《巴黎协定》:全球应对气候变化的里程碑

正2015年12月12日,巴黎气候大会通过了遏止全球暖化的《巴黎协定》,这是继1997年制定的《京都议定书》之后全球气候治理领域又一实质性文件。协定对2020年后全球应对气候变化行动作出了安排,并发出世界向低碳发展转型的清晰信号,虽然并不完美,但它将全球气候治理进程大大向前推进了一步。《巴黎协定》是一份什么样的协定?2015年11月30日至12月12日在巴黎召开的第21届"联合国气候变化大会"(简     

环境资讯

正【环境新闻】气候大会掌握人类命运中美等国重申气候承诺"这会是拯救世界的12天吗?"第21届联合国气候变化大会(简称COP21)11月30日至12月11日在巴黎召开。各国媒体纷纷把焦点从国内关注的事情转向这一关系每个人的全球性问题——气候变化上来。全球150多个国家和地区的领导人在同一时间聚集在巴黎,共同承担应对全球气候变暖     

中美达成强化气候行动联合宣言

正11月10日,中国和美国在联合国气候变化格拉斯哥大会期间发布《中美关于在21世纪20年代强化气候行动的格拉斯哥联合宣言》。双方赞赏迄今为止开展的工作,承诺继续共同努力,并与各方一道,推进《巴黎协定》的实施。在共同但有区别的责任和各自能力原则、考虑各国国情的基础上,采取强化的气候行动,有效应对气候危机。双方同意建立"21世纪20年代强化气候行动工作组",推动两国气候变化合作和多边进程。     

2015年全球环境十大热点事件

一、巴黎气候大会达成《巴黎气候协定》2015年12月12日,195个《联合国气候变化框架公约》缔约方代表在法国巴黎达成了历史性协议即《巴黎气候协定》,确定全球平均气温较工业化前水平升高幅度控制在2摄氏度之内的目标,并提出为把升温控制在1.5摄氏度之内而努力。协定是继1997年制定的《京都议定书》之后,     

国际碳排放权交易模式的更替发展与协同优化路径

实现碳中和是各国应对气候变化的共同选择。碳市场作为以碳排放权交易为核心的市场机制是加速全球碳排放目标实现的重要途径之一。尽管当前全球碳市场的发展仍呈现区域性和碎片化状态,但随着能源危机的加剧,极端气候灾难的不确定性增多,未来通过碳市场领域的国际合作实现全球碳市场的协同以应对气候变化仍是大势所趋。本文试图通过对国际碳市场进行回顾和类型化总结,并就《巴黎协定》下国际碳交易模式的协同困境从技术、制度和参与程度三个维度开展分析。作者认为,如欲加快全球碳交易的协同进程,应尽快完善国际碳交易中的技术适用细节,提升碳交易相关制度的适用力度,扩大碳交易相关制度的适用范围,加强发展中国家的碳市场的基础建设,拓展发展中国家碳交易市场建设支持来源,最终建立全球碳价格统一机制。提前布局研究碳市场的跨境连接方案对于中国而言极具现实意义,本文最后对中国参与全球碳交易市场的国际合作前景作出了展望。     

缤纷资讯

国际资讯建设低碳城市应对气候变化第六届全球人居环境论坛近日在纽约举行,主题为"建设低碳城市,应对气候变化"。论坛交流分享了世界各国建设低碳城市的先进理念、创新技术和最佳范例,发布了联合国和世界银行"测定城市温室气体的国际标准"和"可持续建筑指数"等标准体系的最新成果以及《建设低碳城市应对气候变化纽约宣言》。     

我国石油行业应对气候变化的策略

巴黎气候大会后,世界各国应对气候变化的认识与行动逐步达成共识,能源行业绿色低碳发展成为趋势。文章分析了气候变化对石油行业带来的机遇和挑战,总结了国际石油公司典型做法,探讨了我国石油行业应对气候变化的主要策略。我国石油行业应积极推动供给侧改革,发展天然气、清洁油品、生物燃料、地热等清洁能源;减少生产过程温室气体排放;探索发展碳捕集和封存技术(CCS)、碳化工等新兴业务;建立完善的低碳发展决策、管理、研究体系。     

