The Climate Solutions Consensus

In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize (with former Vice President Al Gore) for its reporting on the human causes of climate change. In 2008, the National Council for Science and the Environment reported that the acceleration of climate change is already faster than the IPCC projected only a year earlier. How we deal with the rapid environmental changes, and the human forces that are driving these changes, will be among the defining issues of our generation. Climate Solutions Consensus presents an agenda for America. It is the first major consensus statement by the nation’s leading scientists, and it provides specific recommendations for federal policies, for state and local governments, for businesses, and for colleges and universities that are preparing future generations who will be dealing with a radically changed climate. The book draws upon the recommendations developed by more than 1200 scientists, educators and decision makers who participated in the National Council for Science and the Environment’s 8th National Conference on Science, Policy and the Environment. After presenting a lucid narrative of the science behind climate change and its solutions, Climate Solutions Consensus presents 35 practical, results-oriented approaches for minimizing climate change and its impacts. It clearly spells out options for technological, societal, and policy actions. And it deals head-on with controversial topics, including nuclear energy, ocean fertilization and atmospheric geo-engineering. One of the book’s key conclusions is that climate solutions are about much more than energy sources. They involve re-examining everything people do with an eye toward minimizing climate impacts. This includes our eating habits, consumption patterns, transportation, building and housing, forestry, land use, education, and more. According to these scientists, the time to act is now. With clarity and urgency, they tell us exactly what needs to be done to start reversing the driving factors behind climate change, minimizing their consequences, and adapting to what is beyond our power to stop.

The failure of the Copenhagen climate conference in December 2009 revealed major flaws in the way the world's policy makers have attempted to prevent dangerous levels of increases in global temperatures. The expert authors in this specially commissioned collection focus on the likely costs and benefits of a very wide range of policy options, including geo-engineering, mitigation of CO2, methane and 'black carbon', expanding forest, research and development of low-carbon energy and encouraging green technology transfer. For each policy, authors outline all of the costs, benefits and likely outcomes, in fully referenced, clearly presented chapters accompanied by shorter, critical alternative perspectives. To further stimulate debate, a panel of economists, including three Nobel laureates, evaluate and rank the attractiveness of the policies. This authoritative and thought-provoking book will challenge readers to form their own conclusions about the best ways to respond to global warming.

This book examines whether a global consensus is emerging on climate change and human mobility and presents evidence of a slow-moving but dynamic, step-by-step process of international policy development on climate-related mobility. Naser reviews the range of solutions offered to address climate-related mobility problems, such as extending the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, adopting an additional protocol to the UNFCCC or creating a new international treaty to support those facing climate-related migration and displacement problems. He examines the accumulating stock of international policies and initiatives relevant to climate-related mobility using a framework of six policy areas: human rights, refugees, climate change, disaster risk reduction, migration,and sustainable development. He uses this framework to define and summarise the main UN actions and milestones on climate-related mobility. Despite the difficult context affecting the global community of worsening climate change impacts and human rights under threat, Naser asserts that the foundations of global consensus on climate-related mobility have been built, particularly in the last decade. This book will be of great relevance to students, scholars and policy-makers with an interest in the increasing interface between climate change and human mobility policy issues.

"Unsettled is a remarkable book—probably the best book on climate change for the intelligent layperson—that achieves the feat of conveying complex information clearly and in depth." —Claremont Review of Books "Surging sea levels are inundating the coasts." "Hurricanes and tornadoes are becoming fiercer and more frequent." "Climate change will be an economic disaster." You've heard all this presented as fact. But according to science, all of these statements are profoundly misleading. When it comes to climate change, the media, politicians, and other prominent voices have declared that "the science is settled." In reality, the long game of telephone from research to reports to the popular media is corrupted by misunderstanding and misinformation. Core questions—about the way the climate is responding to our influence, and what the impacts will be—remain largely unanswered. The climate is changing, but the why and how aren't as clear as you've probably been led to believe. Now, one of America's most distinguished scientists is clearing away the fog to explain what science really says (and doesn't say) about our changing climate. In Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn't, and Why It Matters, Steven Koonin draws upon his decades of experience—including as a top science advisor to the Obama administration—to provide up-to-date insights and expert perspective free from political agendas. Fascinating, clear-headed, and full of surprises, this book gives readers the tools to both understand the climate issue and be savvier consumers of science media in general. Koonin takes readers behind the headlines to the more nuanced science itself, showing us where it comes from and guiding us through the implications of the evidence. He dispels popular myths and unveils little-known truths: despite a dramatic rise in greenhouse gas emissions, global temperatures actually decreased from 1940 to 1970. What's more, the models we use to predict the future aren't able to accurately describe the climate of the past, suggesting they are deeply flawed. Koonin also tackles society's response to a changing climate, using data-driven analysis to explain why many proposed "solutions" would be ineffective, and discussing how alternatives like adaptation and, if necessary, geoengineering will ensure humanity continues to prosper. Unsettled is a reality check buoyed by hope, offering the truth about climate science that you aren't getting elsewhere—what we know, what we don't, and what it all means for our future.

