美国公众对全球变暖的认知和对气候政策的支持

利用民意调查数据,以相关研究作为补充,分析美国公众对全球变暖的认知、减缓行为和气候政策的支持等。分析表明,大部分美国民众认为全球在变暖,但很多人不了解全球变暖与温室气体的关系,把全球变暖混为大气污染和臭氧层耗竭等;不到一半的公众认为全球变暖对个人和美国是现实威胁,更多的公众认为全球变暖对后代和发展中国家是严重威胁;大部分公众认为减缓全球变暖需要改变现有的生活方式和行为,他们愿意选择较容易从事和成本低的行为减少碳排放,但不愿意从根本上改变生活方式,改变自驾车、乘飞机长途旅游这些碳排放量更大的行为;公众普遍支持政府采取措施限制温室气体排放,但不希望所采取的措施对就业和经济带来不利影响;支持通过技术进步和减免税收等措施提高能效,减少碳排放,但大部分反对为节能而提高能源税收。     

Creating a global warming implementation regime

This paper proposes a global warming implementation regime which addresses the issues of equity, flexibility, cost minimization, and population growth. Previously proposed international policy instruments, such as country by country targets, carbon taxes, and tradable permits, face major difficulties as stand alone proposals. The key element of the regime proposed here is to combine annual tradable permits which are allocated based on population in a fixed year with a small carbon tax ($5–10/tonne) on emissions in excess of permits. Both permits and carbon taxes are applied to national level governments, which in turn would use whatever mix of policies desired to reduce national emissions. It is suggested that the initial number of permits correspond to total global emissions in the base year; over time, the number of permits could be reduced and the tax rate increased if improved scientific knowledge so dictates. By allocating permits based on population the equity concerns of developing countries are addressed, while taxing emissions in excess of permit holdings removes the rigidity of a quota system and limits resource transfers by effectively capping the permit trading price, which is a major concern of industrialized countries. To accommodate the difficulties of countries which have not yet achieved the demographic transition, the permit allocation scheme could be subject to a one-time adjustment after 10–15 years based on some weighting of the initial and then-current populations. The proposed scheme is based on the premise that there is a large potential for reducing emissions in developed countries or limiting emission increases in developing countries, and the intention is to create competition between national level governments in implementing cost-effective emission reduction.     

What is at stake for Brazilian Amazonia in the climate negotiations

Issues left undecided at COP-18 in Doha in December 2012 are critical to containing the two greatest threats to Brazil’s Amazon forest: direct deforestation and forest loss through drought and fire provoked by climate change. Brazil’s diplomatic positions on the role of tropical forests in mitigating global warming currently call for receiving donations through a voluntary fund, but without generating carbon credit valid against emissions-reduction commitments by countries that accept limits on their national emissions (i.e., Annex I countries). Brazil has long rejected accepting a target (assigned amount), and has instead presented a non-binding “voluntary objective.” At COP-17 in Durban, Brazil expressed willingness to accept a commitment after 2020, but only if all of the rest of the world agreed to do the same. This author argues that Brazil’s national interests would be better served by accepting a target now and by supporting fully marketable carbon credit from Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD). The global goal of preventing mean temperature from increasing beyond 2 °C above pre-industrial levels would be much more likely to be achieved in practice with tropical forests fully included in a carbon market as part of an agreement for the period after 2012.     

The Origins and Consequences of democratic citizens' Policy Agendas: A Study of Popular Concern about Global Warming

This article proposes and tests a model of the causes and consequences of Americans’ judgments of the national seriousness of global warming. The model proposes that seriousness judgments about global warming are a function of beliefs about the existence of global warming, attitudes toward it, the certainty with which these beliefs and attitudes are held, and beliefs about human responsibility for causing global warming and people’s ability to remedy it. The model also proposes that beliefs about whether global warming is a problem are a function of relevant personal experiences (with the weather) and messages from informants (in this case, scientists), that attitudes toward global warming are a function of particular perceived consequences of global warming, and that certainty about these attitudes and beliefs is a function of knowledge and prior thought. Data from two representative sample surveys offer support for all of these propositions, document effects of national seriousness judgments on support for ameliorative efforts generally and specific ameliorative policies, and thereby point to psychological mechanisms that may be responsible for institutional and elite impact on the public’s assessments of national problem importance and on public policy preferences.     

