Introduction | UNFCCC The average temperature of the Earths surface is now about 1.1C warmer than it was in the late 1800s (before the industrial revolution) and warmer than at any time in the last 100,000 years. Within the 21st century, several aspects play a role for the assessment of risk and potential impacts in 1.5C warmer worlds: the possible occurrence, magnitude and duration of an overshoot; the way in which emissions reductions are achieved; the ways in which policies might be able to influence the resilience of human and natural systems; and the nature of the regional and sub-regional risks. These are frequently classified as (1) supporting services such as productivity or biodiversity maintenance, (2) provisioning services such as food or fibre, (3) regulating services such as climate regulation or carbon sequestration, and (4) cultural services such as tourism or spiritual and aesthetic appreciation. From ships, measurements of water samples in buckets were mostly switched in the 1940s to samples from engine intake water. Put simply, net zero means cutting greenhouse gas emissions to as close to zero as possible, with any remaining emissions re-absorbed from the atmosphere, by oceans and forests. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA, 582 pp. The lower the cost the greater the cost-effectiveness. There are now 195 Parties to the UNFCC Convention. Whereas government is defined strictly in terms of the nation-state, the more inclusive concept of governance recognizes the contributions of various levels of government (global, international, regional, sub-national and local) and the contributing roles of the private sector, of nongovernmental actors, and of civil society to addressing the many types of issues facing the global community. Many climate change solutions can deliver economic benefits while improving our lives and protecting the environment. of the climate on all spatial and temporal scales beyond that of individual weather events. What is net zero? International Biochar Initiative (IBI). A coherent group of agronomic and soil management practices that reduce the disruption of soil structure and biota. The Conventions ultimate objective is the stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. The provisions of the Convention are pursued and implemented by two treaties: the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement. The robustness of a finding based on the type, amount, quality and consistency of evidence (e.g., mechanistic understanding, theory, data, models, expert judgment) and on the degree of agreement across multiple lines of evidence. Biofuels currently include bioethanol from sugarcane or maize, biodiesel from canola or soybeans, and black liquor from the paper-manufacturing process. Ensuring equity in that women and men have the same rights, resources and opportunities. See also Agreement, Evidence, Likelihood and Uncertainty. The temporal evolution of natural and/or human systems towards a future state. It can refer to material circumstances (such as need, pattern of deprivation or limited resources), economic conditions (such as standard of living, inequality or economic position) and/or social relationships (such as social class, dependency, exclusion, lack of basic security or lack of entitlement). See also Adaptation, Adaptation options and Maladaptive actions (Maladaptation). The potential occurrence of a natural or human-induced physical event or trend that may cause loss of life, injury, or other health impacts, as well as damage and loss to property, infrastructure, livelihoods, service provision, ecosystems and environmental resources. A comprehensive and inclusive concept of the full range of means for deciding, managing, implementing and monitoring policies and measures. Rights that are inherent to all human beings, universal, inalienable, and indivisible, typically expressed and guaranteed by law. Note that in the literature SRM is also referred to as solar radiation management or albedo enhancement. A suspension of airborne solid or liquid particles, with a typical size between a few nanometres and 10 m that reside in the atmosphere for at least several hours. Work on New Collective Quantified Goal for Climate Finance - UNFCCC Stable, carbon-rich material produced by heating biomass in an oxygen-limited environment. Mastrandrea, M. Tignor, and K.L. A plausible description of how the future may develop based on a coherent and internally consistent set of assumptions about key driving forces (e.g., rate of technological change, prices) and relationships. What is climate adaptation? This oceanic event is associated with a fluctuation of a global-scale tropical and subtropical surface pressure pattern called the Southern Oscillation. See also Climate projection, Scenario and Pathways. Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 20152030 outlines seven clear targets and four priorities for action to prevent new, and to reduce existing, disaster risks. The point at which an actors objectives (or system needs) cannot be secured from intolerable risks through adaptive actions. The Paris Agreement is intended to become fully effective in 2020. This definition builds from Arctic Council (2016)58 and Berkes and Folke (1998)59. UNFCCC, 2013: Reporting and accounting of LULUCF activities under the Kyoto Protocol. A group of parallel model simulations characterising historical climate conditions, climate predictions, or climate projections. A mitigation pathway is a temporal evolution of a set of mitigation scenario features, such as greenhouse gas emissions and socio-economic development. A plausible representation of the future development of emissions of substances that are radiatively active (e.g., greenhouse gases (GHGs), aerosols) based on a coherent and internally consistent set of assumptions about driving forces (such as demographic and socio-economic development, technological change, energy and land use) and their key relationships. Mary Robinson Foundation For Climate Justice (MRFCJ). Today, it has near-universal membership. The change in the global mean surface temperature, averaged