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Montana Greenhouse Gas Inventory and Reference Case Projections 1990-2020
The Center for Climate Strategies (CCS) prepared this report under contract to the Montana Department of Environment Quality (MDEQ). The report contains an inventory and forecast of the state’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from 1990 to 2020.
California Legislature, 2001-2002 Session, Senate Bill No. 527
Bill introduced by the California Senate to revise the functions and duties of the California Climate Action Registry and requires the Registry, in coordination with CEC to adopt third-party verification metrics, developing GHG emissions protocols and qualifying third-party organizations to provide technical assistance and certification of emissions baselines and inventories. SB 527 amended SB 1771 to emphasize third-party verification.
The Bali Action Plan: Key Issues in The Climate Negotiations: Summary for Policy Makers
To assist policy makers in understanding the complex issues under discussion in the negotiating process, UNDP commissioned a series of background briefing papers on the key issues under the four main "building blocks" of the current international negotiations -- mitigation, adaptation, technology and finance -- as well as land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF). This document contains summaries for policy makers of these briefing papers.
Army Corps of Engineers Water Resource Projects: Authorization and Appropriations
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers attracts congressional attention because its projects can have significant local and regional economic benefits and environmental effects, in addition to their water resource development purposes. This report provides an overview of the Corps civil works program. It covers the congressional authorization and appropriation process, the standard project development process, and other Corps activities and authorities. It also includes an Appendix on the evolution of Corps civil works missions and authorities and a description of the limits on the Corps' role in levee accreditation and improvements for the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).
Lessons from PPP2000: Living with Earth's Extremes-Report from the PPP2000 Working Group to the Office of Science and Technology Policy Subcommittee on Natural Disaster Reduction
This book is a series of reports summarizing discussions and recommendations from a series of forums about strategies to deal with natural disaster. The focus is on changing human behavior and development in order to coexist with natural phenomena rather than trying to control natural phenomena.
Modernizing NEPA Implementation
This report presents recommendations to change the NEPA implementation process, based on the review of an appointed task force.
DIVERSITAS Science Plan
This Science Plan is mainly concerned with the current extinction crisis on Earth, which, unlike its predecessors, is occurring at an unprecedented rate, is the direct result of human activities and is occurring at all levels at which diversity is measured - from the genetic diversity of many natural and domesticated species to the diversity of ecosystems and landscapes, through the tremendous richness of species. Current human-induced rates of species extinction are estimated to be about 1,000 times greater than past background rates. Biodiversity is the variety of life on Earth. Scientists commonly measure and describe this variety at the level of genes, species and ecosystems, but scientific interest in biodiversity goes far beyond describing and measuring it. The DIVERSITAS programme was founded to address the scientific questions that need to be answered in order to understand how biodiversity supports life on Earth, what the impacts of the present loss of biodiversity are for human and ecosystem survival and how humans can sustainably use and conserve biodiversity.
Dust Storms Come From the Poorer Lands.
Describes the different classifications of land and the effect soil erosion has on the quality of land and its future for crop production. Contains the results of an extensive study.
Initial Science Plan of the Monsoon Asia Integrated Regional Study
This Initial Science Plan identifies key environmental changes that affect the people and societies of the regions of Asia affected by monsoons. The plan pinpoints people and environments which are most vulnerable to monsoon damage. The plan ends with a reflection on important scientific issues and lists a number of future actions for the Monsoon Asia Integrated Regional Study.
Global Land Project: Science Plan and ImplementationStrategy
The Global Land Project (GLP) Science Plan and Implementation Strategy represents the joint research agenda of IGBP and IHDP to improve the understanding of land system dynamics in the context of Earth System functioning. This plan is therefore a first critical step in addressing the interaction between people and their environments. It is part of the broader efforts to understand how these interactions have affected, and may yet affect, the sustainability of the terrestrial biosphere, and the two-way interactions and feedbacks between different land systems within the Earth System. GLP will play a clear role in improving the understanding of regional and global-scale land systems, as well as promoting strong scientific synergy across the global change programmes. This Science Plan and Implementation Strategy develops a new integrated paradigm focused on two main conceptual aspects of the coupled system: firstly, it deals with the interface between people, biota, and natural resources of terrestrial systems, and secondly, it combines detailed regional studies with a global, comparative perspective. GLP takes as its points of departure ecosystem services and human decision making for the terrestrial environment. These topics are at the interface of the societal and the environmental domains, and serve as conceptual lenses for the research plan.
