Achieving Sustainable Development Goals At A Un Summit

In 2013, the Obama Administration issued the Climate Action Plan to focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 17 % reduction below 2005 levels by 2020. This plan’s three objectives were carbon reduction, strengthening capacity for climate change response, and leading international cooperation for climate change crisis (White House, 2013). To reduce the

Climate change has become a major issue in global environmental politics as it has been shown to have a correlation with issues such as deforestation, biodiversity loss, and desertification. As Chapter 45 states “The 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) found consensus in the scientific community that greenhouse gas emissions have significantly increased because of human activity and, further, that the modest temperature increases we have already experienced are “very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations.” Due to this report awareness was brought to almost everyone of how serious human activity was to the global climate. In 2009, it was declared that “If global warming is to be limited to a maximum of two degrees C. above preindustrial values, global emissions need to peak between 2015 and 2020 and then decline rapidly”. To me this sounds foreboding and it is something that deserves our full attention immediately. To try and get a better understanding of how serious climate change is, I’m going to try and interpret chapter 45 which deals on climate change through 5 different paradigms of International Relations.

As of recently, the Paris Climate Talks gathered several of world’s leading nations to discuss the effects and measures needed to be taken to combat the on going threat of

One of the most unique aspects of climate change is its ability to impact every person in every nation across the world. Its omnipotent presence calls for, what I predict will be, the largest global initiative and

A lack of progress in recent years indicates a low level of concern among world leaders. In recent years, many scientists have implored leaders who seem not to be interested in climate change to show leadership in offsetting the impact of human induced climate change to the planet. As some world leaders seem not to see the urgency to mitigate the impact of global warming, the problem is getting more grounded. It is clear that human activities have altered the composition of the atmosphere since the industrial age. More and more power plants have been built, and their greenhouse gas emissions are causing more discomfort to the

The IPCC Summary for Policymakers 2014 assesses the impacts of climate change worldwide. The IPCC Summary for Policymakers provides policy makers an overview of what needs to be reviewed, further aiding them in creating policies to better manage and reduce the impact of climate change. The report provides prospective related to how changes through adaptation and mitigation can benefit the impact on climate change. Furthermore the report evaluates what needs to change, the options available to make the changes, and it provides prospects as well as restrictions and limits impeding change.

December 12th, 2015 was a historic moment on a global scale. That date marked the conclusion of the Paris climate agreement which accumulated the approval of hundreds of countries including many major ones. The main goal of this agreement was to drastically reduce carbon emissions and slow the average world temperature. Specifically, by 2020, they idea was to keep global average temperature “to well below 2°C above preindustrial levels” (Diane). Currently, we are not doing too well to achieve that goal. As prominent scientist James Hansen puts it…

Climate change has become a major challenging sustainable development issue of the twenty first century. It poses a significant and growing threat to human and public wellbeing, threatening food, water, health and national security. (Barrie & Steffen, 2015, p. 2)

Abstract: For last 37 years as a world we have spent lot of time in studying climate change and fixing a blame. First World Climate Conference was held on 12-23 February 1979 in Geneva. (wikipedia) It was one of the first major international meetings on climate change. We are studying climate change, it’s impact, causes and how to fix mess created by us. But now it 's high time for us to move forward and act on controlling Human contribution to Greenhouse Gases(GHG) which is major contributing factor to climate change.This way we are giving back to society and future generations.

Still on the successes of building up a momentum for action, the climate agreement conveyed the collaboration of a broad set of actors to strengthen the commitments. The top-down approach of relying on national governments as leaders for climate response is now being reframed towards a more inclusive space for action. Much

When evaluating if a target is measurable, one would have to assess the magnitude of effort of each desired action. Therefore, looking at target 13.1, which focuses on creating a type of defense mechanism for countries vulnerable to climate related hazards and natural disasters, one would first consider how large the number is of geographical areas that are in need of resilience and adaptation. Nowadays, due to technological advances and an exponential improvement in the engineering of man-made structures and shelters, most first world countries do not experience much of an encumbrance from climate change. This narrows down our number and allows the UNFCCC to focus mainly on developing countries which leaves our target potentially achievable. After taking measures, one can gauge if the desired target is accomplished by observing statistics such as the heaviness in the number of casualties or the amount of wreckage subsequent to a climate related hazard and/or natural disaster occurs. With that said, one can argue that this target (13.1) is in fact measurable. The following target (13.2) requires governments to implement so changes in its national policy. This can be done if no measures conflict with its current goals. Citizens would have to comply with these measures which may result to a decrease in climate change thus leading to less hazards and natural disasters. This target is thus also measurable as it is visible if it leads to the accomplishment of our objective.

Prior to the Paris Agreement, participating countries have submitted national plans that addressed their intentions for combatting the climate change after 2020 (Dimitrov 2016). These nationally determined contributions outlined a number of issues – all being relevant to adapting and coping with climate change challenge. Although these contributions are not final, they are representative of the intended climate actions that countries will pursue after 2020.

As we all known, there was a series of intense conversations between developed countries and developing countries about the carbon dioxide emission cup for each country. On one hand, BASIC countries, the representative of developing countries, held that they were developing and needed large amount of carbon dioxide emission in industrial development. On the other hand, the American and European Union, the representative of developed countries, argued that developing countries cannot take the risk of pollution in order to develop its own science and economy; therefore they should take a large part of responsibility of global climate change. The purposed changed of absolute emission for America is 4% but for China or Indian is 20% even 40% reduction for 2005-2020. From my perspective, this is too hard and tough for developing countries to complete. And developed countries should do better than 4% or 5%.

Due to the rising environmental issues universities have strived to become sustainable. This change has affected many aspects of campus life. Students and faculty have come across several new opportunities because of this development. One of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals include the goal to ensure environmental sustainability. In the position of universities the challenge is acquiring funds and student participation to make this initiative a priority. Developments like grass-roots projects for funding and other awareness campaigns. Other opportunities may create community ties, allow for government funding and a major factor is a positive review of universities. Creating an environmentally conscious university is

Over the last fifty years, different institutions, international organizations, industrial professionals and federal governments have been working on addressing one of the major challenges the world has been challenged to this day which widely is known as Global Warming. The Kyoto protocol is the well-known abiding playground internationally recognized as a global treaty placing obligations on developed nations to significantly minimize their Green House Gas emissions first adopted in Kyoto, Japan in 1997. Three actions are recommended for the UN to take up on: First, the UN shall bring all the major actors onboard to commit and work towards achieving the emission reduction targets by 2050. Second, the UN should engage in awareness creation to give more focus and special attention towards climate change policies at a deeper and wider level. Third, the UN is advised to lead negotiations to reach at a fair and equitable share of climate regulation costs