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Global Change Program |
Global changes in climate are a critical issue, requiring the collaboration of scientists, economists, business, and government. In both developed and developing countries, changes in climate, biological diversity, ecosystems and land use present significant challenges to policymakers and society as a whole.
The broad goal of the Global Change Program is to continue analysis of policy responses to global environmental changes, both in terms of mitigating change and in terms of preparing for change. The Heinz Center’s program presents the best mix of objective science and opportunity for multisectoral consensus building. Beyond the projects featured below, the Global Change program works daily with domestic and international collaborators, tackling some of today’s most pressing environmental challenges.
To Learn More…
About The Heinz Center’s Global Change Program, please contact Bob Corell, Program Director, at (202) 737-6307 or corell@heinzctr.org or watts@heinzctr.org.
The Global Energy Assessment
Over the past several years, an organizing committee has laid the groundwork for an international effort known as The Global Energy Assessment (GEA). The organizers include a team of scientists, along with technology and policy experts, from around the world. The Heinz Center was designated as the U. S. GEA Support Office by the Co-Presidents of the GEA. Dr. Robert Corell, the Heinz Center’s Global Change Director, has been appointed to the GEA’s Governing Council.
The GEA is structured around four major areas of analysis:
- Major Global Issues and Energy: assessing the challenges.
- Energy Resources and Technological Options: assessing the components available to build future energy systems.
- Describing Possible Sustainable Futures: assessing the composition of systems that address energy challenges.
- Policies Advancing Energy for Sustainable Development: assessing the policy options that address challenges and provide options for future energy systems.
The central objective of the GEA is to provide a knowledge base essential to global energy policy development and future energy strategies. Information will be collected in an open and transparent forum, with objectivity and without bias. Like the Heinz Center, the GEA’s structure ensures balance by involving all key stakeholders in each step of the process. To reach the most credible consensus possible, findings will be backed by an extensive external peer and public review process. As an international effort, the GEA has potential to encourage cooperation and capacity-building among world entities, and to improve knowledge by distributing findings through its worldwide network of participants.
To learn more about the Global Energy Assessment, visit the website: http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Research/ENE/GEA/index.html
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The Ecothresholds Initiative |
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| www.ecothresholds.org |
The Heinz Center’s Ecothresholds Initiative was created to explore the subject of defining acceptable levels of greenhouse gas concentrations and to determine how to anticipate and deal with rapid changes in ecosystems.
Since 2005, the Heinz Center has partnered with The Nature Conservancy and the Joint Global Change Research Institute to successfully convene members of the scientific and policy communities to explore the science behind thresholds and their implications for decision-making. Read the Ecothresholds project brochure (.pdf)
What is an “Ecothreshold” and Why Should I Care?
In the face of mounting evidence from the scientific community of the biological and ecological consequences of climate change, and of the possibility that changes to ecosystems may in fact be rapid, large, and sometimes irreversible (i.e. there may be thresholds that, once crossed, will present serious coping challenges to humans), policy makers and resource managers are confronted with the need to develop ways to proceed with decision-making in the realms of both mitigation and adaptation, despite the many uncertainties associated with thresholds.
Project Focus
The critical need now is for a process that builds and strengthens science-policy bridges—in effect, assembles ‘communities of practice’—among various stakeholders in order to promote policy change and social response.
Throughout the project, we will stay focused on the practical needs of organizations confronting the challenges of climate and ecosystem change. One of the most desired project results is new opportunities for federal managers to implement practices that enhance the resilience of the resources they manage, like the water and forest resources we rely on.
Understanding the Role and Importance of Methane to Climate Change
The Science of Methane
The amount of carbon stored as methane—a greenhouse gas about 30 times more powerful than carbon dioxide—frozen in Arctic permafrost is conservatively estimated by the U.S. Geological Survey to total twice that found in all known fossil fuels on Earth. Methane concentration in the atmosphere has increased by about 2.5 times since pre-industrial times.
Potential methane releases from the bogs, permafrost, and undersea clathrates (frozen methane) have been identified as one of the most challenging prospects for the future of climate change. Documenting and understanding the processes that could lead to such releases is an urgent scientific and policy issue.
The Methane Project Design
Our long-term goal, through a program called “Methane 2100,” is to document the global distributions and concentrations of methane in the atmosphere by sensors aboard a polar retrograde orbiting satellite. We propose to implement the first phase of “Methane 2100” through a coordinated program involving numerous collaborators. The ITT Corporation has committed to partner in this endeavor to develop technologies to monitor methane releases and to participate directly in the field programs.
The Global Change Advisory Committee includes Heinz Center Trustees interested in the broad suite of topics encompassed inglobal change. The committee provides the Center with strategic oversight and advice on issues of global environmental change, including: climate change, nitrogen issues, land-cover and land-use change, loss of biodiversity, global Earth observations, participation in international scientific assessments, and others as appropriate. Membership of this committee includes:
Jerry Melillo, Chair, Co-director, The Ecosystems Center, Marine Biological Laboratory
William McDonough, Principal, William McDonough + Partners
Edward Miles, Virginia and Prentice Bloedel Professor, University of Washington
David Refkin, Director, Sustainable Development, Time Inc.
Howard Ris, President and CEO, The New England Aquarium
Archive of Global Change Program Activities
- Heinz Center and Partners Publish Following the Paper Trail (2006)
- Forest Management and Conservation in an Information-Rich World
- Health Implications of Technological Responses to Climate Change (2001)
- Evaluation of Technology Policies to Help Lower Emissions of Greenhouse Gases (1999)
- Pew Center on Global Climate Change Early Action Conference (1999)
- Lowering Emissions of Greenhouse Gases through Emissions Trading (1998)