Future of Sustainability 2030

Welcome to the Future of Sustainability in 2030

Group Members

Yojiro Fukaya
Eric Lam
Ynzhu (Carrie) Ma
Hugh Malkin
Kay Mei Tan

Introduction

"Meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

Research Questions

What is the history?
How did sustainability start?
What are the driving forces in the past?
Who/what does sustainability effect the most?
Who is the best/worst at sustainability?
How is sustainability measured?
Why does sustainability matter?
What is most important to sustain?
What does sustainability mean?
Do we need to be sustainability

How sustainability can effect on economy?
How sustainability can effect on our life?
Why do we need sustainability now?
What is the motivation for companies to work for sustainability?
How will growth in developing countries effect on sustainability?
Can technological development solve environmental issues dramatically?
What is the urgent issue relating to sustainability?
What can we do as a individual?

1. What is the purpose of sustainability? Why does it matter? What is it?
2. Is sustainability a slow or fast change? What changes are present day solutions and which are long-term solutions?
3. What is the balance of profits and sustainability?
4. What is the definition of Sustainability? Lifestyle, products, CO2?
5. Is less bad of sustainability actually good? What is the goal of sustainability? What is sufficient?
6. Are things really measureable?
7. Where should the solution come from? Is there a universal answer?

• Water: Is It the Key Limiting Factor? • What is sustainability? • What is the value of the global services for sustainability e.g. air and water purification, agricultural pollination, nutrient cycling, soil enrichment, climate stabilization, medicinal products and drought mitigation? • What would happen if we do not work on sustainability? • How much should be done? • Who should be responsible for sustainability e.g. government, individuals, country? • How bad is the current situation? • What happened if we slow growth? Does that mean that we do not need to work on sustainability?

Driving Forces

Regulation

(Global, not each country)

Kyoto Protocol (http://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol/items/2830.php)

The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The major feature of the Kyoto Protocol is that it sets binding targets for 37 industrialized countries and the European community for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions .These amount to an average of five per cent against 1990 levels over the five-year period 2008-2012.

The major distinction between the Protocol and the Convention is that while the Convention encouraged industrialised countries to stabilize GHG emissions, the Protocol commits them to do so.

Recognizing that developed countries are principally responsible for the current high levels of GHG emissions in the atmosphere as a result of more than 150 years of industrial activity, the Protocol places a heavier burden on developed nations under the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities.”

The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, on 11 December 1997 and entered into force on 16 February 2005. 184 Parties of the Convention have ratified its Protocol to date. The detailed rules for the implementation of the Protocol were adopted at COP 7 in Marrakesh in 2001, and are called the “Marrakesh Accords.”

The Kyoto mechanisms

Under the Treaty, countries must meet their targets primarily through national measures. However, the Kyoto Protocol offers them an additional means of meeting their targets by way of three market-based mechanisms.

The Kyoto mechanisms are:

- Emissions trading – known as “the carbon market" - Clean development mechanism (CDM) - Joint implementation (JI).

The mechanisms help stimulate green investment and help Parties meet their emission targets in a cost-effective way.

Monitoring emission targets

Under the Protocol, countries’actual emissions have to be monitored and precise records have to be kept of the trades carried out.

Registry systems track and record transactions by Parties under the mechanisms. The UN Climate Change Secretariat, based in Bonn, Germany, keeps an international transaction log to verify that transactions are consistent with the rules of the Protocol.

Reporting is done by Parties by way of submitting annual emission inventories and national reports under the Protocol at regular intervals.

A compliance system ensures that Parties are meeting their commitments and helps them to meet their commitments if they have problems doing so.

Adaptation

The Kyoto Protocol, like the Convention, is also designed to assist countries in adapting to the adverse effects of climate change. It facilitates the development and deployment of techniques that can help increase resilience to the impacts of climate change.

The Adaptation Fund was established to finance adaptation projects and programmes in developing countries that are Parties to the Kyoto Protocol. The Fund is financed mainly with a share of proceeds from CDM project activities.

The road ahead

The Kyoto Protocol is generally seen as an important first step towards a truly global emission reduction regime that will stabilize GHG emissions, and provides the essential architecture for any future international agreement on climate change.

By the end of the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012, a new international framework needs to have been negotiated and ratified that can deliver the stringent emission reductions the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has clearly indicated are needed.

References

Erasumus prof. Michael Braungart (co-author Cradle to Cradle)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B8fTujfL30

Robert Rubinstien (Green Investment)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBUV1PJE8r4

The Limits to Growth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
http://unfccc.int/2860.php/

Kyoto Protocol
http://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol/items/2830.php

Books

Natural Capitalism
Limits to Growth
Triple Bottom Line

News Articles

New Green Business
http://money.cnn.com/2009/03/24/smallbusiness/trash_talker_terracycle.fsb/index.htm?postversion=2009032512
http://www.terracycle.net/

Notes

http://scenariothinking.org/wiki/index.php/Image:Notes_1.doc
http://scenariothinking.org/wiki/index.php/Image:Notes_2.doc