Evaluating Climate Change Action Plans: National Actions for International Commitment

✍ Scribed by Oscar Avalle (auth.), James C. White, Wendy H. Petry, William R. Wagner (eds.)

• Publisher: Springer US
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 261
• Series: Environmental Science Research 53
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The atmospheric scientists of the world are in general agreement that the threat of climate change is real, inevitable, and serious. The accumulation of greenhouse gases, principally CO from burning fossil fuels, is the main cause. 2 At the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, 166 nations signed the Framework Convention on Climate Change and agreed to draw up plans to contain greenhouse gases at 1990 levels. Never in world history had so many nations agreed on anything. . Developing these plans has not been easy and no two countries have had the same circumstances and conditions to meet. Countries have not approached their problems in the same manner and many nations find the task almost impossible to solve under the ground rules set up in Rio. This volume contains the papers presented at a meeting organized by the Center for Environmental Information and held in Washington, D.C., November 30 to December 2, 1994. The principal aim of the meeting was to evaluate the U.S. and other national climate action plans which had been released a few weeks before. Specifically, these papers concentrate on an overview of the U.S. plan; the perspec­ tives of business, industry, electric utilities, and environmental organizations; mitigation actions in various plans; integrated assessment; an overview of plans from various nations; and the need to amend the convention. The meeting was sponsored and cosponsored by 35 governmental agencies, environ­ mental groups, industrial organizations, and educational institutions.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-xi
The International Negotiating Committee Process....Pages 1-3
The United States Perspective....Pages 5-8
Session I Discussion with Oscar Avalle and Daniel Reifsnyder....Pages 9-16
Scientific Status Report....Pages 17-28
Discussion with Robert Watson....Pages 29-33
The United States Action Plan....Pages 35-39
Luncheon Discussion with Karl Hausker....Pages 41-42
Perspectives on the U.S. Climate Action Plan....Pages 43-47
The Environmental Perspective....Pages 49-54
Industry/Business Perspectives....Pages 55-58
Business\Industry Perspectives....Pages 59-62
Session II Discussion with Robert Beck, John Hemphill, Daniel Lashof, and David Rinebolt....Pages 63-70
Critique Of Session II....Pages 71-74
Critique of Session II....Pages 75-88
Discussion with Elizabeth Cook and David Montgomery....Pages 89-95
Electric Power Supply Alternatives....Pages 97-110
Session III Discussion with Charles Siebenthal....Pages 111-112
Industrial Demand....Pages 113-117
Electric Utilities....Pages 119-122
Discussion with Dirk Forrester and Pamela Herman....Pages 123-126
Transportation....Pages 127-129
Discussion with Wesley Warren....Pages 131-132
Epa’s Programs for Cost-Effectively Reducing Methane Emissions and Emissions of Other Greenhouse Gases....Pages 133-138
Funding the U.S. climate Action Plan....Pages 139-145
Luncheon Discussion with T.J Glauthier....Pages 147-149
Canada’S National Action Plan....Pages 151-155
Climate Protection in Germany....Pages 157-166
Session IV Discussion with Richard Findlay and Wolfram Schoett....Pages 167-169
Japan’s Action Report on Climate Change....Pages 171-180
The National Action Plan for the United Kingdom....Pages 181-184
The Development of an Asia Pacific Regional Response to Climate Change....Pages 185-190
Discussion with Richard Findlay, Mark Hammond, Satoshi Tanaka, Wolfram Schoett, and John Topping....Pages 191-195
Critique Of Session IV....Pages 197-200
Discussion with Mark Hammond, Jennifer Morgan, Wolfram Schoett, and John Topping....Pages 201-203
After The Year 2000....Pages 205-207
Session V Discussion with Carol Werner....Pages 209-209
Integrated Assessment....Pages 211-221
Innovative Responses....Pages 223-227
Discussion with Irving Mintzer....Pages 229-230
Setting Goals under the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change....Pages 231-240
Discussion with Jonathan Pershing and Elizabeth Thorndike....Pages 241-242
Closing Remarks....Pages 243-248
Discussion with M. Granger Morgan, William Nitze, and Jonathan Pershing....Pages 249-257
Back Matter....Pages 259-270

✦ Subjects

Waste Management/Waste Technology; Ecotoxicology