Reflection on Paris Agreement: Part 1

by admin | Dec 27, 2015 | Blog, MYD2015, UNFCCC

December 12, 2015 marks an emotional anchor for people involve in climate change. When the clock strike 7 in the evening, the Paris Agreement was born. I was watching through webcast, I could heard copious cheer and clapping in the plenary hall. I spotted some of the delegates broke down in tears. Whether it was a joyful tear or a miserable one, I yet to know the answer.

I would say nothing is perfect. It is clear that this newborn “baby” should be a cause for both the good and, the bad. This article will focus on my personal reflection on the good side of Paris Agreement.

1) Ambitious temperature goal
Prior to arriving at Paris for COP21, I was wondering whether all Parties will agree on 2 °C. The line “holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels” secured its way into the final text (Article 2; page 22). I did not see that coming.

In plain text, all Parties agreed to limit the temperature increase to below 2 °C and if possible aimed to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. The agreement put a solid figure on the amount of GHG emission allowed to be released, which is 40 gigatonnes (page 4).

2) Welcome back multilateral-ism, at least for now
Let us wind back the clock for a glimpse of history. 15th meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP) was deemed as a setback due to the leaked of “Copenhagen Accord” that will cause economic handicap to developing country, if ratified. “Danish Text” is a proposal written by US and England and submitted to Denmark. The text which was done secretly, proposed that developed countries are able to pollute twice the amount of developing countries till 2050. As a result, developing countries became indignant that the text was developed, without their knowledge and, without discussion in the negotiations. (For more info, please click here). Due to the collapse of COP15, the parties were forced to go back to the drawing board and multilateral process was literally “doom”.

Followed by COP16, or also known as Cancun Agreement, which put an agreed distinct figure on keeping the maximum average global temperature rise as 2 °C, COP17 launched a new platform termed the Durban Platform. This new protocol comes with new round of negotiation with new tracks to produce the now famous, Paris Agreement. It took 5 years to build back the trust among parties. As a result, the Paris Agreement was successfully adopted. This is definitely something we should celebrate for.

3) Accepted by all Parties
Paris Agreement is accepted and approved by 196 countries Parties, making it the largest universal [legally binding] agreement. As compared to Kyoto Protocol, Paris agreement will also be the first, that is able to “call” the rich and poor to take action to limit GHG emissions and to save the world together.

The agreement is seen as an achievement to Obama administration as it need not undergo the Senate’s advice and consent process. Majority of the Senate, are Republicans, who dispute the fact that climate change is caused by anthropological activities. They are climate change deniers. For more information regarding this, you may read from here.

A new working group called Ad Hoc Working Group on the Paris Agreement will be established. I am not sure about the actual abbreviation but I would like to name it as APA. Why APA? Because it is an Agreement to Protect All. (I know it is lame, but please bear with me.) ‘Apa’ in Malaysian language also means ‘what’. So what is the function of Ad Hoc Working Group on the Paris Agreement?

The following bullet lists are extracted from the the main text and edited accordingly.

• shall prepare for the entry into force of the Agreement and for the convening of the first session of the COP serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement;
• to oversee the implementation of the work programme resulting from the relevant requests contained in this decision;
• to report regularly to the COP on the progress of its work and to complete its work by the first session of the COP serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement;
• shall hold its sessions starting in 2016 in conjunction with the sessions of the Convention subsidiary bodies and shall prepare draft decisions to be recommended through the COP

For my next article, I will be writing on the downside of the agreement; to create a fair view, for readers to weigh on the pros and cons.

Written by: Thomas Lai
Edited by: Merryn Choong

How Climate Change Affects the World

by admin | Dec 27, 2015 | Blog, MYD2015, UNFCCC

On the 8th of December, I attended an event called “Impacts and Solutions to the Climate Crisis” which was delivered by Mr. Al Gore. He gave a brief explanation on the science behind climate change and explained how it affects our livelihood. Hence, this gave me the urge to write an article about it.

Energy has always been a key to rapid economic growth. The demand for electricity has been increasing dramatically with the ending of World War II. The widespread usage of fossil fuels (e.g. petroleum, coal and natural gas), particularly in generating electricity, generated unprecedented prosperity for most of the developed countries.

Picture extracted from The Big Era Nine

Based on the 4th assessment report of IPCC, fossil fuels provide almost 80% of our world energy supply. In other words, CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuel accounts for around 80% of total global emissions.

As shown in the picture below, excessive greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will cause a chain of catastrophic events that puts the future of Earth at stake.

As citizens of the world, we can stop this from happening.

“The total amount of man-made global warming pollution surrounding the planet and the atmosphere today now traps enough energy every 24 hours to equal the energy release by 400,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs going off every single day,” – Al Gore

There are various impacts of climate change. I will pick a few to be mentioned in this article.

1. Thawing permafrost
   Permafrost is a permanently frozen soil that stores massive amounts of carbon. Due to global warming, permafrost starts to melt and releases stored carbon in the form of carbon dioxide and methane (GHG gases).The thawing of permafrost has been known to cause erosion especially in coastal areas. Without permafrost, the ground above and below lost its nature barrier and become more vulnerable to erosion. Ground settling can cause damage to infrastructure. As stated in the UNEP report, infrastructure failure can cause severe environmental consequences, as seen in the 1994 breakdown of the pipeline to the Vozei oilfield in Northern Russia. It resulted in a spill of 160,000 tons of oil, causing the world’s largest terrestrial oil spill. Moreover, thawing of permafrost exposes the soil ground. Soil ground has the tendency to absorb more heat, causing the ground temperature to increase. Warmer ground temperature causes new plants that adapt to warmer climate to replace tundra plants. Since plants are the primary producer in the ecosystem pyramid, a single shift will change the whole ecosystem. You can click here to know more about permafrost.
2. Rising of sea level
   Oceans are considers as an excellent heat absorber. Ninety percent of the extra heat in our atmosphere (mostly caused by anthropogenic activities) are absorbed by our ocean. This causes the ocean to become warmer and expand. Warmer sea water speeds up the melting of ice and contribute to rising level of sea water. In addition, the increase of carbon dioxide concentration in the ocean triggers chemical reaction and form carbolic acid, causing our ocean to become more acidic. Acidic water will cause corals to bleach and this affects our whole ecosystem.
   

   Picture: Al Gore delivering his speech during the event

3. Extreme weather patternsClimate change increases the frequency and severity of extreme weather events. Warmer ocean causes higher evaporation rate of water. Increased evaporation rate results in higher occurrence of storms, causing more destructive hurricane/typhoon to happen. The deterioration of the environment and society affects the most vulnerable communities. One of the solid examples would be Typhoon Haiyan. Philippine was hit by Typhoon Haiyan in November 2013 and it is the deadliest natural disaster ever recorded in the country’s history.As the atmosphere become warmer, it holds more moisture and this is expected to intensify downpour, causing more flood to country such as United Kingdom. Due to “the law of water cycle”, harder downpours is expected and longer droughts will persist in naturally arid areas such as South Africa and Syria.
4. Food price hike
   Extreme weather patterns has a dramatic impact on agriculture. Insufficient agricultural production will trigger food crisis and eventually causing price hike. Inevitably, one of the most vulnerable groups are the farmers. They have to struggle to keep up with the increasingly extreme weather patterns while contend with the increase attack of pests and diseases. Food crisis will hinder the effort of poverty eradication and education, putting pressure on health and eventually affects the economic.

We are feeling the climate change’s fast growing impact now. – Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India

Written by: Thomas Lai
Edited by : Merryn Choong