The assessment of greenhouse gases emitted to and removed from the atmosphere is high on the international political and scientific agendas. Growing international concern and cooperation regarding the climate change problem have increased the need for policy-oriented solutions to the issue of uncertainty in, and related to, inventories of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The approaches to addressing uncertainty discussed here reflect attempts to improve national inventories, not only for their own sake but also from a wider, systems analytical perspective - a perspective that seeks to strengthen the usefulness of national inventories under a compliance and/or global monitoring and reporting framework. These approaches demonstrate the benefits of including inventory uncertainty in policy analyses. The authors of the contributed papers show that considering uncertainty helps avoid situations that can, for example, create a false sense of certainty or lead to invalid views of subsystems. This may eventually prevent related errors from showing up in analyses. However, considering uncertainty does not come for free. Proper treatment of uncertainty is costly and demanding because it forces us to make the step from "simple to complex" and only then to discuss potential simplifications. Finally, comprehensive treatment of uncertainty does not offer policymakers quick and easy solutions.

'The authors take us into less-known corridors of climate Realpolitik and energy power play. We are provided with the essential vocabulary to understand what is at stake and how the challenge should be tackled' Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan Global warming and the resulting climate change present one of the greatest potential threats humanity has had to face. Every country contributes to them and they affect every person. Correspondingly, the Framework Convention on Climate Change, negotiated at the Earth Summit and since, is potentially one of the most significant international agreements ever reached and its successful implementation is vital if the threat is to be averted. This book provides a guide to the Convention and explains in very clear terms what is involved: the background which makes it so necessary; the tortuous process involved in negotiating it; what it says; and most importantly, how it must be interpreted and implemented, making clear the scale of the changes involved and the dangers of evading them. Sten Nilsson is leader of the forest resources project at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. David Pitt is a consultant to the Bellerive Foundation and Alp Action. They are the authors of Mountain World in Danger, published by Earthscan in 1991. Originally published in 1994

The changing climate, the warming of the world and acid rain are among the greatest problems facing us at the end of the twentieth century. This book describes, for the first time, the effects of these phenomena on the high mountains and the forests of Europe. Mountains and the frozen regions (the cryosphere) not only play a major part in our climatic system, but are also central to our water supplies. Yet our glaciers are shrinking, our lakes and soils are becoming acidified, our forests are damaged and the whole fragile ecosystem of ranges like the Alps and the Caucasus is threatened. Nilsson and Pitt present the evidence and assess the probable effects of these changes on mountain society, tourism, water, flora and fauna. They also examine the uncertainties. Above all they look, too, at the best possible strategies in response to What is happening and at what the next steps should be. Originally published in 1991

The changing climate, the warming of the world and acid rain are among the greatest problems facing us at the end of the twentieth century. This book describes, for the first time, the effects of these phenomena on the high mountains and the forests of Europe. Mountains and the frozen regions (the cryosphere) not only play a major part in our climatic system, but are also central to our water supplies. Yet our glaciers are shrinking, our lakes and soils are becoming acidified, our forests are damaged and the whole fragile ecosystem of ranges like the Alps and the Caucasus is threatened. Nilsson and Pitt present the evidence and assess the probable effects of these changes on mountain society, tourism, water, flora and fauna. They also examine the uncertainties. Above all they look, too, at the best possible strategies in response to What is happening and at what the next steps should be. Originally published in 1991

'The authors take us into less-known corridors of climate Realpolitik and energy power play. We are provided with the essential vocabulary to understand what is at stake and how the challenge should be tackled' Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan Global warming and the resulting climate change present one of the greatest potential threats humanity has had to face. Every country contributes to them and they affect every person. Correspondingly, the Framework Convention on Climate Change, negotiated at the Earth Summit and since, is potentially one of the most significant international agreements ever reached and its successful implementation is vital if the threat is to be averted. This book provides a guide to the Convention and explains in very clear terms what is involved: the background which makes it so necessary; the tortuous process involved in negotiating it; what it says; and most importantly, how it must be interpreted and implemented, making clear the scale of the changes involved and the dangers of evading them. Sten Nilsson is leader of the forest resources project at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. David Pitt is a consultant to the Bellerive Foundation and Alp Action. They are the authors of Mountain World in Danger, published by Earthscan in 1991. Originally published in 1994

Public concern for the conservation of natural resources and a general awareness of the environmental consequences of waste disposal is reflected in current legislation aimed at reducing waste. Recycling is commonly cited as one of the preferred methods of waste reduction and this book summarizes a recent study of paper recycling in Europe, which investigated the entire production and disposal process using a life-cycle methodology. The results of the study underline the economic and environmental advantages of paper recycling, but more controversially, they also show how, under certain conditions, the renewable character and the high energy content of paper seem to make energy recovery more attractive than recycling.

Public concern for the conservation of natural resources and a general awareness of the environmental consequences of waste disposal is reflected in current legislation aimed at reducing waste. Recycling is commonly cited as one of the preferred methods of waste reduction and this book summarizes a recent study of paper recycling in Europe, which investigated the entire production and disposal process using a life-cycle methodology. The results of the study underline the economic and environmental advantages of paper recycling, but more controversially, they also show how, under certain conditions, the renewable character and the high energy content of paper seem to make energy recovery more attractive than recycling.

The assessment of greenhouse gases emitted to and removed from the atmosphere is high on the international political and scientific agendas. Growing international concern and cooperation regarding the climate change problem have increased the need for policy-oriented solutions to the issue of uncertainty in, and related to, inventories of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The approaches to addressing uncertainty discussed here reflect attempts to improve national inventories, not only for their own sake but also from a wider, systems analytical perspective - a perspective that seeks to strengthen the usefulness of national inventories under a compliance and/or global monitoring and reporting framework. These approaches demonstrate the benefits of including inventory uncertainty in policy analyses. The authors of the contributed papers show that considering uncertainty helps avoid situations that can, for example, create a false sense of certainty or lead to invalid views of subsystems. This may eventually prevent related errors from showing up in analyses. However, considering uncertainty does not come for free. Proper treatment of uncertainty is costly and demanding because it forces us to make the step from "simple to complex" and only then to discuss potential simplifications. Finally, comprehensive treatment of uncertainty does not offer policymakers quick and easy solutions.

The assessment of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted to and removed from the atmosphere is high on both political and scientific agendas internationally. As increasing international concern and cooperation aim at policy-oriented solutions to the climate change problem, several issues have begun to arise regarding verification and compliance under both proposed and legislated schemes meant to reduce the human-induced global climate impact. The approaches to addressing uncertainty discussed in this volume attempt to improve national inventories or to provide a basis for the standardization of inventory estimates to enable comparison of emissions and emission changes across countries. Several authors use detailed uncertainty analyses to enforce the current structure of the emissions trading system while others attempt to internalize high levels of uncertainty by tailoring the emissions trading market rules. In all approaches, uncertainty analysis is regarded as a key component of national GHG inventory analyses.

Topics of interest include:
-national greenhouse gas emission inventories
-bottom-up versus top-down emission analyses
-signal detection and analysis techniques
-verification and compliance issues
-role of uncertainty in emissions trading schemes
-compliance and emissions trading under the Kyoto Protocol.

Assessment of uncertainty can help improve inventories and manage risk. Through recognizing the importance of identifying and quantifying uncertainties, great strides can be made in the process of Accounting for Climate Change.