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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 5, NUMBER 9, SEPTEMBER 1992

REPORTS...
GENERAL INTEREST AND POLICY

Item #d92sep89

Convention on Climate Change: Economic Aspects of Negotiations, 98 pp., July 1992, $23/£13/F90/DM43. OECD Pubs., 2001 L St. NW, S-700, Washington DC 20036 (202-785-6323); or OECD, 2, rue André-Pascal, 75775 Paris Cedex 16, France (tel: 33-1-45-24-82-00); or other OECD outlets.

Examines three important questions: (1) how the choice of particular policy instruments would affect the number and type of countries that would choose to participate in an accord over the longer term; (2) how the possibility of international resource transfers ("side-payments") might influence overall participation; (3) how the "free rider" problem (where one country is able to reap the benefits of an agreement, without having to incur costs) might be minimized.

Item #d92sep90

Global Change: Reducing Uncertainties, 39 pp., June 1992. Available (no charge) from International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGCP) Secretariat, Royal Swed. Acad. Sci., Box 50005, S-104 05 Stockholm, Swed.

This well designed and illustrated booklet, distributed to national delegates at the Earth Summit in Rio, explains the scientific goals and approaches of the IGBP, which aims to understand the links between the physical climate system and life-driven processes, including human impacts. It describes specific projects underway with the cooperation of over 50 countries, program organization and the project scientific advisory committees.

Item #d92sep91

Global Warming: Implications for Canadian Policy (CCD 92-01), C.I. Jackson, 17-page summary, 1992. Single copies (no charge) from Can. Climate Ctr., 4905 Dufferin St., Downsview, Ont. M3H 5T4 (416-739-4331). Full report for sale by Inst. Res. Public Policy, 250 Albert St., Ottawa, Ont. K1P 5E6, Can.

Reviews findings of earlier Canadian impact studies from the public policy perspective, and identifies possible future policies and actions for adapting to anticipated effects, particularly for sectors with long lead times or major capital construction requirements. For instance, there will be new problems or opportunities for Canada's North if warming reduces Arctic sea ice, opening the Northwest Passage and creating a need for Canada to assert its sovereignty. Strongly suggests that Canada take the lead in developing an international sea-ice program.

Item #d92sep92

The following are available (no charge) from Indur Goklany, Off. Prog. Analysis (MS 4412), U.S. Dept. Interior, 1849 C St. NW, Washington DC 20240 (tel: 202-208-4951; fax: 202-208-4867). The first two reports represent only the views of the authors, while the third is an official Department of Interior publication.

Adaptation and Climate Change, I.M. Goklany, 34 pp., July 1992. The author, who contributed to the IPCC Response Strategies Work Group, evaluates the importance of human-induced climate change compared to other sources of change over the next 100 years, finding that existing assessments tend to overestimate the negative and underestimate the positive impacts of change. He then examines the role of adaptation in responding to climate change, and concludes that stimulation of sustainable economic and technological progress is in the best interests of both the U.S. and developing nations.

An Alternative Approach to Sustainable Development: Conserving Forests, Habitat and Biological Diversity by Increasing the Efficiency and Productivity of Land Utilization, I.M. Goklany, M.W. Sprague, 23 pp., July 1992. While some advocate an end to technological advances in the belief that they harm society, good stewardship requires that all resources, such as energy, land, or carbon sinks, be used as efficiently as possible through environmentally sound intensive management.

America's Biodiversity Strategy: Actions to Conserve Species and Habitats, 30-page preprint, June 1992. Describes a broad range of actions by government at all levels and by individuals, which make it possible for Americans to use and conserve natural resources within a system that stimulates technological progress and sustained economic growth.

Item #d92sep93

New Zealand's CO₂ Action Program, 1992. Available from Ministry for the Environ., POB 10362, Wellington, N.Z.

New measures to help reach the country's target of a 20% reduction in emissions from 1990 levels by the year 2000 include: mandating government managers to improve energy efficiency in their departments; consideration of energy efficiency standards and labeling for domestic appliances and vehicles; a large-scale forest planting program. (See Global Environ. Change Rep., pp. 3-4, July 24, 1992.)

Item #d92sep94

Volcanism and Climate Change, 32 pp., May 1992, $4. Amer. Geophys. Union, 2000 Florida Ave. NW, Washington DC 20009 (800-966-2481 or 202-462-6900).

An AGU Special Report intended to convey accurate and current scientific information to the public. Derived from a recent AGU Chapman conference which included research by leading scientists in various fields.