This document is part of Technical Report (ref: EUR 21758 EN) from the Joint Research Centre and presents part of the modelling work conducted by DG JRC/IPTS as a contribution to the DG ENV Communication on post-2012 climate policy analysis (June 2005). The analyses with the POLES and GEM-E3 models show that the costs of abatement policies, both in marginal terms and total terms, can be significantly reduced if emissions trading and project based mechanisms are used.

The annual report includes an overview of the diffusion of environmentalism in Japan and the world during FY 2003. The report details the environmental issues and the environmental conservation measures by the Japanese government in FY 2003.

This report includes case studies on urban development and the carbon cycle in the Americas. The authors intend to demonstrate the consequences of different pathways of urban development on the carbon cycle, and identify points of management and intervention aimed at designing less-carbon intensive development.

This treaty governs mechanisms designed to ensure long-term conservation and sustainable use of certain species of fish, including tuna, swordfish, and marlin.

This publication discusses global environmental efforts, successes, and setbacks of 2004.

Change in the coastal zone has always been an integral topic in the APN’s research framework, and that there are serious coastal problems and issues in the Asia-Pacific region that need to be addressed. With this in mind, the 8th APN Inter-Governmental Meeting, held in Hanoi in March 2003, endorsed the initiation of a two-year APN Global Change Coastal Zone Management Synthesis. The APN Coastal Zone Management Synthesis identified research gaps and needs for future coastal zone research in the Asia-Pacific region. Products and outputs of the synthesis are available in electronic and printed formats, the first a Coastal Zone Management Synthesis Report, the second a substantial publication, a book emphasising research gaps and a broad research agenda for the region.

Recent years have seen a greatly increased understanding of how global environmental change will affect crop and animal productivity and these results pave the way for broader analyses of global environmental change impacts on food production. However, there is a need to think beyond productivity and production - food security is the ultimate concern, as it is of greater relevance to societal well-being and hence policy-making. To address this broader concept of food security, research and policy formulation needs to be set within the context of food systems, rather than just food supply. This will allow a more thorough understanding of the links between food security and the environment, and make clearer where technical and policy interventions in food systems might be help them adapt to global environmental change.

Western Development is an important strategy of China Government. The ecological environment in the western region of China is very fragile, and any improper human activity or resource utilization will lead to irrecoverable ecological degradation. Therefore, the integrated ecosystem assessment in the western region of China is of great significance to the Western Development Strategy. This project, Integrated Ecosystem Assessment of Western China (MAWEC), will provide very important scientific foundations for both the central and local governments to make decisions on ecological construction, thus assuring the successful implementation of the Western Development Strategy. Meanwhile, MAWEC as one of the MA sub-global assessments is contributing to strengthen capability in boosting the development of the ecological science, interaction between different subjects, and combination between scientific research and practice, and pushing forward international cooperation in the relevant fields.

The iLEAPS Science Plan and Implementation Strategy defines the scientific objectives and key research issues of the land-atmosphere project of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme. It also outlines a strategy for addressing the key research questions. The scope of iLEAPS research spans from molecular level processes - such as synthesis of volatile organic compounds in vegetation - to Earth System science issues, climate and global change. iLEAPS research emphasises the importance of connections, feedbacks and teleconnections between the numerous processes in the land-atmosphere interface. Due to the complexity and wide range of scientific issues, iLEAPS stresses the need for increased integrative approaches and collaboration, involving scientists from various disciplines, experimentalists and modellers, and international research projects and programmes.

Coastal zones play a key role in Earth System functioning, by contributing significantly to the life support systems of most societies. Human activities modifying riverine hydrology and riverine material fluxes to the coastal zone, have increased in both scale and rate of change in the last 200 years. The underlying processes that drive changes to coastal systems occur at a multiplicity of temporal and spatial scales. These changes alter the availability of ecosystem goods and services. However, disciplinary fragmentation impedes our ability to understand the regional and global changes that affect coastal systems, and thus limits our ability to guide management and decision making. Progress has been made in understanding the changes in Earth System processes that affect the coastal zone, and the role of coastal systems in global change. This includes identifying proxies that describe the state of coastal systems under existing conditions and change scenarios. Typologies have been developed to assist in the interpolation of results into areas where primary information is lacking. This has enabled a first-order up-scaling to a global synthesis.

This report presents scientific analysis of the costs, benefits, and effectiveness of federal programming to reduce acid rain.

This report is supporting material prepared for consideration by the IPCC. It was reviewed by participants of the Geneva meeting, but not reviewed through the IPCC formal process.

This book describes the mission of the World Future Council, which came into existence shortly after publication. Many values are shared across cultures and those values need to be represented by a common voice. The World Future Council was launched to fill that role, and seeks to be an ethically powerful global voice that appeals and responds to basic human values.

This research shows perennial Arctic ice is melting by nearly 10% a decade. It’s on course to disappear entirely by the end of the century. This means polar bears, walrus and seals living on the ice could become extinct. Many other Arctic species would also feel severe impacts. The fears of Inuit communities from Greenland to eastern Russia are also covered in the WWF report. Global warming puts traditional hunting and food-sharing at great risk." Sixty per cent of the tundra habitat of birds like ravens, snow buntings, falcons, loons, sandpipers and terns could be lost in the 2°C warming scenario. Migratory birds will lose vital staging and breeding grounds, affecting biodiversity around the world. So, two degrees? It’s too much!

The Energy Policy Act (EPA) addresses energy production in the United States, including: (1) energy efficiency; (2) renewable energy; (3) oil and gas; (4) coal; (5) Tribal energy; (6) nuclear matters and security; (7) vehicles and motor fuels, including ethanol; (8) hydrogen; (9) electricity; (10) energy tax incentives; (11) hydropower and geothermal energy; and (12) climate change technology. For example, the Act provides loan guarantees for entities that develop or use innovative technologies that avoid the by-production of greenhouse gases. Another provision of the Act increases the amount of biofuel that must be mixed with gasoline sold in the United States.

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 …

This report presents the international developments related to Long-Term Targets for controlling climate change, the significance of establishing Long-Term Targets, the conditions precedent to debating Long-Term Targets, temperature increases and related impacts due to climate change, the approaches to establishing Long-Term Targets, and the agenda for the future.

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This report summarizes a workshop which investigated the possible roles that the IPCC could play in developing and assessing new emission scenarios.

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.

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 …

This guide describes the various operations and activities of the Global Environment Facility partnership.

The effects of global climate change from greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) are diverse and potentially very large, and probably constitute the most serious long-term environmental issue currently facing the world. This paper is prepared as task 1 of the project 'Modelling support for Future Actions - Benefits and Cost of Climate Change Policies and Measures', ENV.C.2/2004/0088, led by K.U.Leuven, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. The paper provides a rapid review and analysis of the impacts and economic costs from climate change. The objective is to provide estimates of the benefits of climate change policy, i.e. from avoided impacts, for support to the Commission in considering the benefits and costs of mitigation efforts, and to support DG Environment in its report to the Spring Council 2005 and in future international negotiations on climate change.

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.