This report was produced by the Working Group on biofuels of the International Panel for Sustainable Resource Managemet. It provides an overview of the key problems and perspectives toward sustainable production and use of biofuels. It is based on an extensive literature study, taking into account recent major reviews. The focus is on so-called first generation biofuels while considering further lines of development.

The Arctic is undergoing rapid and dramatic environmental and social transformations due to climate change. This has ramifications for the entire planet, as change spreads through interconnected global networks that are environmental, cultural, economic and political. Today, with the major thrust of research shifting away from deciphering causes and monitoring trends, the central preoccupation of a growing circle of actors has become the exploration of strategies for responding and adapting to climate change.

Approximately 17 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions are caused by land-use change and, in particular, the destruction of tropical forests. Reducing land-use change and forest degradation has been shown as a cost-effective way of slowing carbon emissions compared to other mitigation strategies such as curbing emissions from power stations.

Le climat terrestre dépend de manière cruciale de la composition de l’atmosphère, et notamment de la concentration de gaz à effet de serre qui augmentent la quantité de chaleur solaire retenue par la Terre. Parmi ces gaz, les deux plus importants sont le dioxyde de carbone (CO2) et le méthane (CH4). Intervenant dans le cycle du carbone, ces deux gaz sont naturellement présents dans l’atmosphère, mais leur concentration a considérablement augmenté en conséquence des activités humaines, tout particulièrement depuis l’industrialisation.

En 2007, le Groupe d'experts Intergouvernemental sur l'Evolution
du Climat (GIEC) et l'ancien Vice-Président américain des Etats-Unis, Al Gore, se sont partagé le Prix Nobel de la Paix pour leur travail visant à fournir aux décideurs et au grand public du monde entier les meilleurs éléments scientifi ques
possibles pour comprendre et combattre la menace croissante du changement climatique. Mais alors que les messages des scientifi ques se font de plus en plus explicites, le fossé entre
les actions qu'ils jugent nécessaires et la politique climatique mise en place par les leaders mondiaux ne cesse de se creuser.

L'addication est une chose terrible. Elle nous consume et nous controle, nous fait nier d'importantes verites et nous empeche de voir les consequences de nos actions. Notre societe est en proie a une dangereuse dependance aux gaz a effet de serre.

Large cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases are needed if we are to avoid the worst effects of global climate change. This Rapid Assessment Report describes the vital contributions which ecosystems can and must make to improve these efforts. It presents carbon capture and storage through a Green Economy lens, outlining the potential in terms of natural systems, from forests to grasslands which have been doing the job in a tried and tested way for millennia.

Large cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases are needed if we are to avoid the worst effects of global climate change. This Rapid Assessment Report describes the vital contributions which ecosystems can and must make to improve these efforts. It presents carbon capture and storage through a Green Economy lens, outlining the potential in terms of natural systems, from forests to grasslands which have been doing the job in a tried and tested way for millennia.

Climate change represents more than just an environmental challenge—it is also a challenge to future economic development. Overlaps between climate change and trade policies are inevitable and are already evident. Issues such as promoting trade in climate-friendly technologies and the use of border adjustment measures in national climate change legislation are being actively debated by governments at both the national and international level.

This report explores the potential for mitigating the impacts of climate change by improved management and protection of marine ecosystems and especially the vegetated coastal habitat, or blue carbon sinks.

The objective of this report is to highlight the critical role of the oceans and ocean ecosystems in maintaining our climate and in assisting policy makers to mainstream an oceans agenda into national and international climate change initiatives. While emissions’ reductions are currently at the centre of the climate change discussions, the critical role of the oceans and ocean ecosystems has been vastly overlooked.

Benefits to people from water ecosystems like rivers, swamps, floodplains and groundwater systems are central to human well-being. But ecosystems are in trouble and the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, the Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have each shown that freshwater ecosystem services are particularly vulnerable. 

This book presents a comprehensive introduction to weather processes and climatic conditions around the world, their observed variability and changes, and projected future trends. Extensively revised and updated, this ninth edition retains its tried and tested structure while incorporating recent advances in the field.