Panel featuring Drs. Herman E. Daly, Bernd Steinmüller, and Peter Fox-Penner
will be moderated by Third Planet President, Robert Farmer
Fresh from its NGO participation at COP15 in Copenhagen, Third Planet is pleased to announce it has organized and will moderate a breakout session “After Copenhagen: The Economics and Physics of Implementing the COP 15 Agreements” for the 10th National Conference on Science, Policy, and the Environment: The New Green Economy in Washington, DC, January 20-22.
Third Planet is honored to present an informed discussion featuring three outstanding panelists:
The discussion will be moderated by Third Planet president, Robert Farmer.
“Whatever agreements come out of COP15, the future direction of climate change-related solutions in the United States will be guided largely by the actions of local and regional governments. Many people view climate change as the symptom of a much larger problem: the absence of sustainable development,” said Mr. Farmer.
“How do we therefore bring about sustainable development as a prescription for climate change at the local and regional level? What are the roles of government, the private sector and non-government organizations in effecting this change? How might we set planning priorities based on sustainable development? How do we bring about the incremental change necessary to transition to a sustainable future? Fortunately this session features speakers who have a wealth of knowledge and experience to address the simple question: how do we do it?”
Third Planet’s session is on Thursday, January 21st from 1:30 pm – 5:00 pm at the Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center, Washington, DC.
Following this session, Professor Herman Daly will receive the NCSE’s Lifetime Achievement Award for 2010. (For more information on Professor Daly and the award visit http://ncseonline.org/conference/greeneconomy/cms.cfm?id=3439 )
Third Planet (www.thethirdplanet.org) is a St. Augustine-based 501(c)(3) non-profit NGO founded in 1999. Its program work contributes to capacity-building for community-wide climate and energy planning, systems, and technology deployment, at local and regional levels through education, training and public awareness.
Third Planet has engaged in a diverse range of local and international capacity-building projects and is recognized as a source of balanced information on energy, sustainable development, and global climate change.
NCSE’s signature national conference will engage leading thinkers and doers from a diversity of disciplines, sectors, and perspectives in a structured conversation about the meaning of the green economy and how investment in green education, research and jobs can help solve both the economic and environmental crises.
Welcoming over 1000 attendees, The New Green Economy will bring together leaders in sustainable business, environmental policymakers, civil society, university faculty, students from across the nation, and educated citizens.
NCSE leverages a multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral approach to bring together involved scientists and decision makers from a wide range of organizations. Our conferences are highly interactive, including renowned speakers, topical symposia to explore issues in more depth, and breakout sessions to develop (and publish) recommendations on how to advance science and connect it with policy and decision-making.
For more information: http://ncseonline.org/conference/greeneconomy/.
Prior to the recent Conference of the Parties (COP15) in Copenhagen a great many nations announced proposals to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The proposals were varied and covered many different base and target years making for very difficult and complex analysis.
A simulator was created to effectively handle the analysis, add up the proposed greenhouse gas reduction goals for every nation, and calculate the temperature increase expected in 2100. It generates a value for expected temperature rise and a range depending on how strongly temperature responds to emissions. The simulator was built by Sustainability Institute, Ventana Systems, and MIT.
The following live graphic, the Climate Interactive Scoreboard, is a visual representation of the simulator’s results and updates interactively when proposals change.
Although there are no binding commitments in the Copenhagen Accord, the Parties agreed to take action to meet the objective of holding the increase in global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius. This is the temperature rise above the pre-industrial level considered the threshold for ‘dangerous climate change’.
The Accord also references strengthening long-term goals “in relation to temperature rises of 1.5 degrees Celsius”, an acknowledgement of the concerns of small island states and other low-lying nations who have been calling for a 1.5°C limit to the rise in global average temperature.
An analysis of national proposals just prior to COP15 projected a temperature rise of 3.9°C by 2100 which is lower than “business as usual” and indicates progress is being made. But it also shows we have much further to go.
The Copenhagen Accord requires Annex 1 Parties (developed countries) to submit “quantified economy-wide emissions targets for 2020”, and developing country Parties to submit “nationally-appropriate mitigation actions” to the UNFCCC Secretariat by January 31, 2010.
This could result in significant changes to the Climate Interactive Scoreboard.
In short order, the simulator has become an important tool in both the negotiations and for countries setting targets.
The U.S. Department of State is using the simulator to understand the impacts of country proposals and to share their findings with other parties to the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework on Climate Change). Jonathan Pershing, the senior U.S. climate negotiator, demonstrated its capabilities to the Parties meeting in Bonn earlier last year. It was also demonstrated at the U.S. Center at COP15 in Copenhagen.
Without action the global average temperature will rise above pre-industrial levels, and possibly at an accelerated rate. As a Climate Interactive Scoreboard video (click link in upper right corner of graphic) explains, “preventing temperature increase would mean safer coastal cities, more surviving species, increased food security, more access to freshwater, improved public health, and improved security for all.”
Visit our home page (or this post) frequently, especially in the next couple of weeks, to see the changes for yourself.
What will be the January 31st reading? Wouldn’t it be great if the national proposals bring the temperature in 2100 down from today’s reading of 3.9 degrees Celsius.