Tag: ghg emissions

Author SuzannePosted on Categories Climate Change & EnergyTags , ,

All major economies promise to cut emissions

Dan Farber, LEGAL PLANET

With Saudia Arabia’s pledge last week to cut emission, all of the world’s major economies are now on board.  In a nutshell, here is what they are promising.

Except as noted, the target dates are all 2030.  A number of countries have subsidiary promises in terms of percentage of renewable energy or of bigger cuts premised on international aid, which aren’t included here.

DEVELOPED COUNTRIES

Australia.  26-28% (2005 baseline)

Canada. 30% (2005 baseline).

European Union. 40% (1990 baseline).

Japan. 26% (2013 baseline).

United States. 26-28% (2025 target, 2005 baseline).

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BRIC COUNTRIES

Brazil. 37% (2005 baseline, 2025 target).

China. Peak emissions circa 2030. 

India.  33% cut in carbon intensity(2005 baseline). 

Russia. 25-30% (1990 baseline)

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OTHERS

Argentina. 15% below business as usual (BAU).

Saudi Arabia. 130 million ton cut in annual emissions.

Indonesia. 29% (BAU baseline).

Mexico. 25% (BAU baseline).

South Africa. Peak emissions by 2025, followed by a plateau and then decline.

South Korea. 37% (BAU baseline).

Turkey. 21% (BAU baseline).

*****

You’ll notice that the EU is promising the most, both in absolute numbers 40% and in the lowest baseline (1990).  Other developed countries are pledging smaller percentages and using a higher 2005 emission level as the baseline. Among the non-developed countries, Brazil’s pledge is notable because it is promising absolute cuts in emissions, not just reductions below business as usual or setting a future peak level.  But the fact that other major  non-developed countries have made pledges is a huge advance over the Kyoto Protocol, which did not require much of anything from them. 

Author SuzannePosted on Categories Climate Change & Energy, Sustainable LivingTags , , , ,

California wants renewable energy for half its power by 2030 

Michael R. Blood & Judy Lin, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Gov. Jerry Brown dramatically increased California’s climate-change goals, committing the state to use renewable energy for half its electricity and make existing buildings twice as energy-efficient in just 15 years.
Brown tried for an even stronger measure that also would have enforced a 50 percent drop in petroleum use by 2030, but was defeated by oil interests. He called that a short-term setback, and insisted that the world needs to wean itself off fossil fuels as quickly as possible.
“What has been the source of our prosperity now becomes the source of our ultimate destruction, if we don’t get off it. And that is so difficult,” Brown said at a signing ceremony Wednesday at the hilltop Griffith Observatory, overlooking the haze of downtown Los Angeles.
California already has some of the world’s toughest air quality standards, and set a mandate in 2006 to derive a third of its electricity from renewable sources such as solar, wind and geothermal by 2020. State regulators say they already hit 25 percent last year, as huge solar farms sprouted in the desert and towering windmills went up along mountain passes.
“It’s monumental,” said Alex Jackson, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. “For an economy the size of California to commit to getting half of its power needs from renewable energy resources, I think, is a game-changer.”
Read more at: California wants renewable energy for half its power by 2030 | The State

Author SuzannePosted on Categories Climate Change & Energy, Sustainable LivingTags , , Leave a comment on Worst drought in 1,000 Years predicted for American West

Worst drought in 1,000 Years predicted for American West

Brian Clark Howard, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Large parts of the U.S. are in for a drought of epic proportions in the second half of this century, scientists warn in a new study that provides the highest degree of certainty yet on the impact of global warming on water supplies in the region.
The chances of a 35-year or longer “megadrought” striking the Southwest and central Great Plains by 2100 are above 80 percent if the world stays on its current trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions, scientists from NASA, Columbia University, and Cornell University report in a study published Thursday in the new open-access journal Science Advances.
If countries reduce their emissions to current “middle of the road” targets, the chances of a megadrought hitting the Great Plains drop to between 60 and 70 percent. But they remain nearly 80 percent for the Southwest.
That’s because rising temperatures spurred by the greenhouse effect result in more evaporation and less precipitation for the region, which is already relatively dry. (Read “Drying of the West” in National Geographic magazine.)
“Even at the middle-of-the-road scenario, we see enough warming and drying to push us past the worst droughts experienced in the region since the medieval era,” said Benjamin Cook, the study’s lead author and a scientist at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.
Read more via Worst Drought in 1,000 Years Predicted for American West.

Author SuzannePosted on Categories Climate Change & Energy, Forests, UncategorizedTags , Leave a comment on NASA: A year in the life of Earth's CO2

NASA: A year in the life of Earth's CO2

NASA Press Release
An ultra-high-resolution NASA computer model has given scientists a stunning new look at how carbon dioxide in the atmosphere travels around the globe.
Plumes of carbon dioxide in the simulation swirl and shift as winds disperse the greenhouse gas away from its sources. The simulation also illustrates differences in carbon dioxide levels in the northern and southern hemispheres and distinct swings in global carbon dioxide concentrations as the growth cycle of plants and trees changes with the seasons.

The carbon dioxide visualization was produced by a computer model called GEOS-5, created by scientists at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office.
The visualization is a product of a simulation called a “Nature Run.” The Nature Run ingests real data on atmospheric conditions and the emission of greenhouse gases and both natural and man-made particulates. The model is then left to run on its own and simulate the natural behavior of the Earth’s atmosphere. This Nature Run simulates January 2006 through December 2006.
While Goddard scientists worked with a “beta” version of the Nature Run internally for several years, they released this updated, improved version to the scientific community for the first time in the fall of 2014.
This video is public domain and can be downloaded at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?11719