Global Carbon Project (GCP) Beijing Office: a new bridge for understanding regional carbon cycles

It has been widely accepted that human activities, especially burning fossil fuels and land use change, have altered the climate on earth and anthropogenic carbon fluxes have become comparable in magnitude with the natural fluxes in the global carbon cycle. The present and potential threat of adverse consequences has focused the attention of the scientists, policy makers and general public on the interaction among carbon cycle, climate change and human system. Asia is a hot spot from environmental change and sustainable development perspectives. The development pathways and environmental changes in the region have obvious consequences for the regional carbon cycle, even for global carbon budget, and the complex, diverse social, economic and environmental conditions make it highly difficult to understand and quantify these consequences. The GCP Beijing Office “will have a supporting and coordinating role and will provide coordination, leadership and capacity building on carbon cycle sciences in China and to the larger region of Asia” and “liaise with the two International Project Offices based in Canberra and Tsukuba to coordinate a regional and global strategy consistent with the GCP Science and Implementation Framework”.