Climate Change:
Impacts and Responses
Topic 1:
Introduction
Topic outline
1.
About the course
2.
Climate change basics
3.
The IPCC
4.
Drivers of global
change
Image: UN Photo, Mark Garten
Learning outcomes for this topic

Understand the contents of
the course and what you
will gain by studying it

Describe the basic facts
about climate change and
why it is a challenge

Learn about the structure
and operations of the
Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC)

Be familiar with a range of
human drivers of global
change
Section 1:
About the course
About the course

The purpose of the course

Course learning outcomes

The syllabus

References for key readings
Course purpose

Introduce the topics of climate variability and climate change

Deliver understanding about how earth’s climate system works,
and natural and human-induced drivers of the climate system

Explore the impacts of climate change on human and natural
environments

Analyse impacts and evaluate climate change adaptation and
mitigation options

Learn about the policies, regulatory mechanisms and international
climate agreements associated with climate change
Course learning outcomes

Explain how the climate system works and the physical basis of climate
change

Describe how human activities are influencing greenhouse gas emissions

Investigate projections about possible future climate change on Earth

Assess the impacts of climate variability and climate change on
agriculture and food systems, water, health, ecosystems, industry,
settlement and society

Identify and evaluate responses to climate change under mitigation and
adaptation

Evaluate global climate change policy and its implementation options for
mitigation and adaptation.
The syllabus
Topics:
1.
Introduction
2.
The Earth’s climate system
3.
Climate change in the distant past
4.
Climate change in the recent past
5.
Projections of future climate
6.
Impacts of climate change
7.
Climate change adaptation
8.
Climate change mitigation
9.
Climate change policy and regulation
Key readings
Textbooks


Pittock A.B. (2009) Climate Change: the science, impacts and solutions. Earthscan.
Henderson-Sellers, A. & K. McGuffie (2012). The future of the world’s climate.
Elsevier
IPCC Reports



IPCC Fourth Assessment Report: Climate Change 2007 (AR4) available at
www.ipcc.ch
IPCC Fifth Assessment Report: Climate Change 2014 (AR5) available at www.ipcc.ch
Other relevant IPCC reports available at www.ipcc.ch
Course Journals
Some of the key journals for scientific papers on climate change are:
 Journal of Geophysical Research
 Nature Climate Change
 Climatic Change
 Global Environmental Change
 Climate Dynamics
 International Journal of Climatology
Section 2:
Climate change basics
Outline:
Climate change basics

Isn’t the climate naturally changeable?

Hasn’t Earth’s climate changed in the past?

How do we know humans are responsible for current changes?

Why should we worry about climate change?

What can we do about climate change?
Isn’t the climate always changing?
Image:UN Photo/Logan Abassi

Climate and weather are not the
same!

Climate is the average state of
the weather measured over a
period of thirty years or more.

“Climate change” refers to a
shift in the state of the climate
over at least several decades.

Climate variability is a natural
feature of earth’s climate
system, but human influences
on the climate can contribute to
greater levels of variability than
we would otherwise expect to
see.
Hasn’t Earth’s climate changed in the past?
Image: IPCC WGI, AR5 2013, FigSPM-01
How do we know humans are responsible?
IPCC 2007 AR4 WG1
Why should we worry about current
climate change?
Image: UN Photo, Logan Abassi

Major negative impacts associated with
even small temperature increases

Climate change will bring temperature
increases, sea level rise, erratic weather
and increased extreme events, all with
far-reaching implications for ecosystems,
human livelihoods and national
economies

Unfair global distribution of negative
impacts

Limited adaptive capacity of vulnerable
populations in many areas
What can we do about it?
Mitigation – e.g. change reliance on
energy sources from fossil fuels to
renewables like solar power
Image: UN Photo,
Pasquale Gorriz
Adaptation – e.g. diversify farming
systems to include more drought
tolerant crops like millet and cassava
Image: UN Photo,
Gonzaelz Farran
Image: UN photo,
Paolo Filgueiras
Global policy – financing, coordinating and regulating the global
climate change response
Section 3:
The IPCC
Outline:
The IPCC

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

The structure of the IPCC

IPCC materials and recent reports
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC)
Established in 1988 by the
United Nations Environment
Programme and the World
Meteorological Organization

The IPCC is a scientific body. It reviews and assesses the most recent
scientific, technical and socio-economic information produced
worldwide relevant to the understanding of climate change.

Does not conduct scientific research or monitor climate data

Aims to provide the world with a clear scientific view on the current
state of knowledge on climate change and its potential environmental
and socio-economic impacts

“Policy-relevant and yet policy-neutral, never policy-prescriptive”
Structure of the IPCC
www.ipcc.ch
IPCC materials

Assessment
Reports

Special Reports

Methodology
Reports
www.ipcc.ch
Section 4:
Global change
Outline:
Global change

What is global change?

What drives global change?

Natural drivers of global change

Human drivers of global change
What is global change?
Planetary scale change
affecting systems on Earth,
such as the climate system,
ecosystems or socialecological systems.
Image: NASA Earth Observatory
Natural drivers of global change
Plate tectonics,
earthquakes, volcanoes
Solar variation and
Milankovitch cycles
Meteorite impacts
Image: NASA
Image: NASA
Image: NASA
Human drivers of global change
Population growth
Economic development
Image: UN Photo, A. Duclos
Image: UN Photo, Rick Bajornas
Human needs – drivers of change
Image: UN photo, Guthrie
UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe
UN Photo/Kibae Park
Image: UN Photo, Evan Schneider
UN Photo/John Isaac
Image: UN photo, Ky Chung
UN Photo/John Isaac
End of Topic 1:
Introduction
Next Topic:
The Earth’s Climate System
Image: UN Photo, Mark Garten