Challenges Arising from COP21 Decision

Energy Sustainability 1
ENERGY SUSTAINABILITY
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Abstract
The effort to ensure that energy sustainability has been achieved in the world is a debate that has
been going on since the 19th centuries. Kyoto protocol report was first initiated in the early 90s
before the United Nations framework Convention Climate Change was formed in 2015 as
COP21 held in Paris. This question seeks to understand the challenges that rose from COP21
decision. The second question concerns the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) which explains the
assessment of life cycle environmental, social and economic sustainability of the production of
shale gas and use. The assessment scope covers the United States and UK situations to estimate
the effects fracking activities has to the environment. The third question explains the political
and financial incentives for the implementation of energy efficiency measures in the housing and
transport sectors in Sweden, the United States and China. The forth question critically evaluates
the social, financial, and environmental impacts of developing renewable energy technologies in
the United States.

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Abstract........................................................................................................................................ 2
1.0 Challenges arising from COP21 decision............................................................................. 3
Introduction................................................................................................................................ 3
The goals and mission of COP21............................................................................................... 4
Challenges.................................................................................................................................. 4
2.0 Life cycle assessments of fracking activities in USA and UK............................................. 6
Introduction ..................................................................................................6
Fracking Process..........................................................................................................................8
Results .......................................................................................................8
Conclusion and Recommendation..............................................................................................9
3.0 Political and financial incentives for the implementation of energy efficiency measure in
the housing and transport sectors............................................................................................. 10
Sweden Case Study................................................................................................................... 10
Energy consumption in Sweden..................................................................... .10
Case Studies of UK...................................................................................... .12
China Case Study
...............................................................................................................13
4.0 Impacts of developing renewable energy technologies...................................................... 15
Introduction.............................................................................................................................. 15
Environmental Impacts............................................................................................................. 16
Financial Impacts...................................................................................................................... 17
Social Impacts........................................................................................................................... 18
References ....................................................................................................................................19

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1.0 Challenges arising from COP21 decision
Introduction
In 2015, 12th of December, 196 parties of the United Nations (UN) framework Convention on
Climate Change initiated in Paris Agreement. The legal binding was an international move to
combat the effects of climate change (United Nations Climate Change, 2015). The signing
of the agreement culminated after six years close door meetings with the international leaders
under the support of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The decision was reached after intense pressure from international leaders to avoid a repeat of
Copenhagen conference of 2009 (Dimitrov, 2010). The agreement came up with
recommendations of controlling the global warming. This required all parties in the convention
to formulate progressive climate targets which will be consistent to the global warming goal of
below 2 degrees Celsius (Nhamo & Nhamo, 2016). In a nutshell, the global treaty was meant
to strengthen the global response towards the threats of climate change. All parties are obliged to
contribute to the mitigation and adaptation measures that will help combat climate change
(Northrop & Ross, 2016). Countries were to contribute by developing plans and communicate
the same to the secretariat of the convention.
The goals and mission of COP21
In the Paris agreement, more emphasis was directed to the process rather than the
mitigation goals. The aim of the agreement depend on voluntary mitigation measures coupled
with a series of processes that are directed towards a common goal with a collective ambition in

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mind unlike the Kyoto protocol that formulated specific targets. After the implementation and
decisions made in COP 21, what followed were a number of challenges that the parties had to
deal with and overcome them if the Paris Agreement goals were to be met (Roberts, 2015).
The first thing will be to reconcile the bad blood between Paris agreement top down goals and
the bottom up ambitions of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC). In particular, the
level of emission reduction stipulated in the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) is not
even close to meet the mitigation goals of Paris Agreement (United Nations Climate Change,
2015). In this respect, it is critical to ensure the agreement review mechanism is effective.
Challenges
The effort injected in the treaty framework to ensure that there is transparency and
understanding among member states to gain the international support was another major setback.
In a new goal to develop climate finances form the developing countries to support the action of
UNFCCC (United Nations Climate Change, 2015). The accounting modalities to set this
program running is still under discussion by the UNFCCC in order to formulate the best way
forward and find strategies of mobilizing these developing countries to take a drastic decision
towards supporting this initiative in order to save our planet with negotiations intended to be
achieved by 2025 (United Nations Climate Change, 2015). In the year 2015, OECD came
up with a climate policy initiative and proposed an estimate to support the progress of climate
finance as one of the major burning issues in COP21.
Paris Agreement on low emission should be consistent with the global emission with the
hope that emissions will fall from peak to zero or becoming negative in the half century to come
(Northrop & Ross, 2016). The sort, scale and pace of activities is likely to differ among and
across both developing and developed economies, however the stringency of the Paris

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temperature goal is with the end goal that all nations will need to create and seek after low-
emanations improvement pathways, in the light of their diverse national circumstances and the
prospective IPCC extraordinary report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C (United Nations Climate
Change, 2015). 15 Major research, advancement and organization of imaginative new
advances will likewise be expected to accomplish these objectives (Nhamo & Nhamo, 2016).
In spite of ongoing sensational falls in the price of some key inexhaustible innovations, for
example, solar photovoltaic and wind16, advance in most of clean vitality technologies lags a
long ways behind what is expected to accomplish the Paris objectives.
The world faces a major challenge of meeting the food demands among its population while
combating, conserving biodiversity and adapting to climate change (United Nations Climate
Change, 2015). A few types of land-based moderation activities, for example, monoculture
estates and utilizing area to develop original bio fuels can adversely affect biodiversity, the
accessibility and supply of nourishment and water and environment strength. Other relief
activities such as ecosystem-based methodologies (for example agro forestry and environment
reclamation) and atmosphere savvy horticulture can have positive advantages for both
biodiversity and human prosperity, while alleviating environmental change and improving
flexibility (United Nations Climate Change, 2015). The opposition experiences among
countries when discussing about climate change gave birth to a new policy that will ensure every
country adopt certain strategies that will help in communally achieving sustainable development
and environmental conservation. These concerns were raised in COP21 held in Paris in 2015.
During the meeting other concerns were also raised which included;
 Alleviating poverty through sustainable environment.
 Engaging in discussions after which immediate actions are taken.