Greenhouse Gases and the Climate on the Web

Europe will have to develop technologies to capture and store carbon (CSC) on a large scale, according to a study by McKinsey & Company. Fossil energies will continue to play an important role in the energy mix until at least 2050, and carbon storage is one of the most effective means to reduce CO₂ emissions. The study estimates that carbon storage would make it possible to reduce global emissions of CO₂ by 3.6 billion tons a year by 2030. The projects are viable in the long term, but McKinsey recalls that it will take subsidies of more than 10 billion euros to build a first generation of 10 to 15 demonstration plants.
>>More on Euractiv, an independent media.

A leading Chinese official has recognized China is now the world’s top GHG producer. Although willing to combat climate change, China sticks to its coal-dominated energy mix with no intention to sacrifice economic development, arguing that the economic take-off of rich countries produced nearly all the human-produced GHGs, and that China's per capita emissions, at about a fifth of the U.S. average, remain much lower than rich countries'. U.S. Oak Ridge National Laboratory estimates that in 2007 fossil fuel combustion produced 1.8 billion tonnes of carbon in China, and 1.6 billion tonnes in the U.S. Analysts say “top polluter position” is politically charged, touching on a nerve point at UN talks to address climate change.
>>Find out more on Reuters.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences estimates that China's annual greenhouse gas emissions could more than double by 2020, reaching 2.5 to 2.9 billion metric tonnes of pure carbon (maybe even 4.0 billion tonnes a year by 2030). Natural sinks can absorb about 2 billion metric tons a year. With current global emissions at about 8.5 billion metric tonnes per year, scientists believe global emissions would have to fall at least 80% below today's levels by 2150 to attain climate stability. Since China refuses to sacrifice economic development to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, only one solution remains: to develop clean and cheap energy sources that can power sustainable development in China and elsewhere.
>> Find out more on Reuters.

GHG emissions are still on the rise, indicates the annual report of the executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Between 2000 and 2006, 40 industrialized countries emitted 18 billion tons of carbon dioxide, a 2.3% increase. Highlights: a 7.4% GHG emissions increase in the former Soviet republics between 2000 and 2006, a 0.1% decrease in the US in 2006, and a global 0.1% decrease between 2005 and 2006. US President Elect Barack Obama has committed to invest $150 billion over 10 years in the clean energy sector and reduce GHG emissions by 80% compared to 1990 by 2050.
>>Read more on Silobreaker, an online search service for news and current events.

If the populations of richer countries diminished their meat consumption by the equivalent of one hamburger per person per day, it would be enough to influence climate changes, according to British medical magazine The Lancet. Meat consumption in the richest countries is actually 10 times higher than in the poorest countries (200 to 250 grams of meat per day, compared to 20 to 25 g). Agriculture produces 22% of the world’s emissions greenhouse gases (almost as much as the industrial sector and more than transportation) and nearly 80% of agricultural emissions are from cattle, particularly food and transportation.
>>Read more on Radio-Canada’s website (in French only).
 

After 18 months of observation, SCIAMACHY, the world’s largest environment monitoring satellite, on board European satellite Envisat, made it possible to draw up a world map of the distribution of nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), a gas primarily produced by man. Established over an 18-month period, this “high-resolution” map gives a clear picture not of only the vertical columns of nitrogen dioxide coming from America and Europe’s large cities, for example, but also from South Africa’s coal-fired electricity plants. It even shows the “atmospheric wake” of ships navigating along very busy routes, such as the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, between Indonesia and the southern point of India.
>>Learn more on the European Space Agency’s website (in French only).

A NASA/university team has published maps revealing how carbon dioxide moves around in Earth's troposphere, about 8 km above the Earth’s surface. The troposphere is compared to “international waters," where "what's produced in one place will travel elsewhere." Thus, increased levels of carbon dioxide detected over the western North Atlantic are attributed to emissions from the Southeast U.S., while carbon dioxide over the Mediterranean results from North American and European sources, carbon dioxide from South Asia ends end up over the Middle East, and carbon dioxide from East Asia flows out over the Pacific Ocean.
>>Read more on the Nasa’s website. 
 

Atmospheric carbon dioxide could be fatal for krill, the tiny crustacean at the heart of the Antarctic food web. An Australian krill breeding research facility was used to expose larvae to atmospheric carbon dioxide level increased to the worst-case 2100 level. "Their anatomy wasn't quite right," said researcher Lilli Hale. "They were a bit deformed, and they were listless. It's unlikely they would have survived through to adulthood." This would have a catastrophic impact on several species–seabirds, penguins, seals, whales, etc.–which depend on Antarctic krill for food. Carbon dioxide is most easily absorbed by the sea in the colder Southern Ocean.
>>Read more on the Sydney Morning Herald’s website.
 

Leading industrialized nations–Australia, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States–have pledged more than US$6.1 billion to the Climate Investment Funds (CIF), to help developing countries in their efforts to mitigate increases in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and adapt to climate change. The first projects are to be announced early in 2009. Potential recipient countries are Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Mexico, South Africa, and Turkey.
>>More on The World Bank’s website.
 

