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NORTHERN CLIMATE CHANGE NETWORK LISTSERV
December/2009 – Issue 19
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December/2009 – Issue 19
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The NCCN newsletter focuses on climate change stories that foster greater awareness of community level climate change impacts and adaptation, and which have relevance to north-central British Columbia. Contributions from readers for future issues are welcome. Send us your ideas.
BC NEWS and LINKS
BC Premier attends the Copenhagen Climate Summit
The BC Government has announced that Premier Gordon Campbell will both attend and present at the United Nations Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen, Dec. 14-16. In a news release issued as the summit in Copenhagen begins, Premier Campbell stated ““Copenhagen is an exceptional opportunity to come together and work out a global roadmap for climate action that engages all levels of government to find a solution to the challenge of our generation…I will be in Copenhagen to support the federal government and represent British Columbia as a sub-national jurisdiction that is taking significant steps towards addressing climate change locally, and building national and international partnerships that are helping to tackle global warming on a larger scale.” The news release indicates that “in advance of the Copenhagen conference, British Columbia released a policy document today [Dec. 7, 2009] outlining detailed actions and policies it has committed to or has implemented and is encouraging other national and sub-national governments to consider. Download Climate Action for the 21st Century and view related information at www.gov.bc.ca/copenhagen.”
City of Prince George climate change adaptation reports
Two recently published reports highlight climate change impacts anticipated to affect Prince George, and possible adaptation strategies to address those impacts. Climate Change in Prince George: Summary of Past Trends and Future Projections can be downloaded from the Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium (PCIC) publications web page. A second report, Adapting to Climate Change in Prince George: An overview of adaptation priorities, builds on the first report.As noted in a report to Council of the City of Prince George, “The report prepared by Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium presents the climate change trends over the past century and the temperature and precipitation projections for the next 50 to 80 years. Using this information, a report prepared by the University of Northern British Columbia in conjunction with the City of Prince George, presents and prioritizes climate change impacts that have been identified through a series of workshops and next steps for considering climate change adaptation in the City’s OCP and Integrated Community Sustainability Plan (myPG).”
UNBC collaborates with Stellat’en First Nation to reduce community carbon footprint
Climate change researchers at the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) are working with the Stellat’en First Nation near Fraser Lake to help the First Nation reduce its carbon footprint. The website for the project states “This project seeks to foster awareness and significantly reduce the carbon footprint of the Stellat’en First Nation, situated near Fraser Lake, BC. An education campaign will be launched to explain to band members and Fraser Lake residents the contribution of greenhouse gases to climate change and some of its projected impacts in the 21st century. to estimate their carbon footprint… Following this assessment, the participants will be encouraged to reduce their carbon footprint by closely monitoring their daily activities that lead to carbon emissions.”
Chilcotin First Nation produces a Community-based Climate Change Adaptation Plan
A climate change project to produce a Community-based Climate Change Adaptation Plan is being undertaken by the Xeni Gwet’in First Nations Government, funded by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada and with assistance from UNBC researchers among others. The project will address risks of climate change to the Xeni Gwet’in Caretaker Area (XGCA), located within the Cariboo Region of British Columbia. Xeni Gwet’in First Nations Government is one of six Tsilhqot’in communities. The XGCA faces increased risk of forest fire, flooding, drought, fish and wildlife decline and resulting livelihood and subsistence impacts. In order to avoid or adapt to some of these impacts, the community needs to be aware of the risks and put in place measures to address them. The project will involve the development of: (1) a climate change impact assessment – determining quality of key assets and possible impacts of climate change; (2) a vulnerability & resilience assessment – examining capacity to cope and adapt climate impacts; (3) an adaptation strategy – identifying way to adapt to probable climate impacts; (4) adaptation initiatives – coordination of resources to begin adaptation; and (5) a monitoring initiative – an initial monitoring project of key environmental resources. More details are available on the EcoLibrio project website, or email John Lerner, Tine Rossing or Nancy Oppermann.
NEWS and LINKS from CANADA and ABROAD
NRTEE report on Adapting Infrastructure to Climate Change in Northern Canada
Canada’s National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy has released a new report entitled TRUE NORTH: Adapting Infrastructure to Climate Change in Northern Canada. According to NRTEE, “Canada’s North is on the frontline of climate change.” As noted on the media release web page, this requires “a comprehensive effort to ensure infrastructure and communities become more ready to adapt to expected climate changes leading to degrading permafrost, melting ice roads, storm surges and coastal erosion. Among its 16 recommendations, True North: Adapting Infrastructure to Climate Change in Northern Canada, suggests updating construction and engineering codes and standards, providing better weather and permafrost data and information, examining changes to the insurance system, and leveraging federal infrastructure funding to ensure that new infrastructure will be built with the changing climate in mind.” “Climate change is moving fastest in Arctic areas, requiring Canada to be a world leader in adaptation practices, more than we had even contemplated,” said Round Table Chair Bob Page. “We believe our report fills an important niche for the federal government in implementing its Northern Strategy.”
