Online version: PDF - DTIE

012
UNIT 1: WHERE DO WE STAND? THE STATE OF THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT
1998-1999 saw
record
temperatures,
increased natural
disasters, reports
of shrinking ice
packs and
disappearing or
‘moving’ species.
• An international, market-based emissions trading mechanism that will
allow Article One countries to buy and sell excess emission credits.
Rules and guidelines for trading are to be established in 2000;
• Joint implementation projects among Article One countries, allowing a
country to take emissions credits for projects that reduce emissions or
enhance emissions-absorbing sinks such as forests from other Article
One countries;
• A Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under which Article One
countries can take credits for projects that reduce emissions in non-
Article One countries. Any group of Article One countries may also set
up a bubble or umbrella to meet their total commitments by allocating
a share to each member. In an umbrella agreement, the total reduction
of all member nations would be met collectively through the trading
of emissions rights.
The Kyoto Protocol is an important signal to businesses that greenhouse gas-free
products and services must be developed and used more. The use of ‘no regrets’
options – strategies that are economically and socially beneficial whether or not
climate change occurs – is being widely implemented. ‘No regrets’ emissions
strategies include:
• Supply-side measures such as the diversification of energy sources,
the reform of transport sectors and the use of renewable energy;
• Demand-side measures such as promoting energy conservation in
homes, offices and industries, limiting methane emissions from waste
management and energy systems, protecting forests and increasing
the energy efficiency of appliances.
Since 1998, governments have reconvened every year to work on the setting up
of a framework for trading emissions credits, for an international enforcement
mechanism and for financing clean air projects in developing countries.
1998-1999 saw record temperatures, increased natural disasters, reports of
shrinking ice packs and disappearing or ‘moving’ species. These all underline the
necessity for action.
S
E
C
T
I
O
N
1
1.2 The Depletion of the Ozone Layer
Nearly 90% of all ozone, a naturally occurring gas, is found in the stratosphere,
12-15km above the earth’s surface: this is called the ozone layer. The ozone layer
is vital because it absorbs harmful ultraviolet radiation (UVR) 3 from the sun and
stops it reaching the earth’s surface.
3
Ultraviolet radiation is made
up of UVA, UVB and UVC
Some man-made chemicals containing chlorine and bromine move across the
troposphere and into the stratosphere. These chemicals are stable in the
troposphere, but in the stratosphere they are broken down into extremely reactive
forms by high levels of UVR. They then become part of a series of complex
reactions that break down the ozone molecule (O3) into an oxygen (O2) molecule.
This leads to the thinning of, or the ‘hole’ in, the ozone layer.