Reuters reported that Trump doubts China, which is the world’s top emitter of greenhouse gases, will meet its pledges under the agreement to peak its emissions by 2030 and dramatically scale up the use of renewable energy technologies such as solar and wind power.
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According to the research team, to achieve the one gigaton per year mitigation target for non-CO2 emissions set out in the paper, the 21 to 40 percent reduction in emissions could be achieved by enhancing these known practices: 1. Yet the study, published May 17 in the journal Global Change Biology, also reveals a major gap between existing policy and technology options for reducing these greenhouse gas emissions from farming-and the reductions needed. “This research is a reality check”, said Eva Wollenberg, leader of the CCAFS Low Emissions Development research program at the University of Vermont’s Gund Institute for Ecological Economics. “Countries want to take action on agriculture, but the options now on offer won’t make the dent in emissions needed to meet the global targets agreed to in Paris”. “And at a maximum I may do something else”.
The accord seeks to limit a rise in global temperatures to less than two degrees Celsius through combined national pledges to cut emissions, and provide funding for developing nations to mitigate the damaging effects of a sea level rise and climate change.
The Paris pact, which was unanimously adopted in France last December, is the first agreement requiring all countries to join the fight against climate change. This process could mirror recent progress on standards for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD+), where technical advances made by countries in the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility contributed to greater progress in the UNFCCC.
On Monday governments began work in Bonn, Germany, on a rule book to implement the agreement with the United Nations, urging stronger action after a string of record-smashing monthly temperatures.
“We need to help farmers play their part in reaching global climate goals while still feeding the world”, says Prof. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says the agriculture sector contributes 9 percent of all US greenhouse gas emissions – the smallest of all five sectors listed by the EPA. Climate-friendly practices-such as promoting the use of certain cover crops, and expanding the acreage under no-till management, which reduces plowing-can not only benefit the environment, Vilsack says, but also improve profits.
The U.S. road map for reducing agricultural emissions, released previous year, takes aim at activities at farms, ranches, and forests that account for about 10% of total U.S. emissions.
Kelsey Perlman, a policy officer at the nonprofit Carbon Market Watch, said that at ICAO’s high level meeting in Montreal last week, delegates were divided over how to proceed with market-based measures to help the sector meet its aspiration of climate neutral growth from 2020.
This includes identifying lower emitting animals for targeted breeding, developing animal-safe compounds that can suppress methane production in the rumen of animals among others.
That’s the big picture of a new worldwide study, co-authored by two Kiwi researchers, which draws one of the first links between times of emergence of extremely hot days with cumulative emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2).
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While our study looks at non-CO2 emissions from agriculture, we suggest that targets are also needed to transparently assess the mitigation action needed throughout the food system, including sequestering soil carbon, increasing agroforestry, avoiding agricultural-driven deforestation, decreasing food loss and waste and shifting dietary patterns. Some of these policies include the 1.5 degree target, full decarbonization of the world economy, 100% renewable energy by 2050, and zero emissions by mid-century.
