Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Hydroelectric Reservoirs in Tropical Regions

This paper discusses emissions by power-dams in the tropics. Greenhouse gas emissions from tropical power-dams are produced underwater through biomass decomposition by bacteria. The gases produced in these dams are mainly nitrogen, carbon dioxide and methane. A methodology was established for measuring greenhouse gases emitted by various power-dams in Brazil. Experimental measurements of gas emissions by dams were made to determine accurately their emissions of methane (CH₄) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) gases through bubbles formed on the lake bottom by decomposing organic matter, as well as rising up the lake gradient by molecular diffusion.The main source of gas in power-dams reservoirs is the bacterial decomposition (aerobic and anaerobic) of autochthonous and allochthonous organic matter that basically produces CO₂ and CH₄. The types and modes of gas production and release in the tropics are reviewed.     

英国温室气体排放贸易制度的实践与评价

温室气体排放贸易作为一种经济激励型的环境管理手段,对企业减少温室气体排放有成本效率作用。详细介绍了英国温室气体排放贸易制度框架,并对其政策的效果及存在的问题进行了评价。     

城市温室气体清单研究

介绍了国际上城市温室气体清单研究进展。分析了城市清单主流方法体系、模式以及编制原则、边界、范围,并且比较了城市清单和国家清单在方法体系及模式上的差异和其自身特点。重点分析了城市清单编制的“混合模式”和3个尺度范围。最后提出国内城市清单研究面临的困难和建议。     

2003—2009年中国污水处理部门温室气体排放研究

基于《中国环境统计年报》等的统计数据,采用IPCC提供的方法估算了2003—2009年我国源自污水处理部门的温室气体排放量,并对污水处理部门人均温室气体排放量进行分析。结果表明,2003—2009年污水处理部门温室气体排放呈增加趋势,源自生活污水的N2O排放是主要排放源,生活污水CH4排放增速最快;工业行业中造纸业废水的CH4排放是主要排放源;人均温室气体排放量呈现递增趋势。     

Shortened Duration of Global Warming Slowdowns with Elevated Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Continuous emissions of anthropogenic greenhouse gases(GHGs) and aerosols in the last 160 years have resulted in an increasing trend of global mean surface temperatures(GMSTs). Due to interactions with natural variability,rates of the combined anthropogenically and naturally induced warming trends are characterized by significant slowdowns and speedups on decadal timescales. Here, by analyzing observed and model-simulated data, we investigate how the duration of these episodes will change with different strengths of GHG and aerosol forcing. We found that the duration of warming slowdowns can be more than 30 yr with a slower rate of anthropogenic emissions but would shorten to about 5 yr with a higher one. This duration reduction depends on both the magnitude of the climate response to anthropogenic forcing and the strength of the internal variability. Moreover, the warming slowdowns can still occur even towards the end of this century under high emissions scenarios but with significantly shortened duration.     

公共建筑运营企业温室气体排放核算方法探讨

本文从完整性的角度提出了中国公共建筑运营企业温室气体排放核算方法,进行了案例分析,并对其在中国未来碳排放交易市场中的应用提出了建议。研究表明,公共建筑运营企业排放核算主要采用活动数据法,核算范围包括化石燃料燃烧排放、逸散型排放、新种植树木的排放抵消、外购电力和热力的排放。案例分析表明,电力和热力引起的排放占88.32%;制冷剂逸散排放、灭火器使用引起的排放、化粪池CH₄的排放、树木吸收的CO₂（即排放量为负值）占比都较小;汽车移动源的排放占11.99%,是否应纳入主要依据核算排放量的用途。对中国未来碳排放交易市场,公共建筑物排放的核算范围,初期仅考虑化石燃料燃烧排放、外购电力和热力的排放是合理的。     

Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Agro-Ecosystems and Their Contribution to Environmental Change in the Indus Basin of Pakistan

