Climate Change and Sustainable Development

Mitigation and Adaptation

Dalia Štreimikienė, Asta Mikalauskiene

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000382334
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Environmental Law
• Index: Law

Climate Change and Sustainable Development: Mitigation and Adaptation focuses on the link between climate change threats and sustainable development goals. This book analyzes the polices of climate change mitigation and adaptation from an economic point of view by addressing globalization, international trade, and business opportunities and challenges. Based on extended research on energy, transportation, agriculture, and more, the case studies included in this book present business opportunities linked to mitigation and adaptation actions; from European Union greenhouse gas emission trading to climate change adaptation policies in developing countries. It presents a framework for the harmonization of climate and sustainable development policies and their mutual outcomes.

Specific features:

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• The first book to address main scientific aspects of climate change mitigation and sustainable development and how to deal with these main challenges in a harmonized way

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• Provides practical examples of policies and business development opportunities linked with climate change mitigation and adaptation

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• Analyses climate change challenges and provides implications for business development and good practice case studies from Europe

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• Discusses issues of climate change at different scales ranging from macro to micro level

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• Highlights the importance of climate change adaptation for developing countries, migration trends, city developments and agriculture

As the threat of climate change grows ever more present, resources like this book, that provide and discuss necessary solutions and frameworks for ways to deal with and mitigate that threat become ever more essential. This book is a vital resource for academics, students, and professionals in any field seeking to deal with the threats from climate change, and particularly those relating to environmental and climate sciences, as well as those in political and economic fields.

1

Causes of Climate Change and Legal Regulations

1.1 Causes of Climate Change

Since the end of the 19th century, the greatest impact on the climate has been achieved by the increasing atmospheric pollution caused by human economic activity: the concentration of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and ozone-depleting gases is rising. These climate change factors are transforming the state of the entire climate system at an unusually fast rate.

Aerosols of volcanic and anthropogenic origin cause the opposite effect – cooling – since they reduce the transparency of the atmosphere and the solar radiation inflow to the Earth’s surface.

Other global processes and reversible effects of the climate system are also significant to the climate sphere. These processes and effects include the rapid desertification of periodically wet savannas and scrubs due to overgrazing, wind erosion, and disturbed periodicity of seasonal rains as well as the decrease of stratospheric ozone.

The Earth’s atmosphere has a natural physical property to warm up and retain the heat. Because of this phenomenon, most of the solar energy, received by the Earth during the day, is used to warm the atmosphere rather than the surface. At night, when the Sun is on the other side of the horizon, the warm air of the atmosphere cools slowly and steadily. This phenomenon of heat accumulation and retention is one of the necessary conditions for sustaining life on Earth. It is usually called the greenhouse effect (IPCC 2007). Planets with no atmosphere do not have this so-called greenhouse effect. During the day, solar energy burns the surface of these planets and, when the Sun turns beyond the horizon, the temperature immediately becomes extremely low.

The day and night temperatures of Mercury,which does not have an atmosphere,are 400°C and −160°C,respectively. The temperature of Venus,the dense atmosphere of which consists of 96% CO₂, does not fluctuate and is 462°C. Even though Venus orbits the Sun at the distance two times greater than Mercury,its average temperature is higher than the Mercury’s maximum. Thus,the temperature of the planets is determined not only by the distance from the Sun but also by the ability of their atmospheres to absorb the heat it emits.

Earth’s atmosphere is composed of a lot of different gases, and not all of them have the same property of warming up. For some fundamental reasons, symmetrical molecules (N₂, O₂, Ar, etc.) do not hold heat and quickly radiate it into space. Meanwhile, asymmetrical molecules (H₂O, CO, CO₂, CH₄, SO₂, O₃, etc.) retain heat but to different extents. A great part of the heat is retained in the atmosphere by water vapour molecules. Without this vapour, the average temperature of the whole Earth would be −16°C instead of the current 14°C. It would also be falling significantly faster and lower at night.

GHGs are gaseous components of the atmosphere of natural and anthropogenic origin, resulting in the so-called “greenhouse effect”. Atmospheric GHGs absorb a part of long-wave infrared (IR) radiation of Earth’s surface and return it towards the surface in a form of atmospheric counter-radiation; due to this, the temperature of lower tropospheric layers rises. A similar effect forms in an ordinary greenhouse of gardeners (therefore, it is called “the greenhouse effect”); only in this case, the role of GHGs is performed by glass or polyethylene film. Short-wave solar radiation penetrates the greenhouse; however, IR radiation emitted by the warmed soil is retained – the temperature in the greenhouse rises.

The main GHGs are:

• Water vapour
• Carbon dioxide (CO₂)
• Methane (CH₄)
• Nitrous oxide (N₂O)
• Sulphur hexafluoride (SF₆)
• Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)
• Perfluorocarbons (PFCs)
• Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)

If the atmosphere did not create a greenhouse effect, the average annual temperature of our planet would be –18°C, while now it is +15°C. It is obvious that as the concentration of GHGs increases, the greenhouse effect intensifies and the temperature of lower tropospheric layers rises.

The largest contributor in the creation of greenhouse effect is water vapour (21°C), then follows carbon dioxide (7°C), tropospheric and stratospheric ozone (2°C), nitrous oxide (1.4°C), and methane (0.8°C); all remaining GHGs also coincide with 0.8°C. Only the amount of water vapour is not directly affected by human economic activity; nevertheless, it should be kept in mind that as the troposphere warms, the amount of water vapour is also increasing: the so-called positive feedback effect occurs.

The concentration of GHGs in the atmosphere can be expressed in parts per million (ppm) or in parts per billion (ppb). 1 ppm means one molecule of a given gas per 1,000,000 of all existing gas molecules.

