Understanding the European Greenhouse Gas Budget:
Towards supporting COP21

Meeting organised by the NERC Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Feedback Programme
Royal Society, London, 8-9 March 2017 (Wed/Thu) - Stakeholder session on Thu afternoon

This two-day meeting will review the current state of art of UK greenhouse gas research and monitoring, following recent and ongoing nationwide activities, and discusses key priorities and opportunities for the future. It will also provide a forum to connect the UK research community with relevant parties from government, industry and other stakeholders.

Understanding and quantifying Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emissions is central to international efforts to slow their growth rate in the atmosphere, in order to mitigate the humanitarian and economic impacts of climate change. Achieving this demands accurate understanding and precise knowledge of natural and anthropogenic emissions and sinks of GHGs, as well as their transport and fate in the environment.

The Greenhouse Gases Emissions and Feedback Programme (2013-2017), funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), has developed a programme of comprehensive measurements, data analysis and modelling activities, focusing on the key GHGs carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. Building on the integrated UK GHG programme, we are now at the stage where the UK can play a leading science role in a new pan-European GHG observing system (the Integrated Carbon Observing system, ICOS) via a coherent measurement programme to improve understanding, reduce uncertainties and underpin policy decisions. The aim is to support our ability for GHG accounting and to allow for the independent verification of emissions estimates.

This meeting will bring together scientists and stakeholders to review and discuss current knowledge of natural and anthropogenic UK GHG emissions and sinks, and the state of the art of GHG monitoring and research in the UK. The meeting will also consider the future needs for GHG research and monitoring, explore challenges and opportunities, and suggest priorities and strategies to improve UK capabilities.

The first 1.5 days of the meeting will be a multidisciplinary exposition of current GHG research in the UK that will feed into discussions on future challenges and opportunities for the UK in the global context. The second half-day is focused on providing accessible material and results that will help transfer knowledge to stakeholders.

Attendance

This meeting is aimed at everybody with a professional interest in GHG research and monitoring. The meeting has two parts - a multidisciplinary exposition of current research in the UK (Wednesday all day and Thursday morning) and a stakeholder session providing accessible material (Thursday afternoon). Attendees are welcome to sign up for either part or the full meeting.

We aim to have a fair representation of all relevant groups, so please coordinate attendance with colleagues at your institution.

Agenda

For details, see the Agenda for "Understanding the European GHG Budget", 8-9 Mar 2017.

Registration

Registration is free and includes free tea/coffee and lunches. To register, please fill in the registration form.
Registration is now closed.

Venue and travel information

The meeting will take place at the Royal Society in London. Venue and Travel information can be found on the Royal Society Website.

Contact

For questions or comments, please contact the GHG Programme Manager Stephan Matthiesen (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. )

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About the organisers:

The meeting is organised by the Greenhouse Gases Emissions and Feedback Programme (2013-2017) in cooperation with the UK National Focal Point of the Integrated Carbon Observation System (UK-ICOS).

The overarching objective of the Greenhouse Gases Emissions and Feedback research programme, which is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and involves a number of research partners, is to deliver improved greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories and predictions both for the UK, and for the globe at a regional scale. It has developed a programme of comprehensive measurement and data analysis, focusing on the key GHGs carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide.

The programme integrates three separate research consortia with complementary objectives, which together contribute towards the overall objective:

• GAUGE (Greenhouse gAs Uk and Global Emissions) is looking at producing robust estimates of the UK GHG budget.
• GREENHOUSE (Generating Regional Emissions Estimates with a Novel Hierarchy of Observations and Upscaled Simulation Experiments) is looking at building regional GHG inventories.
• RAGNARoCC (Radiatively active gases from the North Atlantic Region and Climate Change) is looking at air-sea fluxes of GHGs in the North Atlantic region.

The Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS) is a European Research Infrastructure (RI) identified as part of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) process. It consists of a network of European observing systems operated at member state level and is underpinned by thematic centres (ocean, atmosphere and ecosystem [terrestrial biosphere]) and a centralized administration and database facility in Helsinki.