Climate scientist talks Dec 6th about critical juncture for Paris Climate Agreement (WU-312)

At the Tuesday Dec 6th Open Mic Science event, climate scientist Derik Broekhoff will explain why the Paris Climate Agreement is at a critical juncture, and the importance of State and local climate change actions at a time when federal action seems less likely than before.

He will report his experiences attending the UN Climate Change Conference in Morocco with delegations from all over the world in the week following the surprising outcome of the US election.

His Tuesday Dec 6th 8pm presentation is titled: "Paris Climate Agreement: One year after". The monthly first-Tuesday “Bainbridge Island Open Mic Science” conversations are free and informal and offered in the back room of the pub at the Treehouse Café in Lynwood Center.

In this podcast interview with BCB's Sonia Scaer, Derik explains the crucial next steps to successfully implement the Paris Climate Agreement. He shares an anecdote about the continuing commitment to the climate agreement that was expressed by the delegates from China even after hearing about the US election outcome.

During the Presidential campaign, candidate Trump expressed skepticism about actions to address climate change science and vowed to withdraw support from the Paris agreement supported by President Obama.

The Morocco event commemorated the first anniversary of 196 countries coming together for the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris to seek consensus on a legally binding and universal agreement on climate, with the aim of keeping global warming below a 1.5 degrees Centigrade increase from pre-industrial levels.

In this podcast, Derik talks about the collaborative effort and commitment by every participating country to develop and submit their strategies and plans toward mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. Each country faces different geographical, political, and resource challenges in how they tackle the ambitious Paris Climate Agreement goals. But while policies can be set at a national level, there is a lot that can be done at the state and local levels; such as support for public transit and policies to discourage housing sprawl that prolongs commuting time and causes excessive use of cars.

In his Open Mic Science presentation, Derik will talk about what the agreement means and some of the next steps to track emissions, to measure progress, and to provide financial resources to poorer countries. And in light of the recent election, he wonders how the rest of the world will react if the US withdraws from the Agreement. He is hopeful that the same level of commitment will be sustained by other countries like China. And he is seeing great strides at the state and city level in “moving the ball forward”.

For Open Mic sessions like this one, the public is invited to grab a beverage and explore ideas in various aspects of science and technology in an informal, social setting. Inspired by Café Scientifique, the gatherings are committed to public understanding of science. For more details about the Science Café program on Bainbridge Island, check out the Open Mic Science website.

Credits: BCB host: Sonya Scaer; BCB audio editor and social media publisher: Barry Peters.