Mitigation options for the Bangladesh forestry sector: implications of the CDM

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto Protocol has expedited various global warming mitigation opportunities that allow Bangladesh to receive investments from those Annex I countries wishing to offset their emissions of greenhouse gases. Bangladesh has a special interest in strategies for combating global warming because its large areas that need to be planted represent a potentially large carbon sink, and at the same time its high rate of deforestation represents a huge carbon source. To properly assign carbon credits within the forestry sector of Bangladesh, a number of important issues and uncertainties need to be examined and resolved. Afforestation and reforestation (A/R) offers opportunities for carbon credits, which is subject to the end-use of the forest products. A/R may be the best option, as well as conserving the existing carbon sink offered by Bangladesh for mitigating global warming. This article discusses the legal issues raised in combating global warming; the potential of the Bangladesh forestry sector to combat global warming; implications of the forestry options for different land uses; and issues to be settled regarding carbon credits. Future policy and governance issues are considered which will enable the Bangladesh forestry sector to mitigate global warming and to obtain carbon credits.     

Reproduction and the carbon legacies of individuals

Much attention has been paid to the ways that people’s home energy use, travel, food choices and other routine activities affect their emissions of carbon dioxide and, ultimately, their contributions to global warming. However, the reproductive choices of an individual are rarely incorporated into calculations of his personal impact on the environment. Here we estimate the extra emissions of fossil carbon dioxide that an average individual causes when he or she chooses to have children. The summed emissions of a person’s descendants, weighted by their relatedness to him, may far exceed the lifetime emissions produced by the original parent. Under current conditions in the United States, for example, each child adds about 9441 metric tons of carbon dioxide to the carbon legacy of an average female, which is 5.7 times her lifetime emissions. A person’s reproductive choices must be considered along with his day-to-day activities when assessing his ultimate impact on the global environment.     

How does framing affect policy support for emissions mitigation? Testing the effects of ocean acidification and other carbon emissions frames

Public support for carbon emissions mitigation is crucial to motivate action to address global issues like climate change and ocean acidification (OA). Yet in the public sphere, carbon emissions mitigation policies are typically discussed in the context of climate change and rarely in the context of OA or other global change outcomes. In this paper, we advance research on OA and climate change perceptions and communication, by (i) examining causal beliefs about ocean acidification, and (ii) measuring support for mitigation policies from individuals presented with one of five different policy frames (climate change, global warming, carbon pollution, air pollution, and ocean acidification). Knowledge about OA causes and consequences is more widespread than we anticipated, though still generally low. Somewhat surprisingly, an “air pollution” mitigation frame elicits the highest degree of policy support overall, while “carbon pollution” performs no better than “climate change” or “global warming.” Framing effects are in part contingent on prior knowledge and attitudes, and mediated by concern. Perhaps due to a lack of OA awareness, the OA frame generates the least support overall, although it seems to close the gap in support associated with political orientation: the OA frame increases support among those (few) conservatives who report having heard of OA before the survey. These findings complement previous work on climate change communication and suggest the need for further research into OA as an effective way to engage conservatives in carbon emissions mitigation policy. Potentially even more promising is the air pollution framing.     

Mass-media coverage,its influence on public awareness of climate-change issues,and implications for Japan’s national campaign to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

We analyse Japanese newspaper coverage of global warming from January 1998 to July 2007 and how public opinion during parts of that period were influenced by newspaper coverage. We show that a dramatic increase in newspaper coverage of global warming from January 2007 correlated with an increase in public concern for the issue. Before January 2007, we find that coverage of global warming had an immediate but short-term influence on public concern. With such transitory high levels of media coverage we suggest that for more effective communication of climate change, strategies aimed at maintaining mass-media coverage of global warming are required.     

