This report discusses global climate change and the possibility that human activities are releasing gases, including carbon dioxide (CO2), at rates that could affect global climate change.

At least one recent report and numerous news articles suggest that carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are rising more rapidly than expected. While CO2 emissions associated with human activities continue to rise -- and may be worthy of alarm because of their influence on climate change -- any short-term comparisons between actual emissions and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios miss the mark. This report analyzes this issue and the issues associated with IPCC scenarios and trajectories. It also describes the importance of monitoring CO2 emissions and analyzing the factors and forces behind increasing CO2 emissions.

The Japan synthesis report includes causes of global warming, the current state and future of global warming, the impacts of and adaptation to climate change, and methodologies for observing and projecting climate change and impact.

New data from tree rings from 500 sites around the world are now available from NOAA. These data are important because they provide climate scientists and resource managers with records of past climatic variability extending back thousands of years.

This feature article provides a summary of study about the role of clouds in the balance. Until recently, scientists were uncertain whether clouds had an overall net cooling or heating effect on the Earth's climate. But recent studies show that, in the tropics, a "near cancellation" between shortwave cooling and longwave warming exists, which indicates that the amount of incoming radiant energy is roughly equal to the amount of outgoing radiation. However, small changes in tropical cloudiness can disrupt this precarious balance.

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 Review's executive summary states that "the Review first examines the evidence on the economic impacts of climate change itself, and explores the economics of stabilizing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The second half of the Review considers the complex policy challenges involved in managing the transition to a low-carbon economy and in ensuring that societies can adapt to the consequences of climate change that can no longer be avoided". The report's main conclusion is that the benefits of strong, early action on climate change considerably outweigh the costs.

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

The booklet describes the mounting policy and business concerns surrounding the supply of energy and argues that the most cost-effective way to address these concerns is through improving energy productivity and adopting existing energy-efficient technologies that pay for themselves in future energy savings. The document supports the role of public policy in encouraging consumers and businesses to capture the benefits of higher energy productivity.

This document discusses the causes of harmful algae blooms and their impact on the environment, public health, and the economy. The document also discusses options for managing algal blooms and current federal efforts to address the problem.

This is one in a series of Advisory Notes that supplement the OECD/DAC Good Practice Guidance on Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) (OECD/DAC 2006). The focus of this Advisory Note is to show how Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) approaches can help mainstream adaptation to climate change into strategic planning. It is used to integrate considerations related to climate change into national development or sectoral management planning or policymaking processes.

This meeting summary report presents the major findings and discussion from the IPCC Expert Meeting on "Industrial Technology Development, Transfer and Diffusion."

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.

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.

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.

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.

This executive order establishes sustainability and energy efficiency as priorities in the operations of the federal government.

This activity report summarizes the main outcomes of the inter-regional workshop on the Human Health Impacts from Climate Variability and Climate Change in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya Region (India 2005). The objectives of the workshop were: to inform government organizations, nongovernmental organizations and other relevant stakeholders about the impacts of climate change; to Identify specific human health risks linked to climate variability and change in the Himalayan mountain regions; to propose strategies for integrating health with relevant sectors; to achieve consensus on a draft framework for national action in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan mountain region.

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.

For African countries, it is imperative to increase capacity for implementing both the Climate Convention and the Kyoto Protocol, in view of the continent’s vulnerability to the adverse impacts of climate change, including the threat to food security and sustainable development. The country surveys, which are framed around the list of perceived capacity building needs annexed to Decision 10/CP.5, provided insight into the capacity building needs of the project-countries. Hence, the aspects examined during the assessment exercise reflect some of the concerns of African countries; and the stakeholders’ responses can be taken as indications of the capacity building needs of the African countries assessed.

The final report from an advisory panel of 15 scientists and industry experts finding that humans are responsible for climate warming and that Utah is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions per capita than the rest of the nation. It makes about 70 recommendations for fighting global warming including: developing significant amounts of renewable energy with incentives and tax credits, encouraging the capture and disposal of carbon dioxide, improving efficiency at power plants, implementing an aggressive mass-transit strategy, and preserving open space and agricultural land and protecting forests. The report, however, does not include specific policy recommendations or rules to implement action.

Making poverty history and tackling climate change go hand-in-hand because receding forests, changing rainfall patterns and rising sea levels trap people in hardship and undermine their future. Studies in Ethiopia show that children exposed to drought in early childhood are 36 percent more likely to be malnourished five years later.

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.

This document addresses climate change adaptation issues in the Greater Mekong countries. It also presents the WWF's call for an Asia’s first regional climate change adaptation agreement, that should help Greater Mekong nations prepare for the inevitable impacts of climate change.