol 2. The Montreal Protocol 3. The San Jose Green Vision 4. California AB 32 5. The Paris Agreement 6. The Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)Explanation / Answer
Kyoto Protocol:
1) The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty which extends the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that commits State Parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the scientific consensus that (a) global warming is occurring and (b) it is extremely likely that human-made CO2 emissions have predominantly caused it. The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, on December 11, 1997 and entered into force on February 16, 2005. There are currently 192 parties (Canada withdrew effective December 2012) to the Protocol.
2)
Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, on 11 December 1997.
And it came into force on 16 February 2005.
Currently 192 parties have agreed to the Protocol.
Kyoto Protocol actually extends the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that commits State Parties to reduce greenhouse gas emission.
It puts the obligation to reduce current emissions on the developed countries.
The control measures are applied on six gases:
HydoFluoroCarbons (HFCs), CO2, PerFluorintedCarbons (PFCs), SF6, N2O and CH4.
It says that 37 industrialized nations plus the European Community have to cut their greenhouse gas emissions to certain percentage below 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012.
European Union have agreed to cut its emissions by 8% below 1990 levels, Japan by 7%, the United States by 7%, and Canada by 6%.
Over 100 developing countries, including China and India, were exempted from the treaty.
The protocol could not come into effect until at least 55 countries, accounting for 55% of the world's emissions in 1990, ratified it.
The Protocol states:
3) Meterologists & scientists play an important role in the policy making. They monitor the change in climatic conditions regularly. Increase or decrease in greenhouse gases or any other thing which is trying to imbalance the ecosystem. They have a check on countries which are amongst the major environment polluting countries & whoich are under polluting countries.Accordingly carbon credits were alloted to various countries deending on their area & population with the help of scientis & meterologits.
4) Kyoto protocol was not a failure. It could have achieved more if it had been ratified by the United States. Kyoto protocol led to the introduction of clean development mechanism. Binding targets of emission reduction were set for annex 1 countries. They had the flexibility to purchase carbon emission reduction certificates, if they could not meet their targets domestically. This led to the formation of a functional international carbon market.
It had some problems. The methodologies for calculation of emission reduction were ambiguous at times and there was a lot of scope for big players to take undue advantage of it. But at the same time, it helped in setting up a framework for carbon emissions from various human activities. It also helped in financing a large number of renewable energy projects. For example, companies like Suzlon in India progressed enormously due to CDM. Similarly, solar, wind, waste management etc., received a serious push.
One of the other advantage is that these project reports {more than 8000 projects}, are available for free access. Anyone planning to set up a new renewable project can access these and get help.