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.

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.

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.

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.

A joint message on Climate Change Negotiations between Japan and U.S.

The focus of climate change mitigation policy to date has been on "preventing dangerous anthropogenic interference with Earth's climate system". There is no global agreement or scientific consensus for delineating ‘dangerous’ from ‘acceptable’ climate change but limiting global average temperature rise to 2 °C above pre-industrial levels has emerged as a focus for international and national policymakers.

A 2°C rise in temperature from pre-industrial levels has been widely regarded as a tipping point for planet earth. Major Tipping Points in Earth's Climate System and Consequences for the Insurance Sector argues instead that sudden volatile transformations in earth's climate will occur long before this 2°C threshold is reached.

Effective EU-China co-operation is critical to delivering a good deal at Copenhagen and to ensuring ongoing progress towards global decarbonisation. Europe and China are economically and politically interdependent, and have strikingly similar energy and climate change policies. As its largest investor, trade partner and provider of technology, Europe has a strong stake in China’s success.The EU and China should increase the status of energy and climate change in their bilateral relationship. This will require the progressive alignment of the EU’s and the individual member-states climate policies towards China, behind a common European strategy. The 2009 EU-China summit must deliver agreement on some key flagship co-operation projects in order to build China’s trust in the EU as an effective partner.

This is the result of a German study which underlines once more the urgent need for measures to reduce F-gas emissions. Global emissions of fluorinated greenhouse gases (F-gases) will increase to 4 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalents by 2050 if no political mitigation measures are taken. The contribution of F-gases to global warming is projected to grow from 1.3% (2004) to 7.9% of total direct CO2 emissions.

The document argues that renewable energy policies have not been implemented in the developing world due to financial costs, and also that the Clean Developing Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol has been ineffective. The document proposes the use of Feed-In Tariff policies, and the use of a renewable energy policy fund.

This Synthesis and Assessment Product (SAP 2.4) focuses on the Climate models. Depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer by human-produced ozone-depleting substances has been recognized as a global environmental issue for more than three decades, and the international effort to address the issue via the United Nations Montreal Protocol marked its 20-year anniversary in 2007. Scientific understanding underpinned the Protocol at its inception and ever since. As scientific knowledge advanced and evolved, the Protocol evolved through amendment and adjustment. Policy-relevant science has documented the rise, and now the beginning decline, of the atmospheric abundances of many ozone-depleting substances in response to actions taken by the nations of the world. Projections are for a return of ozone-depleting chemicals (compounds containing chlorine and bromine) to their "pre-ozone-depletion" (pre-1980) levels by the middle of this century for the midlatitudes; the polar regions are expected to follow suit within 20 years after that. Since the 1980s, global ozone sustained a depletion of about 5 percent in the midlatitudes of both the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere, where most of the Earth's population resides; it is now showing signs of turning the corner towards increasing ozone. The large seasonal depletions in the polar regions are …

The current plan is formulated on the basis of the Outline of the 11th Five-Year Plan for the Development of National Economy and Social Development and the Decision of the State Council on the Implementation of the Scientific Outlook on Development and Strengthening Environmental Protection [No.39 document of the State Council (2005)]. The current plan is an important part of the national 11th Five-Year Plan system, and aims at expounding the objectives, tasks, investments, and key policy measures in the field of environmental protection during the 11th Five-Year Plan period. The plan identifies the responsibilities and tasks of the government and the environmental protection departments at all levels, guiding and mobilizing the participation of enterprises and civil society and striving for environmentally friendly society.

The plan is considered a living document, and a first installment of what could become further refinements as additional initiatives are evaluated and new technologies unfold.

This report provides findings and recommendations addressing 11 charges, framed by three principal energy challenges facing Florida: stimulate economic development, achieve energy security and address the effects of global climate change.

The carbon labeling project presents methods to promote biodiesel use, disseminate information on the potential carbon efficiency of biofuels and promote the concept of carbon labeling. This guide is aimed at policy makers and interested industry groups. It aims to evaluate the suitability of the US EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) Smart Way Transport Partnership as a model for the EU to promote more efficiency and low carbon shipping of goods to market. It includes: a thorough description of the US EPA scheme and its objectives; carbon labeling initiatives in the UK (independent and national); a review of the strengths and weaknesses of the US EPA scheme with regards to its suitability for EU transport policy; the different EU transport system and pilot programmes; and suggestions for freight and multi-sector low carbon transport programmes in the EU. This useful guide enables decision makers to develop a road map on how best to provide incentives for implementing a low carbon shipping program in Europe.

