THIS week I would like to give Sowetan readers a sneak peek into the world of "climate negotiations".
Yes, it does sound strange. Can we really negotiate on the climate? Can we negotiate what tomorrow's temperature or rainfall should be?
The short answer is: we cannot negotiate tomorrow's rainfall or temperature, but we can negotiate how we - as human beings - will influence future weather patterns.
Previously, we talked about how "Planet Earth" is "catching a fever" and we discussed how the earth is progressively getting hotter due to - us, as humans - generating greenhouse gases (GHGs).
Let us focus on what countries, and specifically governments, are doing about climate change. Surely, if you as an individual can have an effect on drastic weather changes - known as climate change - then, collectively, as a country, we have a bigger influence and responsibility (on helping to reduce the adverse effects or impact on the atmosphere).
In terms of negotiations by world leaders on climate change, governments across the world get together and discuss related production trends and how to reduce these. The United Nations offers a platform for countries to discuss climate change.
Descriptions of these meetings, especially the UN climate meetings, sound like a geography lesson since they use the host city's name when they refer to the meeting.
That is why we have had in the past the Kyoto Protocol (Kyoto is a city in Japan), Copenhagen Meeting (Copenhagen is a city in Denmark) and so the list goes on. No need to be intimidated by these names, or the endless abbreviations dotted across the climate change arena.
During these meetings, countries negotiate on various topics - including how each country is willing to reduce their greenhouse gases (GHG) production rates and so on. "Willing" seems to be a strange word to use. Surely, if GHG production is bad, then we would all want to reduce it?
This is true, but frequently GHG production is linked to energy usage. The energy is then again used by industry to generate products like cars, washing machines or services. All these industries create jobs, which leads to a country doing well economically.
The result is that we are in a painful transition period, where we realise that - as counties - we need to produce less GHGs, but do not yet have a definite way forward (or sometimes cannot afford) to change to less GHG intensive fuels or technologies. (This might only be a perception and not based on the truth, but it is still a common perception.) And this is exactly what countries negotiate on during climate negotiations.
The United Nation's next big climate conference will be held in Durban from November 28 to December 9.
This conference is generally referred to as the "COP17" or the "Durban COP". Now, "COP" is one of those abbreviations I was referring to, and is an abbreviation for the 17th meeting of the Conference of Parties.
You will also notice that another city name, Durban, has sneaked in. Luckily for us, as South Africans, it is easier to remember, or place Durban geographically, as compared to some of the other cities these conferences were held previously.
- Definition of a greenhouse gas: Any of the atmospheric gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect, by absorbing infrared radiation produced by solar warming of the earth's surface.
l Source: The American Heritage Science Dictionary by Houghton Mifflin Company. Reference: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/greenhouse+gas
Climate talks heating up
THIS week I would like to give Sowetan readers a sneak peek into the world of "climate negotiations".
Yes, it does sound strange. Can we really negotiate on the climate? Can we negotiate what tomorrow's temperature or rainfall should be?
The short answer is: we cannot negotiate tomorrow's rainfall or temperature, but we can negotiate how we - as human beings - will influence future weather patterns.
Previously, we talked about how "Planet Earth" is "catching a fever" and we discussed how the earth is progressively getting hotter due to - us, as humans - generating greenhouse gases (GHGs).
Let us focus on what countries, and specifically governments, are doing about climate change. Surely, if you as an individual can have an effect on drastic weather changes - known as climate change - then, collectively, as a country, we have a bigger influence and responsibility (on helping to reduce the adverse effects or impact on the atmosphere).
In terms of negotiations by world leaders on climate change, governments across the world get together and discuss related production trends and how to reduce these. The United Nations offers a platform for countries to discuss climate change.
Descriptions of these meetings, especially the UN climate meetings, sound like a geography lesson since they use the host city's name when they refer to the meeting.
That is why we have had in the past the Kyoto Protocol (Kyoto is a city in Japan), Copenhagen Meeting (Copenhagen is a city in Denmark) and so the list goes on. No need to be intimidated by these names, or the endless abbreviations dotted across the climate change arena.
During these meetings, countries negotiate on various topics - including how each country is willing to reduce their greenhouse gases (GHG) production rates and so on. "Willing" seems to be a strange word to use. Surely, if GHG production is bad, then we would all want to reduce it?
This is true, but frequently GHG production is linked to energy usage. The energy is then again used by industry to generate products like cars, washing machines or services. All these industries create jobs, which leads to a country doing well economically.
The result is that we are in a painful transition period, where we realise that - as counties - we need to produce less GHGs, but do not yet have a definite way forward (or sometimes cannot afford) to change to less GHG intensive fuels or technologies. (This might only be a perception and not based on the truth, but it is still a common perception.) And this is exactly what countries negotiate on during climate negotiations.
The United Nation's next big climate conference will be held in Durban from November 28 to December 9.
This conference is generally referred to as the "COP17" or the "Durban COP". Now, "COP" is one of those abbreviations I was referring to, and is an abbreviation for the 17th meeting of the Conference of Parties.
You will also notice that another city name, Durban, has sneaked in. Luckily for us, as South Africans, it is easier to remember, or place Durban geographically, as compared to some of the other cities these conferences were held previously.
l Source: The American Heritage Science Dictionary by Houghton Mifflin Company. Reference: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/greenhouse+gas
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