There is growing concern that increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have been responsible for global warming through their effect on radiation balance and temperature. The magnitude of emissions and the relative importance of different sources vary widely, regionally and locally. The Indus Basin of Pakistan is the food basket of the country and agricultural activities are vulnerable to the effects of global warming due to accelerated emissions of GHGs. Many developments have taken place in the agricultural sector of Pakistan in recent decades in the background of the changing role of the government and the encouragement of the private sector for investment in new ventures. These interventions have considerable GHG emission potential. Unfortunately, no published information is currently available on GHG concentrations in the Indus Basin to assess their magnitude and emission trends. The present study is an attempt to estimate GHG （CO2, CH4 and N2O） emissions arising from different agro-ecosystems of Indus Basin. The GHGs were estimated mostly using the IPCC Guidelines and data from the published literature. The results showed that CH4 emissions were the highest （4.126 Tg yr^-1） followed by N20 （0.265 Tg yr^-1） and CO2 （52.6 Tg yr^-1）. The sources of CH4 are enteric fermentation, rice cultivation and cultivation of other crops. N2O is formed by microbial denitrification of NO3 produced from applied fertilizer-N on cropped soils or by mineralization of native organic matter on fallow soils. CO2 is formed by the burning of plant residue and by soil respiration due to the decomposition of soil organic matter.     

International Emission Trading and the Cost of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Mitigation and Sequestration

The deployment of carbon capture and sequestration (CC&S) technologies is greatly affected by the marginal cost of controlling carbon emissions (also the value of carbon, when emissions permits are traded). Both the severity and timing of emissions limitations and the degree to which emissions limitation obligations can be traded will affect the value of carbon and thereby the timing and magnitude of CC&S technology deployment. Emissions limits that are more stringent in the near term imply higher near-term carbon values and therefore encourage the local development and deployment of CC&S technologies.Trade in emissions obligations lowers the cost of meeting any regional or global emissions limit and so affects the rate of penetration of CC&S technologies. Trade lowers the marginal value of carbon and CC&S penetration in high cost regions and raises the marginal value of carbon and CC&S penetration in low cost regions. The net impact on the world CC&Stechnologies depends on whether their increased use in low-cost regions exceeds the reduced use in high-cost regions.In the long term, CC&S technologies must not only remove carbon but permanently sequester it. If reservoirs are not permanent, then the emissions and costs of control are merely displaced into the future. The paper presents quantitative estimates for the impacts of trade in emissions limitation obligations on the timing, magnitude, and geographic distribution of CC&S technologies and the marginal and total costs of carbon control.     

Management Strategies to Sequester Carbon in Agricultural Soils and to Mitigate Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Carbon sequestration in agricultural soils is frequently promoted as a practical solution for slowing down the rate of increase of CO₂ in the atmosphere. Consequently, there is a need to improve our understanding of how land management practices may affect the net removal of greenhouse gases (GHG) from the atmosphere. In this paper we examine the role of agriculture in influencing the GHG budget and briefly discuss the potential for carbon mitigation by agriculture. We also examine the opportunities that exist for increasing soil C sequestration using management practices such as reduced tillage, reduced frequency of summer fallowing, introduction of forage crops into crop rotations, conversion of cropland to grassland and nutrient addition via fertilization. In order to provide information on the impact of such management practices on the net GHG budget we ran simulations using CENTURY (a C model) and DNDC (a N model) for five locations across Canada, for a 30-yr time period. These simulations provide information on the potential trade-off between C sequestration and increased N₂O emissions. Our model output suggests that conversion of cropland to grassland will result in the largest reduction in net GHG emissions, while nutrient additions via fertilizers will result in a small increase in GHG emissions. Simulations with the CENTURY model also indicated that favorable growing conditions during the last 15 yr could account for an increase of 6% in the soil C at a site in Lethbridge, Alberta. Presented at the International Workshop on Reducing Vulnerability of Agriculture and Forestry to Climate Variability and Climate Change, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 7–9 October 2002.     

Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Costs over the Life Cycle of Wood and Alternative Flooring Materials

Increased use of wood can substitute more energy demanding products and thus contribute to a long-term solution to the global warming problem. The aim of this article is to provide an empirical study on this substitution impact, its cost-effectiveness, and which methodological assumptions that are of highest importance for the results obtained. We have made a case study where we compare use of various flooring materials. The results show that floor covering in solid oak causes lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than the other materials. The difference can be ranked in the following order, after their potential for reduction in GHG emissions: Carpet in wool, carpet in polyamide, vinyl, and linoleum. At 2% pro anno discount rate, the avoided GHG emission in tons per m³ of oak flooring used is 0.1–1.9 for linoleum, and 11.8–15.5 for wool carpets. Unless the solution in solid oak is on total less expensive over the lifetime of the building, only the price of avoided emissions from a substitution between solid oak and carpet in wool is reasonable, compared to present carbon fees. The assumptions that influence the result most are choice of discount rate, carbon fixation on forest area, and waste handling. Empirical case studies like this indicate GHG emission reduction potentials caused by substitution, but should be complemented by dynamic input/output analyses and econometric studies. To analyse the flow of CO₂ over time, they should also be linked to forest management models.     

