Climate Change
Climate change is a reality and is largely driven by human
activity. The rate of change is faster than might be expected if
there was no human activity. The human derived drivers of climate
change include burning fossil fuels, making cement and radically
changing habitats (cutting down forests, draining peatlands etc).
To get more on the science of climate change have a look at the
UK Climate Impacts Programme website or the
Met
Office website.
Biodiversity and Climate Change
Direct Effects
The impacts of climate change on biodiversity include changes in
species distribution and range, changes in the timing of seasonal
events and changes to habitat character. Impacts on the
landscape include sea level rise, flood events and soil
erosion.
The raised levels of CO2 in the atmosphere are also affecting
the oceans causing acidification of the water which impacts
marine life and affect ocean currents.
Indirect Effects
The direct effects of measures put in place to address climate
change are also likely to have an impact on the natural
environment. For example, growing new crops, increases in summer
watering and geographical shifts in arable and livestock production
could well occur, but how these indirect changes may affect
biodiversity remains less certain.
Beneficial effects
Biodiversity has an important role in climate change adaptation
and mitigation. For example, soils, forests and oceans hold vast
stores of carbon. The way managed habitats are used will affect how
much of that carbon is released in gaseous form into the
atmosphere. How we address climate change and maintain healthy
ecosystems so they provide ecosystem goods and services essential
for human well-being is now a key challenge for society.
Understanding the on-going impacts of climate change on ecosystems
is an essential prerequisite to addressing this challenge.
A little bit of climate science
The science is unequivocal, most of the observed increase in
global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very
likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas
concentrations (IPCC
(2007).
Climate is a complex science – many factors interact to
determine climate (and day to day weather).
The observed changes in climate are happening relatively quickly
i.e. decade to decade rather than over millennia.
The underlying trends in observed changes are not all linear:
the changes observed usually go from less to more rapid rates of
change.
Several drivers of change have been identified and anthropogenic
drivers are major contributors.
‘Greenhouse gas’ production is the primary anthropogenic driver
– chief among these is carbon dioxide.
Most greenhouse gas production comes from industrial processes,
some also comes from agriculture and from changes in the way land
and water are managed (removing trees, draining wetlands etc).
There are time lags in the system – the climate we are
experiencing now has been influenced by anthropogenic inputs from
roughly the middle of the 20th century; inputs since then will
influence climate for years to come.
Projections about how climate is likely to change are based on
models built using two strands of evidence: observed changes to
date and the causal links between drivers and observed change.
To get detailed background on the science of climate, observed
and projected climate change and the potential mechanisms available
to reduce human impact on climate look at the literature produced
by the IPCC and, for the UK, UKCIP and MCCIP
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The legislative & policy framework
Global
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC) is one of the three major environmental
agreements signed at Rio in 1992 and came into force in 1994. Its
objective is the “stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations in
the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous
anthropogenic interference in the climate system”. The Convention
set a non-binding goal for contracting parties to stabilise their
greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2000.
Parties were required to undertake necessary measures, including
the submission of national inventories of greenhouse-gas emissions
and removals, adoption of national programmes for mitigating
climate change and developing strategies for adapting to its
impacts, and promotion of technology transfer and the sustainable
management, conservation, and enhancement of greenhouse gas sinks
and 'reservoirs' (such as forests and oceans).
The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997 to
strengthen the obligations of the Convention. Under the Protocol,
industrialized countries have a legally binding commitment to
reduce their collective greenhouses gas emissions by at least 5%
compared to 1990 levels by the period 2008-2012. The UK ratified
the Climate Change Convention in 1993 and the Kyoto Protocol in
2002. It came into force in 2005 (when sufficient states had
ratified the agreement).
In November 2000, the UK Government published a national climate
change programme to address climate change issues and provided
details of how the UK planed to deliver its targets under the Kyoto
Protocol. The programme was reviewed in 2004 and replaced by the
UK Climate Change Programme in 2006.
Europe
The Climate Action and Renewable Energy
Package
On 23 January 2008 the European Commission put forward a package
of proposals that aim to deliver the European Union's commitments
to fight climate change and promote renewable energy up to 2020 and
beyond.
The EU is committed to:
- reducing its overall emissions to at least 20% below 1990
levels by 2020, and
- increasing the share of renewables in energy use to 20% by
2020.
The Directive also puts forward suggested sustainability
criteria
Biodiversity and Climate Change
One of the 10 objectives of the EU Biodiversity Action Plan is
to support biodiversity adaptation to climate change.
In 2009 the European Commission produced a “White Paper on
Adapting to Climate Change:
Towards an EU framework for action”. The White Paper aims to
strengthen the EU’s resilience to cope with the impacts of a
changing climate by complimenting and supporting actions taken by
Member States. It requires Member States to act together,
particularly when dealing with shared EU policies such as
fisheries, agriculture, energy, water and biodiversity.
The European Commission, with support from others, has
commissioned a study to evaluate the costs of the loss of
biodiversity and the associated decline in ecosystem services
worldwide, and compare them with the costs of effective
conservation and sustainable use. The study: The Economics of
Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) has produced a report
TEEB Climate Issues Update and its final results will be
presented at CBD COP-10 in 2010.
Some of our work
In May 2009 JNCC organised a one
day conference to take a thematic view
across major multi-lateral environmental agreements
(MEAs). Climate change was one of the five themes
investigated. The conference papers are available here.
JNCC works closely with colleagues in the
country conservation agencies to deliver work on climate
change. An Inter-agency Climate Change Forum (IACCF), established in
2006, provides the formal mechanism for such collaboration. A
number of documents have been produced, the most recent being
Biodiversity and Climate Change – a summary of
impacts in the UK.
With funding from the Overseas Territories Environment Programme
(OTEP) we have produced a series
of publications providing background
information about climate change and its impacts in the Overseas
Territories and Crown Dependences.