天然气替代:改善环境质量的根本之策

走绿色、清洁、低碳的能源发展道路,不仅是防治大气污染的根本之策,是中国经济社会可持续发展的有力保障,也是中国作为最大发展中国家对全世界庄严承诺的践行。习近平总书记提出"四个革命、一个合作"的发展战略,为中国能源革命指明了方向,是中国发展天然气、推进天然气领域改革必须遵循的基本原则。2016年在杭州召开的G20峰会上,中国政府签署了《巴黎协定》,承诺在2030年左右实现碳排放达到峰值,大规模发展天然气已势在必行。     

联合国气候变化大会部长级会议开幕

《联合国气候变化框架公约》第十九次缔约方会议暨《京都议定书》第九次缔约方会议部长级会议11月19日在波兰首都华沙开幕。中国代表团团长、国家发改委副主任谢振华在会上发表讲话,阐述了中国在应对全球气候变化问题上的主张和立场,呼吁发达国家切实兑现对全球应对气候变化基金的出资承诺,称这是本次气候大会成败的关键。     

全球气候治理背景下中国气候金融发展的挑战和应对

气候金融是全球气候治理的重要基础和关键要素。国际政治局势的变动和《巴黎协定》的签订使得全球气候治理格局发生了重大转变。文章基于这一时代背景和国际气候金融发展趋势,从气候金融政策发展、气候金融机构及其产品和服务、气候金融风险管理三个角度梳理中国气候金融发展现状和内外部障碍。基于此,文章提出了气候金融发展的中国应对策略,认为应健全政策体系,加强国际合作;扩大金融供给,完善行业体系;健全法规约束,提升管理水平。     

Conversion of temperate forests into heaths: Role of ecosystem disturbance and ericaceous plants

Fire and logging in nutrient-poor temperate forests with certain ericaceous understory plants may convert the forests into heaths. The process of disturbance-induced heath formation is documented by using examples ofCalluna in western Europe,Kalmia in Newfoundland, andGaultheria (salal) in coastal British Columbia. In a cool, temperate climate, rapid vegetative growth ofCalluna, Kalmia, and salal following disturbance results in increasing organic accumulation (paludification), nutrient sequestration, soil acidification, and allelochemicals. These are thought to be the main reasons to conifer regeneration failure in disturbed habitats. If continuation in forest is a land-use objective, then temperate forests with an ericaceous understory should not be logged unless effective silvicultural methods are devised to control the ericaceous plants and restore forest regeneration. Preharvest vegetation control may be considered as an option. Failure to control the understory plants may lead to a long-term vegetation shift, from forest to heathland, particularly in nutrient-poor sites. Successful methods of controllingKalmia andGaultheria, however, have yet to be developed. While theKalmia- andGaultheria- dominated heathlands are undesirable in Canada and the Pacific Northwest, a wide range ofCalluna heathlands of western Europe are being conserved as natural and seminatural vegetation.     

BIOLOGICAL INDICATORS AND BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF ESTUARINE/COASTAL POLLUTION1

ABSTRACT: Sustained interest in and concern about the health status of the aquatic environment has resulted in extensive research focused on (1) effects of pollution on survival, growth, and reproduction of resource species at all life stages; (2) diseases of fish and shellfish, as they may be related to pollution and as they may serve as indicators of environmental stress; and (3) contaminant body burdens in fish and shellfish - their effects on the aquatic animals and their potential effects on humans. Effects, lethal and sublethal, of pollutants on life history stages of fish and shellfish have been documented, as have impacts on local stocks in badly degraded habitats, but as yet there has been no adequate quantitative demonstration of effects on entire aquatic species - probably because of the difficulty in sorting out relative effects of the many environmental factors that influence abundance. Sublethal effects, especially those that result in disease, have been examined intensively, and some diseases and disease syndromes have been associated statistically with pollution. Other pollution indicators (biochemical, physiological, genetic, behavioral, and ecological) have also received some attention, as have body burdens of contaminants in aquatic species. Research, especially that conducted during the past decade, has done much to clarify the many pathways and toxic effects of contaminants on aquatic animals, and has also helped to identify mechanisms for survival of fish and shellfish in the presence of environmental changes caused by human activities.     

