Greenhouse Gas Emission Efficiencies of World Countries.

The purpose of this study is to estimate greenhouse gas(GHG) emission efficiency(GEE) and GHG mitigation potential(GMP) of offshore fisheries in preparation for carbon neutral and negative promotion in the ocean and fisheries sector, and to suggest policy improvements related to GHG mitigation. To this end, this study used stochastic frontier analysis(SFA) considering exogenous determinants of GHG emission inefficiency. As a result, the GEE of fleet and drag net fisheries with high fuel cost and vessel age was lower than other fisheries. In addition, the GMP and mitigation ratio of large purse seine, large pair trawl, large otter trawl, and anchovy drag net were higher than those of other fisheries. Lastly, as policy improvements to reduce GHG emission from offshore fisheries, fleet size reduction, development of low-energy used fishing gear, easing of conditions for participation in fishing vessel modernization projects, revising laws to supply eco-friendly fishing vessel, and improvement of the tax-free petroleum supply system were proposed.

CONTENTS I Introduction II Climate Change and Extreme Weather Events III Adaptation in the International Climate Regime IV Insurance and Adaptation in the International Climate Regime V Models for Climate Change Insurance VI Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility VII Climate Change Insurance and the Pacific Island States VIII Viability of Climate Insurance as a Long-Term Adaptation Strategy IX Conclusion I INTRODUCTION Many Small Island Developing States ('SIDS') lie only metres above sea level, making them particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change in both the shorter (eg storm surge during large tropical cyclones) and longer (eg sea level rise) terms. (1) The modest ambition for mitigation (ie reduction) (2) of greenhouse gas emissions in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ('UNFCCC'), (3) Kyoto Protocol (4) and Copenhagen Accord (5) means that the prospect of avoiding an increase in mean surface temperature of less than two degrees is now very low. (6) The latest climate science suggests the Earth is on a path that will lead to a rise in mean surface temperature of between three and six degrees by 2100. (7) Unless there is a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions over coming decades, SIDS are likely to experience tropical cyclones of greater severity, disrupted rainfall patterns and sea level rise. (8) Recent extreme weather events in the Asia-Pacific region, such as Typhoon Haiyan (9) and Cyclone Ian, (10) demonstrate the significant impact of these events on SIDS. (11) The lack of success in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions has led to adaptation to climate change impacts gaining greater prominence within the United Nations climate negotiations. Adaptation to climate change has been defined as '[a]djustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities'. (12) Adaptation may take many forms, including pre-emptive action to limit damage from climate change-related events (eg implementing more ambitious building codes to make buildings more resilient to storms) and building institutions to aid recovery after a climate-related event (eg improving emergency services capacity to respond in the immediate aftermath of adverse weather events). Domestically, insurance is an established mechanism to spread financial risk of adverse events and build societal resilience. However, at an international level, the issue of climate change-related insurance has only proceeded in fits and starts. Proposals for an insurance mechanism to support the adaptation of SIDS to climate change date back to 1991. At that time, the Alliance of Small Island States ('AOSIS') proposed an international, state-based pool to provide insurance against the impacts of climate change-related sea-level rise. (13) Despite this early call by AOSIS, a climate change-related insurance mechanism was not included in either the UNFCCC or the Kyoto Protocol. In 2007 climate change-related insurance emerged again on the UNFCCC agenda as the Bali Action Plan launched international discussion on enhanced action on adaptation 'including risk sharing and transfer mechanisms such as insurance'. (14) In 2008 AOSIS made a submission under the Bali Action Plan to include an insurance mechanism as part of a broader response to climate-related loss and damage. (15) In a departure from its earlier proposal in 1991, the 2008 AOSIS submission called for insurance cover for climate change-related extreme weather events such as hurricanes, floods and droughts. (16) In 2010 the Cancun Agreements also invited submissions on the development of a climate risk insurance facility, as a part of an enhanced adaptation framework, to address impacts from extreme weather events. (17) The 2012 Conference of the Parties ('COP') 18 meeting in Doha appeared to be a breakthrough in the development of institutions to assist adaptation to climate change. …

