Practical Sustainability Strategies, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 11Addressing Climate Change

In 1987, James Hansen,¹ director of the Goddard Space Institute, appeared before Congress to present the current state of the warming atmosphere. He indicated that the earth is warming due to an increase in carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. Historically, the concentration of CO₂ in the atmosphere has been 280 parts per million (ppm). However, primarily due to the industrial revolution, the concentration has been increasing. Hansen indicated that if the concentration exceeded 350 ppm, it could cause environmental problems like rising seas from melting glaciers and ice sheets, and greater and more frequent storms. While the earth was being subjected to global warming, the impact from this warming was addressed as climate change.

In 1992, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) met in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to discuss how to address climate change. Five years later, the IPCC met again in Kyoto, Japan, and developed the Kyoto Principles, which established the reduction targets of CO₂ emissions such as 60–80% reduction from 1995 levels within 50 years. Target reductions were also set for shorter terms such as 15 years out. By 2012, which was 15 years after the Kyoto Protocol, the target was a reduction of 5% below the 1995 levels. Despite some efforts to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (GHGs), the emissions level were over 50% above the 1995 levels [1].

As mentioned in Chapter 1 (p. 16), ...