Climate Change Mitigation Measures Research Articles

Environmental Displacement in European Asylum Law

AbstractEnvironmentally displaced persons can be included in several existing categories of protected persons under international law, but there may be a normative protection gap for many of those who cross an international border. This article looks at protection possibilities within the EU framework and national European legislations. Environmental displacement can arguably trigger temporary protection according to the EU Temporary Protection Directive. There may also be environmentally displaced persons who require longer-term or permanent protection. Drawing on the EU Qualification Directive and case-law from the European Court of Human Rights, one can argue that subsidiary protection should be granted in certain cases of extreme natural disaster or degradation. In less extreme cases, humanitarian asylum could be granted. Human rights principles such as non-refoulement could also be used to extend at least basic protection. In addition, legal labour migration could supply a work force, assist distressed countries and enhance protection of the individual. A strategy to meet the challenge of environmental displacement must also include climate change mitigation and external measures such as adaptation. Most of the displaced persons in the world today and in the near future do not arrive at the EU borders.

Principles for an intergovernmental agreement for coastal planning and climate change in Australia

The future design of urban settlements and infrastructure in response to climate change will be critical in the future. Urban planning for human settlements will require both an intergovernmental and multidisciplinary approach integrating science and urban planning. The paper focuses on coastal urbanisation and the planning for climate change. The Australian coastal zone is home to over 85% of the Australian population with coastal townships expanding rapidly. The International Panel on Climate Change predicts that the Australian coast will experience increasing storm surge and rising sea levels. A set of principles is proposed that should underpin an intergovernmental agreement on coastal planning and climate change. The Agreement would include actions such as regional planning, policy integration, financial incentives and innovative regulatory mechanisms that use both mitigation and adaptation in complimentary and reinforcing ways. Selected case studies including peri-urban and sea change locations are used to examine the possibilities and obstacles for current urban planning and institutional arrangements to incorporate such mitigation and adaptation measures for climate change.

Combining climate change adaptation and mitigation measures at the local level

The vulnerability of individuals and communities to climate change impacts is not simply determined by the location of their settlements, but also by how those settlements are serviced, how effective and capable their local governments are and to what extent communities are able to cope with climate change impacts. It is widely accepted that the poorest communities are the most vulnerable, because they lack access even to the most basic urban services placing them at a comparative disadvantage and challenging their capabilities to take on additional stresses caused by climate change. Such complex vulnerabilities require comprehensive responses that link climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts to the sustainable development of these communities enhancing their adaptive capacity. It is not sufficient to concentrate on either mitigation or adaptation, but a combination of these results in the most sustainable outcomes. Yet, these two strategies do not always complement each other, but can be counterproductive. A similar argument can be made for linking climate change adaptation with sustainable development. In order to avoid these conflicts, priorities need to be set. This calls for a methodology and comparison tool to assess the most cost-effective and appropriate strategies for each community. Strategies need to be evaluated in terms of their negative consequences and priority given to those that minimize these. This article includes case studies of successful adaptation and mitigation strategies suggesting that these successes be translated into local contexts and communalized with the involvement of local authorities using participatory approaches. Successful outcomes integrate different adaptation and mitigation strategies with the overall development goals of the community through local government leadership, comprehensive planning and prioritization.

International Investment Law and Climate Change: Issues in the Transition to a Low Carbon World

International investment and climate change intersect in a number of ways. There is immense potential for investment in carbon markets, renewable energy sources, and low carbon technology. There is also, however, the potential for international investment law to frustrate the implementation of climate change mitigation measures. This paper examines recent investor challenges to environmental regulation and argues that a similar approach to climate change-related regulation can be expected. The interaction of these international legal regimes will have significant implications for achieving global carbon emissions reductions, and, as such, this paper argues for a better alignment of their objectives. It points to the need for a shift in international investment law to meet global environmental challenges of the 21st century and argues for the inclusion of provisions in international investment agreements that will assist with the transition to a low carbon economy.

