CLIMATE CHANGE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

A keynote address on the occasion of the 2nd Joint UNILORIN-UCC Conference, 2-5 May 2011

by Professor Alfred A. Oteng-Yeboah University of Ghana Legon, Ghana

Outline of Address

• What is Climate Change?• What is Sustainable Development?• What roles does Agenda 21 play in the topic?• Causes of Climate Change• Physical evidence of Climate change• Main issues in Climate Change• The science of human induced climate change

Outline of address (contd.)

• Countering climate change effects: Global National Mitigation Adaptation• The Way Forward• What roles for Unilorin and UCC and others in

this enterprise?

What is climate change?

• The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change defines climate change as "a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods.“

• This definition is synonymous with global warming

What is Sustainable Development?

• Development that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”

Brundtland Commission 1987

Agenda 21

• information, integration, and participation as key building blocks to achieve development that recognizes these interdependent pillars.

• that everyone is a user and provider of information.

• the need to change from old sector-centred ways to new approaches that involve cross-sectoral co-ordination and the integration of environmental and social concerns into all development processes.

Components of Sustainable Development

The interrelationships among the components of Sustainable

Development

Causes of Climate Change

• Natural and man-made causes• Natural causes: plate tectonics, solar output,

orbital variations, volcanisms, ocean variability (El Niño-Southern Oscillation, the Pacific decadal oscillation, the North Atlantic oscillation, and the Arctic oscillation,).

Causes of Climate Change (contd.)

Alterations to ocean processes such as thermohaline circulation play a key role in redistributing heat by carrying out a very slow and extremely deep movement of water, and the long-term redistribution of heat in the world.

• Man-made causes from activities that increase CO2 levels (fossil fuel combustions, aerosols, cement manufacture, land use, ozone depletion, animal agriculture and deforestation) in the atmosphere

Physical evidence of Climate Change

• Past history & archaeological findings: old vegetation, ice cores, dendrochronology, pollen analysis, insects, sea level change, glacial geology

• Observations made about Climate Change: world climate changes, earth’s terrestrial and marine ecosystems assessment in climate change

What are the main issues of Climate Change?

• global temperatures up by 0.6°C within the last 130 years. That threshold marker for dangerous climate change identifies an increase of 2°C (3.6°F) in average global temperature (over pre-industrial levels) as an advisable ceiling. Beyond this point, the risk of abrupt and catastrophic climate change emerges;

Main issues of climate change (contd)

• GHGs are rising with CO2 concentrations increasing over 30% within the last 130 years, that there is a growing consensus on the need for urgent action to reduce the Green House Gas (GHG) emissions. The understanding is that we adopt the global objective to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by 2050, compared to the1990 level owing to the decadal residence time of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Main issues of climate change (contd.)

• Current estimates put the annual global emissions of CO2 due to human activities at about 10 gigatons, of which about 1.5 Gt is from land use change (mainly deforestation)

• Climate change is affecting agriculture, forestry, water and several other livelihood sources. It is affecting social order, environmental cohesion and economic growth. Thus affecting sustainable development.

The world as seen from Apollo 17 spacecraft

Thermohaline circulation

Retreat of the Glaziers

Glazier thickness change

Polar icebergs melting

Polar bears at risk from ice melt

Global increase in carbon dioxide emission

Increase in carbon dioxide concentration

Temperature increases in °C

Sea storms

Hurricanes, tornadoes, cyclone

Increase in tropical diseases eg malaria from mosquito spread

Flooding affecting transportation

Flooding affecting home security

Crop productionDrought affecting

What is the science of human induced climate change?

