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2009 Annual Report of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (open access)

2009 Annual Report of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme

The year 2009 was an eventful period for the Pacific region, with challenges and accomplishments that will be forever etched in our Pacific history.
Date: 2009
Creator: The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Adaptation that Accelerates Development (open access)

Adaptation that Accelerates Development

This brochure summarizes how the United Nations Development Programme promotes pro-poor and pro-growth adaptation that encourages sustainable economic development and livelihoods in the face of climate change.
Date: December 2009
Creator: United Nations Development Programme
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Adapting to Climate Change in Europe and Central Asia (open access)

Adapting to Climate Change in Europe and Central Asia

Contrary to popular perception, ECA faces significant threats from climate change, with a number of the most serious risks already in evidence. Vulnerability over the next ten to twenty years will be dominated by socio‐economic factors and legacy issues. Even countries and sectors that stand to benefit from climate change are poorly positioned to do so. The next decade offers a window of opportunity for ECA countries to make their development more resilient to climate change while reaping numerous co‐benefits.
Date: June 1, 2009
Creator: The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Adapting Water Management A Primer on Coping with Climate Change (open access)

Adapting Water Management A Primer on Coping with Climate Change

This primer is intended as a guide to some of the basic issues surrounding water management from a climate change perspective. It includes information on climate change impacts on various freshwater ecosystems as well as precipitation. Also addressed is how the assessment of vulnerability should distinguish between impacts assessment, which attempts to project future biophysical and ecological changes in a deterministic manner, and vulnerability assessment, which attempts to combine an assessment of future suites of change with an assessment of the resilience of ecosystems and management institutions.
Date: March 2009
Creator: Matthews, John H. & Quesne, Tom Le
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
American Leadership for the Global Climate Crisis (open access)

American Leadership for the Global Climate Crisis

This paper discusses several key areas where U.S. policy should be reshaped, both domestically and internationally, to ensure we lead the world towards a safe, sustainable future. We should: Establish a price for carbon by adopting an ambitious 2020 emissions reduction target. Make investments and adopt policies to stimulate a green economy. Lead the world toward an effective and equitable global climate agreement Support efforts to stop emissions from deforestation and degradation in developing countries. Contribute to global financing mechanisms for climate mitigation and adaptation in the developing world. Ensure that climate change-related impacts are addressed under the Endangered Species Act. Improve science and information to prepare communities and ecosystems for unavoidable climate change. Build public support for sustained action to fight climate change
Date: January 2009
Creator: WWF (Organization)
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Annex VI to the Protocol of Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty : message from the President of the United States transmitting Annex VI on liability arising from environmental emergencies to the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty (Annex VI), adopted on June 14, 2005 (open access)

Annex VI to the Protocol of Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty : message from the President of the United States transmitting Annex VI on liability arising from environmental emergencies to the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty (Annex VI), adopted on June 14, 2005

This amendment to the Antarctic Treaty deals with preventing and managing environmental emergencies in the Antarctica Treaty area.
Date: 2009
Creator: United States. President (2009- : Obama) & Clinton, Hillary Rodham
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Annual Report on the Environment, the Sound Material-Cycle Society and the Biodiversity 2009 (open access)

Annual Report on the Environment, the Sound Material-Cycle Society and the Biodiversity 2009

The white paper on comprehensive environmental policy describes the role of Japan's economy in a sound global environment. In the first part, the report describes current the environmental conditions of the Earth and of Japan, human activities in Japan and overseas, their environmental impacts, and the pathway to the environmental century. The second part of the white paper reports on various measures.
Date: November 2009
Creator: [Japan] Ministry of the Environment
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
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 (open access)

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.
Date: October 2010
Creator: WWF (Organization)
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library

