2019 – Posted in: Daily News – Tags: GHG emission, Greenhouse gas, IPCC, UNFCCC

GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS

For: Preliminary & Mains
Topic covers: GHG, New updated guidelines, IPCC, UNFCCC

News Flash

A United Nations climate change panel updated guidelines for governments to estimate greenhouse gas emissions so the most up-to-date scientific research is included.

Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, governments use common methodologies to measure how many greenhouse emissions they have produced and how many have been removed from the atmosphere.

What

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said the new 2019 guidelines built on 2006 methodologies by updating gaps and out-of-date science.

They include new technologies and emissions sources across the energy; industrial processes and product use; agriculture, forestry and other land use; waste.
The 2019 Refinement provides an updated and sound scientific basis for supporting the preparation and continuous improvement of national greenhouse gas inventories.
Over 280 scientists and experts worked on the 2019 Refinement to produce many changes to the general guidance as well as methodologies.

Role of Nations

Governments are required to report their national greenhouse gas inventories — comprising estimates of greenhouse gas emissions and removals — to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) including under processes such as the Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement.

The 2019 Refinement

The new report, the 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (2019 Refinement), was prepared by the IPCC’s Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (TFI).
The 2019 Refinement provides an updated and sound scientific basis for supporting the preparation and continuous improvement of national greenhouse gas inventories.
The 2019 Refinement provides supplementary methodologies to estimate sources that produce emissions of greenhouse gases and sinks that absorb these gases.
It also addresses gaps in the science that were identified, new technologies and production processes have emerged, or for sources and sinks that were not included in the 2006 IPCC Guidelines.
It also provides updated values of some emission factors used to link the emission of a greenhouse gas for a particular source to the amount of activity causing the emission. Updates are provided where authors identified significant differences from values in the 2006 IPCC Guidelines.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

The IPCC is the UN body for assessing the science related to climate change. It was established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988 to provide policymakers with regular scientific assessments concerning climate change, its implications and potential future risks, and to put forward adaptation and mitigation strategies. It has 195 member states.

IPCC assessments provide governments, at all levels, with scientific information that they can use to develop climate policies. IPCC assessments are a key input into the international negotiations to tackle climate change.

The IPCC has three working groups:

I -Working Group (the physical science basis of climate change);
II -Working Group (impacts, adaptation and vulnerability)
III -Working Group (mitigation of climate change).

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

UNFCCC is an international environmental treaty adopted on 9 May 1992 and opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro from 3 to 14 June 1992.

The UNFCCC secretariat (UN Climate Change) was also established in 1992 when countries adopted the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
With the subsequent adoption of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 and the Paris Agreement in 2015, Parties to these three agreements have progressively reaffirmed the secretariat’s role as the United Nations entity tasked with supporting the global response to the threat of climate change.
Since 1995, the secretariat is located in Bonn, Germany.

Greenhouse Gas emission

Greenhouse gases trap heat and make the planet warmer. Gases that trap heat in the atmosphere are called greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide, a key greenhouse gas that drives global climate change, continues to rise every month.

Carbon dioxide (CO2)

The gas, Carbon dioxide enters the atmosphere through burning fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, and oil), solid waste, trees and other biological materials, and also as a result of certain chemical reactions (e.g., manufacture of cement).

It is removed from the atmosphere when it is absorbed by plants as part of the biological carbon cycle.

Methane (CH4)

Methane is emitted during the production and transport of coal, natural gas, and oil.

Its emissions also result from livestock and other agricultural practices and by the decay of organic waste in municipal solid waste landfills.

Nitrous oxide (N2O)

Nitrous oxide is emitted during agricultural and industrial activities, combustion of fossil fuels and solid waste, as well as during treatment of wastewater.

Fluorinated gases

Hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride, and nitrogen trifluoride are synthetic, powerful greenhouse gases that are emitted from a variety of industrial processes.

Fluorinated gases are sometimes used as substitutes for stratospheric ozone-depleting substances (e.g., chlorofluorocarbons, hydrochlorofluorocarbons, and halons).

These gases are typically emitted in smaller quantities, but because they are potent greenhouse gases, they are sometimes referred to as High Global Warming Potential gases (“High GWP gases”).

Source: Economic times

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