河北省贸易隐含二氧化碳排放及其影响因素研究

针对全球气候变化而引发国家间减排责任的争吵,需要各国从生产和消费的角度来认识二氧化碳排放,国家内部区域之间减排责任的分担也应该从生产和消费两个角度加以认识。为此,本文利用投入产出分析方法和EEBT(双边贸易隐含排放)核算方法核算河北省的二氧化碳排放,发现河北省生产型二氧化碳排放远大于其消费型二氧化碳排放,其中国内流出/流入引发的二氧化碳排放量较大。在利用SDA(结构分解分析法)分析影响贸易隐含二氧化碳排放变化因素时,发现行业二氧化碳排放强度变化对隐含二氧化碳排放具有积极影响,而国民经济行业之间技术经济关系的变化对隐含二氧化碳排放具有消极影响。因此,河北省在利用技术手段降低行业二氧化碳排放强度的同时,还要筛选关键性部门加以重点管理。同时,河北省贸易隐含二氧化碳排放及其影响因素变化对国家制定区域减排责任也有较强参考价值。     

Economics and the ‘greenhouse effect’

There is growing scientific and public concern that increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will produce global warming and other climatic changes. Although economic activity is the main source of greenhouse gas emissions, information and incentive problems make it difficult to translate concern about global warming into economic behaviour and policy conducive to reducing emissions. The paper considers a set of near term (carbon tax), intermediate term (afforestation, energy efficiency) and long term (new non-fossil fuel technologies) strategies for reducing CO₂ in the atmosphere. Each strategy has useful attributes, but shortcomings or limitations too. While the near term and intermediate term strategies can slow and perhaps reverse the growth of CO₂ emissions, only a successful long term strategy of fostering the development of some promising non-fossil fuel technologies, such as solar and solar-hydrogen, can eventually halt the build-up of CO₂ in the atmosphere. Moreover, public investment in the development of new non-fossil fuel technologies would largely obviate the information and incentive problems that currently stand in the way of an economically viable greenhouse policy.     

Developed and developing world contributions to climate system change based on carbon dioxide,methane and nitrous oxide emissions

One of the key issues in international climate negotiations is the formulation of targets for emissions reduction for all countries based on the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities". This formulation depends primarily on the quantitative attribution of the responsibilities of developed and developing countries for historical climate change. Using the Commuity Earth System Model(CESM), we estimate the responsibilities of developed countries and developing countries for climatic change from 1850 to 2005 using their carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide emissions. The results indicate that developed countries contribute approximately 53%–61%, and developing countries approximately 39%–47%, to the increase in global air temperature, upper oceanic warming, sea-ice reduction in the NH, and permafrost degradation. In addition, the spatial heterogeneity of these changes from 1850 to 2005 is primarily attributed to the emissions of greenhouse gases(GHGs)in developed countries. Although uncertainties remain in the climate model and the external forcings used, GHG emissions in developed countries are the major contributor to the observed climate system changes in the 20 th century.     

Voluntary citizen participation in carbon allowance markets: the role of norm-based motivation

The results from a semi-experimental study of Swedish students’ stated willingness to purchase emission allowances for carbon dioxide are presented. Drawing heavily on recent developments in the literature on integrating norm-motivated behaviour into neoclassical consumer theory, it is assumed that individuals have a preference for maintaining a self-image as a responsible (and thus norm-compliant) person. The results indicate that students’ willingness to purchase carbon allowances is determined by both price and the presence of norms: those who feel personally responsible for contributing to reducing climate damages also appear more inclined to buy allowances. The empirical findings are consistent with the notion that a person's beliefs about others’ stated willingness to purchase carbon allowances imply improvements in their own self-image and ultimately behavioural change. This suggests that information campaigns that attempt to influence beliefs about others’ intentions could promote ‘green’ consumer behaviour in the carbon allowance market. Such (stated) behaviour also appears to be influenced by a person's awareness of the problem of climate change and their beliefs about their own ability to contribute to solving it.

