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 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.

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.

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.

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.

The guidebook provides an overview of NCFs and outlines six key components that are critical for the effective design and establishment of an NCF. It also presents a method for consolidating the decisions around these components into a term sheet that can help to facilitate stakeholder engagement for a robust and transparent design process.

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.

The diminishment of Arctic sea ice has led to increased human activities in the Arctic, and has heightened concerns about the region's future. Issues such as Arctic sovereignty claims; commercial shipping through the Arctic; Arctic oil, gas, and mineral exploration; endangered Arctic species; and increased military operations in the Arctic could cause the region in coming years to become an arena of international cooperation, competition, or conflict. This report provides an overview of Arctic-related issues for Congress, and refers readers to more in-depth CRS reports on specific Arctic-related issues.

.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.

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

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 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.

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 treaty takes action to control the introduction and spread of pests of plants and plant products. The treaty protects natural as well as cultivated plants, so it has implications for agriculture as well as biodiversity. While the IPPC's primary focus is on plants and plant products moving in international trade, the convention also covers research materials, biological control organisms, and anything else that can act as a vector for the spread of plant pests including containers, soil, vehicles, and machinery.

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.

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.

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

This publication is part of a series of UNDP-sponsored studies that present methods, tools and good practices to map corruption risks, develop strategies and sustain partnerships to address challenges and tackle corruption in the education, health and water sectors. They complement UNDP’s MDG Acceleration Framework (MAF), which has been endorsed by the UN Development Group and enables governments and development partners, within established national processes, to identify and systematically prioritize the bottlenecks to progress toward achieving the MDGs, and then devise strategies to overcome them. The studies bring together UNDP’s efforts to support countries to develop frameworks to accelerate their efforts to meet the MDGs as well as successfully meet the commitments of the UN Convention against corruption.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.