Adaption and Mitigation to Climate Change

        According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Europe is hard at work trying to come up with ways to adapt to climate change.  One project they are working on is called CESAR or the CO2 enhanced separation and recovery.  They were given a 8 billion dollar budget to create a less expensive way of capturing CO2 for existing and new coming power plants.   This project started in February 2008 and ended in June of 2011.  Their aim is to lower the cost of CO2 per house hold.  This project was based off of the finding in a previous study called CASTOR.  Another project they are doing is called the Active Solar Initiative.  This started in January 2009 and lasted till December of 2011.  They were given a 4 million dollar budget.  The goals of this project are:

• prototype and certification of a new and less expensive photovoltaic technology
• development and certification of cost-efficient manufacturing techniques
• dissemination of knowledge among European manufacturers.

This project's purpose is to lay the groundwork for the next generation of the Active Solar Initiative that will create a drastic increase in the amount of solar energy used through multi-junction cells placed on roof tops.  

         An immense heatwave flashed over mort parts of Europe in 2003 from June to August.  Temperatures increased from 3 to 4 decrees Celsius in southern and central Europe.  The highest temperature reached was from the 1st to the 13th of August with an increase of 7 degrees Celsius.  This was an extremely rare occasion under current climate conditions.  The 2003 heatwave however resembles models of the summer temperatures in the later parts of the 21st century.  This heatwave also caused a drought of about 300mm.  This resulted in a 30% reduction in gross product production.  With this defect, product cost went up drastically.  This caused an estimated amount of 13 billion in damages.    Large wildfires swept through Europe, particularly Portugal.  Also, many rivers reached record lows affecting irrigation and power-plant cooling.  However, extreme glacier melting prevented the Danube and Rhine rivers from reaching even lower water levels. As many as 35,000 deaths occurred during this  heatwave, mostly affecting the elderly.  Since this has happened, heat health-watch warning systems have been put into place to warn people about increasing temperatures and what to do to take care of themselves when it does.

        Europe has ratified the Kyoto Protocol.  This is an international treaty set in place to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.  Some countries have agreed to it, however where not asked to reduce their emissions.  While other countries were asked to do so.  The European Union has been asked to reduce their emissions.  With agreeing to the Kyoto protocol, the European Union agreed to:

• preserve, protect and improve the quality of the environment;
• protect human health;
• prudent and rational utilisation of natural resources; and
• promote measures internationally to deal with regional or world wide environmental problems.

          The European Union is the third biggest contributor to Greenhouse Gas emissions according to the Center for Climate and energy Solutions.  But since 1990, they have dropped their emissions by 10.7%.  This decline is a result of structural changes.  After Germany reunified such changes started to occur.  In the United Kingdom, they began to use coal instead of natural gasses.  While the total amount of emissions has declined, in the transportation sector, emissions have increased significantly.  Europe is doing many other things as well to reduce emissions and keep them at a minimum. One these being aviation emissions.  The EU has set a cap on airline emissions first at 3% below average emissions, then over time getting to 15%.  Another way they are reducing emission is by using renewable energy.  They have set a goal of 20% renewable energy by 2020.  They also implemented a 10%  minimum target for biofuels and alternative renewable transportation fuels.  

         I do think that my country should mitigate and adapt to climate change.  From the above paragraphs it is quite obvious that they have experienced forms of climate change.  Especially with the wild fired, the rive water levels, and numerous deaths.  They have taken many measures the lower emissions, but they also need to realize climate change has already happened and they need to adjust to those changes.  They have done so by placing heat health-advisory warnings in areas subject to drastic temperature changes.  These changes are due to climate changes.  Europe is one of the worlds biggest Greenhouse Gas emitters and they need to come up with more ways of lowering this.  Europe has the resources to become for Earth friendly.