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- Thresholds of Climate Change in Ecosystems
- This Report (SAP 4.2) focuses on the thresholds of Climate Change in Ecosystems. As defined in this Synthesis and Assessment Report, 'an ecological threshold is the point at which there is an abrupt change in an ecosystem quality, property, or phenomenon, or where small changes in one or more external conditions produce large and persistent responses in an ecosystem'.Ecological thresholds occur when external factors, positive feedbacks, or nonlinear instabilities in a system cause changes to propagate in a domino-like fashion that is potentially irreversible. This report reviews threshold changes in North American ecosystems that are potentially induced by climatic change and addresses the significant challenges these threshold crossings impose on resource and land managers. Sudden changes to ecosystems and the goods and services they provide are not well understood, but they are extremely important if natural resource managers are to succeed in developing adaptation strategies in a changing world. The report provides an overview of what is known about ecological thresholds and where they are likely to occur. It also identifies those areas where research is most needed to improve knowledge and understand the uncertainties regarding them. The report suggests a suite of potential actions that land and resource managers could use to improve the likelihood of success for the resources they manage, even under conditions of incomplete understanding of what drives thresholds of change and when changes will occur.
- Land Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry
- The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Land Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry (SR-LULUCF) has been prepared in response to a request from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA). At its eighth session in Bonn, Germany, 2-12 Ju and technical implications of carbon sequestration strategies related to land use, land-use change, and forestry activities. The scope, structure, and outline of this Special Report was approved by the IPCC in plenary meetings during its Fourteenth Session. This Special Report examines several key questions relating to the exchange of carbon between the atmosphere and the terrestrial pool of aboveground biomass, below-ground biomass, and soils. Vegetation exchanges carbon dioxide between the atmosphere and the terrestrial biosphere through photosynthesis and plant and soil respiration. This natural exchange has been occurring for hundreds of millions of years. Humans are changing the natural rate of exchange of carbon between the atmosphere and the terrestrial biosphere through land use, land-use change, and forestry activities. The aim of the SR-LULUCF is to assist the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol by providing relevant scientific and technical information to describe how the global carbon cycle operates and what the broad-scale opportunities and implications of ARD and additional human-induced activities are, now and in the future. This Special Report also identifies questions that Parties to the Protocol may wish to consider regarding definitions and accounting rules.
- Safeguarding the Ozone Layer and the Global Climate System: Issues related to hydrofluorocarbons and perfluorocarbons
- This Special Report on Safeguarding the Ozone and the Global Climate System has been developed in response to invitations from Parties to the UNFCCC and the Montreal Protocol. It provides information relevant to decision-making in regard to safeguarding the ozone layer and the global climate system: two global environmental issues involving complex scientific and technical considerations.
- The Effects of Climate Change on Agriculture, Land Resources, Water Resources, and Biodiversity in the United States
- This document is a part of the Synthesis and Assessment Products described in the U.S. Climate Change Science Program Strategic Plan. The report describes how climate affects the design, construction, safety, operations, and maintenance of transportation infrastructure and systems. The prospect of a changing climate raises critical questions regarding how alterations in temperature, precipitation, storm events, and other aspects of the climate could affect the nation's roads, airports, rail, transit systems, pipelines, ports, and waterways. Phase I of this regional assessment of climate change and its potential impacts on transportation systems addresses these questions for the region of the U.S. central Gulf Coast between Galveston, Texas and Mobile, Alabama.
- Preliminary Review of Adaptation Options for Climate-Sensitive Ecosystems and Resources
- The U.S. Government's Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) is responsible for providing the best science-based knowledge possible to inform management of the risks and opportunities associated with changes in the climate and related environmental systems. To support its mission, the CCSP has commissioned 21 "synthesis and assessment products" (SAPs) to advance decision making on climate change-related issues by providing current evaluations of climate change science and identifying priorities for research, observation, and decision support. This Report-SAP 4.4-focuses on federally managed lands and waters to provide a "Preliminary Review of Adaptation Options for Climate-Sensitive Ecosystems and Resources." It is one of seven reports that support Goal 4 of the CCSP Strategic Plan to understand the sensitivity and adaptability of different natural and managed ecosystems and human systems to climate and related global changes. The purpose of SAP 4.4 is to provide useful information on the state of knowledge regarding adaptation options for key, representative ecosystems and resources that may be sensitive to climate variability and change. As its title suggests, this report is a preliminary review, defined as "the process of collecting and reviewing available information about known or potential adaptation options."
