Black Carbon Is Potent Climate Forcing Agent and Ideal Target for Climate
Mitigation
Emissions of black carbon (BC) may be the second largest contributor to global warming after carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and reducing these emissions may be the fastest strategy for slowing climate change in the near-term, buying policymakers time to address CO2 emissions in the middle and long-term. Estimates of BC's climate forcing (combining both direct and indirect forcings) vary from the IPCC's conservative estimate of + 0.3 watts per square meter (W/m2) + 0.25, to the most recent estimate of 1.0-1.2 W/m2 (see Table 1), which is "as much as 55% of the CO2 forcing and is larger than the forcing due to the other greenhouse gasses (GHGs) such as CH4, CFCs, N2O, or tropospheric ozone."
In some regions, such as the Himalayas, the impact of BC on melting snowpack and glaciers may be equal to that of CO2. BC emissions also significantly contribute to Arctic ice-melt, and reducing such emissions may be "the most efficient way to mitigate Arctic warming that we know of."
Since 1950, many countries have significantly reduced BC emissions, primarily to improve public health, and "technology exists for a drastic reduction of fossil fuel related BC" throughout the world. Ensuring compliance and enforcement with existing national laws that address black carbon emissions can provide some relief, but new laws and regulations are needed at all levels for further and faster reductions. More
Biochar has the Potential to be an Efficient Carbon Sink While Providing Numerous Co-Benefits
Turning biomass into "biochar" (also known as "agri-char") can store massive amounts of carbon in soils on a time scale of hundreds to thousands of years. This high-carbon, fine-grained residue can be produced either by smoldering biomass utilizing centuries-old techniques (i.e., covering burning biomass with soil and letting it smolder) or through modern pyrolysis processes. Pyrolysis is the direct thermal decomposition of biomass in the absence of oxygen to obtain an array of solid (biochar), liquid (bio-oil) and gas (syngas) products. This process is energy-positive, and carbon-negative. The specific yield from the pyrolysis is dependent on process conditions, and can be optimized to produce either energy or biochar. Even when optimized to produce char rather than energy, the energy produced per unit energy input is higher than for corn ethanol.
In addition to its potential for carbon sequestration, biochar has numerous co-benefits when added to soil. It can prevent the leaching of nutrients out of the soil, increase the available nutrients for plant growth, increase water retention, and reduce the amount of fertilizer required. Additionally, it has been shown to decrease N20 and CH4 emissions from soil, thus further reducing GHG emissions. Biochar can be utilized in many applications as a replacement for or coterminous strategy with other bio-energy production strategies. One of its most immediate ues is in switching from "slash-and-burn" to "slash-and-char" to prevent the rapid deforestation and subsequent degradation of soils. More
Bangkok, Thailand 11 July 2008 - This week leaders of the world's 17 major economies pledged to "continue to promote actions under the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer for the benefit of the global climate system." The leaders recognized the "need for urgent action" and committed to act "without delay" to strengthen the Montreal Protocol for the benefit of the climate system.
The leaders' pledge provided a powerful boost to the Montreal Protocol Parties' meeting this week in Bangkok. Argentina, the Federated States of Micronesia, and Mauritius have proposed strengthening the Protocol to address the 7.4 billion tons of CO2-eq. that will be emitted by 2015 from discarded products and equipment if not properly recovered and destroyed. Destruction of these substances-including CFCs and HCFCs in developed countries, as well as additional CFCs in developing countries-would also significantly benefit the ozone layer, saving lives and reducing cancers and cataracts. More
The challenge of climate change is a race towards the climate-safe future. We must run to reach the fi nish line. Accelerating feedbacks hold us back, threatening us with irreversible climate change, including the collapse of the Antarctic ice shelf and disintegration of the Greenland Ice Sheet.
Other factors, however, propel us forward towards a clean-energy, climate-friendly future. Sound law, encompassed in a clear and visionary international regulatory framework can take us far, fast. Global climate agreements and their subsequent national implementation trigger public sector action and send regulatory signals that in turn trigger complimentary private sector responses. At the national level, countries need old-fashioned regulatory measures, including emissions limits on climate forcing agents such as black carbon, and greenhouse gas phase-outs. National-level mitigation should continue to include cap-and-trade, with strict compliance. More
Speed matters for successfully managing the transition to a low-carbon future. We need to start now with immediate mitigation to learn what works best to limit climate emissions and enhance sinks, and to build confidence to strengthen efforts in the future. Immediate mitigation also is essential for getting ahead of accelerating climate feedbacks by quickly reducing greenhouse gas concentrations from the current 385 ppm (growing fast at 2 ppm/year) to a safe level-perhaps as low as 350 ppm.
A strong long-term climate treaty is absolutely necessary. We should be working tirelessly to move negotiations forward towards a post-2012/post-Kyoto regime. However, the development, ratifi cation, and implementation of a global treaty are not fast processes. Climate change has the upper hand at the moment, making it clearer every day that tipping points for catastrophic events are uncomfortably close—perhaps ten years away for disintegration of the Greenland Ice Sheet, which will cause up to seven meters of sealevel rise, or for the loss of the Himalayan glaciers and snow-pack, which will dry up vital rivers in India and China. More
Montreal, 22 September 2007. The 191 Parties to the Montreal Protocol reached
a historic agreement late last night to strengthen the ozone treaty to address
reducing greenhouse gas emissions by up to 25 billion tons of CO2 equivalent—five
times more than the Kyoto Protocol will do during its initial reduction period
(2008-2012). More
An outcome of the Workshop on Governance for Sustainable Development (GSD) was the creation of the Network on Governance for Sustainable Development. The GSD Workshop brought scholars together at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management for an intensive two day meeting in October. Lively and productive papers, presentations and discussions began the process of developing a common analytic framework and of setting research priorities for those whose thinking about governance is rooted in a variety of fields including corporate environmental management as well as environmental politics and policy. Work has now started on a comprehensive range of future activities, including publications and a conference in May 2007.
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Nairobi, 6 - 17 November 2006 INECE Side Event - Report by GSD Program and INECE Director, Durwood Zaelke November 16, 2006, NAIROBI, KENYA. Durwood Zaelke led a panel the 2006 Climate Change Convention on how improved compliance and enforcement is essential for expanding the role of forests in fighting climate change. "Compliance will make forests work for the climate and create value and enhance competitiveness in the process," Zaelke explained. Current rules under the Kyoto Protocol provide only limited mechanisms for forests and other land-use activities despite accounting for nearly one-fifth of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Avoided deforestation in the developing world - home to the largest forested ecosystems in the Amazon and the Congo Basin - is completely excluded from the current regime.
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