Report of the Governor’s Climate Change Advisory Committee, managed by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality and facilitated by the Center for Climate Strategies. It provides 54 policy recommendations help reduce the state’s emissions of green house gases to 1990 levels by the year 2020. Most will have additional benefits, including reduced reliance on imported fossil fuels, reduction in air pollution, increased opportunity for Montana agriculture to provide renewable fuels, healthier forests, and the opportunity for the state to be a leader in developing new technologies.

A primary objective of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) is to provide the best possible scientific information to support public discussion, as well as government and private sector decision making, on key climate-related issues. To help meet this objective, the CCSP has identified an initial set of 21 Synthesis and Assessment Products (SAPs) that address its highest priority research, observation, and decision support needs. This report-CCSP SAP 2.2-addresses Goal 2 of the CCSP Strategic Plan: Improve quantification of the forces bringing about changes in the Earth's climate and related systems. The report provides a synthesis and integration of the current knowledge of the North American carbon budget and its context within the global carbon cycle. In a format useful to decision makers, it (1) summarizes our knowledge of carbon cycle properties and changes relevant to the contributions of and impacts upon North America and the rest of the world, and (2) provides scientific information for decision support focused on key issues for carbon management and policy. Consequently, this report is aimed at both the decision-maker audience and to the expert scientific and stakeholder communities.

The Twenty-Seventh Session focused on the adoption and approval of the draft Synthesis Report of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (AR4). as indicated in the agenda, a discussion paper about the future of the IPCC was introduced, among other items that required consideration and decision by the Panel.

The document outlines UNDP's adaptation services and UNDP-GEF's adaptation portfolio that comprises 21 national, regional and global projects taking place in 45 countries.

This Fiscal Year 2007 edition of Our Changing Planet describes a wide range of new and emerging observational capabilities which, combined with the Climate Change Science Program’s analytical work, lead to advances in understanding the underlying processes responsible for climate variability and change. The report highlights progress in exploring the uses and limitations of evolving knowledge to manage risks and opportunities related to climate variability, and documents activities to promote cooperation between the U.S. scientific community and its worldwide counterparts.

In response to the problem of inequalities in the distribution of land, this Policy Research Brief points toward a land reform model that could both satisfy legitimate and urgent demands for social justice and develop an agrarian system that is economically viable. It draws primarily on a UNDP-ISS supported set of country studies and analytical papers.

The European Union Emissions Trading Scheme ('EU ETS') began on 1 January 2005. The implementation of the EU ETS has raised interest in market-based approaches to achieving environmental and related public policy goals in the EU, particularly those related to promotion of renewable energy and energy efficiency. Indeed, national and regional markets in tradable green certificates ('TGCs') and (to a lesser extent) tradable white certificates ('TWCs') already exist. Green certificate schemes are established or proposed in a number of Member States (e.g., Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK) and form part of a growing portfolio of measures to achieve the renewable targets outlined in Directive 2001/77/EC. White certificate schemes are considerably less widespread, although schemes have been established in Italy and the UK and further activity may be stimulated by the Commission proposal on energy services (COM(2003)739). Both the renewables Directive and the energy services proposal envisage the possible evolution and harmonisation of these instruments into EU-wide certificate schemes. This study has two major objectives: -1. Analyse interactions among EU ETS and green/white certificate markets. The first major objective is to describe the interactions between green and white certificate programmes and the EU …

This Fiscal Year 2006 edition of Our Changing Planet describes a wide range of new and emerging observational capabilities which, combined with the Climate Change Science Program’s analytical work, lead to advances in understanding the underlying processes responsible for climate variability and change. The report highlights progress being made to explore the uses and limitations of evolving knowledge to manage risks and opportunities related to climate variability, and documents activities to promote cooperation between the U.S. scientific community and its worldwide counterparts.

This document contains positions papers of a policy forum for weather and highways developed by the Atmospheric Policy Program American Meteorological Society in coordination with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) with additional support from the National Science Foundation (NSF). In this document (Panel 1), panelists describe proposals to improve the U.S. Highway System with weather information.