- Effects of Climate Change on Energy Production and Use in the United States
- This document, part of the Synthesis and Assessment Products described in the U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) Strategic Plan. Climate affects the design, construction, safety, operations, and maintenance of transportation infrastructure and systems. The prospect of a changing climate raises critical questions regarding how alterations in temperature, precipitation, storm events, and other aspects of the climate could affect the nation's roads, airports, rail, transit systems, pipelines, ports, and waterways. Phase I of this regional assessment of climate change and its potential impacts on transportation systems addresses these questions for the region of the U.S. central Gulf Coast between Galveston, Texas and Mobile, Alabama. This region contains multimodal transportation infrastructure that is critical to regional and national transportation services. Historical trends and future climate scenarios were used to establish a context for examining the potential effects of climate change on all major transportation modes within the region. Climate changes anticipated during the next 50 to 100 years for the central Gulf Coast include warming temperatures, changes in precipitation patterns, and increased storm intensity. The warming of the oceans and decline of polar ice sheets is expected to accelerate the rate of sea level rise globally. The effects of sea level rise in most central Gulf Coast counties will be exacerbated by the sinking of the land surface, which is accounted for in this assessment. The significance of these climate factors for transportation systems was assessed.
- The North American Carbon Budget and Implications for the Global Carbon Cycle
- A primary objective of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) is to provide the best possible scientific information to support public discussion, as well as government and private sector decision making, on key climate-related issues. To help meet this objective, the CCSP has identified an initial set of 21 Synthesis and Assessment Products (SAPs) that address its highest priority research, observation, and decision support needs. This report-CCSP SAP 2.2-addresses Goal 2 of the CCSP Strategic Plan: Improve quantification of the forces bringing about changes in the Earth's climate and related systems. The report provides a synthesis and integration of the current knowledge of the North American carbon budget and its context within the global carbon cycle. In a format useful to decision makers, it (1) summarizes our knowledge of carbon cycle properties and changes relevant to the contributions of and impacts upon North America and the rest of the world, and (2) provides scientific information for decision support focused on key issues for carbon management and policy. Consequently, this report is aimed at both the decision-maker audience and to the expert scientific and stakeholder communities.
- Atmospheric Aerosol Properties and Climate Impacts
- This report critically reviews current knowledge about global distributions and properties of atmospheric aerosols as they relate to aerosol impacts on climate. It assesses possible steps to substantially reduce uncertainties in aerosol radiative forcing estimates.
- Toxic Substances Control Act
- The Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 provides EPA with authority to require reporting, record-keeping and testing requirements, and restrictions relating to chemical substances and/or mixtures. Certain substances are generally excluded from TSCA, including, among others, food, drugs, cosmetics and pesticides. TSCA addresses the production, importation, use, and disposal of specific chemicals including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), asbestos, radon and lead-based paint.
- Federal Water Pollution Control Act
- The Clean Water Act (CWA) establishes the basic structure for regulating discharges of pollutants into the waters of the United States and regulating quality standards for surface waters. The basis of the CWA was enacted in 1948 and was called the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, but the Act was significantly reorganized and expanded in 1972. "Clean Water Act" became the Act's common name with amendments in 1977. Under the CWA, EPA has implemented pollution control programs such as setting wastewater standards for industry. We have also set water quality standards for all contaminants in surface waters. The CWA made it unlawful to discharge any pollutant from a point source into navigable waters, unless a permit was obtained. EPA's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program controls discharges. Point sources are discrete conveyances such as pipes or man-made ditches. Individual homes that are connected to a municipal system, use a septic system, or do not have a surface discharge do not need an NPDES permit; however, industrial, municipal, and other facilities must obtain permits if their discharges go directly to surface waters.
- Assessment of Knowledge on Impacts of Climate Change - Contribution to the Specification of Art. 2 of the UNFCCC: Impacts on Ecosystems, Food Production, Water and Socio-economic Systems
- The purpose of this report is to compile and summarise the present knowledge on impacts of climate change as a basis for a consideration of what may constitute dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system under Article 2 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). An attempt will be made to associate projected global mean surface temperature and/or sea level changes with specific identified impacts and effects in order to assist a discussion on the operationalization of Article 2. The main emphasis will be on ecosystem effects, food production, water resources, and sustainable development.
- WMO Statement on the Status of the Global Climate in 1995
- There is continuing international concern about global warming and its potential to cause serious disruption to vulnerable social and economic sectors of society as well as to sustainable development efforts. As recently as December 1995, scientists of the World Meteorological Organization/United Nations Environment Programme (WMO/UNEP) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated that "the balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate", through emissions of greenhouse gases. At the same time, there is a developing capability within national Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) to provide comprehensive information on past, present, and future (seasons to a year ahead) climate and its variations, to a wide spectrum of users. The rapid development of global communications systems means that such information can be provided on a timely basis and is, therefore, of great use to national decision makers.