In the American West, a recent succession of mild winters has brought about the dehydration of the Pinus Contorda (“twisted pine”), causing its natural barriers to collapse, creating a fertile environment for the proliferation of the bark beetle, a small insect originally from the Rockies whose natural habitat is the bark of this tree. BEACHON, an international research project, will evaluate the apprehended effects of the proliferation of this insect over four years, including: an interruption of the photosynthesis and the emission of large quantities of carbon dioxide; local temperature rises (from 2 to 4 degrees); forest loss; soil drainage and evapo-transpiration, as well as soil temperature increases, and; a significant reduction of the water table. In a nutshell, what is feared, as a result of the over-multiplication of this small insect? Nothing less than major water supply problems for several American states!
>>Read more about BEACHON in Innovations Report.
 

BP's chief scientist Steven Koonin, who was a professor of theoretical physics at Caltech for 30 years, believes the onus of establishing the rules to curb global warming is on governments. According to Koonin, humanity’s habitual way of coping with problems “partially” will not suffice to prevent concentrations of CO² from rising. On markets: “I think markets are good for tactical allocation, but it's not obvious to me that they're the right thing for strategic allocation [or] longer-term planning.” On oil companies: “…companies are wonderful optimizers of their situation. If the government sets the playing rules appropriately, they will respond strongly and rapidly.”
>>Read the interview in Technology Review.
 

For some scientists, trying to curb greenhouse-gas emissions is not enough: they advocate re-engineering the Earth. “Geo-engineering” sets forth a broad range of solutions, e.g.: planting fast-growing genetically modified trees in order to capture carbon dioxide quickly; fertilising the oceans with iron to stimulate a bloom of planktonic algae that would suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere; “deliberately polluting the stratosphere with sulphate in order to reflect solar heat back into space,” and; ejecting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at the Earth’s poles by using lasers to ionize molecules of carbon dioxide and radio waves to spin these molecules at the correct rate, thus causing them to spiral away along the lines of our planet’s magnetic force.
>>More in The Economist .

“Unprecedented” and “most astonishing” emissions growth for 2000-2007 surpass worse-case scenarios
According to the Global Carbon Project, the global growth rate of emissions continues to speed up: Man-made CO² emissions “have been growing about four times faster since 2000 than during the previous decade.” Increasing emissions from developing nations China and India, decreasing forest cover in tropical countries, and less efficient natural land and ocean CO² sinks are seen as the major causes of the trend.
>>Read about it on Science Daily
 

According to Global Footprint Network, by September 23 humanity had used up more resources than our planet will produce this year. The research organization, which measures the way we exploit natural resources, says humanity has been in “ecological overshoot” since the 1980s. In other words, we are using our resources faster than they can be regenerated and putting carbon into the air faster than it can be reabsorbed. On a global scale, we now require the biological capacity of 1.4 planets, says Global Footprint Network. As a result, our supply of natural resources–e.g. trees and fish–is shrinking, while our waste–primarily carbon dioxide–accumulates.
>>Read more on the ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability site

A recent United Nations Environment Programme study says changing patterns of employment and investment resulting from efforts to reduce climate change and its effects are already generating new jobs in many sectors and economies, and could result in the creation of millions of new “green jobs” in the coming decades, in both developed and developing countries.
>>Read more on the International Labour Organization’s site
 

More than two decades after it was discovered, the famous “ozone hole” over the South Pole is not getting any smaller. In fact, most scientific models indicate that we might have to wait until 2060 or 2075 before the ozone concentrations reach the levels they were at before 1980… However, according to a report published in online magazine Science Actualité, the international scientific community still hopes to see it shrink one day, even portraying the ozone case as an example of a positive interaction between scientists, policians and business leaders, and as “an example, also, of an effective international joint effort to tackle a major environmental problem.”
>> Read more on Science Actualités (In French Only).

Today, climate change is a reality that can no longer be ignored. How can we slow it down? What actions can we take to adapt to it? In the context of an international conference, the “Vingt-et-unièmes Entretiens”, held by the Centre Jacques-Cartier, on October 7th Hydro-Quebec will set forth pragmatic answers drawn from experience, presented by President and CEO Thierry Vandal. Other topics include the role carbon markets can play in reducing GHG emissions and the best ways to adapt the production, transportation and distribution of electricity to climate change.
>> Read more on the Conference site (in French only)

Scientists predict the Earth's temperature may stay roughly the same for a decade, as natural climate cycles enter a cooling phase. A new computer model developed by German researchers, reported in the journal Nature, suggests the cooling will counter greenhouse warming.  However, they say temperatures will again be rising quickly by about 2020.
>> Read more on bbc.co.uk.

For the first time, researchers have been able to estimate the fluctuations of the concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane in our atmosphese over the last 800.000 years by studying Antarctic ice extracted during the EPICA drilling. They hope this will help them develop more accurate scenarios of our planet’s future climate.
>> Read more on CEA.fr (article in French) 

Japan is to carry carbon footprint labels on food packaging and other products in an ambitious scheme to persuade companies and consumers to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The labels, which are to appear from next spring on many items including food and drink, detergents and electrical appliances, will provide detailed breakdowns of each product's carbon footprint under a government-approved calculation and labeling system.
>> Read more on guardian.co.uk.