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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 8, NUMBER 2, FEBRUARY 1995

REPORTS...
GENERAL INTEREST & POLICY

Item #d95feb106

IPCC Special Report (see NEWS-CLIMATE CONVENTION).

Item #d95feb107

Radiative Forcing of Climate Change-The 1994 Report of the Scientific Assessment Working Group of IPCC, IPCC Scientific Assessment Working Group, Dec. 1994. (See NEWS-CLIMATE CONVENTION.) Summary for Policymakers (28 pp.) available in the U.S. from Richard Moss, IPCC WG II Tech. Support Unit, 300 D St., SW, S. 840, Washington DC 20024 (tel: 202-651-8262; fax: 202-554-6715).

New findings add to the detail of knowledge expressed in the 1992 IPCC scientific assessment, but do not change essential results concerning radiative forcing of climate. Gives revised values of global warming potentials, particularly for methane. A range of carbon cycle models indicate that stabilization of CO₂ levels between today's concentration and twice that can be obtained only if anthropogenic emissions drop substantially below 1990 levels. Reviews improved estimates of the carbon budget, and of forcing by aerosols, which tends to offset greenhouse warming.

Item #d95feb108

Two reports from OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) 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.

Biofuels: Are They an Answer?, Intl. Energy Agency, Dec. 1994. The first publication from the Energy and Environment Policy Analysis Series. Looks at the costs, energy use and greenhouse gas emissions involved in producing and using biofuels. When the full fuel cycle is considered, biofuels can help reduce the use of petroleum products and greenhouse gas emissions, although their costs are high.

Reducing Environmental Pollution: Looking Back, Thinking Ahead, 48 pp., 1994, $9/DM16/FF50. Includes mechanisms some governments are using to stimulate basic changes in environmental and economic policies, to set the stage for further progress.

Item #d95feb109

Three discussion papers ($6 each) from RFF (Resources for the Future), External Affairs, 1616 P St. NW, Washington DC 20036 (202-328-5025).

Integrated Economic and Ecological Modeling for Public Policy Decision Making, H. Dowlatabadi, L.H. Goulder, R.J. Kopp, 1994.

Environmental Regulation and Technology Diffusion: The Effects of Alternative Policy Instruments, A.B. Jaffe, R.N. Stavins, 1994.

Cost-Benefit Analysis and International Environmental Policy Decision Making: Problems of Income Disparity, D. Burtraw, R.J. Kopp, 1994.

Item #d95feb110

Three recent conference papers from ABARE (Australian Bur. Agric. & Resour. Econ.), CPM, GPO Box 1563, Canberra 2601, Australia (tel: 06 272 2211; fax: 06 273 2588). One paper costs AUS$6; each thereafter costs AUS$4.

Trade and Welfare Effects of Policies to Address Climate Change. Two reports (Code 24 and Code 28) with the same title.

Optimal Greenhouse Policy in a Multicountry World of Growing Economies (Code 29).

Item #d95feb111

U.S.-Japan Task Force on the Environment: The Politics and Ethics of Global Environmental Leadership, J. Butler, 28 pp., 1994. Available from Carnegie Council on Ethics & Intl. Affairs, 170 E. 64th St., New York NY 10021.

From the second seminar of the Task Force (Oct. 14-16, 1992, Tokyo). Delegates from both countries and observers of the U.N. Conference on Environment and Development explored ethical concerns underlying the meeting at Rio. Emphasizes the critical need for ethics as the only logical means for making decisions about environmental dilemmas that extend beyond national interest.

Item #d95feb112

Toward the 21st Century: Planning for the Protection of California's Environment, Comparative Risk Prog., Calif. Environ. Protect. Agency, 600 pp., 1994.

Summarizes current scientific thinking on dozens of environmental hazards, detailing the potential risks of each, and ranking risks according to their effects on human health, ecosystem health, and social welfare. Reviewed by R. Stone in Science, p. 214, Oct. 14, 1994, who notes that the consensus on risk breaks down in the report's social welfare category. For example, even though increasing levels of greenhouse gases may pose only modest health or ecological effects, they are deemed high-risk hazards because of their potential harm in such areas as "mental health, trust of governing institutions, access to reliable information, personal security, and personal relationships."