- Constitution of the People's Republic of China (excerpts of envivonment-related articles)
- Excerpts of envivonment-related articles in the Constitution of the People's Republic of China.
- Trends in Emissions of Ozone-Depleting Substances, Ozone Layer Recovery, and Implications for Ultraviolet Radiation Exposure
- This Synthesis and Assessment Product (SAP 2.4) focuses on the Climate models. Depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer by human-produced ozone-depleting substances has been recognized as a global environmental issue for more than three decades, and the international effort to address the issue via the United Nations Montreal Protocol marked its 20-year anniversary in 2007. Scientific understanding underpinned the Protocol at its inception and ever since. As scientific knowledge advanced and evolved, the Protocol evolved through amendment and adjustment. Policy-relevant science has documented the rise, and now the beginning decline, of the atmospheric abundances of many ozone-depleting substances in response to actions taken by the nations of the world. Projections are for a return of ozone-depleting chemicals (compounds containing chlorine and bromine) to their "pre-ozone-depletion" (pre-1980) levels by the middle of this century for the midlatitudes; the polar regions are expected to follow suit within 20 years after that. Since the 1980s, global ozone sustained a depletion of about 5 percent in the midlatitudes of both the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere, where most of the Earth's population resides; it is now showing signs of turning the corner towards increasing ozone. The large seasonal depletions in the polar regions are likely to continue over the next decade but are expected to subside over the next few decades.
- Climate Models: An Assessment of Strengths and Limitations
- This Synthesis and Assessment Product (SAP 3.1) focuses on the Climate models. Scientists extensively use mathematical models of Earth's climate, executed on the most powerful computers available, to examine hypotheses about past and present-day climates. Development of climate models is fully consistent with approaches being taken in many other fields of science dealing with very complex systems. These climate simulations provide a framework within which enhanced understanding of climate-relevant processes, along with improved observations, are merged into coherent projections of future climate change. This report describes the models and their ability to simulate current climate.
- Climate Projections Based on Emissions Scenarios for Long-Lived and Short-Lived Radiatively Active Gases and Aerosols
- This report focuses on the Climate Projections Based on Emissions Scenarios. The influence of greenhouse gases and particle pollution on our present and future climate has been widely examined. While both long-lived (e.g., carbon dioxide) and short-lived (e.g., soot) gases and particles affect the climate, other projections of future climate, such as the IPCC reports focus largely on the long-lived gases. This U.S. Climate Change Science Program Synthesis and Assessment Product provides a different emphasis. The authors examine the effect of long-lived greenhouse gases on the global climate based on updated emissions scenarios produced by another CCSP Synthesis and Assessment Product (SAP 2.1a). In these scenarios, atmospheric concentrations of the long-lived greenhouse gases leveled off, or stabilized, at predetermined levels by the end of the twenty-first century (unlike in the IPCC scenarios). However, the projected future temperature changes fall within the same range as those projected for the latest IPCC report. The authors confirm the robust future warming signature and other associated changes in the climate.
- Analyses of the Effects of Global Change on Human Health and Welfare and Human Systems
- This document is part of the Synthesis and Assessment Products (SAP) described in the U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) Strategic Plan. This report is meant to synthesize and communicate the current state of understanding about the characteristics and implications of uncertainty related to climate change and variability to an audience of policymakers, decision makers, and members of the media and general public with an interest in developing a fundamental understanding of the issue.
- Impacts of Climate Change and Variability on Transportation Systems and Infrastructure: Gulf Coast Study, Phase I
- This document, part of the Synthesis and Assessment Products described in the U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) Strategic Plan. Climate affects the design, construction, safety, operations, and maintenance of transportation infrastructure and systems. The prospect of a changing climate raises critical questions regarding how alterations in temperature, precipitation, storm events, and other aspects of the climate could affect the nation's roads, airports, rail, transit systems, pipelines, ports, and waterways. Phase I of this regional assessment of climate change and its potential impacts on transportation systems addresses these questions for the region of the U.S. central Gulf Coast between Galveston, Texas and Mobile, Alabama. This region contains multimodal transportation infrastructure that is critical to regional and national transportation services. The significance of various climate factors for transportation systems was assessed.
- Uses and Limitations of Observations, Data, Forecasts, and Other Projections in Decision Support for Selected Sectors and Regions
- This Synthesis and Assessment Product (SAP), Uses and Limitations of Observations, Data, Forecasts, and Other Projections in Decision Support for Selected Sectors and Regions. This is part of a series of 21 SAPs produced by the CCSP aimed at providing current assessments of climate change science to inform public debate, policy, and operational decisions. This SAP focuses on the use of climate observations, data, forecasts, and other projections in decision support.
