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MITIGATION PRIMER
What is Climate Change Mitigation?
A human intervention to reduce or store human-made (anthropogenic) emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) instead of emitting them into the atmosphere, and thereby lessen climate change and Global Warming |
What is Kyoto?
The Kyoto Protocol establishes internationally binding commitments for industrialized or ‘Annex I’ countries to reduce their greenhouse gases, and to support the overall objectives , principles, and institutions of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The Protocol was adopted at the third Conference of the Parties (COP3) in Kyoto, Japan, on December 11, 1997.
(COP11), recently hosted by Canada, confirmed that the participating countries continued to reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions. |
The Kyoto Protocol provides legally-binding targets for industrialized countries, including Canada, to limit or reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and slow down Global Warming. The Protocol became legally binding on its 140 participating countries on 16 February 2005, shortly following the Conference of the Parties ( COP 10) in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The Protocol requires developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), among them carbon dioxide or CO2, by at least 5% compared to 1990 levels. The first commitment period of the Protocol runs from 2008 to 2012 .
Linkages Between Climate Change & Air Quality
Climate change and air quality problems such as smog and acid rain are closely related issues. Across most of North America, climate change is expected to result in hotter summer temperatures from global warming. Because smog forms more quickly on hotter days, climate change will inevitably lead to increased smog production. Poor air quality, combined with heat stress from hotter summer weather, will increasingly pose serious health challenges to human populations and ecosystem flora and fauna.
Climate change and air quality problems are largely caused by the same activity – namely the burning of fossil fuels. In fact, burning fossil fuel such as coal, oil, gasoline, and natural gas is the source of virtually all emissions causing acid rain and global climate change. Furthermore, fossil fuel consumption also generates most of the emissions causing smog and mercury pollution.
Although climate change, smog and acid rain largely share a common cause, different solutions may be required to reduce these pollutant emissions. The challenge is whether we can find creative solutions that address all these problems simultaneously. Let’s look at the science:
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