Geo-engineering, henceforth referred to as climate engineering, can be described as an intentional intervention on the Earth’s climate system for the purpose of temporarily reducing the increase in surface temperatures due to global warming. While it is generally acknowledged that climate engineering cannot solve the problem of global warming resulting from unrestricted greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (Launder and Thompson, 2010), it may “buy time” for non-carbon energy systems to dominate global energy production and for GHG emissions to be reduced to safe levels. The longer meaningful global policy decisions on GHG emissions are delayed, the stronger the demand is likely to be for climate engineering research and development. As described by Anderson and Bows (2010), even if an effective global treaty on GHG emissions were to take effect now, it would still be extremely difficult to prevent mean global surface temperatures from rising above 2°C (above which it is argued that the consequences of climate change would be unacceptable). It is thus defensible to argue that some combination of GHG mitigation and climate engineering may be necessary to limit the mean increase in global surface temperatures to 2°C. A modeling study by Arora et al. (2011) also finds that a mean global warming exceeding 2°C may be unavoidable. Using updated GHG emission scenarios and an upgraded Earth system model (which accounts for aerosol effects and represents the carbon-cycle more realistically), the study finds that even under the lowest, most optimistic GHG emission scenario, the global average temperature will still increase more than 2°C (the limit agreed to by various governments in the Copenhagen accord) by 2100. To limit warming to 2°C by 2100, carbon dioxide emissions would need to be reduced to zero over the next 50 years followed by ongoing carbon sequestration (removal of CO2 from the atmosphere) through the end of this century. While few scientists advocate tinkering with the earth’s climate (Schneider 2010), climate engineering of some kind may become a necessity rather than an option. Two types of climate engineering have been recognized: carbon dioxide removal (CDR) strategies and solar radiation management (SRM). CDR approaches can be biological, such as iron fertilization of the oceans to increase phytoplankton uptake of CO2 (Lampitt et al., 2010; Smetacek and Naqvi, 2010), or they can be physically based, such as the direct capture

Executive Summary: The California Climate Action Registry, which was initially established in 2000 and began operation in Fall 2002, is a voluntary registry for recording annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The purpose of the Registry is to assist California businesses and organizations in their efforts to inventory and document emissions in order to establish a baseline and to document early actions to increase energy efficiency and decrease GHG emissions. The State of California has committed to use its ''best efforts'' to ensure that entities that establish GHG emissions baselines and register their emissions will receive ''appropriate consideration under any future international, federal, or state regulatory scheme relating to greenhouse gas emissions.'' Reporting of GHG emissions involves documentation of both ''direct'' emissions from sources that are under the entity's control and indirect emissions controlled by others. Electricity generated by an off-site power source is consider ed to be an indirect GHG emission and is required to be included in the entity's report. Registry participants include businesses, non-profit organizations, municipalities, state agencies, and other entities. Participants are required to register the GHG emissions of all operations in California, and are encouraged to report nationwide. For the first three years of participation, the Registry only requires the reporting of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, although participants are encouraged to report the remaining five Kyoto Protocol GHGs (CH4, N2O, HFCs, PFCs, and SF6). After three years, reporting of all six Kyoto GHG emissions is required. The enabling legislation for the Registry (SB 527) requires total GHG emissions to be registered and requires reporting of ''industry-specific metrics'' once such metrics have been adopted by the Registry. The Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) was asked to provide technical assistance to the California Energy Commission (Energy Commission) related to the Registry in three areas: (1) assessing the availability and usefulness of industry-specific metrics, (2) evaluating various methods for establishing baselines for calculating GHG emissions reductions related to specific actions taken by Registry participants, and (3) establishing methods for calculating electricity CO2 emission factors. The third area of research was completed in 2002 and is documented in Estimating Carbon Dioxide Emissions Factors for the California Electric Power Sector (Marnay et al., 2002). This report documents our findings related to the first areas of research. For the first area of research, the overall objective was to evaluate the metrics, such as emissions per economic unit or emissions per unit of production that can be used to report GHG emissions trends for potential Registry participants. This research began with an effort to identify methodologies, benchmarking programs, inventories, protocols, and registries that u se industry-specific metrics to track trends in energy use or GHG emissions in order to determine what types of metrics have already been developed. The next step in developing industry-specific metrics was to assess the availability of data needed to determine metric development priorities. Berkeley Lab also determined the relative importance of different potential Registry participant categories in order to asses s the availability of sectoral or industry-specific metrics and then identified industry-specific metrics in use around the world. While a plethora of metrics was identified, no one metric that adequately tracks trends in GHG emissions while maintaining confidentiality of data was identified. As a result of this review, Berkeley Lab recommends the development of a GHG intensity index as a new metric for reporting and tracking GHG emissions trends.Such an index could provide an industry-specific metric for reporting and tracking GHG emissions trends to accurately reflect year to year changes while protecting proprietary data. This GHG intensity index changes while protecting proprietary data. This GHG intensity index would provide Registry participants with a means for demonstrating improvements in their energy and GHG emissions per unit of production without divulging specific values. For the second research area, Berkeley Lab evaluated various methods used to calculate baselines for documentation of energy consumption or GHG emissions reductions, noting those that use industry-specific metrics. Accounting for actions to reduce GHGs can be done on a project-by-project basis or on an entity basis. Establishing project-related baselines for mitigation efforts has been widely discussed in the context of two of the so-called ''flexible mechanisms'' of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Kyoto Protocol) Joint Implementation (JI) and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