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.
A Guide to the Global Environment Facility for NGOs
This guide describes the various operations and activities of the Global Environment Facility partnership.
Draft Report of the 29th Session of the IPCC
The focus of this meeting was on the future of the IPCC, in particular the scoping of the 5th Assessment Report. The Panel was also invited to consider the outcome of the Scoping Meeting for a possible Special Report on "Extreme events and disasters: managing the risks", and of the Expert Meeting on "Alternative common metrics to calculate the CO2 equivalence of anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases".
Report of the 23rd Session of the IPCC
In the context of this agenda item discussion took place on the management plan for the AR4 SYR. The Panel agreed that further consideration will be given by the Bureau to aspects of arrangements for management of the AR4 SYR, and progress reported to the Panel.
Report of the 24th Session of the IPCC
The meeting highlighted recent progress in the work of the IPCC, in particular the completion of the two Special Reports on Safeguarding the Ozone Layer and the Global Climate System (SROC), and on Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage (SRCCS) and the preparations for the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4). Among other speakers, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Mr Klaus Töpfer addressed the Session on the linkages between science and climate change policy and the increasing need for information from the IPCC. He reaffirmed UNEP's commitment to the IPCC and supported early planning for the period beyond AR4. The Deputy Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), also addressed the Panel on the importance of the principles of impartiality, transparency, scientific authority and integrity for the past success of the IPCC, the linkages of WMO programmes and IPCC assessments, and WMO's commitment to the IPCC.
Report of the Eighteenth Session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
Different speakers addressed the Panel. Among other issues, the Eighteenth Session of the IPCC decided that its work must continue to maintain its high scientific and technical standards, independence, transparency and geographic balance, to ensure a balanced reporting of viewpoints and to be policy relevant but not policy prescriptive or policy driven.
Report of the Thirteenth Session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
The Panel approved various draft reports including the draft report of the 12th session. The Panel noted the draft decision paper (introduced by Dr. Watson) on the TAR, and after extensive discussions and amendments, the panel approved the decision line by line. The panel deferred the decision on the adoption procedure for the the report underlying the summary for policymakers of the synthesis report.
Report of the Twelfth Session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
The main actions of the Panel includes acceptence of revised 1996 IPCC guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, the election of the Chairman-elect, and approval of the program and budget for 1997.
Carbon/Efficiency Labelling & Bio-Blending for Optimising Benefits of Biodiesel & Additive Use
The Carbon Labelling project implemented several labelling measures in Europe focused on transportation products and services with low CO2 emissions. The project promoted biodiesel, low-viscosity lubricants and ‘low carbon’ freight services. This first European carbon labelling initiative supported the discussion about measures for the greenhouse gas reduction (GHG) targets of the European Union and the role of biofuels to mitigate GHG emissions. Carbon life cycle numbers were calculated with GHG models from leading European research institutes. The identified carbon reduction numbers were used for pilot labelling initiatives via the label “CO2Star” developed by a professional advertising agency. The label and consumer information websites provided information to consumers about environmental and economic benefits of the labelled biofuels, lubricants and freight services. For instance, the German fuel distributor Q1 implemented a carbon labelling pilot programme for biodiesel (B 100) and lubricants at its fuel stations, while Dutch horticulture freight companies implemented the carbon label to promote "low carbon" freight services.
Global Climate Change
This report discusses different perspectives used to consider issues related to the global climate change and issues related to the 1992 U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and the 1997 Kyoto Agreement.
Contour-furrow irrigation.
