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2018 ◼ options
‘Modest’ climate benefits from
LPG cooking
Switching from wood to liquefied petroleum
gas (LPG) cooking, could provide modest
climate benefits, but these vary based on the
extent of sustainable wood use, according to a
new analysis focused on India. Young Scientist
Summer Program researcher Devyani Singh
found that switching to LPG would reduce net
emissions by up to 6.73 metric tons of CO2
equivalent, if 30% wood is assumed non-
renewably sourced. Switching would also
reduce pressure on woodlands.
www.iiasa.ac.at/news/LPG-cooking-17
Climate change policy and
future wellbeing
What is the best mix of mitigation and
adaptation when it comes to climate change?
Fabian Wagner and his team found that the
answer depends on whether we care about the
aggregate wellbeing of humanity or the
average wellbeing. They also suggest that
lowering population growth could save tens of
billions of dollars annually and improve overall
wellbeing, while a larger population will
leave future generations at greater risk from
climate-related damage.
www.iiasa.ac.at/news/Climate-wellbeing-17
Who pays for climate loss
and damage?
There is increasing emphasis on adaptation to
climate change and the need to address the
‘loss and damage’ that occurs despite
mitigation efforts. Reinhard Mechler looked at
the debate around who should pay for such
costs and found that practical action is needed,
rather than just the current political debates.
Adaptation limits are already being breached in
some areas, highlighting the urgency of
fulfilling the Paris Agreement and tackling
the problem.
www.iiasa.ac.at/events/EGU-18
Sea level rises with peak
emission delays
Ensuring that global CO2 emissions peak as soon
as possible is crucial for limiting sea level rise,
even if global warming is limited to well below
2°C. A new study involving IIASA researcher
Joeri Rogelj, has now shown that each five-year
delay in peak global CO2 emissions will likely
increase the median sea-level rise for 2300 by
20cm. Emissions reductions must therefore be
implemented as quickly as possible.
www.iiasa.ac.at/news/Sea-level-18
According to IIASA researchers, international policymakers need a broader range of
scenarios as they seek to limit climate change to below 2°C above pre-industrial
levels, and to avoid the potential negative environmental and social consequences
of negative emissions technologies.
Ecosystems Services and Management Program Director Michael Obersteiner, led research
to develop alternative scenarios that place less reliance on negative emissions technologies.
“Many currently used emissions pathways assume that we can slowly decrease fossil
fuel emissions today and make up for it later with heavy implementation of negative
emissions technologies,” says Obersteiner. “This is a problem because it assumes that
we can put the burden on future generations, which is neither a realistic assumption, nor
morally acceptable.”
The largest share of scenarios achieving a 2°C target in the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change 5th Assessment Report, rely on late deployment of a single negative
emission technology, namely bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). Given
the highly uncertain nature of technological progress, or the responses of the earth system,
this is a more than risky strategy, says coauthor Johannes Bednar.
The researchers present four scenarios incorporating a broader range of mitigation
options, such as:
Major reliance on future carbon dioxide removal
Rapid decarbonization starting immediately, and halving every decade
Earlier implementation of carbon dioxide removal technologies, and phasing out by
the end of the century
Consistent implementation of carbon dioxide removal from now until the end of the
century.
Coauthor Fabian Wagner says: “As scientists we need to be careful when we
communicate to policymakers about how realistic different scenarios might be. When we
present scenarios that require the world to convert an amount of land equivalent to all of
today’s cropland to energy plantations, alarm bells should go off.” HT
Further info Obersteiner M, Bednar J, Wagner F, Gasser T, Ciais P, Forsell N, Havlik P, Valin H, et al. (2018).
How to spend a dwindling greenhouse gas budget. Nature Climate Change [pure.iiasa.ac.at/15031]
Michael Obersteiner oberstei@iiasa.ac.at
Thinking outside the box on
climate mitigation
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book options, Volume summer 2018"
options
Volume summer 2018
- Title
- options
- Volume
- summer 2018
- Location
- Laxenburg
- Date
- 2018
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY-NC 4.0
- Size
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Pages
- 28
- Categories
- Zeitschriften Options Magazine