Carbon neutrality should not be the ultimate goal : finding a 1.5°C aligned target for UBC’s fair share
department or school: Other UBC
data provider: DSpace
contributor: University of British Columbia. Faculty of Arts
contributor: University of British Columbia. Campus and Community Planning
contributor: University of British Columbia. Sustainability Initiative
creator: Mao, Siyu
issued: 2021-06-14T20:10:32Z
issued: 2021-04-30
description: Strong and urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is needed to avoid the detrimental effects of climate change. To curb climate change and limit global warming to 1.5oC, IPCC (2018) requires an emissions reduction of 45% below 2010 levels by 2030 in global net anthropogenic GHG emissions. The federal government of Canada, the province of British Columbia, the City of Vancouver, and the University of British Columbia (UBC) have set a number of GHG emissions reduction targets. However, since Canada is both historically and currently a high GHG emitter, a 45% reduction may not be considered appropriate when factoring in climate justice and common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR) frameworks. Within Canada, UBC plays an important role in researching and developing climate initiatives due to its commitment to aligning with the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C and its global leadership in sustainability. Moreover, with the ability to better leverage bold climate policies quickly, UBC have a climate emergency responsibility to help compensate for Canadian jurisdictions that struggle to reduce emissions. Hence, it is important for UBC to call for a justice-based emissions reduction target that is far more ambitious than both IPCC’s 45% global average emissions reduction target and Canadian national targets. After reviewing literature on CBDR and subnational actions, and acknowledging UBC’s commitments to climate justice, I recommend UBC’s GHG emissions reduction target to be in the range of 80-100% by 2025, and in excess of 100% by 2030 below 2007 levels, as UBC not only has a relatively high financial and technical capacity but also plays an important role as subnational actor, property owner, employer, education and research hub, as well as the leader of societal transformation. Moreover, it is the best platform to research and promote ambitious and innovative climate actions, as well as to affect broader scale policy dec…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/78682
note: Carbon neutrality should not be the ultimate goal: finding a 1.5°C aligned target for UBC’s fair share Prepared by: Siyu Mao Prepared for: UBC Sustainability Initiative Course Code: VOL 500 University of British Columbia Date: 30 April 2021 Disclaimer: “UBC SEEDS Sustainability Program provides students with the opportunity to share the findings of their studies, as well as their opinions, conclusions and recommendations with the UBC community. The reader should bear in mind that this is a student research project and is not an official document of UBC. Furthermore, readers should bear in mind that these reports may not reflect the current status of activities at UBC. We urge you to contact the research persons mentioned in a report or the SEEDS Sustainability Program representative about the current status of the subject matter of a report”. University of British Columbia Social Ecological Economic Development Studies (SEEDS) Sustainability Program Student Research Report Carbon neutrality should not be the ultimate goal: finding a 1.5oC aligned target for UBC’s fair share 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Strong and urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is needed to avoid the detrimental effects of climate change. To curb climate change and limit global warming to 1.5oC, IPCC (2018) requires an emissions reduction of 45% below 2010 levels by 2030 in global net anthropogenic GHG emissions. The federal government of Canada, the province of British Columbia, the City of Vancouver, and the University of British Columbia (UBC) have set a number of GHG emissions reduction targets. However, since Canada is both historically and currently a high GHG emitter, a 45% reduction may not be considered appropriate when factoring in climate justice and common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR) frameworks. Within Canada, UBC plays an important role in researching and developing climate initiatives due to its commitment to aligning with the Paris Agreement’s goal of limi…
has type: Report
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0398414
language: eng
peer review status: Unreviewed
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
is part of: UBC Social Ecological Economic Development Studies (SEEDS) Student Report
is part of: University of British Columbia. VOL 500
subject: Climate
subject: Energy
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/78682