This book examines whether a global consensus is emerging on climate change and human mobility and presents evidence of a slow-moving but dynamic, step-by-step process of international policy development on climate-related mobility. Naser reviews the range of solutions offered to address climate-related mobility problems, such as extending the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, adopting an additional protocol to the UNFCCC or creating a new international treaty to support those facing climate-related migration and displacement problems. He examines the accumulating stock of international policies and initiatives relevant to climate-related mobility using a framework of six policy areas: human rights, refugees, climate change, disaster risk reduction, migration,and sustainable development. He uses this framework to define and summarise the main UN actions and milestones on climate-related mobility. Despite the difficult context affecting the global community of worsening climate change impacts and human rights under threat, Naser asserts that the foundations of global consensus on climate-related mobility have been built, particularly in the last decade. This book will be of great relevance to students, scholars and policy-makers with an interest in the increasing interface between climate change and human mobility policy issues.

All politics are climate politics in the twenty-first century—and this bold book argues for a Green New Deal that confronts both climate change and inequality The age of climate gradualism is over, as unprecedented disasters are exacerbated by inequalities of race and class. We need profound, radical change. A Green New Deal can tackle the climate emergency and rampant inequality at the same time. Cutting carbon emissions while winning immediate gains for the many is the only way to build a movement strong enough to defeat big oil, big business, and the super-rich—starting right now. A Planet to Win explores the political potential and concrete first steps of a Green New Deal. It calls for dismantling the fossil fuel industry and building beautiful landscapes of renewable energy, guaranteeing climate-friendly work and no-carbon housing and free public transit. And it shows how a Green New Deal in the United States can strengthen climate justice movements worldwide. We don’t make politics under conditions of our own choosing, and no one would choose this crisis. But crises also present opportunities. We stand on the brink of disaster—but also at the cusp of wondrous, transformative change.

Climate change control has risen to the top of the international agenda. Failed efforts, centred in the United Nations, to allocate responsibility have resulted in a challenge now reaching crisis stage. John J. Kirton and Ella Kokotsis analyse the generation and effectiveness of four decades of intergovernmental regimes for controlling global climate change. Informed by international relations theories and critical of the prevailing UN approach, Kirton and Kokotsis trace the global governance of climate change from its 1970s origins to the present and demonstrate the effectiveness of the plurilateral summit alternative grounded in the G7/8 and the G20. Topics covered include: - G7/8 and UN competition and convergence on governing climate change - Kyoto obligations and the post-Kyoto regime - The role of the G7/8 and G20 in generating a regime beyond Kyoto - Projections of and prescriptions for an effective global climate change control regime for the twenty-first century. This topical book synthesizes a rich array of empirical data, including new interview and documentary material about G7/8 and G20 governance of climate change, and makes a valuable contribution to understanding the dynamics of governing climate change. It will appeal to scholars, researchers, and policy makers interested in the dynamics behind governance processes within the intergovernmental realm.

The New York Times-bestselling "skeptical environmentalist" argues that panic over climate change is causing more harm than good Hurricanes batter our coasts. Wildfires rage across the American West. Glaciers collapse in the Artic. Politicians, activists, and the media espouse a common message: climate change is destroying the planet, and we must take drastic action immediately to stop it. Children panic about their future, and adults wonder if it is even ethical to bring new life into the world. Enough, argues bestselling author Bjorn Lomborg. Climate change is real, but it's not the apocalyptic threat that we've been told it is. Projections of Earth's imminent demise are based on bad science and even worse economics. In panic, world leaders have committed to wildly expensive but largely ineffective policies that hamper growth and crowd out more pressing investments in human capital, from immunization to education. False Alarm will convince you that everything you think about climate change is wrong -- and points the way toward making the world a vastly better, if slightly warmer, place for us all.