Master in Environmental Management

Raúl Iván Alfaro Pelico, Regional Technical Advisor on Energy, Infrastructure, Transport and Technology at UNDP has recently published an interesting and timely working paper on SIDS and climate change in a post 2012 scenario. The working paper has been recommended by EADI.
Here is the summary of his work:
This working paper begins with an overview of the climate change impacts on Small Island Developing States (SIDS), providing a brief analysis of regional climate scenarios and their expected consequences. Reference is also made to sea-level-rise predictions in various islands, to highlight specific details about their vulnerability. The analysis moves on to reviewing policies implemented by SIDS in response to climate threats. The paper mainly uses the framework of the Bali Roadmap (mitigation, adaptation, technology, financing) and considers areas of priority identified in the Barbados Programme of Action. The role that Spain has played in support of these measures is also underscored. The paper concludes with an assessment of the negotiating position of SIDS in the aftermath of the Durban climate conference. It considers the implications of various country groupings within and outside the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), as they influence the stance of different SIDS in a post-2012 climate regime.
The rest of the article can be downloaded from: http://www.realinstitutoelcano.org/wps/portal/rielcano_eng/Content?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/elcano/Elcano_in/Zonas_in/DT1-2012#_ftn2

If you are interested in knowing more about Mr. Alfaro’s work at UNDP and his take on SIDS and climate change sign up to the forthcoming Environment Outlook at IE. We look forward to your comments!

After a most interesting talk by Dr. Mario Negre at IE university on EU climate and energy policy in which students and staff discussed whether EU should go ‘solo’ on its higher GHG emission reduction commitments (from 20% to 30% by 2020), the following, and recurrent demand by LDC’s, is reiterated in the news today.
‘An increase in the EU’s carbon emissions reduction target to 30% on 1990 levels within eight years is ‘very fundamental’ to the developing world’s interests, said a top representative of the G77 group of developing nations’.
For further details see: http://www.euractiv.com/climate-environment/higher-eu-co2-cut-fundamental-developing-world-news-510299

Do you agree with this demand? Let us know!

Visualizations of Global Fire Observations and MODIS NDVI

http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003800/a003868/index.html

The European Space Agency’s Dr Olivier Arino, Senior Advisor for the
Directorate of Earth Observation Programmes, explains the role of
satellite imagery in building a clearer picture of climate change and
its effects.

http://www.rtcc.org/climate-change-tv/unfccc-videos/dr-olivier-arino-climate-change-space/

http://www.esa.int/esaMI/Space_for_our_climate/SEMDIG7JT2G_mg_1.html

One of the best parts of being a student at IE is the diversity of students that you will encounter in your program. My classmate Maria and I both grew up in the States and we felt compelled to share the most famous of American traditions with our colleagues. It had been a busy week and we were all prepared for a much-needed night off so we gathered at my house for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.

We had spent much of our week working on a project that analyzed the relationship between fire occurrence and land cover type on the island of Borneo. Our group was divided into 5 groups of 2 and each group was given data for a given year. Through GIS, we were able to visualize the fire activity depicted by “fire pixels” throughout the island. We then used R to statistically analyze the data. What we found was that there was a much higher occurrence of fires in lowland open field than other types of land cover (as shown by the graph below). Why is fire occurrence so much higher in lowland open fields? While we can’t be sure simply by looking at our data from the project, one likely culprit is the practice of slash and burn, which involves cutting and burning forests/fields in order to create room for crops. These fields are often used to plant oil palm plantations, taking the place of native plants and animal species.

Since we had become so well acquainted with this project, we decided to name our Thanksgiving turkey Borneo. Ironically enough, as we were discussing something about the project, I accidentally forgot that Borneo was in the oven. It turns out, there are also high occurrences scorched turkeys on Thanksgiving. We began our feast by indulging in a Welsh soup, Indonesian fried rice, dumplings, homemade cornbread, 2 varieties of hearty German bread and Venezuelan bread (pan de jamon). Throughout dinner, we shared our frustrations regarding the current environmental situation, but also found comfort in being able to discuss these issues with others who are interested in finding solutions.

For most in the group, this was their first Thanksgiving, but for all of us, this will remain an unforgettable holiday with a turkey named Borneo.

Fire occurences measured by the number of fire pixels on Borneo during 2006

If you are disappointed about Durban, you might find it good to know that some people didn’t expect much from it anyway. One of these persons was David Victor, whose book on climate change is now on The Economist’s Book of the Year list. Victor basically says that bottom-up strategies will be more effective than top-down strategies.

One of the organizations that looks at bottom-up climate strategies in a systematic way is ICLEI, one of our guests in our event last year on cities and climate change. Just taking a look at ICLEI’s website makes clear that cities seem to be doing better than national governments in this area. While Canada was obstructing a deal in Durban, Vancouver renewed its commitment to reduce CO2 emissions. A good reason to be looking at local initiatives when talking about global change!

Prof. Jeremy Cherfas is in Durban at a special event on agriculture and climate change.

Read his report of one of the talks here.

The same event also received attention from The Guardian, featuring a photo series on the priorities of Kenyan farmers by Neil Palmer of CIAT. I copy one of these photographs here.

Photo: Neil Palmer, CIAT (more here).

LATER: Here is another blog post from Our Man in Durban, now on forests.

Communication is a red thread throughout the Master programme. Sustainability is about collaboration, innovation and changing behaviour. For each of these things, communication is crucial. A big part of the curriculum is devoted to communication skills and strategies in various contexts. Students learn to “inject” scientific evidence into decision-making processes. Also, they learn to design environmental campaigns.

For the communication component of the program, we collaborate with a number of professionals with a long trajectory in this field. We count on professors from our sister School of Communication. Key contributions come from professionals working for four different companies. Each of them works on comunications in different environmental domains (sustainability, water, biodiversity, and energy / climate change mitigation).

One highlight of this component on communication is a workshop on environmental communication that will be given by Harriet Kingaby. Harriet is a consultant for Futerra, a London-based company that leads innovation in sustainability communication.

We look very much forward to her contribution to the programme! Also, like last year, Futerra will offer the opportunity for students of the Master to do an internship at their London headquarters.

As a taster of the fresh ideas Harriet will bring to the Master, I copy Futerra’s Credo (or rather Ten Commandments) below.

COP17 climate talks will last until December 9.

On Twitter you can follow developments using #COP17.

IISD gives detailed coverage.

The Master in Global Environmental Change class of 2011 is made of a small group of 10 students from 10 different countries, each with our own culture and beliefs and yet, we are tied together by our interest climate change. Like any field of study, global environmental change comes with its own language. In just a few short weeks, we’ve started to integrate terms like “virtual footprint” and “harvest strategies” into our daily conversations. There are acronyms like WTO (World Trade Organization) and UNFCCC (the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) to learn and discuss. We have begun to dissect data that is essential to understanding climate change using programs that some of us had never used before. We’ve looked towards the past to better understand how we have gotten to this point and now we are using our new skills and tools to see where we are heading.

Although we were familiar with the overall topic of climate change before, we are now peeling back the layers of this complex issue as we look towards realistic solutions. We face constant reminders of the urgency of our environmental situation and yet, we have also found inspiration from working alongside those who are as excited about this topic as we are. We look forward to sharing our progress through our term and especially sources of inspiration that we find from the innovative people, companies and non-profits involved in this dynamic field of study. Stay tuned!

Our MGEC group biking near Madrid Rio