![]() While it is widely recognized that significant efforts are needed to meaningfully decrease carbon emissions, change (and change that will shift traditional power dynamics) is very difficult. There were 20 events in 2021 where losses exceeded $1 billion each, with the damages from all 2021 disasters totaling an estimated $145 billion. Recently, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Centers for Environmental Information released a Q1 2022 report which tallied the economic consequences of the 2021 weather/climate disaster events across the United States. The cost of climate change is extraordinary – not only to those whose livelihoods are impacted by drought, but from the cost of increasing weather/climate disaster events. It concluded that the exceptional drought severity we are facing in the west is attributable to anthropogenic climate trends. The study drew its conclusions by looking at tree-ring data to reconstruct soil moisture across centuries, studying an area from southern Montana to northern Mexico and from the Pacific Ocean to the Rocky Mountains. A UCLA-led study, published February 2022 in the journal Nature Climate Change, shows that the last 22 years of the western drought have been the driest period for 1,200 years, with reservoir and soil moisture levels at historic lows. ![]() In the western United States, we are facing a "megadrought" which is one of the worst on record. ![]() And the rapid pace of innovation is providing the tools and technology to enable us to take these actions. There is a clear roadmap for the actions we need to take in order to mitigate the effects of global warming. The enormous cost and human toll of global warning can no longer be denied or should no longer be accepted. Despite – or perhaps because of – this urgency, I am optimistic about our ability to combat climate change. More than ever, we see the urgency to end fossil fuel use as the temperatures continue to increase upwards, weather patterns become more extreme, and wildfires become bigger and more severe. Each renewable megawatt I help permit, and more importantly, help get built, feels like a step in the right direction. I have been working in the renewable energy industry for a decade and a half, helping developers build wind, solar, and battery storage projects and helping investors invest in these projects. As a climate advocate, Elaine uses her skills and experience as a lawyer to work toward a carbon neutral future. As a permitting lawyer, Elaine helps developers and investors permit and build renewable energy projects. With growing recognition that action on climate change provides opportunities to drive economic growth, reduce pollution and improve health, food security and the natural resource base, there is a widespread hope negotiators will put long-term global wellbeing ahead of short-term protectionist thinking.Elaine Albrich is a Partner in Davis Wright Tremaine's Portland office. "But also recognise that developed countries need to make rapid progress on adaptation." "It will be important to reinforce past agreements to establish adequate and stable funding for adaptation in developing countries. Regardless of the success, or not, of Paris 2015, the world will have to deal with significant climate change from past and future emissions and adaption to this is vital, says ANU Climate Change Institute Director Dr Mark Howden. "This least-cost approach to combating climate change will mean that nations who opt out will risk sanctions such as trade barriers being imposed," he says. One key outcome must be a mechanism that enables nations to participate in an international carbon trading market, according to Professor Ken Baldwin, Director of the ANU Energy Change Institute. ![]() It's also highly unlikely that the commitments reached in Paris will be enough to meet the objective of limiting global temperature increase to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.ĭespite this, there is cause for optimism.Īccording to Associate Professor Frank Jotzo, from the Crawford School of Public Policy, Paris 2015 is looking more promising than the Copenhagen summit in 2009. Pressure is on to agree to a settlement that will set targets for countries beyond 2020 at a time where many are wavering on wholescale global action.Ī requirement for consensus from every country in the world makes agreeing to anything exceptionally challenging, even without the highly contentious nature of climate policy. The two-week-long United Nations Climate Change Conference aims to achieve a legally binding agreement that will combat climate change and boost a transition towards low-carbon economies. When presidents, prime ministers and diplomats descend on Paris in late November, they will discuss a life-changing matter for billions around the world.
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