Describes how farmers can use contour-furrow irrigation as a means of preventing soil erosion and maintaining even watering of crops.
Use the land and save the soil.
This bulletin briefly answers the questions: "What is soil and water conservation?" and "How does the Soil Conservation Service help farmers and landowners?"
NOAA Sets the El Niño Prediction Straight
El Niño is an abnormal warming of the ocean temperatures across the eastern tropical Pacific that affects weather around the globe. El Niño episodes usually occur approximately every four-five years. NOAA researchers and scientists are presently monitoring the formation of a possible weak El Niño and predict that the United States could experience very weak-to-marginal impacts late winter to early spring 2002.
NOAA Updates What Defines Normal Temperature
Normal temperatures and precipitation levels for your area may have changed as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Climatic Data Center recently released new 'normal' data for about 8,000 weather stations. The data defines the normal temperature at locations across the United States, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and U.S. Pacific Islands. These data are used as a benchmark for weather forecasters to calculate day-to-day temperature and rainfall departures from typical levels and are also used by business, government and industry for planning, design and operations.
Green Carbon, Black Trade: Illegal Logging, Tax Fraud and Laundering in the World's Tropical Forests
This report – Green Carbon, Black Trade – by UNEP and INTERPOL focuses on illegal logging and its impacts on the lives and livelihoods of often some of the poorest people in the world set aside the environmental damage. It underlines how criminals are combining old fashioned methods such as bribes with high tech methods such as computer hacking of government web sites to obtain transportation and other permits. The report spotlights the increasingly sophisticated tactics being deployed to launder illegal logs through a web of palm oil plantations, road networks and saw mills.
General Assembly of North Carolina Session 2005: Session Law 2005-442 Senate Bill 1134
An act to establish the legislative commission on global climate change: to direct the commission to study issues related to global warming, the emerging carbon economy, and whether it is appropriate and desirable for the state to establish a global warming pollutant reduction goal; and, if the commission determines that the establishment of a goal is appropriate and desirable, to authorize the commission to develop a recommended goal.
Administrative Order No. 238
This executive order establishes the Alaska Climate Change Sub-Cabinet to advise the Office of the Governor of Alaska on the preparation and implementation of a climate change strategy for Alaska.
Administrative Order No. 238
This executive order establishes the Alaska Climate Change Sub-Cabinet to advise the Office of the Governor of Alaska on the preparation and implementation of a climate change strategy for Alaska.
Green Jobs: Towards Decent Work in a Sustainable, Low-Carbon World
This report is about the impact of the green economy on the global job market.
Coral Bleaching and Marine Protected Areas
Proceedings of a workshop to discuss coral reef research, monitoring, and marine protected area (MPA) management. It includes workshop summary information, specific papers presented during the event, and relevant appendixes.
Assembly Bill No. 32 CHAPTER 488
California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. This bill would require Air Resources Board (ARB) to adopt a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions levels in 1990 to be achieved by 2020. ARB shall adopt regulations to require the reporting and verification of statewide greenhouse gas emissions and to monitor and enforce compliance with this program. AB 32 directs Climate Action Team established by the Governor to coordinate the efforts set forth under Executive Order S-3-05 to continue its role in coordinating overall climate policy.
Senate Bill No. 1771
An act to add Chapter 6 (commencing with Section 42800) to Part 4 of Division 26 of the Health and Safety Code, and to add Chapter 8.5 (commencing with Section 25730) to Division 15 of the Public Resources Code, relating to air pollution.
Public Law of Maine: First Regular Session of the 121st
An Act To Provide Leadership in Addressing the Threat of Climate Change.
Our Changing Planet: The FY 2001 U.S. Global Change Research Program
This report, prepared under the auspices of the President's National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), highlights the Program's recent research and describes future plans and goals. The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) was established in 1989 and authorized by Congress in the Global Change Research Act of 1990. The first edition of Our Changing Planet was transmitted to the Congress as a supplement to the FY1990 budget. In just over a decade, the USGCRPhas generated remarkable improvements to our knowledge of Earth's global-scale environmental processes and helped identify and explain the causes and consequences of a series of global environmental changes, including ozone depletion and climate change.
