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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 2, NUMBER 10, OCTOBER 1989

REPORTS...
GENERAL AND POLICY

Item #d89oct20

Our Changing Planet: The FY 1990 Research Plan, 196 pp., Sep. 1989. Committee on Earth Sciences, Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering and Technology. Available from committee chair Dallas Peck, Dir., U.S. Geolog. Survey, 104 National Ctr., Reston VA 22092 (703-648-4450).

A presentation of President George Bush's budget proposal for the inter-agency Global Change Research Program, aimed primarily at individuals and organizations who direct federal global-change research and related activities. (See NEWS, this Global Climate Change Digest issue--Oct. 1989.) Its scientific objectives are: 1) establish an integrated, comprehensive program of monitoring and data management; 2) conduct focused studies on the physical, chemical and biological processes that influence earth system changes and trends on global and regional scales; 3) develop integrated conceptual and predictive earth system models.

Item #d89oct21

The following are useful outlines of national and international activities on global climate change over the past several years. They were issued in June 1989 by the U.S. National Climate Program Office (NOAA, 1400 Rockville Pike, Rockville MD 20852; 301-443-8981).

National Climate Program Five-Year Plan--1989-1993, 48 pp., Dec. 1988. Implementation of the national climate program involves federal and state agencies, regional and private institutions, academia and the private sector. Its primary goal is to understand and predict natural and human-induced climatic variability and change. For the next five years, the program will focus on: accurate diagnosis of the current state of the climate system and the factors that influence it, so that any changes in its current state can be detected; determination of the ability to predict climate change on time scales of months to decades; projection of the effect of increasing greenhouse gases; assessment of the impact of a greenhouse-gas induced climate change on the environment; and analysis of possible policy decisions. Specific activities required to implement these objectives are discussed, as well as the relationship of the national program to international ones.

National Climate Program 1987 Annual Report, 36 pp., Dec. 1988. The first several pages outline administrative activities (legislation, meetings, international agreements and workshops); the rest cover technical programs such as climate data management, remote sensing, cloud and climate modeling, and climate change projects.

Item #d89oct22

Using Incentives for Environmental Protection: An Overview (89-360 ENR), J.L. Moore, L. Parker et al., 88 pp., June 1989. Congressional Res. Svc., Library of Congress, Washington DC 20540 (202-707-7228).

Addresses three basic questions related to a growing interest in market-based approaches for environmental protection including air pollution: what is the context of this interest (motivations, potentials and limits within current environmental protection policies); what are the various market-based options, arguments for wider application, limitations, and current applications; what are the public policy issues inherent in recent proposals for market-based approaches?

Item #d89oct23

EPA's Safety Assessment of Substitutes for Ozone-Depleting Chemicals and Legal Issues Relating to CFC and Halon Production Rights (GAO/T-RCED-89-41), 46 pp. Order from U.S. Gen. Acct. Off., POB 6015, Gaithersburg MD 20877 (202-275-6241); first five copies free.

Statement of R.L. Hembra (GAO) before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Committee on Energy and Commerce, U.S. House of Representatives, May 15, 1989. The testimony is based on a previous GAO report (Stratospheric Ozone--EPA's Safety Assessment of Substitutes for Ozone-Depleting Chemicals, GAO/RCED-89-49, 66 pp., Feb. 1989; see Global Climate Change Digest, REPORTS/GENERAL, June 1989) as well as subsequent work. It recommends that EPA use its authority under the Toxic Substances Control Act to assess the safety and environmental effects of substitutes, and addresses legal issues related to EPA's suggestion to capture windfall profits through a fee or auction system.