Using Paleo Reconstructions to Improve Streamflow Forecast Lead Time in the Western United States

In water stressed regions, water managers are exploring new horizons that would help in long‐range streamflow forecasts. Oceanic‐atmospheric oscillations have been shown to influence streamflow variability. In this study, long‐lead time streamflow forecasts are made using a multiclass kernel‐based data‐driven support vector machine (SVM) model. The extended streamflow records based on tree ring reconstructions were used to provide a longer time series data. Reconstructed data were used from 1658 to 1952 and the instrumental record was used from 1953 to 2007. Reconstructions for oceanic‐atmospheric oscillations included the El Niño‐Southern Oscillation, Pacific Decadal Oscillation, Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, and North Atlantic Oscillation. Streamflow forecasts using all four oscillations were made with one‐year to five‐year lead times for 21 gages in the western United States. This is the first study that uses both instrumental and reconstructed data of oscillations in SVM model to improve streamflow forecast lead time. SVM model was able to provide “satisfactory” to “very good” forecasts with one‐ to five‐year lead time for the selected gages. The use of all the oscillation indices helped in achieving better predictability compared to using individual oscillations. The SVM modeling results are better when compared with multiple linear regression model forecasts. The findings are statistical in nature and are expected to be useful for long‐term water resources planning and management.     

Journalists' views of advertiser pressures on agricultural news

All major journalism ethical codes explicitly state that journalists should protect editorial copy from undue influence by outside sources. However, much of the previous research on agricultural information has concentrated on what information various media communicate (gatekeeping studies) or communication's role in increasing innovation adoption (diffusion studies). Few studies have concentrated specifically on organizational and structural constraints that might adversely affect agricultural journalists' ethical standards; those that have, focus largely on farm magazines. A study of newspaper reporters who cover agricultural news found that the most pressing ethical concern is the effect of advertiser (agri-business) pressure on editorial copy, and that their concerns in general parallel those of farm magazine writers and editors. The majority reported being in situations in which they might be exposed to advertiser pressure, including pressures to change or withhold editorial copy. Large minorities suggested that advertising pressures affect the overall environment in which agricultural journalists work, and more than one in ten said they allow advertiser pressures to influence editorial decisions. The newspaper reporters who cover agricultural beats showed slightly more resistance to advertiser pressure than did farm magazine editors in a parallel study.     

Definition Procedures Have Little Effect on Performance of Environmental Classifications of Streams and Rivers

Mapped environmental classifications are defined using various procedures, but there has been little evaluation of the differences in their ability to discriminate variation in independent ecological characteristics. We tested the performance of environmental classifications of the streams and rivers of France that had been defined from the same environmental data using geographic regionalization and numerical classification of individual river valley segments. Test data comprised invertebrate assemblages, water chemistry, and hydrological indexes obtained from sites throughout France. Classification performance was measured by analysis of similarity (ANOSIM). Geometric regions defined by a regular grid and without regard to environmental variables and a posteriori classifications based on clustering the test datasets defined lower and upper bounds of performance for a given number of classes. Differences in classification performances were generally small. The ANOSIM statistics for the a posteriori classifications were around twice that of all environmental classifications, including geometrically defined regions. The hydro-ecoregions performed slightly better for the invertebrate data and the network classification performed slightly better for the chemistry and hydrological data. Our results indicate that environmental classifications that are defined using different procedures can be comparable in terms of their ability to discriminate variation of ecological characteristics and that alleged differences in performance arising from different classification procedures can be small relative to unexplained variation. We conclude that definition procedures might have little effect on the performance of large-scale environmental classifications and decisions over which procedures to use should be based primarily on pragmatic considerations.     

Urban ecological systems: scientific foundations and a decade of progress

Urban ecological studies, including focus on cities, suburbs, and exurbs, while having deep roots in the early to mid 20th century, have burgeoned in the last several decades. We use the state factor approach to highlight the role of important aspects of climate, substrate, organisms, relief, and time in differentiating urban from non-urban areas, and for determining heterogeneity within spatially extensive metropolitan areas. In addition to reviewing key findings relevant to each state factor, we note the emergence of tentative "urban syndromes" concerning soils, streams, wildlife and plants, and homogenization of certain ecosystem functions, such as soil organic carbon dynamics. We note the utility of the ecosystem approach, the human ecosystem framework, and watersheds as integrative tools to tie information about multiple state factors together. The organismal component of urban complexes includes the social organization of the human population, and we review key modes by which human populations within urban areas are differentiated, and how such differentiation affects environmentally relevant actions. Emerging syntheses in land change science and ecological urban design are also summarized. The multifaceted frameworks and the growing urban knowledge base do however identify some pressing research needs.     