Our Changing Planet: The FY 2002 U.S. Global Change Research Program
This document, which is produced annually, describes the activities and plans of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), which was established in 1989 and authorized by Congress in the Global Change Research Act of 1990. Strong bipartisan support for this inter-agency program has resulted in more than a decade's worth of scientific accomplishment. "Because there is considerable uncertainty in current understanding of how the climate system varies naturally and reacts to emissions of greenhouse gases and aerosols, current estimates of the magnitude of future warming should be regarded as tentative and subject to future adjustments (either upward or downward). Reducing the wide range of uncertainty inherent in current model predictions of global climate change will require major advances in understanding and modeling of both (1) the factors that determine atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases and aerosols, and (2) the so-called 'feedbacks' that determine the sensitivity of the climate system to a prescribed increase in greenhouse gases. There is also a pressing need for a global system designed for monitoring climate. Climate projections will always be far from perfect. Confidence limits and probabilistic information, with their basis, should always be considered as an integral part of the information that climate scientists provide to policy- and decision-makers. Without them, the IPCC SPM [Summary for Policymakers] could give the impression that the science of global warming is 'settled,' even though many uncertainties still remain. The emission scenarios used by the IPCC provide a good example. Human dimensions will almost certainly alter emissions over the next century. Because we cannot predict either the course of human populations, technology, or societal transitions with any clarity, the actual greenhouse gas emissions could either be greater or less than the IPCC scenarios. Without an understanding of the sources and degree of uncertainty, decision makers could fail …
Climate Change Transition Team Report
Representatives from 4 state agencies (Agency of Natural Resources, Agency of Transportation, Agency of Agriculture Food & Markets & Department of Public Service), known collectively as the Climate Change Transition Team (CCTT) worked over the past 5 months to review the recommendations in the Governor’s Commission on Climate Change(GCCC) Report (October 2007) and to develop work plans for each recommendation. The resulting report provides these draft work plans and also serves as a current inventory of ongoing activities and programs that either directly or indirectly address the climate change/GHG emission issue.
U.S. Climate Change Technology Program Strategic Plan
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has released the Climate Change Technology Program (CCTP) Strategic Plan, which details measures to accelerate the development and reduce the cost of new and advanced technologies that avoid, reduce, or capture and store greenhouse gas emissions. According to the DOE, the CCTP is the technology component of a comprehensive U.S. strategy introduced by President George W. Bush in 2002 to combat climate change that includes measures to slow the growth of greenhouse gas emissions through voluntary, incentive-based, and mandatory partnerships; advance climate change science; spur clean energy technology development and deployment; and promote international collaboration.
Ice Core Records of Past Climate Changes: Implications for the Future, USGCRP Seminar, 18 September 1995.
This document provides a brief overview of Dr. Thompson's talk on records of changes in climate in general and the most significant implications of the ice core records of past climate changes in particular. Because climate processes that have operated in the past continue to operate today, ice core records are providing very valuable insights. Within the last two decades, long cores of glacial ice have been used to establish and improve the record of past changes in climate. Analysis of ice cores from Antarctica, Greenland and tropical and subtropical areas have provided a wealth of detailed information on past climate changes. As the ice in these glaciers and ice sheets grew over time, layer by layer, tiny pockets of air were trapped within each layer, preserving a continuous record of the natural changes in the concentrations of greenhouse and other gases. In addition, these ice cores have preserved indirect/proxy records of changes in temperature (which can be closely estimated from the isotopic record of oxygen trapped in the ice), in the concentration of windblown dust, and in volcanic activity. By combining this information, these ice cores have preserved a 200,000-year history of climate changes and factors contributing to these changes.
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.
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.