- Best Practice Approaches for Characterizing, Communicating, and Incorporating Scientific Uncertainty in Decision Making
- This report discusses the current state of understanding about the characteristics and implications of uncertainty related to climate change and variability to an audience of policymakers, decision makers, and members of the media and general public with an interest in developing a fundamental understanding of the issue.
- Basic Policy On Development Cooperation in the Field of Climate Change: Recommendations by Experts' Panel for Realization of "Cool Earth"
- The document encourages international cooperation for dealing with climate change and offers strategies for making climate policy and economic policy compatible.
- Report on Climate Security
- This document was the result of a study of how the concept of climate security should be understood and utilized in Japan, as well as how the concept can contribute to advancing future climate policy.
- Scaling Up AFOLU Mitigation Activities in Non-Annex I Countries
- This paper is about reducing greenhouse gas emissions through land use policies in the agriculture and forestry sectors.
- Drinking Water Management Act
- This law was passed by the Republic of China (Taiwan) to safeguard public health by protecting drinking water resources from pollution by dumping, logging, industry, nuclear waste, ranching, recreation, mineral exploration and extraction, transportation, and other activities.
- Policies to Change the World: Energy Sufficiency - Eight Policies towards the Sustainable Use of Energy
- This booklet discusses how energy sufficiency is the best solution for reducing energy consumption and waste. It presents policies for reducing global energy consumption such as energy auditing, phasing out incandescent light bulbs, combined heat/cooling energy and power, carbon-negative cooking, smart metering, area road pricing, and other measures.
- Environmental Agents Control Act
- The government of the Republic of China (Taiwan) passed this law to protect the environment and human health from harm by toxic chemicals or microbial preparations, including pesticides, fungicides, as well as certain synthetic chemicals.
- FITness Testing: Exploring the myths and misconceptions about feed-in tariff policies
- The booklet argues that in spite of the recent surge in renewable electricity markets, the United States will need to dramatically increase the amount of installed renewable energy in order to improve energy security, create new jobs, and address the growing risks of climate change.
- Feed-In Tariffs - Boosting Energy for our Future: A guide to one of the world's best environmental policies
- This brochure explains Feed-In Tariff (FIT) laws. The big challenge for the renewable energy industry has been to make the cost of clean energy competitive with heavily-subsidized conventional energy. Householders or energy companies who want to install wind turbines or solar panels are faced with lengthy pay-back times and are forced to make a choice based on ethics rather than economics. The Feed-In Tariff (FIT) has proven to be the most effective policy instrument in overcoming these barriers. This simple, low-cost mechanism has turned several European countries into world leaders in the renewables sector.
- Eliasch Report: Carbon absorption and storage
- This report provides details about carbon sequestration in the wood and soils of different types of forest (tropical, boreal, temperate) and states the policy implications that apply to the energy and forestry sectors. The report includes recommendations for the relationship between carbon sequestration and sustainable forestry.
- Climate Change: Financing Global Forests
- According to the Office of Climate Change press release, the Eliasch Review aims to provide an analysis of international financing to reduce forest loss and its associated impacts on climate change. The focus related to the international efforts to achieve a new global climate change agreement in Copenhagen in 2009. The Eliasch Review focuses on the financing required to produce significant reductions in forest carbon emissions. It also examines how mechanisms to address forest loss can reduce poverty while preserving ecosystem biodiversity and water services.
- Global Carbon Finance: A quantitative modelling framework to explore scenarios of the Global Deal on Climate Change
- According to the abstract, the purpose of this paper is to provide a quantitative research methodology for analyzing the costs of dealing with climate change.
- Environmental Impact Assessment Act
- This law was passed by the government of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to protect the natural environment from some of the negative effects of economic growth.
- Organic Act of the Environmental Protection Administration, Executive Yuan
- This law was passed by the government of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to establish the Environmental Protection Administration.
- Creating Impact - Feed-In Tariff Laws: Making clean energy a reality for all
- The brochure describes evidence from fifty governments that Feed-In Tariff (FIT) policy speeds the transition to clean energy production and use.
- Global Technology Project Report
- This report discusses the financial barriers to making reductions in carbon emissions, as well as policies for dealing with those barriers.
- Technical description of the IIASA model cluster
- A footnote on page one explains that this paper was commissioned by the United Kingdom Office of Climate Change as background work to its report 'Climate Change: Financing Global Forests' (also known as the Eliasch Review) with marginal abatement cost curves (MACCs) used to calculate opportunity costs of reducing forest emissions.
