Bulletin No. 1, 2016

What a University Can Do about Climate Change 5 ‘Even if the planet’s not inhabited by humans, its climate is still going to change.’ True. But significant changes on the Earth’s climate brought on by natural causes tend to have longer durations. For example, prolonged decrease in temperature during the Ice Age due to variations in the Earth’s orbit can last for tens or hundreds of thousands of years. However, the recent warming has occurred over a relatively short period of time, i.e., within 100–200 years since the Industrial Revolution, with a speed the planet has never seen. A continuous warming trend towards the end of the century can also be scientifically projected. For those who think that the existing climate change is ‘not so serious’ and caused by factors other than human activities, I would encourage them to read the IPCC AR5. It is stated therein with the support of scientific evidence that it is ‘ extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century’. Would any of the AR5 projections be wrong? Not likely, because… the projected trend of climate change by IPCC has proven to be more and more accurate over the years. Though there are differences between the simulated and the observed trends over a short period of time—say 10 to 15 years, the long term trend on global mean surface temperature from 1951 to 2012 projected by the model simulation has to a very large extent agreed with that of the observed trend. In AR5, we have taken into account regional differences and a more comprehensive array of physical processes in the climate system to further enhance the accuracy of its projections. Is the Paris Climate Change Agreement going to work? It might work… because it has departed from the top-down approach of similar previous efforts. This time the individual governments came up with their own proposals on how to deal with climate change in the ‘Intended Nationally Determined Contributions ( INDCs)‘, submitted in advance for the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21). There are good reasons to believe that these nations are sufficiently motivated and would be able to meet the commitments and targets they set for themselves. It’s encouraging to know that more than 180 nations—developed and less developed alike— have already submitted their INDCs and among them, more than 170 parties have signed the Paris Agreement since 22 April this year. ‘Climate Change is a subject only for the science or geography students.’ Not at all. Climate change concerns everyone and demands the attention of students from all disciplines. We have just started a General Education course on climate change in Spring 2016 with students coming from a variety of academic backgrounds. With knowledge gained from and awareness raised by the course, these students’ commitment to a low carbon lifestyle has been reaffirmed and strengthened. They will hopefully be the ambassadors and keepers of our planet’s sustainability in whatever they find themselves doing in future. T he Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the international body for assessing the science related to climate change. It regularly publishes reports which provide policymakers with assessments of the scientific basis of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for adaptation and mitigation. Prof. Gabriel Lau , Director of CUHK’s Institute of Environment, Energy and Sustainability and AXA Professor of Geography and Resource Management at CUHK, is one of the lead authors of IPCC’s latest assessment report (AR5). He shared his views on some of the conventional understandings—as well as misunderstandings—of the climate change issue. Is the Paris Agreement on climate change going to work? ‘Even if the planet’s not inhabited by humans, its climate is still going to change.’ ‘Climate change is a subject only for the science or geography students.’ Would any of the AR5 projections be wrong?