SUMMARYRegardless of the irrigation system deployed, rice production requires a variety of farm energy inputs. The present study estimated and compared greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from rice farming practices, resulting from various farm inputs and irrigation systems in Pakistan, the Philippines, China, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Australia and the USA. Results indicate that, on aggregate, emissions related to farm machinery, fuels, agrochemicals and animal labour accounted for 0·018, 0·307, 0·666 and 0·008, respectively. Emissions from tubewell irrigation systems were the highest, followed by canal and rainfed irrigation systems. Average emissions from all selected countries with tubewell irrigation systems were 1·64 times greater than canal irrigation systems and 2·64 times greater than rainfed irrigation systems. When considering GHG emission efficiencies (emissions/kg of rice yield), developing countries were found to be less efficient than developed countries in both canal and tubewell irrigation systems. The relationship between GHG emissions and rice yield was statistically significant (P<0·01), with results indicating that a yield increase of 100 kg would increase GHG emissions by 16·51 kg CO2e (kg carbon dioxide equivalent).

A Legal Obligation to Mitigate Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Agriculture: A Challenge to the European Union's Emissions Trading System and the EU Member States with the Largest Agricultural Impact

New physical science behind climate change: What does IPCC AR6 tell us?

Along with the industrial and commercial development, the seriousness of global warming has been paid attention.The United Nations Framework Convention on climate change (UNFCCC), regulate the atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases in the control standard to prevent anthropogenic interference with the climate system.Each country which signed the agreement passed the Kyoto Protocol to control greenhouse gas emission actively. The Kyoto Protocol has been effective since February 16th, 2005 and expires in 2012. Policy development becomes the primary concern after the expiration of the Kyoto Protocol target.This article analyzes greenhouse gas emissions norms established by the international community, and economy in the face of international relations studies of greenhouse gas related specifications, respectively, comparing China and Taiwan policies and regulations on greenhouse gas emissions of two-oriented solution to the situation.Using SWOT analytical method in this article, for China and Taiwan's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis, description of greenhouse gas emission reduction cooperation between niche and became an important reference in policy development. China and Taiwan, more or less begin with the international trend of greenhouse gas legislation, the specification of a reference, the difference between China and Taiwan is also reflected in the system formulation design, China and Taiwan on greenhouse gas regulation Act gradually with on the international pace, but remain to improve the review space. Compared to developed countries, developing countries in pursuit of economic iii development and the preservation of the environment difficult to strike the right balance. China and Taiwan are actively involved in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions; contribute to prevent worsening global warming. Discuss China and Taiwan difference in greenhouse gas rulemaking and for better or worse, to make recommendations. Hoping to create a win-win situation, the biggest beneficiaries not only for the people on both sides, but for global ecology, achieve the vision for the sustainable development of the Earth.

Peatlands have a crucial role in the global carbon cycle, acting as significant carbon sinks, but become a significant source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions when peatlands are drained, and during peat extraction. This article presents a comprehensive overview of peatland ecosystems, emphasizing their classification across various climatic zones and the complex set of different characteristics that determine contribution to GHG emissions. Currently, inconsistencies exist in the definition of emission factors used between countries leading to varied approaches in estimating peatland emissions and posing significant challenges in the comparison and aggregation of global data on peat extraction related GHG. The aim of the study is to analyse the disparities in emission factors and calculation methodologies employed by different countries. Data from national GHG emission reports are submitted under the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol. Emissions report data calculations and emission factors can be based on either nationally determined data or data specified in the IPCC guidelines. Consequently, emission factor data for four countries - Latvia, Finland, Sweden and Germany - are collected and processed, which was compared with IPCC guidelines data. The data was compared by equating units of measurement. The results show there is a pronounced difference between the emission factors of each country, however, all of these factors are lower than the maximum values specified in the IPCC guidelines. The study concludes that emission factors are predetermined differently for each country, and it is not possible to determine the differences among assumptions for parameters included in the specification of the emission factors. The results suggest there is a need for development of a more transparent accounting for emissions with regard to the diverse environmental and anthropogenic factors influencing peatland ecosystems. Factors like composition, depth of peat, water table levels, and local land-use practices further compound this variability in emission accounting. Addressing these challenges is crucial for enhancing the accuracy and reliability of GHG emission reporting under international frameworks like the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol.

