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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 3, NUMBER 11, NOVEMBER 1990

REPORTS...
GENERAL AND POLICY

Item #d90nov38

Responding to Climate Change: Tools for Policy Development, in four vols., Oct. 1990. Published by Stockholm Environ. Inst., Box 2142, S-103, 14 Stockholm, Swed. (tel: 46-8-723-0260). A 28-page summary edited by Jill Jaeger is also available.

Completed by an international panel for the Advisory Group on Greenhouse Gases of UNEP, WMO and the International Council of Scientific Unions. Unrestricted, global energy consumption will grow by 28-45% in 15 years, and could double by 2020. Serious environmental and societal damage could occur from resultant global warming unless temperature increase is limited to 0.1° C per decade, with a maximum increase of 1-2° C above the preindustrial level. Sea level rise should not exceed 20-55 millimeters per decade. The adoption of currently available energy-saving technologies could halve expected energy growth by 2005.

Item #d90nov39

This Common Inheritance--Britain's Environmental Strategy (White Paper, Cm 1200), released by Britain's environmental minister, Christopher Patten, 296 pp., Sept. 1990. Available from Her Majesty's Stationery Office--Books (P9D), Freepost, Norwich NR3 1BR, UK.; £24.50. A 36-page summary costs £2.50. (See NEWS, this Global Climate Change Digest issue--Nov. 1990.)

Item #d90nov40

The Economics of Long-Term Global Climate Change, 70 pp., Oct. 1990. Available from Off. Public Inquiries (Rm. 1E-206), Mail Stop PA-5, U.S. Dept. Energy, Washington DC 20585 (202-586-5575).

This interagency task force report, prepared to support development of the National Energy Strategy, concludes that the costs of limiting CO₂ emissions will be high. Achieving stabilization at the current emission rate would cost 1% of the gross national product annually, or $5.2 trillion per year world-wide. Taxes on CO₂ emissions would cause the prices of coal and oil to rise by 180% and 70%, respectively. Response strategies to mitigate climate change include regulatory reform of the utility industry, increased energy efficiency in buildings and appliances, better transportation fuel efficiency, tree planting, and limiting other greenhouse gases.

Item #d90nov41

Carbon Charges as a Response to Global Warming: The Effects of Taxing Fossil Fuels, xvii, 68 pp., Sep. 1990. To order, contact Natural Resour. & Commerce Div., Congressional Budget Off., 2nd & D Streets SW, Washington DC 20515 (202-226-2809).

Since several industrialized countries have already adopted goals for cutting CO₂ emissions, similar action by the U.S. could advance these international efforts. "Carbon charges," taxes on fossil fuels based on their carbon contents, would provide an economic incentive to reduce CO₂ emissions. Assuming that carbon charges would be phased in over ten years, with final taxes of $60.50 per ton of coal, $12.99 per barrel of oil, and $1.63 per thousand cubic feet of gas, the gross national product loss could be held to 1%-2%. Over the longer term charges could rise to $100 per ton with similar economic effects. The doubling of atmospheric CO₂ could be held off; multilateral action would delay the doubling of atmospheric CO₂ by 20 years.

Item #d90nov42

Trends '90: A Compendium of Data on Global Change (ORNL/CDIAC-036), 286 pp., Aug. 1990. Order from Carbon Dioxide Info. Anal. Ctr., MS-6335, Bldg. 1000, Oak Ridge Nat. Lab., POB 2008, Oak Ridge TN 37831 (615-574-0390; fax: 615-574-2232).

Trends will be published annually to provide timely data to a multidisciplinary readership of researchers, policy makers, information and communication specialists, energy and environmental professionals and educators. This inaugural issue provides graphical representations of data, background information, explanations of observed trends, tabular summaries, and selected references for each site or region of data collection. Contains historical and current atmospheric CO₂ concentrations; CO₂ emissions data on fossil fuel burning, cement production and gas flaring, some of which date from the 1860s; and seasonal and annual regional and global temperature records of several types. "Numeric Data Packages" for many data sets are also available from the Center.

Item #d90nov43

Reforestation to Offset Carbon Dioxide Emissions (EPRI EN-6910), 44 pp., July 1990. Order from Elec. Pwr. Res. Inst., Res. Rep. Ctr., POB 50490, Palo Alto CA 94303 (415-965-4081); $25 (non-EPRI members, N. Amer.); $50 (elsewhere).

Mature forests should not be replaced by new plantations; to do so would result in a large net increase of atmospheric CO₂. However, a massive global reforestation program could offset approximately 20% of anthropogenic CO₂ emissions.