Drainage and Imbibition Relative Permeability Relationships for Supercritical CO2/Brine and H2S/Brine Systems in Intergranular Sandstone, Carbonate, Shale, and Anhydrite Rocks

Summary Disposal of acid gas, composed of carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen sulfide (H2S), in deep underground formations is a means for reducing atmospheric emissions of toxic and greenhouse gases produced from sour-gas reservoirs that has been practiced for 18 years in North America and is currently being considered in other regions, such as the Middle East and central Asia. Acid-gas-injection operations constitute a commercial-scale analog to CO2injection in geological media as a climate-change mitigation measure. Deep saline aquifers provide a very large capacity for the sequestration of acid and greenhouse gases, being found in all sedimentary basins around the world. Proper understanding of the relative permeability-displacement character of such systems is essential in ascertaining gas injectivity and migration, and in assessing the suitability, containment, and safety of prospective injection sites. Pure CO2 and H2S represent the compositional end members of acid and greenhouse gases, hence the interest in measuring their displacement properties. This paper presents the detailed experimental equipment and protocols along with the results of a series of relative permeability measurements conducted at full reservoir conditions using supercritical pure CO2 and H2S on samples of intercrystalline sandstone, carbonate, shale, and anhydrite rocks from the Wabamun and Zama areas in Alberta, Canada, where large CO2 sources and several acid-gas-injection operations exist. Results of the relative permeability measurements are presented for each fluid and rock type. The results provide a valuable data set for the evaluation and simulation of acid-gas disposal and CO2-sequestration projects.

Tourism and climate change: risks and opportunities

1 Introduction 2 The Tourism-Climate System 3 Case-studies of the Tourism-Climate System 4 An Overview of Tourism 5 Global and Regional Climate Change 6 Methodologies for Greenhouse Gas Accounting 7 Climate Change Mitigation Measures 8 Climate Change-related Risks and Adaptation 9 Climate Change Policies and Practices for Tourism 10 Conclusion

Uncertainty analysis of climate change mitigation options in the forestry sector using a generic carbon budget model

Industrialized countries agreed on a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol. Many countries elected forest management activities and the resulting net balance of carbon emissions and removals of non-CO 2 greenhouse gases by forest management in their climate change mitigation measures. In this paper a generic dynamic forestry model (FORMICA) is presented. It has an empirical basis. Several modules trace C pools relevant for the Kyoto Protocol and beyond: biomass, litter, deadwood and soil, and harvested wood products. The model also accounts for the substitution of fossil fuels by wood products and bioenergy. FORMICA was used to first study the model sensitivity and uncertainty based on data from Thuringia, a federal state of Germany, to determine the major sources of uncertainty in carbon accounting at different levels of carbon pool aggregation (biomass, ecosystem, forestry sector and enhanced forestry sector including the accumulated substitution effect). Rotation length and maximum increment contributed most to uncertainty in biomass. The influence of the latter did not diminish with higher level of pool aggregation. Uncertainty in the enhanced forestry sector was to a smaller degree controlled by product and substitution related parameters. Relative uncertainty decreased with the level of aggregation and comprehensiveness of the carbon budget. In a second step the model estimated the sink potential of the Thuringian forestry sector. The projected average biomass sink for the period of 2003–2043 of 0.6 t C ha −1 year −1 could be increased by 50% by broadening the perspective to the entire forestry sector, including substitution effects. A simulation of forest conservation on 20% of the forest area increased C fixation. However, even in the biomass C pool the expected C stock changes did not exceed the estimated uncertainty of 40%. A higher level of aggregation (i.e. the inclusion of soil and litter, product pool and substitution effects) decreases relative uncertainty but also diminishes differences between different management options. The analysis demonstrates that the choice of management mitigation options under an accounting scheme should include the impacts on forest products and of substitution effects.

Factors and Actors in Climate Change Mitigation: A Tale of Two South African Cities

South Africa, being a developing nation, is faced with many challenges, including poverty and one of the world's highest HIV/AIDS infection rates. It is within this context that this paper presents an overview of the role played by major stakeholders in climate change mitigation policies, with the focus on two South African cities, namely Cape Town and Johannesburg. This paper aims to identify the internal and external factors that act as barriers to, or promote, climate change mitigation policy development and implementation in South African cities. These may take the form of the city's internal structures, political interventions and support, and external factors including partnerships with outside organizations, including all tiers of government, non-governmental organizations and academic institutions. The media and an energy crisis in the Cape prove to play an unexpected role in assisting Cape Town to implement climate change mitigation measures.

