Institutional and Individual Response to Climate Change Issues
In this session, Assistant Professor Benjamin K. Sovacool, who is from Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, has shared with us on the responses to climate change. The two main responses are at the institutional and individual level.
On the institutional level, the solutions to climate change can be divided into several sections. Firstly, sectors can implement policies, measures and instruments that proved to be environmentally friendly. In addition, sectors can also invest on the research for renewable energy technologies. This is especially important as latest IPCC report has shown that 53.2% of the greenhouse gases are contributed by the energy supply and usage.
Following that, forestry and agriculture is the next in-line contributor of the greenhouse gases. Referring to the IPCC report, it contributes 30.9% of the overall greenhouse emissions. Thus, financial incentives should be given to increase forest area; to reduce deforestation; and to maintain and manage forest. Furthermore, the promotion of biological fertilizers and pest control also can help in lowering the greenhouse gases emitted during agricultural processes.
There are approximately 6 billion of people on Earth. Therefore, an individual action for climate stabilization can definitely make a difference. The four main factors that one should look into are sustainable electricity; food; homes; and technology. One can support sustainable electricity by investing shares in clean energy companies or purchasing renewable energy or climate credits. Next, one can change his/her food habits by bringing reusable container for food storage to help reducing food packaging wastage. On top of that, each and every one of our homes’ lighting should switch to CFLs or LEDs for better energy efficiency. Lastly, all of us should support environmental friendly technology by patronizing them; for example, “Green Phone”.
In conclusion, the individual responsibilities to climate change do outweigh the institutional responses. This is because the institutional level only has the ability to regulate the “green” movement by implementing policies and measures. Thus, it voices down to YOU to make a great difference.
First, I would like to compliment Cyntalia for her efforts put in to writing the summary. The summary is well structured, it flows smoothly with adequate use of signal words, and the statistics used supported her points. However, she has exceeded the recommended word limit, which is around 150-200 words. In addition, I feel that we could do away with some examples and bring in some analysis given by the lecturer.
ReplyDeleteThey are:
1. Climate change is an Asia dominated problem.
2. No countries cut down their emissions; a reduction occurs only in countries that experienced drastic economic changes.
3. There is a huge disparity between low-income countries and high-income countries in terms of their CO2 emission per capita.
4. Clean technologies are many orders of magnitude better then things like coal, fossil fuels in terms of CO2 emissions.
5. Individuals should be re-educated in many aspects for example: Do not buy things just because they are fashionable.
These analyses are looking into the social and political aspects of the problem of climate change, which I feel are more important as one needs to understand the whole picture rather than just what we can do. Moreover, there should not be any interpretations or ratings given in a summary. The last sentence also seems to me that it is a tad dramatic for a summary, and it seems paradoxical that there is a conclusion for a summary. Overall, her effort for doing the summary is commendable. =)