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Climate Change: Meeting the Challenge to 2050
Climate change is already with us. Scientific evidence shows that past emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) are already affecting the Earth’s climate.Without further policies to combat climate change, the OECD projects GHG emissions will grow by about 52% by 2050.This Policy Brief highlights the OECD’s work on the likely impact of various courses of action to mitigate climate change, and the costs of inaction.
Cycling in Sweden
Increased use of bicycles can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and local air pollution - and have positive impacts on human health. The Working Group on Transport (WGT) under OECD’s Environment Policy Committee discussed measures to promote bicycle use at a meeting (27-28 January 2010). Below are the presentations that were made on that occasion.
Substitute Bill No. 595
An act concerning climate change.
Leading the Way: A Comprehensive Approach to Reducing Greenhouse Gases in Washington State
This report is about how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Washington State.
Antarctic Climate Change in the 20th and 21st centuries: Extracts from the Executive Summary of SCAR’s Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment (ACCE) Review Report
The instrumental period began in the Antarctic with the International Geophysical Year, about 50 years ago. The snapshot we have of the climate during this period is tiny in the long history of the continent. Determining how the environment of the Antarctic will evolve over the next century presents challenges. Climate models are the only means we have of providing synoptic views of future environmental behaviour, albeit crudely and at coarse resolution. However, the effects of increased greenhouse gases are already evident, and the effects of their expected increase over the next century, if they continue to rise at the current rate, will be remarkable because of their speed.
Habitats at Risk: Global Warming and Species Loss in Globally Significant Terrestrial Ecosystems
This report studies how global warming could affect the planet's "crown jewels" of nature and rates Canada among those most vulnerable. Released by the David Suzuki Foundation and the World Wildlife Fund, the report highlights the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Turning Up the Heat: How Global Warming Threatens Life in the Sea
This new report argues that rising temperatures have impacted the world's oceans to a far greater extent than previously acknowledged. Addressing topics such as sea-level rise, ocean circulation, coral reefs, sea birds and invertebrates, as well as the increasing threats to Salmon, the report predicts a dangerous chain reaction in marine ecosystems if global warming continues unabated. On the positive side, it also argues that decisive actions now to reduce pollution can slow the warming and preserve the world's oceans.
Texas' Global Warming Solutions: A Study for World Wildlife Fund
This report outlined and evaluated a plan through which the United States could reduce its annual carbon-dioxide emissions by about 654 million metric tons of carbon (MtC) by 2010, 36 percent below businesses-usual projections for that year. This brings 2010 emissions to 14 percent below 1990 emissions, thereby exceeding the reductions required under the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The study also found that these reductions could be obtained with net economic savings, almost 900,000 net additional jobs, and significant decreases in pollutant emissions that damage the environment, and are harmful to human health, especially of children and elderly.
Senate, No. 2351
An Act establishing a vehicle emissions program.
Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Action Plan
This action plan articulates the most significant ecosystem problems for the Great Lakes, and describes efforts to address them. The five areas are toxic substances, invasive species, health and pollution, wildlife and habitat preservation and restoration, and finally a component that covers accountability and evaluation.
The Outcomes of Copenhagen: The Negotiations and the Accord
This document evaluates the Copenhagen climate talks, including the status of the negotiations on the key issues under the formal negotiating tracks and the provisions of the Copenhagen Accord, and draws implications for the implementation of actions in developing countries.
Our Planet, February 2007
Magazine of the United Nations Environment Programme discussing worldwide environmental policies and other concerns. This issue presents both positive and negative views of globalization, and explores a new model of sustainable globalization.
Our Planet, February 2010
Magazine of the United Nations Environment Programme discussing worldwide environmental policies and other concerns. This issue is devoted to programs in several countries that are investing in a "green economy" in order to ensure the efficient and sustainable use of natural resources.
Our Planet, February 2008
Magazine of the United Nations Environment Programme discussing worldwide environmental policies and other concerns. This issue is devoted to solutions to financing sustainable development and climate change adaptation.
Our Planet, February 2009
Magazine of the United Nations Environment Programme discussing worldwide environmental policies and other concerns. This issue is devoted to so called "Green Economy" measures such as large public transportation plans, tree planting programs, and government policies that provide incentives for improving energy efficiency.
Soil and Groundwater Pollution Remediation Act
This law was passed by the Republic of China (Taiwan) to protect public health and the environment by preventing soil and groundwater pollution, and by promoting the sustainable use of soil and groundwater.