Neighbourhood characteristics and urban gardens in the Toledo metropolitan area: staffing and voluntarism,food production,infrastructure, and sustainability practices

Urban gardens are important sources of sustenance for communities with limited access to food. Hence, this study focuses on food production in gardens in the Toledo metropolitan area in Northwest Ohio. We administered surveys to 150 garden managers from November 2014 to February 2015 in our attempt to better understand how neighbourhood racial composition and poverty levels are related to staffing and voluntarism, food production and distribution, the development of infrastructure, and the adoption of sustainability practices in urban gardens. The results from 30 gardens are presented in this paper. We used Geographic Information Systems to map the gardens and overlay the map with 2010 census data so that we could conduct demographic analyses of the neighbourhoods in which the gardens were located. Though the gardens were small – two acres or less – up to 46 varieties of food were grown in a single garden. Gardens also operated on small budgets. Food from the gardens was gifted or shared with friends, family, and neighbourhood residents. Gardens in predominantly minority neighbourhoods tended to have fewer institutional partners, less garden infrastructure, and had adopted fewer sustainable practices than gardens in predominantly White neighbourhoods. Nonetheless, residents of predominantly minority and high-poverty neighbourhoods participated in garden activities and influenced garden operations. Volunteering and staffing were racialised and gendered.     

Predicting deer-vehicle collisions in an urban area

Collisions with deer and other large animals are increasing, and the resulting economic costs and risks to public safety have made mitigation measures a priority for both city and wildlife managers. We created landscape models to describe and predict deer-vehicle collision (DVCs) within the City of Edmonton, Alberta. Models based on roadside characteristics revealed that DVCs occurred frequently where roadside vegetation was both denser and more diverse, and that DVCs were more likely to occur when the groomed width of roadside right-of-ways was smaller. No DVCs occurred where the width of the vegetation-free or manicured roadside buffer was greater than 40 m. Landscape-based models showed that DVCs were more likely in more heterogeneous landscapes where road densities were lower and speed limits were higher, and where non-forested vegetation such as farmland was in closer proximity to larger tracts of forest. These models can help wildlife and transportation managers to identify locations of high collision frequency for mitigation. Modifying certain landscape and roadside habitats can be an effective way to reduce deer-vehicle collisions.     

MANGANESE CYCLE IN IMPOUNDMENT WATER

Manganese entering impounded water will undergo a cyclic transformation. Oxidation precipitates manganese from top waters. At the bottom of the lake, biological activity will render manganese soluble by both intracellular as well as extracellular activity. The study was made to demonstrate that biological reduction and transformation, organometallic complexation, together with the presence of carbon dioxide and the lowering of pH all have some effect on the solubility of manganese. Dissolved manganese may be brought back to top waters during the lake overturn and therefore deteriorates the water quality.     

Effect of Light on Biodegradation of Estrone, 17β‐Estradiol,and 17α‐Ethinylestradiol in Stream Sediment

Biodegradation of [A‐ring ¹⁴C] Estrone (E1), 17β‐estradiol (E2), and 17α‐ethinylestradiol (EE2) to ¹⁴CO₂ was investigated under light and dark conditions in microcosms containing epilithon or sediment collected from Boulder Creek, Colorado. Mineralization of the estrogen A‐ring was observed in all sediment treatments, but not epilithon treatments. No difference in net mineralization between light and dark treatments was observed for ¹⁴C‐E2. Net mineralization of ¹⁴C‐E1 and ¹⁴C‐EE2 was enhanced in light treatments. Extents of ¹⁴CO₂ accumulation and rates of mineralization were significantly greater for E2 than E1 under dark conditions, but were comparable under light conditions. These results indicate substantial differences in the uptake and metabolism of E1 and E2 in the environment and suggest biorecalcitrance of E1 relative to E2 in light‐limited environments. The extent of ¹⁴CO₂ accumulation and rate of mineralization for EE2 in dark treatments were less than half of that observed for E2 and generally lower than for E1, consistent with previous reports of EE2 biorecalcitrance. However, ¹⁴CO₂ accumulation and rates of mineralization were comparable for EE2, E2, and E1 under light conditions. These results indicate photoactivation and/or phototransformation/photodegradation processes can substantially enhance heterotrophic biodegradation of estrogens in sunlit environments and may play an important role in estrogen transport and attenuation.