This event will brief parliamentarians on the policy implications at all levels arising from the latest science focused on cryosphere (snow and ice) regions including climate negotiations at COP 26.
Insufficient emissions reductions could lead to warming scenarios beyond 1.5°C that trigger global changes and feedbacks in the cryosphere that may be rapid and to some degree irreversible (several tens of thousands of years). The most significant dynamics include sea-level rise from polar ice sheets; polar ocean acidification; mountain glacier loss; permafrost thaw and related CO2/methane emissions; and, Arctic sea ice loss.
All these changes will impose dramatic impacts on the global climate system, as well as local people and ecosystems. The near-immediate cryosphere response as temperatures rise beyond 1.5°C and CO2 passes 450ppm, underscores the urgency of sharp emissions reductions by 2030 as the IPCC has outlined.
With even temporary overshoot above 1.5°C, researchers believe the cryosphere system is close to changes that will persist for many generations, but which may still be averted with enough reductions and forward planning.
The briefing will include a Q&A with the speakers.
Professor Julie Brigham-Grette, UMass-Amherst and Chair, U.S. Polar Research Board (Ice Sheets/SLR)
Dr Gustaf Hugelius, Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm University (Permafrost)
Dr Heidi Sevestre, University Centre in Svalbard (Mountain Glaciers and Snow)
Dr Helen Findlay, PML (Polar and High Latitude Oceans)
Professor Julienne Stroeve, University College London/University of Manitoba/NSIDC (Sea Ice)
Dr Joeri Rogelj, Imperial College London (SR1.5 Emissions Pathways)
Beth Viola, Holland and Knight, Clinton NSC and Gore/Obama climate advisor, U.S. Transition/Climate Change
Pam Pearson, former U.S. climate negotiator and Director, ICCI
Speaker TBC from the Cabinet Office
We are re-launching this event as a series of webinars. Join leading experts at UK Parliament to find out more about migration. What are the economic and social aspects? What do the models say? Public and closed webinars will be taking place throughout November 2020.
There is increasing interest in using machine learning to automatically analyse remote sensing data and increase our understanding of complex environmental systems. While there are benefits from this approach, there are also some barriers to its use. This POSTnote examines the value of these approaches, and the technical and ethical challenges for wider implementation.
Earth observation (EO) is the process of gathering information about the Earth from a range of sensors to provide monitoring data at a range of scales. This POSTnote outlines some of the environmental uses and benefits of EO data, the potential opportunities from advances in relevant technologies and challenges facing the effective use of EO data.