The energy–climate challenge: Recent trends in CO 2 emissions from fuel combustion

Fossil fuel combustion is the single largest human influence on climate, accounting for 80% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. This paper presents trends in world carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions from fossil fuel combustion worldwide, based on the estimates of the International Energy Agency (IEA) [IEA, 2006a. CO 2 Emissions from Fuel Combustion 1971–2004. International Energy Agency, Paris, France]. Analyzing the drivers of CO 2 emissions, the paper considers regions, types of fuel, sectors, and socio-economic indicators. The paper then examines the growing body of climate change mitigation policies and measures, both multinational and federal. Policies discussed include the Kyoto Protocol, the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme, and the potential measures to be implemented in 2012 and beyond. CO 2 emissions of recent years have grown at the highest rates ever recorded, an observed trend incompatible with stabilizing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases and avoiding long-term climate change. Within this aggregate upward trend, a comparison of emissions sources proves dynamic: while industrialized countries have so far dominated historical emissions, rapid growth in energy demand of developing economies, led by China, may soon spur their absolute emissions beyond those of industrialized countries. To provide context for the drivers of CO 2 emissions, the paper examines fuel sources, from coal to biofuels, and fuel use in the production of heat and electricity, in transport, in industrial production and in households. The sectoral analysis illustrates the primacy, in terms of emissions growth and absolute emissions, of two sectors: electricity and heat generation, and transport. A discussion of several socio-economic emissions drivers complements the paper's analysis of mitigation mechanisms. As illustrated, emissions per capita and emissions per unit of economic production, as measured in gross domestic product (GDP), vary widely between regions. In this context, the paper examines the constraints and choices of energy use in two prominent developing economies: China and Brazil. This analysis of long-term trends in CO 2 emissions from fuel combustion will prove useful for policymakers and energy policy analysts alike. Understanding the sources and drivers of greenhouse gas emissions is essential to their worldwide management and to the mitigation of climate change.

The Role for Sustainably Managed Forests in Climate Change Mitigation

Abstract The United States has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol, restricting the ability of forests from participating internationally as greenhouse gas (GHG) emission offset projects. As a result, a proliferation of different registry and program rules is occurring in the United States, providing an opportunity for the US forestry community to mitigate GHG emissions. This article addresses the Kyoto Protocol principles of additionality, permanence, and leakage, and challenges the way that these principles are being used to qualify forest offset projects as climate change mitigation measures. Policy initiatives are proposed for challenging policymakers and the forestry community to rethink sustainably managed forest offset project rules as the United States considers GHG emission reduction legislation.

Review of climate policies in the Baltic States

Abstract Production and use of energy is the main source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in developed countries. In the Baltic States, climate change mitigation policies and measures implemented have been driven mainly by efforts to reach EU accession standards, and all EU environmental directives relating to the energy sector have now been implemented. This has had a significant impact on the reduction of GHG emissions. This article presents a comparative review of the general framework for climate change mitigation in the energy sector of the Baltic States. It compares and analyses measures already implemented in the three countries — legal, fiscal and voluntary — and market based tools to reduce GHG emissions, and evaluates the impact of EU environmental and energy directives on the reduction of GHG emissions. Some descriptive sections of the article come from the Nordic Council of Ministers study “Challenges of Kyoto commitments for the Baltic States’ energy sectors”.

CDM Forestry and the Ultimate Objective of the Climate Convention

In its Article 2, the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change policymakers gave themselves a long-term dynamic mandate under uncertainty. Taking the example of forestry activities in developing countries, the present article discusses whether land-based climate change mitigation measures in the context of compensation mechanisms for human-induced greenhouse gas emissions are covered under the UNFCCC's ultimate objective. Both the problem of climate change and human intervention act over long, yet finite timeframes. The article argues for taking a dynamic 100-year timeframe as reference for present-day activities. It concludes that increasing biotic carbon storage is legitimate for measures that contribute to biodiversity conservation, as long as it does not serve as a pretext for neglecting technological change. Among all forestry options, the list of priorities should be avoiding deforestation and devegetation, sustainable forest management, and afforestation. The problem of saturation can be encountered by the combination of forestry with the increased use of wood products and bioenergy. Concluding, the article gathers criteria for forest climate activities in the post-2012 regime.

Climate Change Mitigation Policies in Lithuania

The Lithuanian climate change policy has to be considered in the framework of the Convention on Climate Change. The National Strategy for Implementation of Convention was the first step in evaluating the country's impact on climate change, adapting to the Convention and foreseeing the means and measures for climate change mitigation. The paper introduces main issues related to climate change mitigation policy in Lithuania. It presents an analysis of greenhouse gas emission trends in Lithuania and surveys institutional organizations as well as stakeholder associations related to climate change issues and their role in climate policy making. The main Lithuanian international environmental obligation and Lithuanian governmental climate change mitigation policy in the energy sector are presented as well.

