This report is the first report of its kind that attempts to overlay a detailed distillation of climate change science with U.S. insurance industry activities around climate change. This report aims to go beyond an investigation of only hurricanes to also address the implications for the U.S. insurance industry of other impacts of climate change including forest fires, floods, and storm surge (although storm surge is not commercially insured, this report describes how government insurance backstops interact intimately with commercial insurance products and with consumer perception of risk). The report finds that U.S. insurers are far ahead of many of their overseas counterparts in assessing current catastrophic (cat) risk through sophisticated cat risk modeling that is based on historical weather events; however, U.S. insurers appear to lag behind their European peers who have begun to conduct studies of climate change and are beginning, though slowly, to incorporate future climate change scenarios into cat risk models, particularly for flooding.

This study analyzes the employment, macroeconomic, energy and environmental impacts of implementing the Climate Protection Scenario.

This report presents findings from a review of the service activities of informal private water vendors in Dar es Salaam. Tanzania’s capital is a rapidly growing city, and around 70% of the population lacks proper housing and lives in informal settlements. Large parts of the city remain unserved by the water utility and many of those who have access to the piped network suffer from intermittent supply. As a result, small-scale private water vendors provide an essential service for many, in particular low-income households in the city.

The production of bioenergy - renewable energy derived from biomass - could potentially increase national energy security, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and contribute to rural economic growth. This report provides analyses of commonly discussed biomass feedstocks and their relative potential for power generation. Additional biopower issues - feedstock accessibility, the biomass power plant carbon-neutrality debate, and unintended consequences of legislative activities to promote bioenergy - are also discussed.

CDP has created this briefing confident that it will provide a useful further contribution to these policy debates.The briefing is launched alongside its global report ‘The A List: The CDP Climate Performance Leadership Index 2014’. CDP’s Climate Performance Leadership Index (CPLI) is an index highlighting companies that exhibit leadership through their actions to mitigate climate change.

Establishes first-in-the-world comprehensive program of regulatory and market mechanisms to achieve real, quantifiable, cost-effective reductions of greenhouse gases (GHG).

This report estimates the anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sinks for Vermont from 1990-2030.

This law was passed by the government of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to protect human health and the environment by controlling water pollution.

This report from the Transportation Research Board suggests that federal, state, and local policy makers need informed guidance about the effectiveness, costs, feasibility, and acceptability of transportation strategies to mitigate transportation greenhouse gas emissions, to conserve energy, and to adapt to climate change. The report covers strategies affecting travel and mode choice, models and decision tools, infrastructure investment options and infrastructure construction, operation, and maintenance. The report recommends beginning a research and development initiative by making a modest investment of $40 million to $45 million annually in the next surface transportation authorization that would be used to develop the best available guidance quickly on the basis of existing information and then begin to improve that guidance over time as new research is completed.

The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010, and the resulting oil spill began a cascade of effects on the coastal areas of the Gulf and on the wealth of species that inhabit those areas. This report addresses the importance of wetlands in general, the ecology of the coastal wetlands in the Gulf, impacts of oil spills on wetland habitats, response options, the implications of hurricane season for the spill's impacts, and cleanup and recovery issues. The emphasis is on the nearshore environment, although a few species found in deeper waters will be mentioned. In addition, some lessons from past spills such as the Exxon Valdez in Alaska will be discussed, along with issues that may arise as response and recovery transition to restoration of the Gulf.

This handbook is a collaboration of research and consultations by the Council on Environmental Quality concerning analyses prepared under the National Environmental Protection Act. This guide introduces interested parties to collaborative principles, and includes suggestions for successful collaborative efforts.

Meeting the EU objective of limiting global average temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels requires a peak in global greenhouse gas emissions within the next two decades. This means that early participation of developing countries in global emission control is needed, even under a significant strengthening of the commitments of Annex I countries under the Kyoto Protocol. The study has shown that it is possible to design a set of consistent rules for the attribution of the long-term emission endowments of the different world regions. The gains from participating in global emission trading and from reduced air pollution damage and/or abatement costs does substantially enhance, from a developing country perspective, the attractiveness of an early participation in a regime based on greenhouse gas reduction pathways, provided that the level and the form of their commitment is well designed so as to minimise economic risks.

Describes ways that a farmer can support game on his land to make the best use of otherwise wasted land. Provides an overview of practical game management practices.

