CO2 emissions

GeoSciences Column: The dirty business of shipping goods by sea

Laura Roberts-Artal November 10, 2017

“Above the foggy strip, this white arch was shining, covering one third of the visible sky in the direction of the ship's bow,” he explains. “It was a so-called white, or fog rainbow, which appears on the fog droplets, which are much smaller then rain droplets and cause different optic effects, which is a reason of its white colour.”

Gateway to the Arctic . Credit: Mikhail Varentsov (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

Shipping goods across the oceans is cost-effective and super-efficient; that’s why over 80% of world trade is carried by sea (according to the International Maritime Organisation). But the shipping industry also contributes significant amounts of air pollutants to marine and coastal environments. A new study, published in the EGU’s open access journal Earth System Dynamics, reports on concentratio ...[Read More]

GeoPolicy: A new vehicle emissions test to be introduced, say EU’s top scientists

Sarah Connors December 14, 2016

Credit: John H. White, 1945-, Photographer (NARA record: 4002141) (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration). Distributed via wikicommons.

Last year the European Commission appointed a panel of world leading scientists to advise on key science policy issues. In November, the panel issued their first recommendation report focusing on CO2 vehicle emissions. The month’s GeoPolicy post takes a closer look at this high-level advisory panel and the recommendations they have published. In 2015, the Scientific Advice Mechanism (SAM) w ...[Read More]

IPCC report ‘unprecedented changes’ in climate, urging policymakers to take action

Sara Mynott October 4, 2013

“Human influence on the climate system is clear” was the key message from the report on the physical science of climate change from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). “We have come a long way since the first IPCC report was published in 1990,” a statement reiterated throughout the press conference for the release of the report. The IPCC were keen to register the significance of ...[Read More]