Since the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, the concentration of GHGs in the atmosphere has been steadily rising. The concentration of CO₂ has mainly increased because of the fossil fuels (coal, gas, oil) combustion in the energy and transport sectors, various industrial technological processes, and deforestation (i.e., removal of the GHG sinks). Methane is emitted by extracting, transporting, and using natural gas and coal, as well as by animal husbandry, rice fields, and landfills. Nitrous oxide is formed by using nitrogen fertilisers and producing synthetic fibre.

HFCs, PFCs, and SF₆ are used as alternatives to ozone-depleting CFCs which, according to the Montreal Protocol, should be phased out.

However, GHGs do not absorb IR radiation of the Earth’s surface in an equally efficient manner. Some of them absorb different IR wavelengths, while others absorb only narrow-spectrum waves. Moreover, GHGs greatly vary in terms of the duration of their persistence in the atmosphere. For example, CO₂ can last from 5 to 200 years in the atmosphere, methane can last for 12 years, nitrous oxide can last for 114, while some of the fluorinated GHGs (SF₆, CF₄) can last even for tens of thousands of years. Therefore, one tonne of GHGs emitted into the atmosphere has a different impact on the greenhouse effect, i.e., it has a different potential for creating a greenhouse effect. If the above-mentioned CO₂ potential equates to 1, within 100 years (regarding the duration of its persistence in the atmosphere), the global methane potential will be 23 times greater than that of CO₂, 296 times than nitrous oxide, 22,200 times than SF₆, from 12 to 12,000 times than various HFCs, and 5,700–11,900 times than PFC. Even if global GHG emissions were suddenly reduced drastically, it would take several centuries until the concentration of these gases in the air would reach the pre-industrial level.

In its Third Assessment Report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provided new and obvious evidence that current climate warming has started mainly as a result of anthropogenic activities. Since the middle of the 18th century, the concentration of CO₂ in atmosphere increased by 31% (from 280 to 375 ppm), methane by 150% (from 700 to 1,750 ppb), and nitrous oxide by 18% (from 270 to 320 ppb), while the various HFCs and PFCs did not exist in the atmosphere until the middle of the 20th century (their emissions began with the development of the chemical and electronic industries). The current concentration of CO₂ is the highest in the last 420,000 years.

GHG emission from the process of human economic activities is increasing, while the areas of tropical rainforests and temperate coniferous and mixed forests are declining rapidly; therefore, less and less carbon dioxide is included in the photosynthesis. These trends are most occurred in developing countries in Latin America, South and South-East Asia, and Central Africa, but are also relevant for developed countries.

The IPCC reports admit that unless strict measures are taken to reduce these emissions, in comparison with the pre-industrial period, GHG concentration will double by the middle of this century.

To prevent drastic changes in social sphere and ecosystems, it is necessary to ensure that global temperature shall not rise more than 2°, while the GHG concentration, expressed in CO₂ equivalent, shall not exceed 550 ppm (now it is 425 ppm).

GHG accounting (inventory) is carried out in accordance with the IPCC methodology. GHG emissions are calculated using established emission coefficients and statistics of individual technologies or branches of the economy.

GHG emissions from energy, industrial processes, usage of solvents and other volatile substances, agriculture, changes of land use, and waste management are calculated. The inventory groups and subgroups of GHG sources are provided in Table 1.1.

TABLE 1.1
Accounting Groups and Subgroups of Greenhouse Gas Sources

Total Emissions and Sinks
1. Total energy
1.A. Fuel combustion
1.A.1. Energy and its transformation
1.A.2. Industry
1.A.3. Transport
1.A.4. Central heating
1.A.5. Local heating
1.A.6. Agriculture
1.A.7. Other areas
1.B. Volatile fuel emissions
2. Industrial processes
2.A. Inorganic chemicals
2.B. Organic chemicals
2.C. Manufacture of cement and lime
2.D. Other areas
3. Solvents and other used materials
3.A. Paint
3.B. Degreasing and dry cleaning
3.C. Manufacture/use of chemicals
3.D. Other areas
4. Agriculture
4.A. Release of stomach gas
4.B. Livestock manure
4.C. Agricultural land
5. Change of the purpose of the land and forestry
5.A. Alternation in other forest biomass resources
5.B. Changes of the forest and grassland/pasture
5.C. Abandoned lands
6. Waste
6.A. Landfills
6.B. Wastewater

The energy and transport sectors are dominated by carbon dioxide. These sectors cover the entire cycle of fuel use: extraction, transportation, storage, distribution, recycling, and combustion. Combusted fuel and GHG emissions from aviation, rail, maritime, and motor transport used in international transportation are included in the balance of the country that is the owner of these vehicles.

The agricultural sector is dominated by methane gas resulting from fermentation processes in the gastrointestinal tract of livestock as well as from animal husbandry waste, manure, and biogas management. Nitrogen fertilisers, used in agriculture, cause the release of nitrous oxide from the soil.

Changes in land use can have a twofold impact on the amount of GHGs. As the area of forests decreases, carbon dioxide consumption for photosynthesis also diminishes, which causes the increase of GHGs in the atmosphere. On the other hand, newly grown forests as well as biennial and perennial agricultural crops stimulate the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Waste management is a typical source of methane formation. Anaerobic bacteria break down organic waste materials into methane. Due to similar processes, methane is also released during wastewater treatment processes.

1.2 The Consequences of Climate Change

Climate change is happening here and now. Scientists are certain that the consequences of climate change are evident on every continent and in every ocean. Both the human and nature su...