Arctic Climate Feedbacks: Global Implications

Report describing sea-level rise and the associated flooding of coastal regions that may affect more than a quarter of the world’s population. It includes sections on atmospheric and ocean circulation feedbacks, ice sheets and sea-level rise feedbacks, marine and land carbon cycle feedbacks, and methane hydrate feedbacks.
Date: November 2009
Creator: Sommerkorn, Martin
Object Type: Musical Score/Notation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Arctic Climate Feedbacks: Global Implications, Executive Summary (open access)

Arctic Climate Feedbacks: Global Implications, Executive Summary

Executive summary describing research to evaluate environmental feedback related to climate change. The summary includes a breakdown of the key findings from each chapter of the report, with charts and maps illustrating statistics.
Date: November 2009
Creator: Sommerkorn, Martin & Hassol, Susan Joy
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Atmospheric Aerosol Properties and Climate Impacts (open access)

Atmospheric Aerosol Properties and Climate Impacts

This report critically reviews current knowledge about global distributions and properties of atmospheric aerosols as they relate to aerosol impacts on climate. It assesses possible steps to substantially reduce uncertainties in aerosol radiative forcing estimates.
Date: January 2009
Creator: U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Balancing Act: China’s Role in Climate Change (open access)

A Balancing Act: China’s Role in Climate Change

Climate change has reached the apex of the global agenda at a time when China faces significant development and energy security challenges. The political leadership and leading intellectuals are debating the direction of a new development pathway that provides both growth to meet development objectives, and dramatically reduces energy intensity and pollution. While the official position has not changed significantly, there are four key aspects that illustrate how climate change is conceived by the Chinese leadership. This signals that China may come to play a much more important role in global mitigation of climate change than was thought only a couple of years ago.
Date: April 1, 2009
Creator: Hallding, Karl; Han, Guoyi & Olsson, Marie
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Best Practice Approaches for Characterizing, Communicating, and Incorporating Scientific Uncertainty in Decision Making (open access)

Best Practice Approaches for Characterizing, Communicating, and Incorporating Scientific Uncertainty in Decision Making

This report discusses 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.
Date: January 2009
Creator: U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Building Standards for State Buildings (open access)

Building Standards for State Buildings

This map shows states with energy efficiency standards for government buildings.
Date: 2009
Creator: Pew Center on Global Climate Change
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
.China’s Policies and Actions for Addressing Climate Change —The Progress Report 2009 (open access)

.China’s Policies and Actions for Addressing Climate Change —The Progress Report 2009

Chinese government published the White Paper on China’s Policies and Actions for Addressing Climate Change, stating the policies and actions that the country had adopted for addressing climate change as well as the progresses. To follow up, this report will briefly describe the latest progresses that China has achieved in addressing climate change since 2008.
Date: November 1, 2009
Creator: National Development and Reform Commission
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Climate Change Science Compendium 2009 (open access)

Climate Change Science Compendium 2009

This document was compiled as an annual snapshot of peer-reviewed research about climate change.
Date: 2009
Creator: McMullen, Catherine P. & Jabbour, Jason
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Climate Change, Wildlife and Wildlands: A Toolkit for Formal and Informal Educators (open access)

Climate Change, Wildlife and Wildlands: A Toolkit for Formal and Informal Educators

This is a lesson plan for grade levels 5-8 that guides educators through a lesson about coral reef ecology and how climate change affects the growth of coral reefs.
Date: June 2009
Creator: U.S. Global Change Research Program
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Climate Literacy: The Essential Principles of Climate Science (open access)

Climate Literacy: The Essential Principles of Climate Science

This guide aims to help individuals and communities know and understand Earth’s climate, the impacts of climate change, and approaches to adaptation or mitigation. The guide aims to promote greater climate science literacy by providing an educational framework of principles and concepts. The guide can serve educators who teach climate science as a way to meet content standards in their science curricula.
Date: March 2009
Creator: U.S Climate Change Science Program
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Coastal Sensitivity to Sea-Level Rise: A Focus on the Mid-Atlantic Region (open access)

