Revision - Responses to climate change by Wai Teng

„Kyoto Protocol:

      - To reduce greenhouse gases from being released into the atmosphere.

      - It started on 11 December 1997, however it started on 16 February 2005.

The main key points that you will need to take notes are:

-Reduce                        - met or exceeded

-Release                        - sustainable development (CDM)

-11 December 1997       - Not all (E.g Denmark, Sweden and the UK)

-16 February 2005         - Many did not sign (E.g China, India and USA)

1.Singapore Green Plan 2012 (Reduce consumption and emission of green house gases from fossil fuels)

2.Green Mark Scheme (Construct green buildings)

3.Plant – A – Tree Campaign (Planting more trees)

GREEN MARK SCHEME

POINT 2

•Launched in 2005. Success: the National Library building and many more, have saved 15% to 35% compared to conventional buildings.

ELABORATE 2

•To make buildings energy efficient and environmentally friendly

•
EG 2 E.g Buildings that can run on solar power such as the National Library building  / Plaza by the Park etc

•

•Limitation 2: ‘green’ materials are expensive and the construction company and the developers are very conservative on bringing in new ideas.

GREEN PLAN

POINT 3

„Launched by the ministry of environment in 2002

ELABORATE 3

„To generate 60% of Singapore’s energy needs with natural gas by 2012

„Success: In 2010, the plan had already exceeded their target, 79% was conserved

EXAMPLE : ?

LIMITATION 3:

„Limitations: Natural gases require complex treatment plants to process and pipelines transport. However, pipelines are very expensive and they have to be checked regularly for any leakage.

„Launched in 1971

„To maintain Singapore’s status as a Garden City by planting trees

„Residents are encouraged to donate money to buy a tree or take part in these events that happens monthly

„Success: Contributed to 60000 trees planted yearly, the trees help to remove carbon dioxide from the air around us

„Limitation: Tree takes many years to grow, even trees that grows the fastest takes about 25 years to reach their full height

LDQ

„I agree with this statement to a large extent that international responses to climate change are limited in their effectiveness. 

POINT 1

The Kyoto Protocol is implemented to reduce greenhouse gases emission into the atmosphere, this protocol is drawn up on 11/12/1997, but was officially implemented on 16/02/2005. This protocol sets goals for different countries to achieve its goal. 

ELABORATE 1

The Kyoto Protocol may have many countries meeting or exceeding their targets or even developed countries helping developing countries to reduce carbon-based projects such as CDM (Clean Development Mechanism). 

EG1 

However, there are also some countries that did not meet their goals, such as Denmark, Sweden and United Kingdom and there are also countries that did not signed the Kyoto Protocol and continued to release carbon emission into the atmosphere. 

LIMITATION 1

For example; China, India and the United States Of America did not sign the protocol but they released large portion of global emissions into the atmosphere.

„In conclusion, I agree that the international responses are limited to its effectiveness as there are countries that does not understand why the world had become polluted with polluted atmosphere and how dangerous it is to the human lives. I suggest that all the countries should come together and create a special campaign to dedicate to reducing the amount of emissions by giving talks and maybe advertisements on how dangerous these problems may cause and how we can help to prevent it. Therefore, I agree that the international responses are limited to its effectiveness.