COP21 Side Event: Metrics of progress towards net zero and the two degree goal - science for a safe climate

Past Event

Date
 07 December 2015, 4:00pm - 5:30pm

Location

THIS EVENT IS A COP21 SIDE EVENT AND IS OPEN TO UNFCCC BLUE ZONE BADGE HOLDERS ONLY.

Location: Observer Room 4, Paris le Bourget exhibition centre

Contact Gonzalo Griebenow for further information/all enquiries

This event will review how science can inform policy progress towards stabilizing climate, including comparing the impact of cumulative and short-lived climate pollutants and measuring the level of ambition of emission reduction targets with respect to limiting future warming and impacts in vulnerable regions. The INDC mechanism allows nations to adopt their own metrics for setting greenhouse gas emission reduction targets and emphasises the need for periodic review to ensure climate goals are achieved. While avoiding a “one size fits all” approach, this places additional demands on negotiators and interested parties to understand the science of assessing INDCs and their implications for future climate.

This side-event will give perspectives from leading IPCC scientists, concluding with a Ministerial keynote and an opportunity for an interactive discussion of these complex and often contentious issues.

Programme:

  • 15:00-15:05: Welcome and opening remarks from the co-chairs: Miriam Kennet, Green Economics Foundation, and Adrian Macey, Victoria University, Wellington
  • 15:05-15:15: David Frame, Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand - 'The Science Dictates…' what? Introductory remarks on the role of quantitative metrics in political discourse between sovereign nations
  • 15:15-15:30: Jan Fuglestvedt, CICERO, Oslo, Norway - Uses and abuses of Global Warming Potentials: relating cumulative and short-lived climate pollutants and their implications for future climate
  • 15:30-15:40: Myles Allen, ECI & Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford, UK - How many degrees to net zero? Evaluation of INDCs against attributable human-induced warming as an objective metric of progress and ambition towards climate goals
  • 15:40-15:50: Xolisa Ngwadla, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, South Africa - What is dangerous interference? Measuring the impact of climate change on vulnerable regions and ecosystems
  • 15:50-16:05: Tim Groser, Minister of Trade and Minister Responsible for Climate Change Negotiations, New Zealand - Measuring the impact of today’s agriculture on tomorrow’s climate: no longer 'just a New Zealand problem’
  • 16:05-16:30: Questions, answers and discussion with the audience