• Global warming, which is the warming of the earth`s surface, is caused by excessive greenhouse effect on the atmosphere

• The term greenhouse is used to describe the increased concentration of Carbon dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4), Nitrogen oxide (N2O), Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), Perfluorocarbons (PFCs), Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) in the atmosphere which act as shields like glass and cover the earths surface

A Green house structure

Green house effect from GHGs

Fire as useful/ destructive tool in land-use

Land-use: removal of forest

Land-use: monoculture plantation

Land-use: displacement of ‘Orangutan ’in Indonesian forests

Land and water degradation

Flood victims

Model of balancing GHG emissions

A nation’s effort to confront the climate change challenge

The African Vulnerability

Countering the effects of Climate Change

• Global: Decisions of and recommendations from international processes of MEAs,[ eg. COPs of UNFCCC, CBD, UNCCD, Ramsar, CMS, CITES, POPs etc.], of UN organizations [eg. FAO, IMO, UNEP, UNESCO, UNIDO etc.]; of other international organizations [ IUCN, WWF, Bioversity, Wetlands International, BirdLife, etc.]; Provision and actualization of Financial Mechanisms [eg. GEF, WB,CDM, Kyoto Protocol, REDD+]

Countering the effects (Contd)

• National: : Implementation of these decisions at the national, regional, district and community levels; strategic and action plans development; governance, institutional coordination and monitoring; communication and education; capacity development and knowledge management; Gender mainstreaming;

Global efforts

• Decisions: transforming REDD from a discussion point into a global mitigation mechanism REDD+, formally recognized by the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC); recognition of Climate Change as a global challenge, needing a global solution with financing, technology development and transfer, and technical support for climate mitigation and adaptation.;

• Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) working through the working groups and the Subsidiary Body on Science and Technological Advice (SBSTA) of the UNFCCC to give credible scientific reports to inform decisions of the COP; All the other MEAs are to adopt programmes of work that reflect climate change issues towards adaptation and mitigation

National efforts

• Develop strategic and action plans for both mitigation (National Appropriate Mitigation Action) and adaptation (NAPA) approaches;

• seize mitigation opportunities such as promotion of low carbon technologies (eg. Direct business opportunities, cost reduction, access to international funding, creating more robust and stable economy, private sector involvement in promoting low-carbon power generation);

National efforts (contd)

• firmly adopt REDD+ to reduce emissions from deforestation, reduce emissions from forest degradation, conserve forest carbon stocks, manage forests sustainably, and enhance forest carbon stocks;

• provide a national forest reference emission level and/or forest reference level;

National efforts (contd)

• undertake a robust and transparent national forest monitoring system for the monitoring and reporting of the activities;

• address drivers of deforestation and forest degradation, land tenure issues, forest governance issues and gender considerations

The Way Forward

• The idea of thinking globally and acting locally can be reinforced

• The desire should capitalize on the current momentum at the global level on the climate change concern that is engaging and influencing governments for proper financial outlays and national actions.

• there should be cooperation among countries to pursue the following programmes: the Great Green Wall for the Sahel and Sahara Initiative (GGWSSI), the Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILLS), the river basin and catchment areas of the Congo, the Lake Chad, the Lake Victoria, the Niger, the Nile, the Volta, the Limpopo etc

• There should be cooperation for the Abidjan and Nairobi Conventions respectively that consider the protection, management and development including the health and productivity of marine and coastal environments of the Benguela, Canary and Guinea and West Indian Ocean (WIO) Large Marine Ecosystems

What roles for Unilorin and UCC and others in this enterprise?

• As a matter of urgency, Establish a centre or unit within the universities to:

• Participate in national actions (NAMA,NAPA) to inform the public and integrate into curricular

• Be part of the REDD+ process, provide standard knowledge in state and trends in national forest reference emissions for monitoring

• Be part of the knowledge mining of information on land-use and land-use change in relation to gender and livelihoods

• Develop research profiles to understand and address drivers of deforestation and forest land degradation

• influence policy makers to undertake low carbon growth policies

• Use these platforms of joint conferences to share ideas and forge ahead on issues of sustainable development.

• As a concluding paragraph, I will like to challenge Unilorin and UCC to live up to your vision of training the minds of students to acquire knowledge, catalysing and advancing knowledge to inform the public for sustainable development.

• One major entry point to this is your devotion to finding solutions to effects of climate change on all aspects of sustainable development

THANK YOU