The influence of land-use change and landscape dynamics on the climate system: relevance to climate-change policy beyond the radiative effect of greenhouse gases

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annalisa Savaresi ◽  
Lucia Perugini

Under the recently adopted 2030 EU climate change policy framework, land use, land use change and forestry (lulucf) will for the first time contribute to the EU’s economy wide emission reduction target. This article looks at the history of the lulucf Regulation, analysing its contents in light of the history of international and regional efforts to regulate emissions and removals in this specific sector. It highlights the challenges associated with regulating this specific sector and reviews the regulation, assessing how well it has addressed these challenges.


Author(s):  
Alex L. Wang

This chapter outlines China’s developing climate change response. The nation is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases and the largest consumer of energy. China’s engagement in the international climate change negotiations can be divided into three phases: a ‘learning’ phase from 1989 to 1995; a shift toward more active participation between 1995 and 2007; and more comprehensive engagement on climate change domestically and internationally around the time of the UN Climate Conference in Bali in 2007. Shortly before the conference, Chinese authorities announced for the first time a comprehensive National Climate Change Program. It presented a range of existing policies created earlier to address other energy and environmental issues.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 4713-4747
Author(s):  
Tokuta Yokohata ◽  
Tsuguki Kinoshita ◽  
Gen Sakurai ◽  
Yadu Pokhrel ◽  
Akihiko Ito ◽  
...  

Abstract. Future changes in the climate system could have significant impacts on the natural environment and human activities, which in turn affect changes in the climate system. In the interaction between natural and human systems under climate change conditions, land use is one of the elements that play an essential role. On the one hand, future climate change will affect the availability of water and food, which may impact land-use change. On the other hand, human-induced land-use change can affect the climate system through biogeophysical and biogeochemical effects. To investigate these interrelationships, we developed MIROC-INTEG-LAND (MIROC INTEGrated LAND surface model version 1), an integrated model that combines the land surface component of global climate model MIROC (Model for Interdisciplinary Research on Climate) with water resources, crop production, land ecosystem, and land-use models. The most significant feature of MIROC-INTEG-LAND is that the land surface model that describes the processes of the energy and water balance, human water management, and crop growth incorporates a land use decision-making model based on economic activities. In MIROC-INTEG-LAND, spatially detailed information regarding water resources and crop yields is reflected in the prediction of future land-use change, which cannot be considered in the conventional integrated assessment models. In this paper, we introduce the details and interconnections of the submodels of MIROC-INTEG-LAND, compare historical simulations with observations, and identify various interactions between the submodels. By evaluating the historical simulation, we have confirmed that the model reproduces the observed states well. The future simulations indicate that changes in climate have significant impacts on crop yields, land use, and irrigation water demand. The newly developed MIROC-INTEG-LAND could be combined with atmospheric and ocean models to develop an integrated earth system model to simulate the interactions among coupled natural–human earth system components.


2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-76
Author(s):  
Gunnar Köhlin ◽  
Alemu Mekonnen ◽  
Lisa Westholm

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tokuta Yokohata ◽  
Tsuguki Kinoshita ◽  
Gen Sakurai ◽  
Yadu Pokhrel ◽  
Akihiko Ito ◽  
...  

Abstract. Future changes in the climate system could have significant impacts on the natural environment and human activities, which in turn affect changes in the climate system. In the interaction between natural and human systems under climate change conditions, land use is one of the elements that play an essential role. Future climate change will affect the availability of water and food, which may impact land-use change. On the other hand, human land-use change can affect the climate system through bio-geophysical and bio-geochemical effects. To investigate these interrelationships, we developed MIROC-INTEG1 (MIROC INTEGrated terrestrial model version 1), an integrated model that combines the global climate model MIROC (Model for Interdisciplinary Research on Climate) with water resources, crop production, land ecosystem, and land use models. In this paper, we introduce the details and interconnections of the sub-models of MIROC-INTEG1, compare historical simulations with observations, and identify the various interactions between sub-models. MIROC-INTEG1 makes it possible to quantitatively evaluate the feedback processes or nexus between climate, water resources, crop production, land use, and ecosystem, and to assess the risks, trade-offs and co-benefits associated with future climate change and prospective mitigation and adaptation policies.


1998 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 449-461
Author(s):  
Peter Palinkas

The EU has always tried to play a major role in coordinating the activities of its now 15 Member States in the broad area of climate change policy. This active role of the EU was demonstrated in the first climate protection negotiations (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), the follow-up conferences (Berlin 1995 and Geneva 1996) and finally at the Kyoto-Conference in December 1997. At the Kyoto-Conference the EU negotiators had to abandon their original negotiating position of 15% reduction based on three greenhouse gases. The final Protocol requires a collective EU reduction by 8% based on 6 gases. This modification is, however, closer to the initial EU position than it indicates, since the final commitment based on six gases is roughly equivalent to a 13% reduction based on 3 gases only. Further compromise made by the EU was on the issue of differentiation. Keeping the “EU-bubble” approach, the EU had to accept country-specific reduction targets as initially proposed by the Japanese delegation. The EU also had to agree on including emissions-trading and joint implementation in the Protocol. During the negotiations EU representatives expressed their concern that trading must not become a substitute for any domestic actions. Consequently, in the Protocol any emission trading is declared as supplementary to domestic actions. Despite the number of unavoidable concessions made by the EU negotiators, the European Commission recognized that the Kyoto protocol is an important first step toward reversing the upward trend in the emissions of greenhouse gases. However, the EU Commissioner Ritt Bjerregaard expressed a certain disappointment in not reaching agreement on even more ambitious commitments.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 4310
Author(s):  
Yeora Chae ◽  
Seo Hyung Choi ◽  
Yong Jee Kim

Climate action is goal 13 of UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Future impacts of climate change depend on climatic changes, the level of climate change policy, both mitigation and adaptation, and socio-economic status and development pathways. To investigate the climate change policy impact of socio-economic development pathways, we develop three pathways. Climate change affects socio-economic development in many ways. We interpret global storylines into South Korean contexts: Shared Socio-economic Pathway 1 (SSP1), SSP2, and SSP3 for population, economy, and land use. SSP elements and proxies were identified and elaborated through stakeholder participatory workshops, demand survey on potential users, past trends, and recent national projections of major proxies. Twenty-nine proxies were quantified using sector-specific models and downscaled where possible. Socio-economic and climate scenarios matrixes enable one to quantify the contribution of climate, population, economic development, and land-use change in future climate change impacts. Economic damage between climate scenarios is different in SSPs, and it highlights that SSPs are one of the key components for future climate change impacts. Achieving SDGs generates additional incentives for local and national governments as it can reduce mitigation and adaptation policy burden.


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