REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) has the potential to be an amazing program, but only with strategic planning as well as careful management. While there are many benefits to the conservation of forest, a type of carbon sink which sequesters a large amout of CO2 emissions from the atmosphere, there are certain issues that can affect the programs effectiveness and success. One of these problems is leakage, which essentially is an increase of deforestation outside areas outside of areas where there are restrictions. To read more about REDD, please read our Key Issues Paper.
Distribution of CDM projects by country
As Grace, Luan and I discovered as we researched Flexibility Mechanisms, the number of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects in Africa is dismally small when compared the number of projects in countries like China, India and Brazil. However, it seems like this trend may be changing. The UN just released a report that suggests the number of CDM projects in Africa is increasing; 112 projects are at ‘validation, requesting registration of registered.” Those numbers are up from 78 projects in 2008, and only 2 projects in 2004. This trend illuminates the important role African governments will play in promoting flexibility mechanisms, especially CDM, at the Copenhagen Negotiations. Experts also suggest however, that governments must support, “small market mechanisms in order to manage some of the special kinds of risks that might be holding back such projects in Africa.”
Country Risk Coverage, or insurance against civil unrest or a breach of contract, is playing a more and more important role in CDM implementation. Currently these risks often deter investments. Another reason for the lack of CDM project in Africa, is that developed nations don’t see investments in small scale projects as lucrative. Investment in large projects represents larger emissions reductions. Programmatic CDM, in which many smaller projects are combined to create one large project is a solution to this problem, however, incentive to invest still presents a huge problem to the success of this project.
Also, here is a very interesting article on Nigeria’s position on Climate Change. The country sees great potential for flexibility mechanism in their future, especially CDM projects.
This article however, reiterates a troubling notion: a substantial deal will (most likely) not be made this December in Copenhagen.
Nigeria
“The United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, has severally urged both rich and poor countries, developed and developing nations alike, to join hands to ‘seal the deal’ on climate change, so that the world can be a safer place.
The message is that if there is no deal in Copenhagen, the world is doomed to a future of global warming that leads to rising seas, glacial melting, floods and agricultural productivity losses.
Analysts believe that despite all the attention given to this crisis in the last couple of years, a deal appears far from being on the table.”
Tags: China, Clean Development Mechanism, climate change, Danielle Hoffman, developing countries, Flexible Mechanisms, Grace Lange, India, Luan Nguyen
The principle of common but differentiated responsibilities was interpreted as Annex II countries did not have any binding and quantified GHG reduction goals, but instead, the whole burden fell onto Annex I countries. However, Annex I countries wanted binding reduction target for not only themselves, but also fast growing Annex II countries, which was the reason that Annex I countries never really fulfilled their promise of proving Annex II countries with necessary financial and technology assistance. As climate change problem has become more and more exigent and pressing, Annex II countries have reiterated their posision many times that they hope Annex I countries could fulfill their promise. Annex II countries are not able to tackle the issue by themselves so that they need Annex I countries’ help.
Some developing countries, most of them are facing huge threat of climate change, have drafted a declaration wishing the draw attention to those places who are the most vulnerable ones when facing adverse climate impacts. Expectations for both developed countries and themselves are stated in the declaration.
Fresh Demands From “Front-Line States” in Climate Fight
US president Obama is currently visiting China. At the same time, China is suffering from extremely unusual snows storms in most parts of the country that has already caused many deaths. Climate change is real, urgent, and life threatening. I am curious if this unaccustomed weather will have any affect on China’s position. As two world’s largest GHG emitters, Obama has said: “unless both of our countries are willing to take critical steps in dealing this issue, we will not be able to resolve it.” During the talk between the US and China presidents, both of them have expressed their willingness to cooperate and to work on clean-energy projects.
We are hoping to see developed countries, especially United States, could take the lead in the tackling the issue. And in the coming Copenhagen conference, the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities will get better defined that meets the interest of both Annex I and Annex II countries.
Tags: common but differentiated responsibilities, developing countries
Rob Hopkins
Meet Rob Hopkins. In 1990, Rob was an artist, traveling in the Hunza Valley of Northern Pakistan. Now he’s an educator, a permaculture designer, a natural builder, and cofounder of the transition town movement. So what happened in that valley to turn a young artist into an internationally known educator and author? Well, Rob caught a glimpse of “resiliency,” a concept rather foreign to us here in the US. Resilience, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is “an ability to recover or adjust easily to misfortune or change.” As a society, we are not very resilient. Almost everything we do on a day-to-day basis is dependent on cheap energy (fossil fuels). There are two problems with this addiction: Climate Change and Peak Oil.