Peatlands have a crucial role in the global carbon cycle, acting as significant carbon sinks, but become a significant source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions when peat extraction is taking place. This article presents a comprehensive overview of peatland ecosystems, emphasizing their classification across various climatic zones and the complex set of different characteristics that determine contribution to GHG emissions. Currently, inconsistency exists in definition of emission factors used between countries leading to varied approaches in estimating peatland emissions and posing significant challenges in the comparison and aggregation of global data on peat extraction related GHG. The aim of the study is to analyse the disparities in emission factors and calculation methodologies employed by different countries. Data from national GHG emission reports are submitted under the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol. Emissions report data calculations and emission factors can be based either on nationally determined data or on data specified in the IPCC guidelines. Consequently, emission factor data for four countries - Latvia, Finland, Sweden and Germany - are collected and processed, which were compared with IPCC guideline data. The data were compared in two ways: by equating units of measurement and by modeling. The results show there is a pronounced difference between the emission factors of each country, however, all these factors are lower than the maximum values specified in the IPCC guidelines. It was also determined that comparing the total emission factors with the modeled results, no significant difference is observed between these results. The study concludes that emission factors are predetermined differently for each country, and it is not possible to specify the differences among assumptions for parameters included in the determination of the emission factors. The results suggest there is a need for development of more transparent accounting of emissions with regard to the diverse environmental and anthropogenic factors influencing peatland ecosystems. Factors like composition, depth of peat, water table levels, and local land-use practices further compound this variability in emission accounting. Addressing these challenges is crucial for enhancing the accuracy and reliability of GHG emission reporting under international frameworks like the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol.

Better information on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and mitigation potential in the agricultural sector is necessary to manage these emissions and identify responses that are consistent with the food security and economic development priorities of countries. Critical activity data (what crops or livestock are managed in what way) are poor or lacking for many agricultural systems, especially in developing countries. In addition, the currently available methods for quantifying emissions and mitigation are often too expensive or complex or not sufficiently user friendly for widespread use.The purpose of this focus issue is to capture the state of the art in quantifying greenhouse gases from agricultural systems, with the goal of better understanding our current capabilities and near-term potential for improvement, with particular attention to quantification issues relevant to smallholders in developing countries. This work is timely in light of international discussions and negotiations around how agriculture should be included in efforts to reduce and adapt to climate change impacts, and considering that significant climate financing to developing countries in post-2012 agreements may be linked to their increased ability to identify and report GHG emissions (Murphy et al 2010, CCAFS 2011, FAO 2011).

This paper assesses the trends of greenhouse gas emissions in Ethiopia. To assess the trends of greenhouse gas emissions, the paper uses quantitative data ranging from 1990–2013. This data is ascertained from United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Data interface. The Paper analyzed these data using descriptive methods of data analysis. Accordingly, the paper revealed that Ethiopia has shown increasing trends of emission in most sectors, except land use-land use change, and forestry. Having an average emission of 50739.73 GgCO 2e , land use-land use change, and forestry is the largest sector that contributes to greenhouse gas emissions in Ethiopia. The agricultural sector played the second largest role with an average emission level of 47093.63 GgCO 2e . Following the above two sectors, the energy sector, ranked third, has contributed an emission of 17670.13 GgCO 2e . Other sectors like waste, industrial, and international bunkers have contributed a trivial amount to the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, with average greenhouse gas emissions of 3081.21 GgCO 2e , 881.21 GgCO 2e , and 458.65 GgCO 2e respectively. However, the annual emissions growth rate of the bunker sector is very high accounting for 57.53%. The industrial sector has shown a 20.05% average annual growth rate followed by land use- land use change and forestry with an annual emission growth rate of 19.76%. The energy sector and waste sector have 9.45% and 7.4% average annual growth rates. The agricultural sector has a 3.11% of average annual growth rate. The country has introduced different policy instruments. However, most of the policy instruments are not effective enough.

Rapid industrialization and urbanization in the 20th century have led to increasing volumes of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere[...]

Analyzing Brazil’s Role in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change: International Bargaining and Domestic Considerations

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