Effects of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on World Agriculture, Food Consumption, and Economic Welfare

Because of many uncertainties, quantitative estimates of agriculturally related economic impacts of greenhouse gas emissions are often given low confidence. A major source of uncertainty is our inability to accurately project future changes in economic activity, emissions, and climate. This paper focuses on two issues. First, to what extent do variable projections of climate generate uncertainty in agriculturally related economic impacts? Second, to what extent do agriculturally related economic impacts of greenhouse gas emissions depend on economic conditions at the time of impacts? Results indicate that uncertainty due to variable projections of climate is fairly large for most of the economic effects evaluated in this analysis. Results also indicate that economic conditions at the time of impact influence the direction and size of as well as the confidence in the economic effects of identical projections of greenhouse gas impacts. The economic variable that behaves most consistently in this analysis is world crop production. Increases in mean global temperature, for example, cause world crop production to decrease on average under both 1990 and improved economic conditions and in both instances the confidence with respect to variable projections of climate is medium (e.g.,67%) or greater. In addition and as expected, CO₂ fertilization causesworld crop production to increase on average under 1990 and improved economic conditions. These results suggest that crop production may be a fairly robust indicator of the potential impacts of greenhouse gas emissions.A somewhat unexpected finding is that improved economic conditions are not necessarily a panacea to potential greenhouse-gas-induced damages, particularly at the region level. In fact, in some regions, impacts of climate change or CO₂ fertilization that are beneficial undercurrent economic conditions may be detrimental under improved economic conditions (relative to the new economic base). Australia plus New Zealand suffer from this effect in this analysis because under improved economic conditions they are assumed to obtain a relatively large share of income from agricultural exports. When the climate-change and CO₂-fertilization scenariosin this analysis are also included, agricultural exports from Australia plus New Zealand decline on average. The resultant declines in agricultural income in Australia plus New Zealand are too large to be completely offset by rising incomes in other sectors. This indicates that regions that rely on agricultural exports for relatively large shares of their income may be vulnerable not only to direct climate-induced agricultural damages, but also to positive impacts induced by greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere.     

内蒙古草原温室气体排放日变化规律研究

采用静态值－气相色谱法研究内蒙古草原温室气体N2O、CO2、CH4与大气交换的日变化规律。CO2日排放变化形式基本相同，和大气交换的总结果是向大气排放，影响草原N2O排放日变化形式的关键是土壤含水量和表层土壤理化特性，日温变化主要影响其日变化强度；影响草原CH4日变化形式的关键因子是土壤水分和供氧状况，而温度和植物的生长状况则影响吸收强度，利用内蒙古草原温室气候排放相对固定的日变化形式，可以对相同生产季内每周1次的观测结果进行矫正。     

全球增温潜势和全球温变潜势对主要国家温室气体排放贡献估算的差异

全球增温潜势（GWP）和全球温变潜势（GTP）是目前常用的温室气体增温能力的通用指标。如果用GTP代替GWP,1990-2005年,欧盟、美国、日本、加拿大和南非温室气体排放所占份额增加,而巴西、澳大利亚、中国、印度、墨西哥和俄罗斯所占份额减少;2015-2030年,欧盟、美国、日本、中国所占份额将增加,而俄罗斯、加拿大、澳大利亚、印度、墨西哥和巴西所占份额会减少。用GTP代替GWP后,巴西、澳大利亚等国所占份额减小,而欧盟所占份额增加,这可能是巴西、澳大利亚等国考虑尽早采用GTP代替GWP而欧盟反对的一个重要原因。     

Global Warming and Tropical Land-Use Change: Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Biomass Burning, Decomposition and Soils in Forest Conversion, Shifting Cultivation and Secondary Vegetation

