Debriefing the Summit

Questions to Encourage Reflection and Discussion

1. Ask representatives of non-industrialized and industrialized countries: How did you feel during the summit? How do you think you would really feel if you lived in this country?
2. How do you think the indigenous people of your country would be affected by climate change? Do you think they should have had a representative at this summit? Are indigenous peoples and traditional cultures particularly affected by climate change? If so, how?
3. The north is sometimes called “the canary in the coal mine” because the Arctic is feeling the impacts of climate change more than almost anywhere else in the world. This is having a major impact on our traditional cultures. How are the concerns of northerners similar to those of some of the other nations in the summit (e.g. Tuvalu or Bangladesh)?
4. Why is it so hard for world powers to change over to different sources of energy – clean, renewable resources? What are the barriers to change?
5. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, leading oil-producing countries, are demanding compensation if oil sales decline as a result of GHG cuts. What would your response to this be?
6. What does the term “global citizen” mean to you? When you think about the summit, how do you think people’s attitudes need to change in order to reach an agreement for real change? Are there any ways in which your attitude, personally, has changed as a result of the summit? What do you think it will take to make people change into global citizens?

Useful Quotes

These quotes might stimulate critical thinking and discussion. You may want to write one or two on the board, read them aloud and ask for responses, or give them to students as a stimulus for reflective writing.

“We face a new threat. The emission of greenhouse gases in distant lands is warming the earth and causing the sea level to rise. The coastal fringe, where my people live, is but two meters above the sea’s surface. We are trapped in a terrifying, rising flood of biblical proportions. No nation has the right to place its own, misconstrued national interest before the physical and cultural survival of whole countries.”
— Clodumar, President of the Republic of Nauru, a tiny Pacific Island

“It is not possible for the Chinese government to undertake the obligation of reduction of greenhouse gases until China works its way out of Third World poverty.”
— Yaobang Chen, Chinese delegate

“Our targets will not be taken seriously by the poorer countries until the richer countries are reaching them.”
– Tony Blair, British Prime Minister

“All of us must of course reject the advice of those who ask us to believe there is no problem at all. We know their arguments, we have heard others like them throughout history.”
— Al Gore, former Vice-President, USA

Quotes are from Pembina Institute: Climate Change Teacher Kit. Reprinted with permission.

An International Agreement on
Climate Change – Is it possible?

The year is 2025. Between the present and 2025, there have been a number of attempts to reach an international agreement on climate change. However, because of the powerful oil lobby, the refusal of some western nations to reduce their GHGs, the ever-rising levels of energy consumption worldwide, and the lack of investment in renewable energy technologies, the world has now reached a crisis. Here’s what is happening:

• The average global temperature has risen steadily since 1990. Several heat waves in Europe and Asia have killed thousands of people.
• The malaria mosquito is moving northward, and cases of malaria have been discovered in the northeastern U.S.
• Sea levels have risen; the residents of some small Pacific Islanders have moved to New Zealand. Some small, low-lying Pacific nations have sued western nations because their island homes are disappearing under the water.
• 800,000 species of plants and animals (both land and marine species) have become extinct since 2000.
• Glaciers have melted worldwide, causing an extreme water shortage in some countries.
• Floods have increased.
• Forest fires are on the rise.

And that’s just the beginning.

The United Nations has called an emergency world summit to try to come to an international agreement on how to reduce GHG emissions.

The task of your group is to:

1. Research the country you have been assigned. Determine what current climate change impacts this country is experiencing. Predict what it will be like for this country by 2025, if the world keeps emitting GHGs at its present rate. (To help with your research, see Research Tips below.) Try to predict what effect increased climate change will have on:
   
   
   • Indigenous people and culture
   • Agriculture, fishing and food security
   • Water supply
   • Health (including the effect of parasites, diseases, high temperatures)
   • Sea level rise
   • Extreme weather events (cyclones, flooding)
   • Species extinction
   • Forest fires
   • Economy
2. Decide on your position. Are you presently a major GHG-emitter, or does your country emit few GHGs per capita? Is your country willing to substantially reduce GHG emissions and demand that other countries do the same? Or will your country argue that you need to keep your economy strong by continuing to use energy from non-renewable sources? NOTE: For this summit to be realistic and interesting, there need to be different views presented. If your country is one of the developed industrial countries such as the U.S. or Canada, don’t just agree to reduce your GHGs substantially; you are concerned about jobs and the economy. If your country is not very industrialized, and is experiencing many climate-change impacts, you must be prepared to challenge the rich, industrialized nations, who are producing more than their share of GHGs.
3. Create an opening Position Statement: Decide on a short (two to four minute) statement of your country’s position, to be presented by your group speaker. (You will need to choose a speaker.) In this opening statement, your speaker will introduce your country, give some key facts relating to climate change impacts on your country in 2025, and state what you hope to gain from the summit meeting

Research Tips

• Climate Ark Portal – http://www.climateark.org/– Type the name of your country + “climate change” into the search function (e.g., Bangladesh+“climate change”)
• Climate Impacts Map – http://www.climatehotmap.org/ – Click on your country for information about current climate change impacts
• Search in a search engine (e.g., http://www.google.com/), using your country name, plus terms like “climate change”, floods, etc.
• For general information on the impacts, look in the Resources section of this website, plus Backgrounders