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- Title
Towards monitoring anthropogenic CO2 emissions in support of the Paris Agreement.
- Authors
Janssens-Maenhout, Greet; Pinty, Bernard; Dowell, Mark; Zunker, Hugo; Danila, Ana-Maria; Ciais, Philippe; Dee, Dick; van der Gon, Hugo Denier; Dolman, Han; Engelen, Richard; Heimann, Martin; Holmlund, Kenneth; Kentarchos, Anastasios; Meijer, Yasjka; Palmer, Paul; Scholze, Marko; Brunhes, Thomas
- Abstract
The Paris Agreement (PA) is a landmark agreement because for the first time all 195participating countries are committed to take climate change mitigation and adaptationactions and track progress with implementation of such action through an enhancedtransparency framework with common modalities, procedures and guidelines. Whileregularly updated inventories of national anthropogenic GHG emissions, also referenced to asbottom-up estimates (more than three quarters being CO2 emissions from fossil fuel burningand cement production), will form the core of monitoring and tracking progress with effortsto reduce global emissions towards PA goals, so-called top-down atmospheric measurementsare required to provide observation-based evidence of emission trends in near-realtime at higher spatial and temporal resolution. The scientific community alreadybrings together top-down and bottom-up information in the yearly update of theglobal carbon budget, but no international system exists to monitor and supportemission reductions estimated from national inventories on an operational basisthat is useful for the following up on the Paris Agreement. Such a system shouldprovide information at scales from large power-plants and cities to regional areas andcountries. The European Commission, together with European Space Agency and supported by theEuropean Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, the European Organisation for theExploitation of Meteorological Satellites and international experts, is developing a newoperational capacity for monitoring and verifying anthropogenic CO2 emissions spelling outthe ingredients for a dedicated European CO2 Earth Observation service under theCopernicus Programme. Design studies are carried out to help define the underpinningrequirements and foundational building blocks of such a CO2 emission monitoringcapacity with: (i) atmospheric space-borne and in-situ measurements, (ii) near-realtime bottom-up CO2 emission maps, (iii) an operational data-assimilation systemintegrating top down and bottom-up information, (iv) a decision support tool forpolicymakers. The ultimate goal is to build an observation system with capabilities to monitoranthropogenic CO2 emissions with operational and internationally coordinated capabilitieslikely to be established by 2026. This can complement the enhanced transparency frameworkforeseen by the Paris Agreement, providing governments and citizens with actionableinformation on the anthropogenic CO2 actually emitted into the Earth System’s atmosphere,such that they can reflect on the trends and on the effectiveness of the reduction measures andreact correspondingly.
- Subjects
EUROPEAN Commission; EUROPEAN Space Agency; LONG-range weather forecasting; CLIMATE change mitigation; ATMOSPHERIC methane; METEOROLOGICAL satellites; GREENHOUSE gases; SATELLITE meteorology; FOSSIL fuels
- Publication
Geophysical Research Abstracts, 2019, Vol 21, p1
- ISSN
1029-7006
- Publication type
Article