Climate change - Global concern

Climate changes

• significant changes in global temperature, precipitation, wind pattern and other measures of climate.
• occurs over several decades or longer.

Global warming Impacts

• The rise in sea level
• melting of glaciers
• changes in rainfall patterns
• spread of disease
• bleaching of coral reefs
• loss of plankton due to the warming of seas
• melting of ice
• widespread vanishing of animal populations due to habitual loss
• extreme events such as heatwaves, flooding, hurricanes, etc.

• Earth has warmed ar an unprecedented rate over the last hundred years and particularly over the last two decades.
• since 1992, each year has been one of the warmest years on record.
• 2016 was hottest year record, worldwide.
• Global warming can occur from a variety of causes both natural and human-induced.
• humans are creating climate change by burning large amounts of fossil fuels and deforestation.

UNFCCC

• United nations framework convention on climate change.
• the international environmental treaty that comes into existence under the aegis of UN 
• UNFCCC is negotiated at Earth summit 1992
• signed in 1992, new york city
• UNFCCC has 197 parties
• role: UNFCCC provides a framework for negotiating specific international treaties that aim to set binding limits on greenhouse gases.
• The objective of UNFCCC: stabilize GHG concentration in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous consequences.
• Legal effect: a treaty is considered legally non-binding.
• the treaty itself sets no binding limits on GHG emission for individual countries.

• share of Global CO2 Emissions from fuel combustion
• CHINA - 28%
•  USA- 15%
• INDIA- 6%
• RUSSIA- 5%
• JAPAN- 4%
• GERMANY 2% 

• The UNFCCC secretariat supports all institutions involved in the international climate change negotiations, particularly the conference of parties, the subsidiary bodies, and the cop bureau.
• All subsequent multilateral negotiations on different aspects of climate change, including both adaption and mitigation, are being held based on principles and objectives set out by the UNFCCC 
• UNFCCC also is known as - The earth summit, Rio summit, Rio conference.

Receding Glaciers- A Symptom of global climate change.

• 150 years ago- 147 glaciers- in NP, today- 37 glaciers remain.
• Scientists predict that they are likely to melt by the year 2030.
• similarly, glaciers all across the Himalayas and alps are retreating and disappearing every year.
• almost 160,000 glaciers found in the polar region and high mountain environments.
• Therefore researchers are increasingly using satellite remote sensors to routinely survey our world's glaciers in a fraction of the time.