The Politics of Global Warming

1
The Politics of Global Warming

• Think Globally, Act Locally

2
Recap of last lesson

• What is Global Warming?
• What gases are responsible?
• co2, Methane, CFCs, Nitrous oxide
• 2 pieces of evidence that it is occurring
• Temperature increase
• Carbon in the atmosphere
• Impacts of Global Warming 6 pics
• Case Study- impacts of GW in the UK

3
The Politics-

• Responsibility for global warming is not equally
  shared around the world
• The major contributors are (in order of amount of
  carbon emissions)
• USA
• EU
• China
• Russia
• Japan
• India

4
To what degree are they responsible?

• USA
• Total CO2 emissions 5,410 (million metric
  tons per year)
• Emissions per capita 20.1
• Percentage of CO2 emissions 36
• Percentage of world population 4.6
• Percentage of world economy 30

• China
• Total CO2 emissions 2,893 (million metric
  tons per year)
• Emissions per capita 2.3
• Percentage of CO2 emissions 13
• Percentage of world population 21
• Percentage of world economy 3.2

• EU
• Total CO2 emissions 3,171 (million metric
  tons per year)
• Emissions per capita 8.5
• Percentage of CO2 emissions 14
• Percentage of world population 6.3
• Percentage of world economy 23

5
To what degree are they responsible?

• Russia
• Total CO2 emissions 1,416 (million metric
  tons per year)
• Emissions per capita 9.6
• Percentage of CO2 emissions 6.2
• Percentage of world population 2.5
• Percentage of world economy 1.3

• India
• Total CO2 emissions 908 (million metric tons
  per year)
• Emissions per capita 0.99
• Percentage of CO2 emissions 4
• Percentage of world population 17
• Percentage of world economy 1.4

• Japan
• Total CO2 emissions 1,128 (million metric
  tons per year)
• Emissions per capita 8.9
• Percentage of CO2 emissions 5
• Percentage of world population 2
• Percentage of world economy 14

6
The solution to the pollution-
The Kyoto Protocol

• The Kyoto Protocol came into force on 16 February
  2005
• It is an international and legally binding
  agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
  worldwide, to limit the impact of climate change
• The Kyoto Protocol is a major international
  effort to limit climate change by setting targets
  for nations to cut their emissions
• It has now come into force and its emission
  reduction commitments are international law

7
Political Problems

• Getting the Protocol agreed and into law has been
  a complicated and lengthy process
• The US pollutes more, absolutely and per head,
  than any other country
• Its greenhouse emissions have risen by more than
  11 since 1990 its Kyoto commitment was to
  reduce them by 6.
• It is the only country to have signed the
  protocol and then to have repudiated it.
  President Bush said in March 2001 the US would
  not ratify Kyoto, because he thought it could
  damage the US economy
• After a delay of two years, Russia finally
  ratified the treaty on 18 November, 2004
• Once Russia had ratified, the 90 day countdown to
  Kyoto coming into force began, and this is how we
  get the 16 February start date
• The EU wants a rigorous application of Kyoto

8
So what does Kyoto mean?

• Kyoto could only start if the countries involved
  were responsible for 55 of all global emissions
• The countries involved will all have individual
  targets
• Britain will reduce emissions by 12.5
• Some nations will be allowed to increase
  emissions
• Russia is letting some of its allowance out to
  developing nations

• The gases that the Protocol aims to reduce
  include
• carbon dioxide, which is produced by fossil fuel
  power stations
• methane - produced by landfill sites, cattle
  rearing and rice growing
• nitrous oxide - from car fumes, fuel burning and
  also a naturally occurring microbial action in
  soil
• hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, which were
  both used to replace ozone eating CFCs, but still
  contribute to global warming
• and sulphur hexafluoride which is mainly used in
  insulating material for high-voltage equipment
  like circuit breakers at utilities

9
3 Tasks

• Read Pages 88 89
• Answer Question 1
• Explain this statement-
• Think Globally, Act Locally

10
End of Topic

• No more than 25 minutes to answer Q4
• Peer Marking- swap your paper with someone else
  to mark
• Feedback
• Review other possible questions
• Review unit

11
Homework

• Answer the essay (taken from 2004 paper)-
• Identify and explain the atmospheric processes
  responsible for the formation of tropical
  revolving storms