2017 Guidelines for Global Case Competition

The Global Case Competition

The Global Case Competition (GCC) requires students to work in teams to research an issue currently impacting the global community and to develop solutions or approaches to address this issue. Each team will consist of five students together with a student from the Chien-Shiung Wu Honors College of Southeast University.

By 5pm on Wednesday April 5, 2017 each team will submit a written document – their solution paper – that describes their research into the global issue and possible approaches or solutions to address the issue. The maximum length of the solution paper is 5 pages with a minimum font size of 12pt.

Teams will then develop a PowerPoint presentation of their solution to present to a group of expert judges on Wednesday April 26, 2017. Each team can use up to 10 slides and will have a maximum of 15 minutes to present its solutions to the panel of judges. Judges will have an opportunity to ask questions after each team’s presentation for a further 15 minutes. All team members must be at the presentation and stay for the entire time.

Solutions will be judged on their multidisciplinary approaches to the case, logic of the arguments made, attention to the critical issues in the case, and clarity of writing and grammar. Additionally, teams will be evaluated on the quality of their presentation (for example, clarity, organization, visuals, etc.) and their ability to answer questions from the judges.

The Case

The Paris Agreement entered into force on 4 November 2016. One hundred and sixteen countries have ratified the agreement including China, who signed the document on 22 April 2016 – Earth Day.

The Paris Agreement brings all participating nations into a common cause to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its effects, with enhanced support to assist developing countries to do so. As such, it charts a new course in the global climate effort.

The Paris Agreement’s central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise in this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Additionally, the agreement aims to strengthen the ability of countries to deal with the impacts of climate change. To reach these ambitious goals, appropriate financial flows, a new technology framework and an enhanced capacity building framework will be put in place, thus supporting action by developing countries and the most vulnerable countries, in line with their own national objectives. The Agreement also provides for enhanced transparency of action and support through a more robust transparency framework. Further information on key aspects of the Agreement can be found on the United Nations’ website about the Paris Agreement:

http://bigpicture.unfccc.int/#content-the-paris-agreemen

China is the world’s fastest growing economy and as such has an enormous demand for energy. The following 2012 highlights compiled by the US Department of Energy show the extent of energy demand in China, how the country is generating that energy, and some of the associated impacts on, for example, CO₂ emission.

• China accounted for 20% of global energy consumption
• Energy grew 51% percent as fast as GDP
• China accounted for more than 20% of global energy-related CO₂ emissions
• China’s per capita CO₂ emissions were 6 tonnes/person, 32% above the world average, but 65% below that of the United States
• China accounted for a staggering 47% of total world coal consumption
• Since 2000, natural gas consumption has grown at a rate of 15% per year
• China built 88 GW of power plants, of which about 60% were coal-based. To date, about 35% of all global coal-fired power generation capacity has been built in China.
• China built 14.6 GW of wind power, accounting for about 32% of world capacity additions
• China installed 1.1 GW of solar power, 4% of world capacity additions
• Imports of natural gas jumped 40% to 63 billion cubic meters (including a 50% increase in pipeline gas from Central Asia), crude oil imports rose 7% to 5.4 million barrels/day, and coal imports rose 29% to 234 million tonnes

https://eetd.lbl.gov/publications/key-china-energy-statistics-2014

Also consider the fact that by 2050 there will be 2.5 billion cars in the world: in Beijing alone 1,500 new cars added to the roads each day.

Your Role

Your team works with a non-governmental organization charged with looking at energy and environmental issues in China with a specific interest in addressing how China might meet the goals of the Paris Agreement in minimizing temperature rises and developing approaches to combat climate change.

Your solution paper should clearly outline the key components of how China’s energy policy is adapting to the requirements of the Paris Agreement. You should also propose approaches that China might adopt to lower its energy usage, reduce CO₂ emissions, and deal with the effects of climate change. Solutions you propose must be thoroughly researched in terms of feasibility, sustainability, and overall impact on CO₂ emissions and temperature rises. For example, saying that China should switch from gasoline-powered automobiles to electric vehicles would require considering factors such as the availability of resources (e.g., lithium for the batteries), cost, production volumes, and life-cycle issues.

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Global Leadership Program – Honors 298 (Honors 499)
Course Description