The United States National Report on Systematic Observations for Climate for 2008: National Activities with Respect to the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) Implementation Plan
Long-term, high-accuracy, stable environmental observations are essential to define the state of the global integrated Earth system, its history and its future variability and change. Observations for climate include: (1) operational weather observations, when appropriate care has been exercised to establish high accuracy; (2) limited-duration observations collected as part of research investigations to elucidate chemical, dynamical, biological, or radiative processes that contribute to maintaining climate patterns or to their variability; (3) high accuracy, high precision observations to document decadal-to-centennial changes; and (4) observations of climate proxies, collected to extend the instrumental climate record to remote regions and back in time to provide information on climate change at millennial and longer time scales. This report was requested by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in order to serve as input to see how progress has been made with respect to the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) Implementation Plan developed in 2004 In accordance with the UNFCCC guidelines, the sections of the report delineate specific U.S. climate monitoring activities in several distinct yet integrated areas as follows: (1) common issues; (2) non-satellite atmospheric observations; (3) non-satellite oceanic observations; (4) non-satellite terrestrial observations; (5) satellite global atmospheric, oceanic, and terrestrial observations; and (6) data and information management related to systematic observations. The various federal agencies involved in observing the environment provide the required long-term observations. Space-based systems provide unique global measurements of solar output, the Earth's radiation budget; vegetation type and primary production; land surface conditions; ocean and terrestrial biomass primary productivity; tropospheric and stratospheric ozone; tropospheric and stratospheric water vapor; tropospheric aerosols; greenhouse gas distributions; sea level; ocean surface conditions and winds; weather; and tropical precipitation, among others.
Our Changing Planet: The U.S. Climate Change Science Program for Fiscal Year 2010
The report describes the activities and plans of the Climate Change Science Program (CCSP), which incorporates the U.S. Global Change Research Program established under the Global Change Research Act of 1990, and the Climate Change Research Initiative that was established by the President in 2001. CCSP coordinates and integrates scientific research on climate and global change supported by 13 participating departments and agencies of the U.S. Government. The document highlights recent advances and progress supported by CCSP-participating agencies in each of the program's research and observational elements, as called for in the Strategic Plan for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program released in July 2003, and later modified in the 2008 CCSP Revised Research Plan. The document also describes how observational and predictive capabilities are being improved and used to create tools to support decisionmaking at local, regional, and national scales to cope with environmental variability and change.
3rd African Drought Adaptation Forum report, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 17-19 September 2008
The Third African Drought Adaptation Forum was held in September 2008 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The Forum was organized so that participants could exchange practical experiences, findings and ideas on how to adapt to the increasing threat of drought and climate change in the drylands of Africa. The report contains a summary of sessions and outlines key themes that emerged from the discussions.
Climate Change at UNDP: Scaling Up to Meet the Challenge
The paper presents UNDP's strategy to support the efforts of developing countries and vulnerable groups for scaling up mitigation and adaptation action to successfully meet the climate change challenge and achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Our Planet, September 2007
Magazine of the United Nations Environment Programme discussing worldwide environmental policies and other concerns. This issue is devoted to the the 20th anniversary of the Montreal Protocol.
Our Planet, September 2008
Magazine of the United Nations Environment Programme discussing worldwide environmental policies and other concerns. This issue is devoted to forestry, deforestation, and the sustainable use of forest products.
Our Planet, September 2009
Magazine of the United Nations Environment Programme discussing worldwide environmental policies and other concerns. This issue is devoted to policies meant to reduce the carbon emissions from cars, trucks, and planes by converting fleets to cleaner, renewable fuels, and by moving government subsidies from highway infrastructure to public transportation.
Soil-Depleting, Soil-Conserving, and Soil-Building Crops.
Discusses soil conservation in a clear and concise manner. Discusses soil building, soil conserving, and soil depleting crops as well as the minerals to be found in soil.
Green Jobs Training: A Catalog of Training Opportunities for Green Infrastructure Training
This catalog provides information on training and certification opportunities for jobs and careers categorized as part of the "green economy." The catalog includes federal and state listings.
Know Your Watersheds.
Describes the necessity of water in everyday life, the water cycle, and provides suggestions for the management of watersheds.
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