The report is based on the findings of a baseline survey carried out in four cross-border sites of global biodiversity significance in East Africa. The survey aimed to establish which dryland commodities might have sufficient market potential to lead to an improvement in livelihoods, while enabling sustainable natural resource development; and to identify processes by which this might be achieved.

This paper takes as its initial premise the assumption that there are important and significant populations in the world's drylands who, given the right conditions and incentives, can achieve good livelihoods, accumulate assets to reduce vulnerability and escape from poverty. However, to make a convincing case it is necessary to challenge current wisdom on the distribution and condition of drylands populations, and build more realistic scenarios that decision makers can take seriously. This is a major task, and this paper will only set the challenge and introduce some of the new evidence that is required.

The publication looks to the prospect for the East and Southern African drylands in the context of recent history and the changes that have occurred in the realms of policy, economic and social conditions and the environment. It further points out three of the biggest challenges facing East and Southern Africa in the foreseeable future— climate change, land tenure and HIV/AIDS.

The new 'Grenelle II' laws are presented in the French Parliament. The Grenelle II (2010) follows the Grenelle I (2007) and a second public consultation round with representatives of large companies. Detailed plans are presented for building, transport and energy sector. Local authorities are asked to play a more important and facilitating role. The new law package contains six pillars and contains the 'outlines' and 'logistics' of the application on regional and local level: - 1. Improving the Energetic Performance of Buildings. Among the measures are : insisting on 'Batiments a Basse Consommation' (BBC, < 50 KW/H/m2 per year) for new buildings and to reduce the consumption of existing buildings by 38% untill 2020. - 2. Creating a change in Transport Use. Among the measures presented are : speeding up the process of public transport infrastructure, insisting local public authorities on offering 'lease-bikes' and car-sharing programs, and subvention of electric and hybrid car development. - 3. Reducing significantly Energy Consumption and Carbon Emissions. Measurements foreseen are : Obligation of all enterprises with over 500 employees and municipalities with more than 500.000 inhabitants to calculate CO2 emissions on a yearly bases. -4. Preserving Biodiversity. Pharmaceutical and hospital products will be more …

A brochure explaining the likely dynamics of the carbon-climate-human system with projections for the future, and recommendations for points of intervention and windows of opportunity for human societies to manage this system.

The Vermont Governor's Commission on Climate Change was established by Vermont Governor Jim Douglas via Executive Order 07-05 and was directed to develop recommendations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Vermont, consistent with Vermont's need for continued economic growth and energy security.

This report provides information on major design options related to the allocation of emissions allowances under the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (the EU ETS, or "the Scheme"). The report was developed to assist the European Commission in the context of the review of options for the EU ETS after 2012, during the third and subsequent phases of the Scheme. The report covers topics related to allocation alternatives as well as several other issues. All of the material contained here was developed initially as a set of briefing notes for the Commission in 2007. The topics covered in the report are divided into two major categories: (1) assessment criteria and other general features, including cap-setting; and (2) allocation alternatives and issues specifically related to allocation.

The objective of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) under the brand 'Solar India' is to establish India as a global leader in solar energy, by creating the policy conditions for its diffusion across the country as quickly as possible. The scope of these guidelines is to select new projects and provide the necessary policy framework for development of projects under the "bundling scheme" for Phase I of the JNNSM.

.China has formulated and implemented its national climate change programme, and adopted a series of policies and measures in this regard. China addresses climate change in the context of implementing sustainable development strategy, combined with its accelerated steps to build a resource-conserving and environmental-friendly society and an innovation-oriented country.

Proceedings of a meeting of the French Institute of Biodiversity (IFB), setting a course of research for the next fifteen years. The IFB, composed of government agencies, research organizations, and NGOs, is a scientific interest group promoting scientific research in biodiversity. The IFB is devoted to coordinating research on biodiversity in all natural and social sciences, to promoting biodiversity research at the national, European, and international levels, and to disseminating knowledge and providing educational outreach to the general public.

This report presents two series of studies performed before COP-6 and COP-6bis, in order to provide DG Environment with economic analysis of the issues at stake in international climate negotiations. These analysis used the background information provided by the large scale world energy partial equilibrium model POLES. They were also based on an extensive use of the Marginal Abatement Cost Curves produced by the POLES model through the ASPEN-sd software, specifically designed to produce assessment.