Policy relevance

Although there is a concern that public goods such as reduced climate change may be under-provided in the free market, individual concern for the environment occasionally has profound impacts on consumer choice and voluntary action. This research suggests that information campaigns that attempt to influence beliefs about others’ intentions could promote ‘green’ consumer behaviour in carbon allowance markets. Publicly-provided information about the impacts of climate change and the ways in which these damages stem from individual choices could also induce this type of behaviour.     

Gearing carbon trading towards environmental co-benefits in China: Measurement model and policy implications

Given the local effects of co-pollutant emissions, the trading of carbon dioxide emissions between facilities to meet global objectives may improve or worsen local air quality and public health. To gear carbon trading toward maximum environmental co-benefits, a quantitative model based on facility-level carbon dioxide emissions, air pollution dispersion and concentration-response functions is proposed and applied to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region to quantify potential changes of local public health caused by carbon dioxide transactions. The results show that the polluters with the highest Population Health Damage Intensity (PHDI) are medium-sized facilities, because larger facilities either employ more effective pollutant control technologies or are located farther away from densely populated areas. Using this modeling framework, key facilities, sectors and regions can be identified for maximizing the environmental co-benefits from introduction of carbon market and avoiding undesirable environmental damage.     

China’s changing economy and emissions trajectory: following global trends

A key climate policy issue and debate is the future trajectory of emissions of carbon dioxide of countries, their peaking dates, and rates of decline after peaking. This article analyses China’s emissions trajectory in terms of global historical trends distinguishing between industry, infrastructure, and urbanization. Growth of emissions from industrialization and infrastructure development has stabilized in 2014 with saturation levels being reached, while the process of urbanization continues with the shift of the economy to the services sector, with reduced energy use, and this is a global trend. The future trajectory of emissions will be shaped largely by growth of transport and building-related services which directly impact on and are shaped by middle-class levels of well-being. These are areas where convergence with levels of services in other urbanized countries is an important element of national policy. This global trend has not been adequately taken into account in modelling and macroeconomic analysis which ignore social processes. The article concludes that China’s 13th Five Year Plan (2016–2020) seeks to achieve a ‘moderately well-off society’ while putting a cap on total energy demand by modifying the drivers of consumption emissions compared with countries that urbanized earlier. The adoption of a public policy priority of dense mixed-use urban form, public transport, energy efficiency to enable energy system reform, and digital economy could be a model for others.

Policy relevance

The article redefines climate change in terms of social processes as urban form and notions of well-being lock-in increasing levels of future emissions of carbon dioxide. There are implications for research in assessing how best drivers of emissions can be modified without affecting well-being, including renewable and digital technologies and human behaviours that drive patterns of natural resource use as well as the identification of leverage points. There are also broader implications for replacing the development cooperation model of global climate governance to focus on new values recognizing interdependencies for sharing responsibility as well as prosperity.     

陆表自然和人文要素相互作用——“全球变化及应对”重点专项研究进展

在国家重点研发计划支持下,项目提出了陆表不均一性检测和订正的新方法,解决了渐变型不均一性检测和订正的难题,构建了中国地表太阳辐射、气温、地温、风速和降水等参数均一化站点和格点数据集,修订了关于中国地表风速变化趋势、增温格局及其形成机制的结论。融合多源数据,构建并验证了千米级、流域级或县域级的电厂、人口、生物质能、取水量、氮排放、二氧化碳排放等影响自然系统的关键人文要素历史和未来预估数据集。构建了未来关键人文要素情景,研制了碳中和目标下甲烷和氧化亚氮排放情景和用于驱动全球模式的未来情景,预估了中国碳中和战略的实施对全球变暖的减缓作用,发现中国碳中和对远期和中期全球变暖的减缓作用显著。给出了中国各省份水体氮排放安全阈值及超越时间,阐明了中国粮食产量与氮施肥的关系,提出了在保障粮食安全的前提下减少水体氮排放的有效途径,指出重构城乡养分循环体系是同时保障粮食安全和恢复水质的必要途径。发现全球饱和水汽压差的年际变化与大气二氧化碳浓度上升速率的年际变化显著相关,阐明了饱和水汽压差变化在调控生态系统生产力中的重要角色以及多因素耦合作用在生态系统生产力变化中的复杂影响。建议更全面细致地评估中国各种碳中...     