If you’re reading this article, you probably know about climate change. But just to recap: the Earth is warming and human green house gas emissions are the driving force. Greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ext) released largely from the burning of fossil fuels has upset Earth’s climate stability. The Union of Concerned Scientists asserts that we must stabilize the global concentration of atmospheric green house gasses at 450 parts per million (ppm) in order to ensure a 50% or “medium chance,” of avoiding “dangerous climate change” – a temperature rise of more than 2 degrees Celsius. To reach stability at 450 ppm, society must reduce green house gas emissions by 80% by 2050. This means, industrialized nations must reach their peak emissions rate by 2010 and developing nations must peak emissions between 2020 and 2025. Pretty serious stuff.
Chart Depicting Green House Gas Emissions
Without cheap fossil fuels, our society wouldn’t function. We rely on fossil fuel energy, especially oil, for everything. Take a moment to look around. Pick an object that catches your eye and think about it’s life cycle. Where did it come from, who made it, what materials comprise it, how did it get to you? Chances are, oil is a key ingredient of each of these steps. We’ve lived this way since most of us can remember. Oil is a magical substance; it has allowed us to advance our society exponentially. But oil is a finite resource, and we’ve become so addicted to it, we literally depend on its availability. Peak oil is therefore the other side of the Transition story. It is a concept rarely discussed, but of monumental importance. We are not going to run out of oil. What really matters is the peak, the point at which availability and access to oil starts to decline. From this peak point onward, oil becomes more difficult to find and extract and more expensive to use. Scientists from many disciplines are postulating that world oil production has already peaked. I won’t get into the science, but do some research and come to your own conclusions. The point is our society relies on oil for every aspect of our lives, and this cheap source of energy is becoming increasingly scarce and therefore increasingly expensive, in every way. This is frightening.
When Rob Hopkins returned from Pakistan, he discovered the “hydrocarbon twins,” peak oil and climate change. Instead of shaking his head and saying, “Geez, this is terrible,” and waiting for something to happen, he asked, “What can I do…what can we do?” And the transition initiative was born.
Transition Initiatives are based on four key assumptions:
- Life with dramatically lower energy consumption is inevitable, and it’s better to plan for it now, and make changes while oil is still relatively cheap and available, than to be taken by surprise.
- Our settlements and communities presently lack the resilience to enable them to weather the severe energy shocks that will accompany peak oil and climate change.
- We have to act collectively and we have to act now.
- By unleashing the collective genius of those around us to creatively and proactively design our energy decent, we can build ways of living that are more connected, more enriching and that recognize the biological limits of our planet.
Transition USA Logo
All around the world, communities ranging from small villages in Devon to cities in the US are asking the question:
“For all those aspects of life that this community needs in order to sustain itself and thrive, how are we going to:
- Significantly rebuild resilience (in response to peak oils)
- Drastically reduce carbon emissions (in response to climate change)”
Nearly 250 communities in 11 countries are currently registered as official initiatives, and many more are forming, even as you read this. Transition initiatives empower individuals to take responsibility for their lives and their connection with the planet. But more importantly transition movements raise awareness about climate change and peak oil in a solution oriented way. Peak oil and climate change can be debilitating and frightening- what we’re talking about is the end life as we know it and many people find this notion horrifyingly hopeless. But others see this as an exciting opportunity to redesign the way we inhabit this earth with intention, inspiration and ingenuity. A response is necessary now, and as Hopkins says in The Transition Handbook, “unless we can create this sense of anticipation, elation and a collective call to adventure on a wider scale, any government responses will be doomed to failure, or will need to battle protractedly against the will of the people.”
Engage in conversation with your friends and neighbors about peak oil and climate change, and instead of lamenting on their doomsday implications, talk about what we’re going to do to address them. Then pull some more friends into the discussion and start your own Transition Initiative. The future is in our hands, so we might as well start now!
Visit www.transitiontowns.org for more information
This article will be published in the Fall 2009 addition of LEAVES, the Dickinson College Center for Sustainable Living , a.k.a TreeHouse semesterly publication.
Tags: citizen action, climate change, Danielle Hoffman, interconnectivity, Peak Oil, transition town initiative
The flexibility mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol to the UNFCCC were created to offer a cost efficient way of reducing carbon emissions. The two main flexibility mechanisms are emissions trading and the Clean Development Mechanism. In theory, these mechanisms could reduce global carbon emissions while simultaneously spreading awareness about climate change and helping to end poverty in the developing world. In reality, these mechanisms have not been successful in reducing overall emissions or contributing to sustainable development due to a few main failures in the system: the lack of reinforcement; the vagueness of the rule that offsets must be in ‘addition’ to those cut domestically; and the transactions costs of trading…
Your Comments