Coastal Sensitivity to Sea-Level Rise: A Focus on the Mid-Atlantic Region

This document is part of the Synthesis and Assessment Products described in the U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) Strategic Plan. The U.S. Government's CCSP is responsible for providing the best science-based knowledge possible to inform management of the risks and opportunities associated with changes in the climate and related environmental systems. To support its mission, the CCSP has commissioned 21 "synthesis and assessment products" (SAPs) to advance decision making on climate change-related issues by providing current evaluations of climate change science and identifying priorities for research, observation, and decision support. This Synthesis and Assessment Product (SAP), developed as part of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, examines potential effects of sea-level rise from climate change during the twenty-first century, with a focus on the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. Using scientific literature and policy-related documents, the SAP describes the physical environments; potential changes to coastal environments, wetlands, and vulnerable species; societal impacts and implications of sea-level rise; decisions that may be sensitive to sea-level rise; opportunities for adaptation; and institutional barriers to adaptation.
Date: January 2009
Creator: U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Commercial Building Energy Codes (open access)

Commercial Building Energy Codes

This map shows states with building codes for energy efficiency of commercial buildings.
Date: 2009
Creator: Pew Center on Global Climate Change
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Copenhagen Climate Treat Version 1.0 : Legal text A proposal for an amended Kyoto Protocol and a new Copenhagen Protocol (open access)

A Copenhagen Climate Treat Version 1.0 : Legal text A proposal for an amended Kyoto Protocol and a new Copenhagen Protocol

This document contains a draft version of how the agreement in Copenhagen could look like – in legal form. This is very much a work in progress. The purpose of this exercise is two fold : a) to outline to Parties how the agreement could fit together substantively and b) to demonstrate that the two Protocol option is a feasible and desirable outcome for the legal form. Attempts have been made through provisions in both the proposed Copenhagen Protocol and the amendments to the Kyoto Protocol to unify the accounting, reporting and verification of as well as compliance with emission reduction targets for industrialized countries and to create a forum for these bodies (CMCP & CMKP) to jointly develop rules in the future. It is possible that not every T has been crossed or i dotted and further provisions or amendments linking the two may be required.
Date: January 2009
Creator: NGO community
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Copenhagen Climate Treaty - Version 1.0: A Proposal for a Copenhagen Agreement by Members of the NGO Community (open access)

A Copenhagen Climate Treaty - Version 1.0: A Proposal for a Copenhagen Agreement by Members of the NGO Community

The "Copenhagen Climate Treaty - Version 1.0", which is now distributed to negotiators from 192 states, took some of the world's most experienced climate NGOs almost a year to write and contains a full legal text covering all the main elements needed to provide the world with a fair and ambitious agreement that keeps climate change impacts below the unacceptable risk levels identified by most scientists.
Date: June 2009
Creator: NGO community
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Creating Impact - Feed-In Tariff Laws: Making clean energy a reality for all (open access)

Creating Impact - Feed-In Tariff Laws: Making clean energy a reality for all

The brochure describes evidence from fifty governments that Feed-In Tariff (FIT) policy speeds the transition to clean energy production and use.
Date: March 2009
Creator: World Future Council
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Cultivating the Future: Food in the Age of Climate Change (open access)

Cultivating the Future: Food in the Age of Climate Change

The brochure promotes government incentives for farmers to lower agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and expand carbon sinks by sequestering carbon through organic farming and reduced tillage; reducing nitrous oxide emissions through minimal use of nitrogen fertilizer, capturing methane emissions from anaerobic manure handling facilities; reducing the use of fossil fuels on farms; increasing the generation of electricity from wind, solar and small-scale hydro; expanding the use of practices like hedges, shelterbelts, and forested riparian zones; expanding local food supply for local consumption; and supporting the use of sustainable biochar derived from farm and urban organic wastes.
Date: 2009
Creator: Girardet, Herbert; Bree, Axel; Rohde, Anja & Hilmar Bee
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library