Balancing Greenhouse Gas Budgets

Balancing Greenhouse Gas Budgets: Accounting for Natural and Anthropogenic Flows of CO2 and other Trace Gases provides a synthesis of greenhouse gas budgeting activities across the world. Organized in four sections, including background, methods, case studies and opportunities, it is an interdisciplinary book covering both science and policy. All environments are covered, from terrestrial to ocean, along with atmospheric processes using models, inventories and observations to give a complete overview of greenhouse gas accounting. Perspectives presented give readers the tools necessary to understand budget activities, think critically, and use the framework to carry out initiatives. Written by a combination of experts across career stages, presenting an integrated perspective for graduate students and professionals alike Includes sections authored by those involved in both early and later IPCC assessments Provides an interdisciplinary resource that spans many topics and methodologies in oceanic, land and atmospheric processes

Although there is no denial of climate justice, there has been a persistent lack of practical joined-up actions regarding the creation of an international climate institution. However, politicians and academic researchers have been working together to find solutions. This new book is an attempt to put forward constructive approaches to climate security and justice, building upon the inputs from the wide-ranging debates that took place at the CASS Forum on Climate Justice and the Carbon Budget Approach in Beijing (April 2010). The purpose of this prestigious international conference was to construct an international climate regime and to help promote climate justice. It also called on governments, particularly governments in developed countries, to bear the historical responsibility of climate change. Climate change is a controversial topic worldwide today and the international regime and corresponding actions will inevitably have a lasting and profound influence on the world economy and international politics. At its thirteenth session, held in Bali, Indonesia, at the end of 2007, the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) adopted the Bali Action Plan, initiating a new process of negotiations on long-term cooperative actions under the Convention with the goal of reaching international agreements on an international climate regime beyond 2012 at the fifteenth session of the Conference to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark, at the end of 2009. The key factors in the present international climate negotiations are a shared vision of global long-term cooperative actions, mitigation, adaptation, technology and finance, and their core issue is how to reach an agreement for equitable burden-sharing of obligations for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions or allocation of emission entitlements in accordance with the concrete conditions of various countries and to ensure the implementation of such an agreement under an appropriate international regime. As the largest developing country in the world, China plays an important role in international climate negotiations and is under increasing international pressure.The existing Kyoto Protocol model takes the level of emissions in 1990 as a base and determines the emission reduction obligations of each developed country through negotiation. The findings gathered together in this book break through the fixed pattern of thinking of the Kyoto Protocol and, based on the theory and methodology of the basic carbon emissions needed for human development, studies a carbon budget proposal for global greenhouse gas emission reductions. This proposal not only better embodies the principle of "e;common but differentiated responsibilities"e; established by the Climate Convention, but will also be able to realize global goals for mid- and long-term emission reductions. It represents a comprehensive proposal for developing a more equitable and more effective international climate regime.The CASS Forum on Climate Justice and the Carbon Budget Approach in Beijing (April 2010) was organised in association with the Institute for Urban and Environmental Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Konrad Adenauer Foundation and Misereor.

This book assesses the current greenhouse gas (GHG) monitoring capabilities of Europe, identifies and quantifies the uncertainties involved, and outlines the direction to a continental scale GHG monitoring network. The book uniquely addresses both the methodology of carbon cycle science and the science itself, providing a synthesis of carbon cycle science. The methods included provide the first comprehensive coverage of a full GHG accounting and monitoring system.

This book begins with a brief background on greenhouse gases sources and sinks and continues with a discussion in different sectors including forest fluxes to human health and modeling techniques to policy measures. The chapters explore in detail about the GHG emission budgets, mitigation strategies, technical advancement and input-output analysis. Greenhouse gases (GHGs) occur naturally in our atmosphere and are essential to the survival of most of the organisms on the planet earth. GHGs such as such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone etc. play a major role in balancing the radiative budget, by absorbing or emitting some of the infrared rays reflecting from the earth’s surface. But unfortunately, anthropogenic activities like use of fossil fuel, intensive agriculture and livestock farming, use of synthetic fertilizers, deforestation, and industrial processes etc. have drastically interfered in the natural air composition, by releasing excess greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. This has led to the increase in the ability of the atmosphere to absorb more infrared energy. This book is a complete information set covering all aspects of GHGs, sources, sinks and control/mitigation strategies. This book is also written in simple language with helpful photographs, diagrams and flowcharts which will make the reader comfortable in understanding the concepts a more relatively easier way. The book is a valuable tool for students in Environmental Science, Ecology, Biological Science, Economics and Agriculture. It is unique to environmental consultants, researchers and other professionals involved in climate change studies, Non-governmental organizations (NGO’s).

The book addresses in a comprehensive way the full greenhouse gases budget of the Italian landscape, focusing on land use and terrestrial ecosystems. In recent years there has been a growing interest in the role of terrestrial ecosystems with regard to the carbon cycle and only recently a regional approach has been considered for its specificity in terms of new methodologies for observations and models and its relevance for national policies on mitigation and adaptation to climate changes. In terms of methods this book describes the role of flux networks and data-driven models, airborne regional measurements of fluxes and specific sectoral approaches related to important components of the human and natural landscapes. There is also a growing need on the part of institutions, agencies and policy stakeholders for new data and analyses enabling them to improve their national inventories of greenhouse gases and their compliance with the UNFCCC process. In this respect the data presented is a basis for a full carbon accounting and available to relevant stakeholders for improvements and/or verification of national inventories. The wealth of research information is the result of a national project, CARBOITALY, which involved 15 Italian institutions and several researchers to provide new data and analyses in the framework of climate policies.

Human induced global climate change is the biggest challenge humankind faces today. Increasing amount of atmospheric greenhouse gases play a crucial role in the evolution of the climate. Without the understanding of the contributing processes, feedbacks and interactions we cannot predict the future changes and develop effective mitigation strategies. To decrease the uncertainty of the global studies detailed regional studies are needed surveying the regional characteristics of the atmospheric greenhouse gas budget and the influencing factors. Atmospheric Greenhouse Gases: The Hungarian Perspective covers a coherent subset of the Hungarian climate change oriented research that is directly related to greenhouse gases. Topics discussed in the book range from the monitoring of the concentrations and fluxes of atmospheric greenhouse gases, through the modeling of atmosphere-biosphere interaction and greenhouse gas exchange processes, to the review of the anthropogenic contribution of Hungary to the greenhouse gas budget of the atmosphere. The studies call the attention to the regional properties which may modulate the European scale or global picture on the variation of atmospheric greenhouse gases.

Global warming continues to gain importance on the international agenda and calls for action are heightening. Yet, there is still controversy over what must be done and what is needed to proceed. Policy Implications of Greenhouse Warming describes the information necessary to make decisions about global warming resulting from atmospheric releases of radiatively active trace gases. The conclusions and recommendations include some unexpected results. The distinguished authoring committee provides specific advice for U.S. policy and addresses the need for an international response to potential greenhouse warming. It offers a realistic view of gaps in the scientific understanding of greenhouse warming and how much effort and expense might be required to produce definitive answers. The book presents methods for assessing options to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, offset emissions, and assist humans and unmanaged systems of plants and animals to adjust to the consequences of global warming.