U.N. takes step towards new way of tracking greenhouse gases

U.N. takes step towards new way of tracking greenhouse gases

Subject: Environment

Section: International conventions

Context: The United Nations announced that it had taken a significant step towards trying to fill a key gap in the fight against climate change: standardised, real-time tracking of greenhouse gases.

More on the News:

• N.’s World Meteorological Organization has come up with a new Global Greenhouse Gas Monitoring Infrastructure that aims to provide better ways of measuring planet-warming pollution and help inform policy choices.
• WMO’s new platform will integrate space-based and surface-based observing systems, and seek to clarify uncertainties about where greenhouse gas emissions end up.
• It would result in much faster and sharper data on how the planet’s atmosphere is changing. It will provide vital information and support for implementation of the Paris Agreement.
• From the measurements that greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are at record high. The three major greenhouses gases are carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. Of those, CO2 accounts for around 66% of the warming effect on the climate.

World Meteorological Organisation (WMO):

• The WMO is an intergovernmental organization with a membership of 192 Member States and Territories.
• India is a member of WMO.
• It originated from the International Meteorological Organization (IMO), which was established after the 1873 Vienna International Meteorological Congress.
• Established by the ratification of the WMO Convention on 23rd March 1950, WMO became the specialized agency of the United Nations for meteorology (weather and climate), operational hydrology and related geophysical sciences.’
• WMO also encourages research and training in meteorology and hydrology and their related applications and contributes towards reducing the impact of weather- and climate-related hazards.
• Predictions concerning locust swarms and the transport of pollutants (nuclear and toxic substances, volcanic ash) are also provided by WMO Members.
• WMO is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
• Reports:
  • Greenhouse Gas Bulletin.
  • Status of the World Climate.

Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)

• Atmospheric gases like carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide (N2O), water vapour, and chlorofluorocarbons are capable of trapping the out-going infrared radiation from the earth’s surface thereby causing greenhouse effect.
• Hence these gases are known as greenhouse gases and the heating effect is known as greenhouse effect.
• Scientists believe that this rise in temperature will lead to deleterious changes in the environment and resulting in odd climatic changes (e.g. increased incidence of El Nino), thus leading to increased melting of polar ice caps as well as of other places like the Himalayan snow caps.
• Over many years, this will result in a rise in sea level that can submerge many coastal areas and lead to loss of coastal areas and ecosystems like swamps and marshes (most important ecosystems from the point of ecological services), etc.