over a 20-year period, centered at the time of atmospheric CO2 doubling, in a climate model simulation in which CO2 increases at 1% yr-1 from pre-industrial. Institutional relationships take place directly between transnational, regional and local levels, thus bypassing the state level (Peters and Pierre, 2001)28. Biological diversity means the variability among living organisms from all sources, including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems (UN, 1992)9. See also Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and Negative emissions. HVAC systems can be designed for an isolated space, an individual building or a distributed heating and cooling network within a building structure or a district heating system. UNOHCHR, 2018: What are Human rights? See also Baseline scenario, Mitigation scenario, Socio-economic scenario, Scenario, Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) (under Pathways), Shared Socio-economic Pathways (SSPs) (under Pathways) and Transformation pathways (under Pathways). They have a warming effect on climate. See also Climate change, Human system, Natural systems and Tipping point. SRM does not fall within the definitions of mitigation and adaptation (IPCC, 2012b, p. 2)61. See also Climate projection. A scenario that describes a possible future in terms of population, gross domestic product (GDP), and other socio-economic factors relevant to understanding the implications of climate change. These are processes of deliberation to identify solutions that are meaningful to people in the context of their daily lives and to avoid potential maladaptation. It entered into force in March 1994 and as of May 2018 had 197 Parties (196 States and the European Union). See also Reforestation, Deforestation, and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+). Many people think climate change mainly means warmer temperatures. Mach, G.-K. Plattner, M.D. See also Net zero emissions and Net negative emissions. Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. The lowest part of the atmosphere, from the surface to about 10 km in altitude at mid-latitudes (ranging from 9 km at high latitudes to 16 km in the tropics on average), where clouds and weather phenomena occur. (4) The UNDP aggregates indicators for life expectancy, educational attainment, and income into a single composite Human Development Index (HDI) to classify countries as low, medium, high or very high human development. Bouwer, T. Schinko, S. Surminski, and J. Linnerooth-Bayer (eds. What is renewable energy and why does it matter? http://unfccc.int/methods/lulucf/items/4129.php, http://www.fao.org/climate-smart-agriculture, http://www.ohchr.org/en/issues/pages/whatarehumanrights.aspx, http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-sciences/priority-areas/links/related-information/what-is-local-and-indigenous-knowledge, http://www.mrfcj.org/principles-of-climate-justice, http://unohrlls.org/about-sids/country-profiles, Projected Climate Change, Potential Impacts and Associated Risks, Emission Pathways and System Transitions Consistent with 1.5C Global Warming, Strengthening the Global Response in the Context of Sustainable Development and Efforts to Eradicate Poverty, Core Concepts Central to this Special Report, Assessing the Knowledge Base for a 1.5C Warmer World, Sustainable Development and a 1.5C Warmer World, Understanding 1.5C: Reference Levels, Probability, Transience, Overshoot, and Stabilization, Working Definitions of 1.5C and 2C Warming Relative to Pre-Industrial Levels, Total versus human-induced warming and warming rates, Global versus Regional and Seasonal Warming, Definition of 1.5C Pathways: Probability, Transience, Stabilization and Overshoot, Impacts at 1.5C warming associated with different pathways: transience versus stabilisation, Transformation, Transformation Pathways, and Transition: Evaluating Trade-Offs and Synergies Between Mitigation, Adaptation and Sustainable Development Goals, Assessment Frameworks and Emerging Methodologies that Integrate Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation with Sustainable Development, Knowledge Sources and Evidence Used in the Report, Introduction to Mitigation Pathways and the Sustainable Development Context, Mitigation Pathways Consistent with 1.5C, Utility of Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) in the Context of this Report, Geophysical Relationships and Constraints, Geophysical Characteristics of Mitigation Pathways, Geophysical uncertainties: climate and Earth system feedbacks, Range of Assumptions Underlying 1.5C Pathways, Socio-economic drivers and the demand for energy and land in 1.5C pathways, Variation in system transformations underlying 1.5C pathways, Pathways keeping warming below 1.5C or temporarily overshooting it, Emissions of short-lived climate forcers and fluorinated gases, CDR technologies and deployment levels in 1.5C pathways, Sustainability implications of CDR deployment in 1.5C pathways, Implications of Near-Term Action in 1.5C Pathways, Disentangling the Whole-System Transformation, Evolution of primary energy contributions over time, Evolution of electricity supply over time, Land-Use Transitions and Changes in the Agricultural Sector, Challenges, Opportunities and Co-Impacts of Transformative Mitigation Pathways, Policy Frameworks and Enabling Conditions, Economic and Investment Implications of 1.5C Pathways, Sustainable Development Features of 1.5C Pathways. But since the 1800s, human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas. Its aim is to achieve substantial reduction of disaster risk and losses in lives, livelihoods and health and in the economic, physical, social, cultural and environmental assets of persons, businesses, communities and countries.. The Adaptation Fund; The Green Climate Fund Introduction and background The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was formed in 1992 as a result of a global commitment by countries to cooperatively find solutions to limit global average temperature increased.. Beyond the 21st century, several elements of the climate system would continue to change even if the global mean temperatures remain stable, including further increases of sea level. The climate system evolves in time under the influence of its own internal dynamics and because of external forcings such as volcanic eruptions, solar variations and anthropogenic forcings such as the changing composition of the atmosphere and land-use change. It may be subdivided into second-year ice and multi-year ice, where multi-year ice has survived at least two summers. Global mean surface air temperature (GSAT). See also United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). See also Agreement, Evidence, Confidence and Uncertainty. Climate Change Reports and Related Activities (from 2014 to 2016) A coupled atmosphereocean general circulation model in which a representation of the carbon cycle is included, allowing for interactive calculation of atmospheric CO2 or compatible emissions. Climate sensitivity refers to the change in the annual global mean surface temperature in response to a change in the atmospheric CO2 concentration or other radiative forcing. Iterative processes for managing change within complex systems in order to reduce disruptions and enhance opportunities associated with climate change. The set of technical, financial and institutional capacities needed to generate and disseminate timely and meaningful warning information to enable individuals, communities and organizations threatened by a hazard to prepare to act promptly and appropriately to reduce the possibility of harm or loss. The functions of such a system arise from the interactions and interdependence of the social and ecological subsystems. UN Secretary-General outlines five critical actions the world needs to prioritize now to speed up the global shift to renewable energy. Climate change may be due to natural internal processes or external forcings such as modulations of the solar cycles, volcanic eruptions and persistent anthropogenic changes in the composition of the atmosphere or in land use. Global warming, which is the increase in global average temperature in the course of the twentieth century, is mostly due to the increase of atmospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations caused by human activity; these anthropogenic emissions have increased by 70 per cent between 1970 and 2004 (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 4th . Where multiple greenhouse gases are involved, the quantification of negative emissions depends on the climate metric chosen to compare emissions of different gases (such as global warming potential, global temperature change potential, and others, as well as the chosen time horizon). PDF OECD DAC Rio Markers for Climate The extent to which revenues generated by policy instruments, such as carbon taxes or auctioned (tradeable) emission permits can (1) contribute to mitigation and (2) offset part of the potential welfare losses of climate policies through recycling the revenue in the economy by reducing other distortionary taxes. In this report, confidence is expressed qualitatively (Mastrandrea et al., 2010)12. Hard adaptation limit: No adaptive actions are possible to avoid intolerable risks. See also Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement. Impacts generally refer to effects on lives; livelihoods; healthand well-being; ecosystems and species; economic, social and cultural assets; services (includingecosystemservices); and infrastructure. Data and information used in the scientific process to establish findings. Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). In this report, separate consideration is given to the two main approaches considered as geoengineering in some of the literature: solar radiation modification (SRM) and carbon dioxide removal (CDR). The process of changing from one state or condition to another in a given period of time. The convention states: the global nature of climate change calls for the widest possible cooperation by all countries and their participation in an effective and appropriate international response, in accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities and their social and economic conditions. Since then the CBDR-RC principle has guided the UN climate negotiations. Value is a matter of worth, benefit, or good. The highly stratified region of the atmosphere above the troposphere extending from about 10 km (ranging from 9 km at high latitudes to 16 km in the tropics on average) to about 50 km altitude. For a discussion of the term forest and related terms such as afforestation, reforestation and deforestation, see the IPCC Special Report on Land Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry (IPCC, 2000)4, information provided by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC, 2013)5 and the report on Definitions and Methodological Options to Inventory Emissions from Direct Human-induced Degradation of Forests and Devegetation of Other Vegetation Types (IPCC, 2003)6. Any cyclonic-scale storm that is not a tropical cyclone. Conditions underpinning feasibility are dynamic, spatially variable, and may vary between different groups. International Standards Organisation (ISO). A governance system that enables direct public engagement in decision-making using a variety of techniques for example, referenda, community deliberation, citizen juries or participatory budgeting. See also Anthropogenic and Anthropogenic removals. Climate Change: OECD DAC External Development Finance Statistics If the CO2 is stored in a product for a climate-relevant time horizon, this is referred to as carbon dioxide capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS). The approach can be applied in formal and informal institutional contexts from national to local, but is usually associated with devolved decision-making. Jagers, S.C. and J. Stripple, 2003: Climate Governance Beyond the State. The CDM is intended to facilitate the two objectives of promoting sustainable development (SD) in developing countries and of helping industrialised countries to reach their emissions commitments in a cost-effective way. What is the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC