Climate change Mitigation and Adaptation

Although, my country is Switzerland, there is not very much information on my country regarding the information of what they are doing to preparedness to adapt to future impacts of climate change, but there is some on the neighboring country Germany. Some of the information will be regards to Germany and Switzerland. Germany is trying to make more energy efficient products where they will meet a standard requirement of being energy efficient. Germany also is trying to expand the use of biofuels, which will lower their emissions by 2015 at the minimum.

One of the more interesting things that I have found out about the European continent is that in 2003 there was a massive heat wave. There were a lot of deaths that followed this strange heat wave over Europe. During the heat wave of 2003 Europe had a drought as well. The drought was about 300 mm less in precipitation then what they have previously always received. With the heat wave and the drought, led to many wild fires and many major rivers were at their lowest ever. There were a lot of glacier melting in the alps which is where many people get their fresh water.

Switzerland had signed the Kyoto Protocol on March 16^th of 1998 and when it was ratified they had signed on July 9^th of 2003. They Kyoto Protocol are all about lowering emissions on the earth. Because Switzerland is such a small country that they do not have very much emissions. 

My country is not doing much to in efforts to mitigating climate change because they are such a small country and that they do not put off very many emissions. My country should adapt to climate change because Switzerland will be affected by climate change greatly. They will be affected by climate change by more droughts and less precipitation during the winter. 

Impact Post

The IPCC report for 2007 talks about the climate change for Europe and the Mediterranean. what is interesting is that they predict that in central Europe the precipitation will increase during the winter time and decrease during the summer time. the summer season is when the crops grow and can be harvested at the end of the summer, but if precipitation decrease's in the summer that means a drought.  The IPCC also believes that the winter season will be shorter and not as much snow as well even though the precipitation is supposed to go up in the winter. the IPCC says that there will be a decrease in snow cover and create a positive feedback loop and more warming.
http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/ch11.html

The IPCC is saying that central Europe and Europe in general will be impacted negatively due to climate change. Some impacts will be high water stress, health risks, and forest productivity, and an increase in fires. For water Stress they say that impounding rivers to form in-stream reservoirs are being created, but it costs a lot of money to do this. The IPCC is also saying that irrigation will be reduce by planting and harvesting different crops that will work with climate change. Europe in general are creating early warning systems and emergency plans to protect the peoples health during floods and heat waves.
http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg2/en/spm.html

The IPCC says that Europe is expected to warm all over, hazards will mostly increase, changes in natural resources and assets, water stress, economic activity, extreme climate events, and only a few governments and institutions are looking at what measures should be taken. warming is going to change what crops and animal species will grown and inhabit an ecosystem. A few hazards that the IPCC has looked at is winter floods, droughts, and fires. All of these hazards will increase in either intensity or a longer season of some of them. As warming will effect the northern and southern Europe more in that trees will decrease in south Europe and increase in north Europe. All over Europe will have to change what crops get planted where.  Water stress will become a problem because of droughts in the summer when crops grow.The IPCC expects a growth in amphibians and reptiles over Europe. A few countries are creating early warming systems for major climate events.
http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg2/en/contents.html

As Switzerland is located int the Alp mountain range, they received a lot of tourism during the winter season.  A big threat to Switzerland will be not as much snow fall in the winter. Switzerland receives lots of tourism during this time because people like to go skiing and snowboarding. If these is not very much snow fall on the Alps mountain range then people will not be able to go skiing or snowboarding during the winter. Switzerland is similar to Colorado in the United States because they both depend on the snow fall for tourism in their country.

http://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/infopage/alps.htm