The UN wants to monitor greenhouse gases everywhere and all the time
The United Nations wants to be able to track the greenhouse gases at the origin of climate change anywhere and anytime. Dozens of experts have gathered in Geneva to find the best way to achieve this.
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| Emissions from a factory in Etang de Berre, France. |
| Photo: AFP/VNA/CVN |
The World Meteorological Organization wants to standardize the way data is produced, close knowledge gaps about where greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are going, and produce faster and more accurate information about the evolution of the planet’s atmosphere.
The ultimate goal is to better inform strategies to combat global warming.
WMO 1 concluded on Wednesdayer A three-day meeting in February that brought together more than 250 experts in oceans, space, climate and meteorology at its headquarters in Geneva.
“Climate change is the most pressing and persistent problem of our time“, said Hugo Zunker of the Copernicus European Earth Observation Programme.
“Without understanding how the climate is changing and what risks these changes bring, we cannot plan for a sustainable and sustainable future.he insisted.
Data, more data
“Currently, there is no comprehensive and timely international exchange of information from surface and space greenhouse gas observations.“, – reminded WMO.
The three main greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrogen oxide.
CHO2 It alone is responsible for about 66% of global warming. There are also gaps in knowledge about the role played by CO absorption mechanisms2 – carbon sinks – such as the Amazon rainforest, oceans and permafrost.
“We have large uncertainties about the terrestrial component of CO2both carbon sources and sinks, and another unknown is methane“The head of the World Organization Petteri Taalas said.
The World Organization’s 2021 Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, released at the UN’s COP27 climate summit in Egypt in November, showed the largest annual increase in methane concentrations since 1980.and we don’t fully understand the reason behind it“, Mr. Taalas said.
Therefore, WHO is developing a concept for an internationally coordinated GHG monitoring infrastructure.
The new framework should facilitate ground- and space-based greenhouse gas monitoring systems with rapid access to common standards and measurements.
“The data generated by such a system will support the provision of robust quantitative data“, hopes the World Conservation Organization.
In the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, countries agreed to “well below“Two degrees higher than levels measured between 1850 and 1900 – and possibly 1.5°C.
Where are you carbon?
A monitoring system would also provide a better understanding of the complete carbon cycle.
Lars Peter Riishojgaard, who is responsible for these issues at the WMO, believes that we have a good understanding of the amount of CO2.2 released. “We know how much oil and coal gas we produce in total. We can assume that everything is on fire“he said.
“A part enters the land surface, and a part enters the ocean. We understand the sum of these two elements, but not the individual componentshe insisted.
For him, understanding the system as a whole is essential if we are to effectively mitigate its harmful effects. And you need to find reliable financing.
Most existing greenhouse gas monitoring measures are highly dependent on research capacity and funding, which are often very intermittent, making global monitoring unsustainable.”difficult to achieve“, explains the WMO.
AFP/VNA/CVN