Tropical forest conversion, shiftingcultivation and clearing of secondary vegetation makesignificant contributions to global emissions ofgreenhouse gases today, and have the potential forlarge additional emissions in future decades. Globally, an estimated 3.1×10⁹ t of biomasscarbon of these types is exposed to burning annually,of which 1.1×10⁹ t is emitted to the atmospherethrough combustion and 49×10⁶ t is converted tocharcoal (including 26–31×10⁶ t C of blackcarbon). The amount of biomass exposed to burningincludes aboveground remains that failed to burn ordecompose from clearing in previous years, andtherefore exceeds the 1.9×10⁹ t of abovegroundbiomass carbon cleared on average each year. Above-and belowground carbon emitted annually throughdecomposition processes totals 2.1×10⁹ t C. Atotal gross emission (including decomposition ofunburned aboveground biomass and of belowgroundbiomass) of 3.41×10⁹ t C year^-1 resultsfrom clearing primary (nonfallow) and secondary(fallow) vegetation in the tropics. Adjustment fortrace gas emissions using IPCC Second AssessmentReport 100-year integration global warming potentialsmakes this equivalent to 3.39×10⁹ t ofCO₂-equivalent carbon under a low trace gasscenario and 3.83×10⁹ t under a high trace gasscenario. Of these totals, 1.06×10⁹ t (31%)is the result of biomass burning under the low tracegas scenario and 1.50×10⁹ t (39%) under thehigh trace gas scenario. The net emissions from allclearing of natural vegetation and of secondaryforests (including both biomass and soil fluxes) is2.0×10⁹ t C, equivalent to 2.0–2.4×10⁹ t of CO₂-equivalent carbon. Adding emissions of0.4×10⁹ t C from land-use category changesother than deforestation brings the total for land-usechange (not considering uptake of intact forest,recurrent burning of savannas or fires in intactforests) to 2.4×10⁹ t C, equivalent to 2.4–2.9×10⁹ t of CO₂-equivalent carbon. The totalnet emission of carbon from the tropical land usesconsidered here (2.4×10⁹ t C year^-1)calculated for the 1981–1990 period is 50% higherthan the 1.6×10⁹ t C year^-1 value used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The inferred (= `missing') sink in the global carbonbudget is larger than previously thought. However,about half of the additional source suggested here maybe offset by a possible sink in uptake by Amazonianforests. Both alterations indicate that continueddeforestation would produce greater impact on globalcarbon emissions. The total net emission of carboncalculated here indicates a major global warmingimpact from tropical land uses, equivalent toapproximately 29% of the total anthropogenic emissionfrom fossil fuels and land-use change.     

箱法在草地温室气体通量野外实验观测中的应用研究

利用静态箱法采样,配以气相色谱仪法分析对草地N2O、CH4和CO2温室气体通量进行了较系统的现场测量,同时对箱体内外温度进行同步观测。在对野外原位观测实验数据进行定量分析的基础上,论证了静态箱法对草原土壤-植被系统的N2O、CH4和CO2通量测量的适用性和科学性,讨论了实验结果的可靠性。     

Water Quality Co-Effects of Greenhouse Gas Mitigation in U.S. Agriculture

This study develops first-order estimates of water quality co-effects of terrestrial greenhouse gas (GHG) emission offset strategies in U.S. agriculture by linking a national level agricultural sector model (ASMGHG) to a national level water quality model (NWPCAM). The simulated policy scenario considers GHG mitigation incentive payments of $25 and $50 per tonne, carbon equivalent to landowners for reducing emissions or enhancing the sequestration of GHG through agricultural and land-use practices. ASMGHG projects that these GHG price incentives could induce widespread conversion of agricultural to forested lands, along with alteration of tillage practices, crop mix on land remaining in agriculture, and livestock management. This study focuses on changes in cropland use and management. The results indicate that through agricultural cropland about 60 to 70 million tonnes of carbon equivalent (MMTCE) emissions can be mitigated annually in the U.S. These responses also lead to a 2% increase in aggregate national water quality, with substantial variation across regions. Such GHG mitigation activities are found to reduce annual nitrogen loadings into the Gulf of Mexico by up to one half of the reduction goals established by the national Watershed Nutrient Task Force for addressing the hypoxia problem.