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It is now accepted that tourism is a significant contributor to global climate change, especially through air travel's high greenhouse gas emissions. This paper analyses the dilemmas facing tourism planning in many small island developing states and presents a model approach toward overcoming those dilemmas by adapting carbon neutral tourism policies. It researches the implementation issues facing carbon neutral tourism policies on the Seychelles Islands: tourism to the islands is energy-intensive, and current plans to increase tourist numbers will entail growing emissions of greenhouse gases. This paper analyses tourism's current levels of energy use and emissions, and explores ways to reduce them. Based on a survey of tourists and industry representatives in the Seychelles, it discusses options for tourism-dependent small island developing states to implement and finance carbon neutrality, while outlining the complexities and limitations of such an objective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are several air pollution issues that concern the international community at the regional and global level, including acid deposition, heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants, stratospheric ozone depletion, and climate change. Governments at the regional and global levels have entered into various agreements in an effort to deal with these problems. This paper deals with two major global atmospheric change issues: stratospheric ozone depletion and climate change. The focus is on the policy responses of the United States to these global issues. The United States has signed and ratified international agreements to deal with both problems. The Vienna Convention and the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer have led to an effort in both developed and developing countries to phase out ozone depleting substances. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has been signed and ratified by over 180 countries. The UNFCC contained no binding targets and timetables for emissions reductions. The Kyoto Protocol (1997) to the UNFCCC did contain targets and timetables for reductions of greenhouse gases on the part of developed countries. The United States has signed but not ratified the Kyoto Protocol. The United States has experienced some movement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on the part of various levels of government as well as the private sector. The policy process is constantly informed by scientific research. In the case of stratospheric ozone depletion and climate change, much of this work is carried out under the auspices of international scientific panels. From a policy perspective, there is a great deal of interest in the use of indicators for assessing the scope and magnitude of these problems, both for fashioning policy responses as well as assessing the impact of adopted programs to reduce ozone depleting substances, and potentially, greenhouse gases. This paper will discuss some of the indicators used for stratospheric ozone depletion and climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Global climate change is one of the most important issues of contemporary environmental safety. A scientific consensus is forming that the emissions of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane, from anthropogenic activities may play a key role in elevating the global temperatures. Quantifying soil greenhouse gas emissions is an essential task for understanding the atmospheric impacts of anthropogenic activities in terrestrial ecosystems. In most soils, production or consumption of the three major greenhouse gases is regulated by interactions among soil redox potential, carbon source and electron acceptors. Two classical formulas, the Nernst equation and the Michaelis–Menten equation, describe the microorganism-mediated redox reactions from aspects of thermodynamics and reaction kinetics, respectively. The two equations are functions of a series of environmental factors (e.g. temperature, moisture, pH, Eh) that are regulated by a few ecological drivers, such as climate, soil properties, vegetation and anthropogenic activity. Given the complexity of greenhouse gas production in soils, process-based models are required to interpret, integrate and predict the intricate relationships among the gas emissions, the environmental factors and the ecological drivers. This paper reviews the scientific basis underlying the modeling of greenhouse gas emissions from terrestrial soils. A case study is reported to demonstrate how a biogeochemical model can be used to predict the impacts of alternative management practices on greenhouse gas emissions from rice paddies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, an era of global efforts to combat climate change is beginning. Countries belonging to Annex I Parties are obligated to meet their target in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This paper broadens the scope of research to compare the performance between two groups, Annex II Parties and economies in transition (EIT) Parties (both of which are in the set of Annex I Parties), undertaking responsibilities for GHG emission reduction. This differs from the traditional application of evaluation and aims to identify inherent efficiency differences across systems, rather than separately from the potential inefficiency of individual countries. An efficiency gap was found between the group of Annex II Parties and the group of EIT Parties, by adjusting efficiency levels. Considering a reference set, efficient Annex II countries are referenced, both within their own group and within the EIT group; efficient EIT countries are only benchmarked within the group. The evidence provided can shed light on the function of joint implementation, that Annex I countries will cooperate to reduce GHG emissions, based on their common, but differentiated, responsibilities and capacity for global climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Boreal forests and wetlands play an important role in the climate system, in particular