Strategies For Control Of Greenhouse Emissions

The GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard helps companies and other organizations to identify, calculate, and report GHG emissions. It is designed to set the standard for accurate, complete, consistent, relevant and transparent accounting and reporting of GHG emissions.

Significant reduction of local, regional, national and international greenhouse gas emissions in homes, businesses, industries and communities has become an international priority. This book describes in clear, concise, and understandable terms the nature and scope of the climate change problem. The authors combine their considerable expertise to offer guidelines for defining and applying effective carbon reduction policies, strategies, and technologies. They propose a well-defined road map which can be implemented to help control and abate the alarming increases in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions.

This is a print on demand edition of a hard to find publication. Summarizes the GHG control policies in effect or under consideration in the European Union and various other large countries. It emphasizes how particular trade-sensitive sectors may be treated in the context of each national program. All countries examined have in place, or are developing, some enforceable policies that serve to reduce GHG emissions. The wealthiest countries have all taken on GHG limitation or reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol. Some of the emerging economies have voluntarily stated GHG targets, though none have yet accepted legally binding obligations in an international agreement. All have policies that affect carbon dioxide emissions. Charts and tables.

"Controlling the level of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is a rapidly growing area of commercial activity. While debate continues both about the impact of greenhouse gas on climate and the role humans play in influencing its concentration, engineers are faced with less controversial questions of how to manage this uncertainty and how to control greenhouse gases at a minimum cost to society. This book gives a concise review of current knowledge required for engineers to develop strategies to help us manage and adapt to climate change. It has been developed from the author's graduate course in environmental engineering. It is written without technical jargon so as to be accessible to a wide range of students and policymakers who do not necessarily have scientific or engineering backgrounds. Appendices allow readers to calculate for themselves the impact of the various strategies, and the book contains student exercises and references for further reading"--

With the passage of the 2005 Sense of the Senate climate change resolution calling on the Congress to enact a mandatory, market-based program to slow, stop, and reverse the growth of greenhouse gases, the issue of related costs has taken on increased importance. Indeed, the resolution itself states that the program should be enacted at a rate and in a manner that "will not significantly harm the United States economy" and "will encourage comparable action" by other nations. Facets of the cost issue that have raised concern include absolute costs to the economy, distribution of costs across industries, competitive impact domestically and internationally, incentives for new technology, and uncertainty about possible costs. In general, market-based mechanisms to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the most important being carbon dioxide (CO2), focus on specifying either the acceptable emission s level (quantity) or compliance costs (price), and allowing the marketplace to determine the economically efficient solution for the other variable. For example, a tradeable permit program sets the amount of emissions allowable under the program (i.e., the number of permits available limits or caps allowable emissions), while allowing the marketplace to determine what each permit will be worth. Likewise, a carbon tax sets the maximum unit cost (per ton of CO2 equivalent) that one should pay for reducing emissions, while the marketplace determines how much actually gets reduced. In one sense, preference for a carbon tax or a tradeable permit system depends on how one views the uncertainty of costs involved and benefits to be received. Market-based mechanisms attempt to address the cost issue by introducing flexibility into the implementation process. The cornerstone of that flexibility is permitting sources to decide for themselves their appropriate implementation strategy within the parameters of market signals and other incentives. That signal can be as simple as a carbon tax or comprehensive credit auction that tels the emitter the value of any reduction in greenhouse gases, to a credit marketplace that is constrained by a ceiling price (safety valve) and includes incentives for new technology. As illustrated here, the combinations of market mechanisms are numerous, allowing decision makers to tailor the program to address specific concerns. In a sense, the options discussed here represent a continuum between alternatives focused on the price side of the equation (e.g., carbon taxes) through hybrid schemes (e.g., safety valves) to alternatives focused on the quantity side (e.g., banking and borrowing). They are tools to assist in the assessment of potential greenhouse gas reduction approaches, leaving any policy decision on balancing the price-quantity issue to the ultimate decision makers.

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).