[Post 1] Summary by Haiyuan

Dear fellow group members,

As you know, we need to post a summary on the lecture conducted on Friday regarding the topic of global warming.

Because we have 6 people in our group, 3 will be posting a summary and the other 3 will be writing a comment for any one of the summary.

The following summary is written by Haiyuan.

Please read and leave a comment. THX

Summary

In the lecture given by Prof. Sovacool, we have had an overview of the climate change, institutional solutions to climate change and individual solutions to climate change, which help us have a better understanding about climate change.

The first graph shown told us that CO2 from fossil fuels and other sources is the largest resource of greenhouse gas while more than 50% of greenhouse gas is emitted by the sector of energy supply and use. What’s more, United states and China, the G2, each emits more than 7000 million metric tons of carbon dioxide which is even twice as much as the third, Indonesia. On the second graph, we found that the percentage change in carbon dioxide emission varies a lot from countries to countries. Korea, along with Turkey, increases its emission the most while countries like Slovak Republic and Czech Republic reduced their emission.

Since policies, measures and instruments shown to be environmentally effective, institutional actions is our first choice. However, what institutional actions could be taken? Firstly, we can change our energy supply by reduction of fossil fuel subsidies, feed-in tariffs for renewable energy technologies and providing producer subsidies. Secondly, we can do some change to transportation. We can apply mandatory fuel economy, biofuel blending and carbon dioxide standards for road transportation. We can also set taxes and fees on vehicle purchase, registration, use and motor fuels, road and parking pricing. Moreover, limiting the number of driving days and investment in attractive public transport facilities and non-motorized forms of transport may also help. Thirdly, we can do something to agriculture and forestry like financial incentives to increase forest area, to reduce deforestation and to maintain and manage forest. Applying harvest quotas and limits on timber extraction, promotion of bioorganic fertilizers and pest control and payments for ecosystem services could also be very efficient. When most of these methods have been applied, we are half way to stop climate change.

As components of the society, every one of us should make contribution to help our earth. The individual actions for climate stabilization are sustainable electricity, food, homes and technology. Firstly, we should use renewable electricity, increase the energy efficiency and combine heat and power. Secondly, we can eat locally grown and produced food; become a vegan or vegetarian even for a day; reduce food package and waste; moreover, we can visit a farm. Thirdly, we should have a sustainable homes including using space heating and cooling; take lukewarm or cold showers; switch all bulbs to CFLs or LEDs; cook meals together, reuse dishes; store only essential items, minimize open doors and the most important, be satisfied with enough. Despite the magnitude of the world’s energy, food and climate changes, the roots of there crises are in individual behavior.

It’s time to take institutional and individual actions, otherwise, it will be too late.