As atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases continue to increase, so does the potential for atmospheric warming and associated climate change. In an effort to address the threat of global climate change, 155 countries signed the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992. As of the first session of the Conference of the Parties, 128 nations had ratified the Convention. Among their other commitments, Parties to the Convention must develop and periodically update national inventories of net anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions using comparable methodologies, and must develop and implement national programs to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. To further the development of emission inventories and mitigation options within the African context, 64 governmental and non-governmental scientists and policy analysts from 23 nations gathered at a workshop near Johannesburg, South Africa from 29 May to 2 June 1995. The workshop focused on forestry, land-use change, and agriculture, because these sectors not only are responsible for the majority of emissions from the continent and provide promising opportunities for emissions mitigation, but also are a vital component of African economic growth and development. This book presents the workshop's major conclusions and findings, as well as individual papers that were prepared for the workshop, each of which was peer-reviewed and accepted for publication as part of the workshop process. The papers cover four areas: (1) issues are associated with data collection and emission factor determination; (2) problems associated with applying the IPCC inventory methodologies in Africa; (3) results of national inventory assessments in Africa; and (4) possible emissions mitigation options and methods for evaluating their potential viability. As the first book dedicated solely to greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation options in Africa, this will be an invaluable resource to scientists, policymakers, and development specialists interested in global climate change and Africa.
Greenhouse gas emissions by the livestock sector could be cut by as much as 30 percent through the wider use of existing best practices and technologies. FAO conducted a detailed analysis of GHG emissions at multiple stages of various livestock supply chains, including the production and transport of animal feed, on-farm energy use, emissions from animal digestion and manure decay, as well as the post-slaughter transport, refrigeration and packaging of animal products. This report represents the most comprehensive estimate made to-date of livestocks contribution to global warming as well as the sectors potential to help tackle the problem. This publication is aimed at professionals in food and agriculture as well as policy makers.
This book provides standards and guidelines for quantifying greenhouse gas emissions and removals in smallholder agricultural systems and comparing options for climate change mitigation based on emission reductions and livelihood trade-offs. Globally, agriculture is directly responsible for about 11% of annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and induces an additional 17% through land use change, mostly in developing countries. Farms in the developing countries of sub-Saharan Africa and Asia are predominately managed by smallholders, with 80% of land holdings smaller than ten hectares. However, little to no information exists on greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation potentials in smallholder agriculture. Greenhouse gas measurements in agriculture are expensive, time consuming, and error prone, challenges only exacerbated by the heterogeneity of smallholder systems and landscapes. Concerns over methodological rigor, measurement costs, and the diversity of approaches, coupled with the demand for robust information suggest it is germane for the scientific community to establish standards of measurements for quantifying GHG emissions from smallholder agriculture. Standard guidelines for use by scientists, development organizations will help generate reliable data on emissions baselines and allow rigorous comparisons of mitigation options. The guidelines described in this book, developed by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security (CCAFS) and partners, are intended to inform anyone conducting field measurements of agricultural greenhouse gas sources and sinks, especially to develop IPCC Tier 2 emission factors or to compare mitigation options in smallholder systems.
Land has long been overlooked in economics. That is now changing. A substantial part of the solution to the climate crisis may lie in growing crops for fuel and using trees for storing carbon. This book investigates the potential of these options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, estimates the costs to the economy, and analyses the trade-offs with growing food. The first part presents new databases that are necessary to underpin policy-relevant research in the field of climate change while describing and critically assessing the underlying data, the methodologies used, and the first applications. Together, the new data and the extended models allow for a thorough and comprehensive analysis of a land use and climate policy. This book outlines key empirical and analytical issues associated with modelling land use and land use change in the context of global climate change policy. It places special emphasis on the economy-wide competition for land and other resources, especially; The implications of changes in land use for the cost of climate change mitigation, Land use change as a result of mitigation, and Feedback from changes in the global climate to land use. By offering synthesis and evaluation of a variety of different approaches to this challenging field of research, this book will serve as a key reference for future work in the economic analysis of land use and climate change policy.
International concern for the continued growth of greenhouse gas emissions, and the potentially damaging consequences of resultant global climate change, led to the signing of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change by 155 nations at the Earth Summit in June 1992. The Convention came into force on 21 March 1994, three months after receiving its 50th ratification. All Parties to the Convention are required to compile, periodically update, and publish national inventories of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and sinks using comparable methodologies. In support of this process, the US Country Studies Program (US CSP) is providing financial and technical assistance to 56 developing and transition countries for conducting national inventories. This book presents the results of preliminary national inventories prepared by countries participating in the US CSP that are ready to share their interim findings. In some cases, inventories were prepared with support from other organizations. Preliminary inventories of twenty countries in Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States, and Latin America are presented, as well as regional and global syntheses of the national results. The regional and global syntheses also discuss results of eleven other preliminary national inventories that have been published elsewhere with the assistance of other programs. Results are discussed in the context of national and regional socioeconomic characteristics, and the regional and global syntheses compare national inventory estimates to other published estimates that are based largely on international databases. Papers also discuss inventory development issues, such as data collection and emission factor determination, and problems associated with applying the IPCC inventory methodologies. The preliminary inventory results reported here represent significant progress towards meeting country commitments under the Framework Convention, and provide useful information for refining international greenhouse gas emission databases and improving inventory methodologies. As the first book to compile national greenhouse gas emission estimates prepared by national experts in developing countries and countries with economies in transition, this will be an invaluable resource to scientists, policymakers, and development specialists in national, regional and global anthropogenic sources and sinks of greenhouse gases.
In this first comprehensive handbook of the earth's sinks for greenhouse gases, leading researchers from around the world provide an expert synthesis of current understanding and uncertainties. It will be a valuable resource for students, researchers and practitioners in conservation, ecology and environmental studies.
The lntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has recently summarized the state ofthe art in research on climate change (Climate Change 1995). The most up to date research findings have been divided into three volumes: • the Science ofClimate Change (working group I), • the Impacts, Adaption and Mitigation of Climate Change (working group II), and • the Economic and Social Dimensions ofClimate Change (working group III) There is a general consensus that a serious change in climate can only be avoided if the future emissions of greenhouse gases are reduced considerably from the business as usual projection and if at the same time the natural sinks for greenhouse gases, in particular that of CO , are maintained at the present level or 2 preferrably increased. Forests, forestry and forestry industry are important parts of the global carbon cycle and therefore they are also part of the mitigation potentials in at least a threefold way: 1. During the time period between 1980 and 1989 there was a net emission of CO from changes in tropical land use (mostly tropical deforestation) of 2 1. 6 +/- 1 GtC/a, but at the same time it was estimated that the forests in the northem hemisphere have taken up 0. 5 +/- 0. 5 GtC/a and additionally other terrestrial sinks (including tropical forests where no clearing took place) have been a carbon sink ofthe order of l. 3 +/- l.