China ratifies Paris climate deal
China yesterday announced that it has ratified the emissions-cutting agreement reached in Paris last year.
The US was also expected to announce that it was formally joining the Paris Agreement in advance of the G20 summit that starts today in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou.
US President Barack Obama landed in Hangzhou yesterday and the US also ratified the deal shortly afterward.
While tensions have risen between Beijing and Washington during Obama’s term over issues including cyberhacking, the South China Sea and the planned deployment of a US anti-missile system in South Korea, combating climate change is one area where both countries have said they can work together.
China is the top emitter of carbon dioxide and the US is second. Together, they produce 38 percent of the world’s human-caused carbon dioxide emissions.
Both were key to getting an agreement in Paris last year. To build momentum for a deal, they set a 2030 deadline for emissions to stop rising and announced their “shared conviction that climate change is one of the greatest threats facing humanity.”
China in April said that it would ratify the Paris Agreement, negotiated by representatives of 195 nations in Paris last year, before its hosting of the G20 summit. The agreement goes into force when joined by at least 55 nations that produce a total of 55 percent of global emissions.
Before China’s announcement, 23 countries had ratified or otherwise joined the agreement, representing just 1 percent of global emissions, according to the World Resources Institute.
The proposal adopted by the Chinese National People’s Congress Standing Committee says the agreement will help China “play a bigger role in global climate governance,” the Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.
Li Shuo (李碩), senior climate policy adviser for the environmental group Greenpeace, said that the two countries acting on the agreement was “a very important next step.”
If the agreement is eventually adopted, “we’ll have a truly global climate agreement that will bind the two biggest emitters in the world,” Li said.
The agreement’s long-term goal is to keep warming below 2°C compared with pre-industrial times. It has an aspirational goal of limiting the temperature rise to 1.5°C. Temperatures are said to have already risen by almost 1°C since the industrial revolution.
According to the Paris Agreement, countries are required to set national targets for reducing or reining in their greenhouse gas emissions. Those targets are not legally binding, but countries must report on their progress and update their targets every five years. The first cycle begins in 2020. Only developed countries are expected to slash their emissions in absolute terms. Developing nations are “encouraged” to do so as their capabilities evolve over time.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2016/09/04/2003654485
When: yesterday(2016.9.3)
Where: China
What: tatified last year's emissions-cutting agreement reached in Paris
Key Words:
ratified 批准
Committee 委員會
temperature 溫度
national targets 國家目標
slash 削減
emissions 排放量
2016年12月4日 星期日
Week five:火箭回收Elon Musk, SpaceX, rocket, landing
Here's Why the SpaceX Rocket Landing Is Such a Big Deal
In science fiction, landing a rocket seems like no big deal. It's much more difficult in real life — which is why SpaceX founder Elon Musk was so excited when the Falcon 9 landed intact near its launch pad at Cape Canaveral on Monday night after launching satellites to space.
In November, Blue Origin, which was founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, also landed a rocket.
This is a big deal because rockets are expensive. The Falcon 9 that SpaceX uses costs around $60 million to build, the company told NBC News. Fuel costs per launch are about $200,000.
Most rockets are designed to burn up during re-entry. That means rebuilding a $60 million rocket for every single space mission— not exactly the most cost-effective system.
Reusable rockets, however, would mean cargo could be sent into space with only the fuel and maintenance costs to consider.
"If one can figure out how to effectively reuse rockets just like airplanes, the cost of access to space will be reduced by as much as a factor of a hundred," Musk said on SpaceX's website.
"A fully reusable vehicle has never been done before. That really is the fundamental breakthrough needed to revolutionize access to space."
If it's 100 times cheaper to send something into space, imagine how many more companies would be able to launch space ventures, ranging from satellites to commercial space flights.
"With lower costs and competition, prices could fall, stimulating demand for more access to space," Scott Pace, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, told NBC News.
While the Falcon 9 landing was "an important" step toward reusable rockets, Pace said, SpaceX engineers still have a lot of work to do. So far, they have managed to land the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket.
"The next step is to see how much it costs and how long it takes to refurbish the recovered stage and fly it again," Pace said.
And if companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance (a consortium of Boeing and Lockheed Martin) can reuse rockets again and again? That might not only make for cheaper satellites, but could also open up the next frontier: Mars.
Musk has repeatedly talked about the importance of reaching the Red Planet, not only for NASA pioneers, but for ordinary people. Considering it cost around $2.5 billion to send the Curiosity rover to Mars, prices will have to drop a lot to make sending large groups of human colonists feasible.
"This is a critical step along the way toward being able to establish a city on Mars," Musk told reporters on Monday. "That's what all this is about.
http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/innovation/here-s-why-spacex-rocket-landing-such-big-deal-n484481
What: SpaceX rocket landing
Where: space
Who: Elon Musk
Why: To reduce the cost of maintenance; to make a reusable rocket
Key Words
The Falcon 9 獵鷹9
satellite 人造衛星
maintenance 保養;維修
cargo 貨物
revolutionize 革命化
intact 完整的;完好的
breakthrough 突破
feasible 可行的
In science fiction, landing a rocket seems like no big deal. It's much more difficult in real life — which is why SpaceX founder Elon Musk was so excited when the Falcon 9 landed intact near its launch pad at Cape Canaveral on Monday night after launching satellites to space.
In November, Blue Origin, which was founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, also landed a rocket.
This is a big deal because rockets are expensive. The Falcon 9 that SpaceX uses costs around $60 million to build, the company told NBC News. Fuel costs per launch are about $200,000.
Most rockets are designed to burn up during re-entry. That means rebuilding a $60 million rocket for every single space mission— not exactly the most cost-effective system.
Reusable rockets, however, would mean cargo could be sent into space with only the fuel and maintenance costs to consider.
"If one can figure out how to effectively reuse rockets just like airplanes, the cost of access to space will be reduced by as much as a factor of a hundred," Musk said on SpaceX's website.
"A fully reusable vehicle has never been done before. That really is the fundamental breakthrough needed to revolutionize access to space."
If it's 100 times cheaper to send something into space, imagine how many more companies would be able to launch space ventures, ranging from satellites to commercial space flights.
"With lower costs and competition, prices could fall, stimulating demand for more access to space," Scott Pace, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, told NBC News.
While the Falcon 9 landing was "an important" step toward reusable rockets, Pace said, SpaceX engineers still have a lot of work to do. So far, they have managed to land the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket.
"The next step is to see how much it costs and how long it takes to refurbish the recovered stage and fly it again," Pace said.
And if companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance (a consortium of Boeing and Lockheed Martin) can reuse rockets again and again? That might not only make for cheaper satellites, but could also open up the next frontier: Mars.
Musk has repeatedly talked about the importance of reaching the Red Planet, not only for NASA pioneers, but for ordinary people. Considering it cost around $2.5 billion to send the Curiosity rover to Mars, prices will have to drop a lot to make sending large groups of human colonists feasible.
"This is a critical step along the way toward being able to establish a city on Mars," Musk told reporters on Monday. "That's what all this is about.
http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/innovation/here-s-why-spacex-rocket-landing-such-big-deal-n484481
What: SpaceX rocket landing
Where: space
Who: Elon Musk
Why: To reduce the cost of maintenance; to make a reusable rocket
Key Words
The Falcon 9 獵鷹9
satellite 人造衛星
maintenance 保養;維修
cargo 貨物
revolutionize 革命化
intact 完整的;完好的
breakthrough 突破
feasible 可行的
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