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AFD’s Research Department
invites you to attend a conference-debate
Wednesday 8 October 2008
from 4 p.m.to 6 p.m. – at AFD (Jacques Alliot Conference Room)

 

Methane reduction:
 a further challenge of climate change

 

chaired by

Benjamin DESSUS
Bernard LAPONCHE
Association Global Chance

 

Studies on climate change show that the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere must be dramatically reduced over the coming decades. In the interests of simplification the international community adopted an equivalence method for calculating emissions from the various gases using one common unit: the CO2 equivalent ton.
 
However, the widespread use of this equivalence to measure observed, predicted or avoided emissions leads to an underestimation which ranges from 1 to 5 according to the time-scale in question. By 2030 the effectiveness of a program to reduce global CH4 emissions by 30% between 2010 and 2030 is consequently equivalent to a program to reduce CO2 by 20% for the same period.

The time factor in assessing the respective effects of carbon dioxide and methane is extremely important. It leads us to reconsider the validity of a “single carbon market” and to recommend that separate emission reduction targets should be defined for each gas. Climate negotiations should aim to define priority action programs for each country and decide how to implement them on the basis of sectors with the highest and most accessible potential. 

 

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