Global Climate Change and Climate Protection: Current Summary

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Global Climate Change and Climate Protection:  Current Summary

From September 6 to 10, 1997, the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) held a Cities for Climate Protection (CCP) Campaign - U.S. workshop in Atlanta, sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, The City of Atlanta, The Climate Institute, and The Turner Foundation.  ICLEI is the international environmental agency for local governments.  It believes from concrete experience that local actions can have a global impact.  ICLEI was established in 1990 through a partnership of the United Nations Environment Programme, the International Union of Local Authorities (IULA), and the Center for Innovative Diplomacy.  ICLEI's World Secretariat is in Toronto.  ICLEI also has offices in Freiburg, Tokyo, Harare, Santiago, and Berkeley.

ICLEI's purpose and mission are to:  1) serve as an international clearinghouse on sustainable development and environmental protection policies, programs, and techniques being implemented at the local level by local institutions; 2) initiate joint projects or campaigns among groups of local governments to research and develop new approaches to address pressing environmental and development problems; 3) organize training programs and publish reports and technical manuals on state of the art environmental management practices; and 4) serve as an advocate for local government before national and international governments, agencies, and organizations to increase their understanding and support of local environmental protection and sustainable development activities.

By ICLEI's 10th anniversary in the year 2000, ICLEI aims to establish a global system to achieve, measure, and report on tangible improvements in the global environment through the cumulative local performance improvements of ICLEI's member municipalities.  ICLEI members include more than 265 local governments of all sizes from around the world from 50 countries, all of whom share a common purpose:  to take a leadership role in identifying and implementing innovative environmental management practices at the local level.  ICLEI's CCP campaign started in 1990 and consists of about 200 cities from Abu Dhabi to West Hollywood.  The cities that sign on to the CCP campaign commit to:  1) estimate their 1990 carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent (CO2e) emissions, 2) develop a CCP plan to reduce their CO2e emissions by 20 percent of their 1990 emissions by the year 2020, 3) demonstrate progress towards reducing their greenhouse gas emissions, and 4) update and implement their plan.

Others are becoming involved in the CCP campaign.  On September 19, 1997, Ted Turner of Turner Communications announced he would contribute $1,000,000,000 to the United Nations to address the issue of global climate change.  On October 6, 1997, President Clinton held a White House Summit on Global Warming to help develop U.S. policy for the planning meetings in Bonn on October 20, 1997, and for the International Meeting on Global Climate Change to be held in Kyoto in December, 1997.

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Climate change is now recognized as a serious global issue by thousands of environmental professionals, atmospheric scientists, government officials, medical doctors, and health and property insurance companies.  Climate change is serious because its adverse human health and physical effects, if unabated, will have vast and undesirable social, economic and political impacts.  Ross Gelspan, prize-winning author of The Heat Is On: The High Stakes Battle Over Earth's Threatened Climate (1997.  Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., New York) was the featured dinner speaker at the CCP workshop.

Cause and Effects of Industrialized Climate Change

Because of industrialization, the earth's surface and atmosphere ...

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