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Negotiating an international agreement to fight climate change ishard enough. But for the past several years, scientists have warnedthat verifying whether countries meet their pledges to cutgreenhouse gas emissions could be even harder. Current U.N. rules require countries to submit national emissionsinventories. But the data are self-reported and not requiredannually from all countries, and there is not always independentinformation to verify it. The issue, politically sensitive for many nations, was a bone ofcontention for the United States and China at U.N. climate talkslast year in Cancun, Mexico, although negotiators eventually agreedto develop a global monitoring system. Now a new government-funded study suggests researchers are gettingcloser to being able to independently verify an individual nation'sCO2 output. Researchers at Harvard University, the University of Utah and theNational Center for Atmospheric Research say they were able toaccurately measure carbon dioxide emitted in Salt Lake City usingground stations, weather and land-use data, and a computer model. Information on the amount of carbon dioxide in the air came from anetwork of sensors that has kept tabs on Salt Lake City since 2002with stations placed throughout the metro area, including one ontop of a mountain in nearby Snowbird. The scientists fed information about Salt Lake City's estimated CO2emissions and local weather conditions into a model that simulatedhow atmospheric conditions would mix and distribute the gas. Thenthey compared the model results with the observations from the CO2sensor network. Their results, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , show the model estimates came within 15 percent -- or less -- ofSalt Lake's actual CO2 emissions. Going from the country to cities "The take-home message is that the technology is not thelimiting step in terms of acquiring this information," saidstudy co-author Jim Ehleringer, an urban ecologist at theUniversity of Utah. "Cities or countries have the capacity todescribe their emissions in a very quantitative and testableway." The new study's 15 percent margin of error is higher than the 5percent called for by the National Academy of Sciences in a recentreport. But Ehleringer said the work is an important step towarddeveloping an international system that can track CO2 emissionscountry by country. Although scientists have measured atmospheric CO2 levels fordecades, the current network of ground stations, observatories,aircraft and other instruments emerged during an era whenresearchers were trying to answer questions about the total amountof carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The best way to do that was placing monitoring equipment far frompopulation centers, where CO2 streaming from power plants , automobiles and other infrastructure could skew attempts todetermine the average global level of CO2. But these days, with many scientists are focused on trackinggreenhouse gases produced by human activities at national, regionaland local scales, the current monitoring network doesn't measureup. A satellite measure for outliers? Now the race is on to create a system that could aid theenforcement of a new climate treaty. Doing so should be a priorityfor the world's governments, science academies from 15 countriessaid last week. "The ability to accurately estimate greenhouse gas sources andsinks is a prerequisite for international agreements or nationalemission reduction programs to be effective," the academiessaid in a joint statement. But while the new study suggests there's a way to improvemonitoring of CO2 emissions, there's not always a will. I am an expert from display-show-cases.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Acrylic Display Stands , China Cosmetic Display, Spinner Display Racks,and more.
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