United Nations Environment Programme 2009 Annual Report
The 2009 UNEP annual report provides detailed information about various UNEP activities during the year of 2009, including analysis of the outcome of the Copenhagen United Nations Climate Change Conference. The report emphasizes the need to mobilize behind climate action in 2009 and to continue to ensure that environmental sustainability is recognized both as a legitmate goal in itself and as a means to achieving all other development objectives including the Millennium Development Goals.
Vision 2050: An Integrated National Transportation System
This document calls for major improvements to the United States transportation infrastructure. The vision includes improvements in energy independence, environmental compatibility, safety, cost, and performance.
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 Clean Air Act
The United States Clean Air Act is legislation authorizing the Environmental Protection Agency to control air pollutiants on a national level.
The Global Water System Project: Science Framework and Implementation Activities
Water plays a key role in the development and functioning of society by serving as a basic resource for activities such as irrigation, livestock production, fisheries, aquaculture, and hydroelectric power. Adequate water use in house-holds, businesses and manufacturing is a prerequisite of economic growth. Since many of the world's diseases are waterborne, we need clean water and sanitation for reducing the incidence of these diseases. And, most significantly, water provides habitat and sustenance for a rich diversity of plant and animal species that make up aquatic and riparian ecosystems, providing the basis for many of the goods and services received by society. Society is forcing unprecedented changes on global water resources through worldwide abstraction and pollution of water. Society also has a pervasive indirect impact because anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are causing long-term global changes in weather extremes and climate. Changes in the global water system are difficult to understand with simple cause-effect relationships because of the intense and complex linkages and feedbacks between different parts of the system. These changes and linkages also sometimes lead to abrupt changes in water systems such as the eutrophication of coastal aquatic systems, loss of biodiversity, the exceedance of safe water supply in urban areas, or intense competition between different water sectors for remaining water resources.
Report of the Nineteenth Session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
Different speakers addressed the Panel. Among other decisions of the Nineteenth Session of the IPCC: the Panel decided that well before the next round of elections the Chair would bring to the Panel a proposal describing the rules and procedures to be adopted by the IPCC when conducting elections. The Panel also decided on the terms of reference, draft table of content and draft workplan for developing definitions for degradation of forest and devegetation of other vegetation types, and methodological options to inventory and report on emissions resulting from these activities.
Report of the Twentieth Session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
This meeting focused on the future of the IPCC and discussed on various reports. The Deputy Executive-Director of the UNEP, addressed the Session on key climate and environmental change issues and informed the session about relevant decisions of the 22nd session of the UNEP Governing Council. Among other speakers, Mr Taka Hiraishi, co-chair of the TFB, introduced a report on the development of the Emissions Factors Data Base (EFDB). He noted, inter alia, that the current aim is to develop a recognised library of emissions factors, and that the search for members of the editorial board is not yet complete.
IHDP Global Carbon Cycle Research: International Carbon Research Framework
The degree to which carbon flows balance each other - human activities leading to carbon emissions into the atmosphere, vegetation and oceans soaking it up - is the subject of vigorous debate. It is not yet possible to define quantitatively the global effects of human activities such as forestry and agriculture, and may never be so. However, studies to determine these effects have emerged as critical for understanding how the earth's climate will evolve in the future. Global concern about the potential implications of the behaviour of the carbon cycle under anthropogenic stress includes concepts of system instability and large scale change. To contribute to understanding this behaviour, and our potential responses to it, requires a thorough investigation of both biophysical and social systems. Until recently, most scientific assessments of such risks focused on the anatomy of conceivable environmental changes themselves, devoting little attention to either the human driving forces or the ecosystems and societies that might be endangered by the changes. Recently, however, questions about the linkage and interaction of social, ecological, and biogeochemical systems are emerging as a central focus of policy-driven assessments of global environmental risks. The approach used here is to accept humans as an integral part of the carbon cycle, not as an agent perturbing an otherwise natural system - indeed, this approach assumes there is no independence of the different components of the carbon cycle. The human dimensions research community sees this critical and necessary re-conceptualisation as the foundation of a new approach to studying the interaction between human and environmental systems.
Report of the Third Session of the WMO/UNEP Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
The Third session of the IPCC highlighted the magnitude of the global environmental problem and emphasized the need of improving our knowledge base and preparation for cooperative preventive actions. The Panel also emphasized the need for the marriage of science and politics in the good sense of the word.
Report of the Seventh Session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
The primary objective of the Seventh session of the IPCC was to agree on the contents of the 1992 IPCC Supplement. Accordingly, the panel was informed of the results of the session of the IPCC Task Force on IPCC Structure and expressed its view on the future of its work in the last section of the 1992 Supplement (which would be further developed at its 8th's session.
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