Boreal Forest Initiative report highlights importance of boreal forests
Tropical forests typically first come to mind when the world thinks of forests and their value to offset global warming. However, a recently released report states that the global impact of Canada’s boreal forest, which stores nearly twice as much carbon per hectare as tropical forests, has been vastly underestimated. The Carbon the World Forgot identifies the boreal forests of North America as not only the cornerstone habitat for key mammal species, but one of the most significant carbon stores in the world, the equivalent of 26 years of global emissions from burning fossil fuels, based on 2006 emissions levels. Globally, these forests store 22 percent of all carbon on the earth’s land surface.
Extreme Ice Survey
After traveling to Iceland to photograph glaciers in 2005 and subsequent work for National Geographic to document changing glaciers in various parts of the world (see June 2007 NG cover story, "The Big Thaw”), internationally acclaimed nature photojournalist James Balog has been leading the Extreme Ice Survey team in its efforts to capture images of the world’s rapidly receding glaciers. Mr. Balog is the author of Extreme Ice Now: Vanishing Glaciers and Changing Climate: A Progress Report, released by National Geographic Books in March 2009. His TED talk provides a brief discussion and powerful images of his work and conclusions regarding ice melt and climate change.
“The Elders” call for climate change action in Copenhagen
The Elders, a group of eminent global leaders brought together by Nelson Mandela and united by their concern about global issues including climate change, have raised their collective voice to call upon the heads of the 192 nations taking part in the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen to strengthen their commitments toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The Elders have issued an open letter to other world leaders, and thrown their support behind a global day of action on December 12th to press world leaders for a new treaty on climate change. As the world embarks on historic climate change negotiations in Copenhagen, The Elders have called on world leaders to take part in the talks and deliver a fair, ambitious, binding and effective deal. One recent activity of this influential group involved their meeting with their own grandchildren to discuss climate change and their future.
The Copenhagen Diagnosis science update report
A newly released report entitled The Copenhagen Diagnosis: Updating the World on the Latest Climate Science attempts to synthesize the most policy-relevant climate science published since the close-off of material for the last IPCC report. As noted in the report itself, the report’s authors "primarily comprise previous IPCC lead authors familiar with the rigor and completeness required for a scientific assessment of this nature." The media release and Executive Summary are also available.
EVENTS
The United Nations Climate Change Conference – December 7-18, 2009
Being described as “the largest and most important UN climate change conference in history”, the UN Climate Change Conference, also know as the Copenhagen Climate Summit or COP15, began on Monday, December 7th in Copehagen, Denmark. The Conference’s website notes that “diplomats from 192 nations warned that this could be the best, last chance for a deal to protect the world from calamitous global warming.” The purpose of the conference is to help forge a new global climate change treaty to follow upon the conclusion of the Kyoto Protocol. Additional information about the Conference can be found on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) website, including conference documents, speeches, events and exhibits. The UNFCCC is an international environmental treaty produced at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), informally known as the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The objective of the original treaty, and likewise of the current UN Climate Change Conference, is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous human-caused interference with Earth’s climate system.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES, REPORTS and LINKS
- U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) report Smart Growth for Coastal & Waterfront Communities.
- NOAA report indicates that the combined global land and ocean surface temperature was the second warmest September on record (records going back to 1880).
- International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) report Climate Change: Impact on Agriculture and Costs of Adaptation.
- A report by economists and climate change specialists at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP(PwC) in the UK indicates that very few of the G20 nations are on track to live within their carbon budgets for 2000-50.
- Nissan’s new electric car will be launched in Canada in 2011, beginning with British Columbia.
- The Scottish Government’s website on climate change action.
- Climate Change Adaptation Planning in British Columbia: A Case Study Investigation of Ecosystem Management in Mount Robson Provincial Park.
- National Geographic interactive presentation “Six Degrees Could Change the World”.
- A new map illustrating the global consequences of failing to keep climate change to under 2 degrees Celsius launched on October 22 by the UK Government.
- CBC interactive website illustrates carbon capture technology.
- Australian Government’s House of Representatives report: Managing Our Coastal Zone in a Changing Climate: The time to act is now.
- BBC story on the Pearl River Tower in China, which when completed will be “the most energy-efficient [office tower] in the world”.
- Cambridge University Press climate change-related “must-reads for Copenhagen”.
- Canadian Council of Forest Ministers (CCFM) report Vulnerability of Canada’s Tree Species to Climate Change and Management Options for Adaptation: An Overview for Policy Makers and Practitioners.
- CCFM report A Framework for Forest Management Offset Protocols.
- BC’s green power policy review.
- The Fuel Film, winner of the 2008 Sundance Festival Best Documentary Audience Award.
- BirdLife International report Partners with nature: How healthy ecosystems are helping the world’s most vulnerable adapt to climate change, with related website link and news story.
- CBC story on the “Climate Dirty Dozen” with interactive map showing greenhouse gas emissions and proposed reductions targets for the world’s 12 largest producers of greenhouse gas emissions.
- "Climate change in Google Earth" website invites users to explore the potential impacts of climate change on our planet Earth and learn about solutions for adaptation and mitigation in the context of the United Nations Climate Conference (COP15) in Copenhagen.
- Video of the Richard Dimbleby Lecture, titled “Facing the Future” as delivered by HRH The Prince of Wales on July 7th 2009, with perspectives on the themes of sustainability and climate change.