through biosphere-atmosphere flux exchanges. They are an important pool of carbon and their role as sink or source of greenhouse gases is not fully understood. Accurate mapping of the vegetation of Siberia can therefore contribute to a better understanding of these processes at regional scale and of their effects on the climate through regional biosphere modeling. The potential of the combination of radar data with medium-resolution optical data to obtain regional-scale land cover mapping is investigated using multi-spectral imagery from the MERIS sensor at 300 m resolution and a high resolution radar mosaic (pixel spacing of 100 m) covering Western and Eastern Siberia compiled in the framework of the Global Boreal Forest Mapping project. For this purpose, capabilities of oriented-object image analysis associated to wavelet multi-resolution techniques are investigated. Results show that wavelet multi-resolution textures bring relevant additional information for land cover classification. Suggestions are made for the implementation of an object-based wavelet multi-resolution texture estimator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses how Europe will launch an updated emissions trading program for greenhouse gases in 2005 which is much larger and more complex than the U.S. effort. Role of market-based policies in environmental regulation and in the formation of future European and international climate change policies; Consideration of the plans for the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) to address global climate change implement a more consistent trading program among nations; Innovations regarding provisions that provide flexibility in monitoring and compliance; Difficulty associated with the preparation and review of National Allocation Plans; Use of auctions in the distribution of tradable emissions allowances in the U.S. INSETS: EUROPEAN UNION TERMINOLOGY;KEY FEATURES OF EU ETS;EFFECTIVE EMISSIONS TRADING PROGRAMS: A VIEW FROM THE ECONOMICS;SUMMARY OF U.S. TRADING PROGRAMS

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has established beyond reasonable doubt not only that the problem of anthropogenic climate change is real but also that it already has begun and merits a concerted response. The wide range of uncertainties in scientific projections of climate change makes it difficult, for example, to arrive at economic engineering criteria for new dams or levee banks that would withstand probable maximum flood levels during their design life or to assess the cost-benefit ratio associated with any chosen mitigation target. Its mandate currently is twofold: to assess available information on the science, impacts, and economics of, and options for mitigating and adapting to-climate change, and to provide, on request, scientific, technical, and socioeconomic advice to the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC). Two basic strategies for responding to climate change include the mitigation of anthropogenic climate change and adaptation to whatever climate change cannot be avoided by mitigation. Using an energy systems-engineering model, various pathways for optimal costs and benefits were evaluated, and their results suggest that there might be a tendency for alternative futures to take one of two courses. Nearly all climate change impact assessments to date have studied impacts of climate change or sea-level rise on society with a baseline socioeconomic structure much like that of today. This theme is especially important in putting climate change in context and in synergistically integrating policy responses to climate change within the framework of overall development policies. Some impacts of anthropogenic climate change may become apparent slowly, and some could become irreversible if climate change is not limited in both rate and magnitude before associated thresholds. INSETS: The Future Role of IPCC;The Policy Relevance of Inertia and Time Lags;Climate Change and Sustainability;Potential Key Issues for the United States

The global atmosphere is changing. Anthropogenic activities are increasing the concentrations of greenhouse gases and releasing synthetic compounds that deplete stratospheric ozone and increase UV-B radiation. Changes of temperature in the Northern Hemisphere during the past century strongly suggest that we are now in a period of rapid global warming relative to the past millennium. Increased concentrations of greenhouse gases are absorbing outgoing infrared radiation in the lower atmosphere, warming the troposphere and cooling the lower stratosphere. Research is beginning to indicate that losses of stratospheric ozone and increases of greenhouse gases are interdependent. Increased greenhouse gases have been implicated in the observed strengthening of stratospheric wind vortices around both poles, in turn setting the stage for further depletion of ozone and increases in UV-B radiation. Although the uncertainties are still large enough to make it difficult to assess health and ecological risks, decisions must be made. Research on indicators of risks to human health and the environment can help reduce the uncertainties in these risks and shorten the time between recognizing the risks of atmospheric change and taking concrete mitigative and adaptive actions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Heightened public concerts, pending federal legislation, and calls for an international treaty to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases have placed pressure on resource planners to mitigate the causes and impacts of anthropogenic climate change despite uncertainly over its timing and magnitude. Traditional resource planning. however, as predicated on the assumption that future environmental conditions will emulate the past, and is based on total and national, rather than global, objectives, The threat of global warming calls for a new paradigm of resource planning, including expanded sensitivity analysis, incremental response as the threat evolves, an expanded range unadjustments and planning in a global context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]