Discounting and Uncertainty in Climate Change Policy Analysis

<i>Economic studies of climate change commonly discount the future at a rate equal to the long-run return on corporate stocks. Stock market returns, however, are dominated by a risk premium, while climate change mitigation measures would reduce important risks to future welfare. Drawing on the theory of investment behavior under uncertainty, this paper argues that the benefits of climate stabilization policies should be discounted at a rate equal to the annual return on risk-free financial assets, which attains an empirical value between 0 and 2.6%. In addition, expected benefits must be adjusted to account for the value of risk abatement.</i> (JEL Q21)

Methodological aspects of the tolerable windows approach

The tolerable windows approach (TWA) allows the climate policyformulation process to be safeguarded in the following way. First,guardrails are defined in order to exclude intolerable climatechange impacts, on the one hand, and unacceptable socioeconomicconsequences of climate change mitigation measures, on the other.Second, a scientific analysis is conducted to investigate thefeatures of those emission paths that are compatible with theguardrail constraints. The fundamental methodology of the TWA isbest described in terms of the theory of differentialinclusions. This emerging mathematical theory already providesnumerical methods applicable as long as the underlying integratedassessment models are of limited complexity. In order to identifyemissions corridors, we propose a novel calculation schemeapplicable also for large-scale integrated assessment models.

The European and global potential of carbon dioxide sequestration in tackling climate change

Although, it has received relatively little attention as a potential method of combating climate change in comparison to energy reduction measures and development of carbon-free energy technologies, sequestration of carbon dioxide in geologic or biospheric sinks has enormous potential. This paper reviews the potential for sequestration using geological and ocean storage as a means of reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Considerable quantities of carbon dioxide separated from natural gas deposits and from hydrogen production from steam reforming of methane are already used in enhanced oil recovery and in extraction of coalbed methane, the carbon dioxide remaining sequestered at the end of the process. A number of barriers lie in the way of its implementation on a large scale. There are concerns about possible environmental effects of large-scale injection of carbon dioxide especially into the oceans. Available technologies, especially of separating and capturing the carbon dioxide from waste stream, have high costs at present, perhaps representing an additional 40–100% onto the costs of generating electricity. In most of the world there are no mechanisms to encourage firms to consider sequestration. Considerable R&D is required to bring down the costs of the process, to elucidate the environmental effects of storage and to ensure that carbon dioxide will not escape from stores in unacceptably short timescales. However, the potential of sequestration should not be underestimated as a contribution to global climate change mitigation measures.

Joint Implementation: Biodiversity and Greenhouse Gas Offsets

/ One of the most pressing environmental issues today is the possibility that projected increases in global emissions of greenhouse gases from increased deforestation, development, and fossil-fuel combustion could significantly alter global climate patterns. Under the terms of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, signed in Rio de Janeiro during the June 1992 Earth Summit, the United States and other industrialized countries committed to balancing greenhouse gas emissions at 1990 levels in the year 2000. Included in the treaty is a provision titled "Joint Implementation," whereby industrialized countries assist developing countries in jointly modifying long-term emission trends, either through emission reductions or by protecting and enhancing greenhouse gas sinks (carbon sequestration). The US Climate Action Plan, signed by President Clinton in 1993, calls for voluntary climate change mitigation measures by various sectors, and the action plan included a new program, the US Initiative on Joint Implementation. Wisconsin Electric decided to invest in a JI project because its concept encourages creative, cost-effective solutions to environmental problems through partnering, international cooperation, and innovation. The project chosen, a forest preservation and management effort in Belize, will sequester more than five million tons of carbon dioxide over a 40-year period, will become economically self-sustaining after ten years, and will have substantial biodiversity benefits.KEY WORDS: Joint implementation; Activities implemented jointly; Carbon sequestration; Carbon dioxide; Global climate change; Greenhouse gas; Belize

Adoption of Agricultural Innovations in Developing Countries: A Survey

This paper reviews various studies which have provided a description and possible explanation to patterns of innovation adoption in the agricultural sector. The survey points out that the tendency of many studies to consider innovation adoption in dichotomous terms (adoption/nonadoption) may not be appropriate in many cases where the actual decisions are defined over a more continuous range. More attention needs to be given to the socio-cultural and institutional environment in area studies so that their interrelation with economic factors affecting adoption can be inferred. The presence of several interrelated innovations is another aspect that needs to be considered more carefully in future research, since a number of simultaneous decisions may be involved. Furthermore, the possibility of regular sequential patterns in adopting components of a new technological package should be specifically addressed in future studies. Finally, the impact of differential adoption rates on land holding distribution merits attention in future research.