Climate Change: Current Goals Lacking

Scientists most closely associated with recommending climate policies to government officials are refocusing their recommendations.  Armed with new data that show the current state of the climate is worse than that predicted by any model used in the 2007 IPCC Report, scientists are trying to let government officials know that stated goals to decrease emission levels won’t go far enough in the alloted timeframe.

For instance, CO Gov. Ritter’s Climate Action Plan calls for a 20% reduction in 2005 GHG emissions by 2020.  President Obama has called for 2020 emissions to be reduced to 1990 levels.  If officials are serious about not introducing the worst climate change effects currently estimated (sea level rise, temperature, precipitation patterns, drought, etc.), their emission reduction goals must become much more bold.  By 2050, reductions from 1990 levels must be at least 80%.

Climate models used in the 2007 IPCC Report forecasted a range of temperature increases of 1-6 degrees Celsius.  Severe or abrupt climate changes weren’t expected until the upper limit of that range was reached.  The beginnings of those climate changes have already been seen, with temperature increases of only 0.7 degrees Celsius.  To wait until 6 or even 2 degrees of warming then seems like a very bad idea.  A whole set of tipping points might be reached well before the worst warming was seen.  Plenty of warming resides today “in the pipeline”.  Greenhouse gas concentrations today are enough to continue to warm the globe for at least another 100 years.  In light of the continuing data showing climate change effects, emissions standards must be more aggressively set and pursued.

Alice Madden Named As Colorado’s Climate Change Coordinator

Gov. Bill Ritter named former state legislator Alice Madden as Colorado’s Climate Change Coordinator.  I think this is a smart thing to do because of the complexity of plans to address climate change at the state level here in Colorado.  What exactly will Madden do?  The job description didn’t show up in the Daily Camera article, but I think there is enough information there to get an idea.  In a very general sense, she will work to achieve the goals in Colorado’s Climate Action Plan (more on that below).  Madden’s comments on the appointment fill out some details for us:

Madden, who was term limited last year, said in the release that climate change is, “taking its toll in every corner of Colorado.”

“Farmers, ranchers and the ski industry are concerned about winter snowpack,” she said in the release. “Citizens are worried about rising energy costs. Commuters are concerned about efficient and affordable transportation choices, and we all are worried about the future of our forests, air and water.”

As I’ve written about, climate change is a very big, very complex problem.  It touches every other policy area I can think of, so efforts to address it introduce the need to address how those efforts impact other policy topics.  So it’s not very surprising that the job description at the time of announcement is a little fuzzy.  I’m sure they’re going to further define her role as they move forward.  Much like President Obama, I don’t necessarily envy Madden – both for the reason listed above (complexity) but also because the problem will be seen to grow in scope in the public’s eye as additional scientific evidence of climate change comes forward.  Additional, unforseen consequences of climate change will come to the fore as well.  Madden and others are going to need to be nimble yet aggressive as they craft climate change policies.  I’m not sure how you write that into a description for any job.  But I’m glad Madden is doing it.