Relative radiative forcing consequences of global emissions of hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and NOx from human activities estimated with a zonally-averaged two-dimensional model

A global two-dimensional (altitude-latitude) chemistry transport model is used to follow the changes in the tropospheric distribution of the two major radiatively active trace gases, methane and ozone, following step changes to the sustained emissions of the short-lived trace gases methane, carbon monoxide and non-methane hydrocarbons. The radiative impacts were dependent on the latitude chosen for the applied change in emissions. Step change global warming potentials (GWPs) were derived for a range of short-lived trace gases to describe their time-integrated radiative forcing impacts for unit emissions relative to that of carbon dioxide. The GWPs show that the tropospheric chemistry of the hydrocarbons can produce significant indirect radiative impacts through changing the tropospheric distributions of hydroxyl radicals, methane and ozone. For aircraft, the indirect radiative forcing impact of the NO _x emissions appears to be greater than that from their carbon dioxide emissions. Quantitative results from this two-dimensional model study must, however, be viewed against the known inadequacies of zonally-averaged models and their poor representation of many important tropospheric processes.     

Emissions from Russian domestic civil aviation in 2000–2012 and integrated assessment of their impact on the climate system

Emissions from Russian domestic civil aviation for the period of 2000–2012 are assessed for the following gases: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur dioxide. The integrated assessment of their impact on the climate system is performed using the values of the global warming potential. The CO₂ equivalent was used as a common measure of emissions. It is established that the modern impact of Russian civil aviation on the Earth climate is insignificant.     

Brazil's Amazon forest in mitigating global warming: unresolved controversies

Brazil's Amazon rainforest provides an important environmental service with its storage of carbon, thereby reducing global warming. A growing number of projects and proposals intend to reward carbon storage services. Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation is currently a key issue for negotiations on an international agreement that is to take effect in 2013. Various issues require decisions that will have substantial impacts on both the effectiveness of mitigation and the scale of Amazonia's potential role. These decisions include the effects that money generated from payments can have, the spatial scale of mitigation (e.g. projects or countries and sub-national political units), whether to have voluntary or mandatory markets, and whether these reductions will generate carbon credits to offset emissions elsewhere. It is argued that national-level programmes, combined with a national target under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, are the best solution for Brazil in terms of both capturing international funding and stimulating the major cuts in global emissions that are needed to minimize climate risk to the Amazon rainforest. The high likelihood of passing a tipping point for maintaining the Amazon rainforest implies the need for urgency in altering current negotiating positions.     

The safe carbon budget

Cumulative emissions drive peak global warming and determine the carbon budget needed to keep temperature below 2 or 1.5 °C. This safe carbon budget is low if uncertainty about the transient climate response is high and risk tolerance (willingness to accept risk of overshooting the temperature target) is low. Together with energy costs, this budget determines the optimal carbon price and how quickly fossil fuel is abated and replaced by renewable energy. This price is the sum of the present discounted value of all future losses in aggregate production due to emitting one ton of carbon today plus the cost of peak warming that rises over time to reflect the increasing scarcity of carbon as temperature approaches its upper limit. If policy makers ignore production losses, the carbon price rises more rapidly. If they ignore the peak temperature constraint, the carbon price rises less rapidly. The alternative of adjusting damages upwards to factor in the peak warming constraint leads initially to a higher carbon price which rises less rapidly.