- A first cost benefit analysis of action to reduce deforestation
- This paper assesses the validity of the claim that curbing deforestation is a highly cost-effective way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
- Valuing the climate change impacts of tropical deforestation
- According to a footnote, this paper was commissioned by the [United Kingdom] Office of Climate Change as background work to its report 'Climate Change: Financing Global Forests' (otherwise known as the Eliasch Review). This paper discusses research valuing the impacts of tropical deforestation, and the effects of deforestation on global greenhouse gas emissions.
- OCC Household Emissions project: Analysis pack
- The United Kingdom's Office of Climate Change reports that a number of barriers inhibit households from reducing carbon emissions, even though reducing carbon emissions generally results in reducing household costs. In this paper, the Office of Climate Change identifies policies to overcome barriers to carbon savings.
- Updating Carbon Density and Opportunity Cost Parameters in Deforesting Regions in the GCOMAP Model
- This paper explores the economics of carbon density and carbon pricing in forestry and in deforested areas. According to a footnote, this paper was commissioned by the [United Kingdom] Office of Climate Change as background work to its report 'Climate Change: Financing Global Forests' (the Eliasch Review).
- The Cost of Avoiding Deforestation: Update of the Report prepared for the Stern Review of the Economics of Climate Change
- According to the introduction, this report provides a global estimate of the cost of reducing the rate of deforestation.
- Kew-Eliasch Review Consultation: Report to the Office of Climate Change
- This paper discusses the research tools used to create baseline data for carbon offset mechanisms. The paper explains vegetation survey methodologies with examples of their application in a variety of contexts. These range from rapid studies using remote sensing imagery, to full multiphase survey methods. The paper gives specific examples of how these methods are used to monitor deforestation and forest regeneration.
- Eliasch Review: Forest Management Impacts on Ecosystem Services
- According the executive summary, "this report provides an overview of the different forest management models on carbon and non-carbon environmental ecosystem services, with a primary focus of tropical forest types."
- Cultivating the Future: Food in the Age of Climate Change
- The brochure promotes government incentives for farmers to lower agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and expand carbon sinks by sequestering carbon through organic farming and reduced tillage; reducing nitrous oxide emissions through minimal use of nitrogen fertilizer, capturing methane emissions from anaerobic manure handling facilities; reducing the use of fossil fuels on farms; increasing the generation of electricity from wind, solar and small-scale hydro; expanding the use of practices like hedges, shelterbelts, and forested riparian zones; expanding local food supply for local consumption; and supporting the use of sustainable biochar derived from farm and urban organic wastes.
- Air Pollution Control Act
- This law was passed by the Republic of China (Taiwan) to control air pollution and protect the environment and human health.
- Basic Environment Act
- This law, passed by the government of the Republic of China (Taiwan), sets environmental policy for Taiwan and stipulates that economic and technological development will emphasize environmental protection based on long-term national interests, and that development must be sustainable in the interest of future national security and quality of life.
- Estimating the cost of building capacity in rainforest nations to allow them to participate in a global REDD mechanism
- This report provides an estimation of the funds that will be needed to build carbon sink capacity in 25 rain forest nations to enable them to participate in the Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation mechanism, an instrument proposed under the UN Convention on Climate Change that rewards countries for avoiding the removal or degradation of forests. This paper was commissioned by the Office of Climate Change as background work to its report "Climate Change: Financing Global Forests" (the Eliasch Review).
- Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change
- The Review's executive summary states that "the Review first examines the evidence on the economic impacts of climate change itself, and explores the economics of stabilizing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The second half of the Review considers the complex policy challenges involved in managing the transition to a low-carbon economy and in ensuring that societies can adapt to the consequences of climate change that can no longer be avoided". The report's main conclusion is that the benefits of strong, early action on climate change considerably outweigh the costs.
- Heading for 100 % renewable urban transport: Policy recommendations
- The brochure promotes urban transportation policy to increase the use of renewable energy to 100%. Seen globally, transport is one of the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Yet fossil fuels are becoming scarce, will become increasingly expensive and will eventually stop being viable as transport fuels. Before this happens, climate change will have begun to have a serious impact on human lives. The authors believe that it is crucial to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy as soon as possible, especially in the transport sector. Making urban transport independent of fossil fuel is a great challenge, but the authors cite growing evidence that it can be achieved.
- Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
- The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The major feature of the Kyoto Protocol is that it sets binding targets for 37 industrialized countries and the European community for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Recognizing that developed countries are principally responsible for the current high levels of GHG emissions in the atmosphere as a result of more than 150 years of industrial activity, the Protocol places a heavier burden on developed nations under the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities."