2013 SoE report full. Climate change and the city: Building capacity for urban adaptation. Open Access Highlights Cities and urban areas are facing a strong adaptation imperative. Spatial planning can support proactive cross-cutting urban adaptation. Adaptation would benefit from ‘repositioning’ to emphasise links to core urban agenda. Collaborative approaches are vital to meet the urban adaptation challenge. Abstract The significant shifts in climate variables projected for the 21st century, coupled with the observed impacts of ongoing extreme weather and climate events, ensures that adaptation to climate change is set to remain a pressing issue for urban areas over the coming decades. Keywords Climate change; Adaptation; Cities; Urban; Spatial planning 1. 1.1. Climate change has emerged as one of the defining issues of the early 21st century. The extent of future climate change depends on a number of variables including the pace of greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation rates, and the response of ecosystems to the changing climate.
James Hansen’s controversial sea level rise paper has now been published online. The village of Ilulissat is seen near icebergs that broke off from the Jakobshavn Glacier on July 24, 2013 in Ilulissat, Greenland. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) This story has been updated. It has been widely discussed — but not yet peer reviewed. Now, though, you can at least read it for yourself and see what you think. A lengthy, ambitious, and already contested paper by longtime NASA climate scientist James Hansen and 16 colleagues appeared online Thursday in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussion, an open-access journal published by the European Geosciences Union. The paper, entitled “Ice melt, sea level rise and superstorms: evidence from paleoclimate data, climate modeling, and modern observations that 2 ◦C global warming is highly dangerous” is now open for comment — peer review in this journal happens in public.
And given how much attention the work has already received, it’s likely to generate plenty of comments from fellow scientists. What is COP21/CMP11? | COP21 - United Nations Conference on Climate Change. Join the People's Climate March. AR4 SYR Synthesis Report Summary for Policymakers - 4 Adaptation and mitigation options. A wide array of adaptation options is available, but more extensive adaptation than is currently occurring is required to reduce vulnerability to climate change. There are barriers, limits and costs, which are not fully understood. {4.2} Societies have a long record of managing the impacts of weather- and climate-related events. Nevertheless, additional adaptation measures will be required to reduce the adverse impacts of projected climate change and variability, regardless of the scale of mitigation undertaken over the next two to three decades.
Moreover, vulnerability to climate change can be exacerbated by other stresses. These arise from, for example, current climate hazards, poverty and unequal access to resources, food insecurity, trends in economic globalisation, conflict and incidence of diseases such as HIV/AIDS. {4.2} Some planned adaptation to climate change is already occurring on a limited basis. Table SPM.4. Figure SPM.9. Figure SPM.10. Notes: Seo 2015 Economic Affairs. The EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) The EU ETS: operates in 31 countries (all 28 EU countries plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) limits emissions from more than 11,000 heavy energy-using installations (power stations & industrial plants) and airlines operating between these countries covers around 45% of the EU's greenhouse gas emissions.
For a detailed overview, see: EU ETS factsheet (466 kB) EU ETS Handbook (3.19 Mb) A 'cap and trade' system The EU ETS works on the 'cap and trade' principle. A cap is set on the total amount of certain greenhouse gases that can be emitted by installations covered by the system. Within the cap, companies receive or buy emission allowances which they can trade with one another as needed. After each year a company must surrender enough allowances to cover all its emissions, otherwise heavy fines are imposed. Trading brings flexibility that ensures emissions are cut where it costs least to do so. Key features of phase 3 (2013-2020) The main changes are: Sectors and gases covered.