National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Information for Decision Making: A Framework Going Forward

About the Talk It is more certain now than ever, based on many lines of evidence, that human activities are largely responsible for the observed changes in the Earth's climate. These human activities have resulted in emissions that are causing significant changes in atmospheric concentrations of radiatively important gases and particles (referred to here as greenhouse gases (GHGs)). As a result of these changes in climate, decision makers are faced with ever-increasing pressure to understand the emissions of GHGs from human-related and natural sources and sinks and their impact on the Earth's climate as part of emissions mitigation and resiliency strategies. This decision making is important at all spatial scales from local to global if GHG emissions are to be reduced sufficiently for whatever goal is determined as needed to reduce the likelihood of future climate-related disasters. This presentation is based on a new National Academy of Sciences fast-track report that developed a framework for evaluating anthropogenic GHG information to support decision making. Three converging trends motivated this report: (1) rapidly increasing demand for trusted information about greenhouse gases (GHGs) across multiple sectors, geographic scales, and users; (2) development of many new approaches for quantifying GHG emissions information that aim to address this increasing demand; and (3) a growing and rapidly evolving institutional landscape, including public, private, and academic entities seeking to provide better GHG emissions information. In this study, the Committee examined existing and emerging approaches used in the development and evaluation of global anthropogenic GHG emissions inventories. Criteria or "pillars" are determined that form a common framework to evaluate current and future GHG emissions information and inventories. The developed framework to evaluate emissions information also includes guidance for policy makers about their use in decision making. Recommendations are made to both enhance current GHG information development capabilities while at the same time striving for "next-generation" hybrid approaches that would optimize the integration of individual activity- and atmospheric-based approaches in order to provide the best available GHG information for users.

About the Speaker Donald J. Wuebbles is Emeritus Professor of Atmospheric Science at the University of Illinois. He is also Director of Climate Science for Earth Knowledge. From 2015 to 2017, Dr. Wuebbles was Assistant Director with the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the Executive Office of the President. After many years at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Dr. Wuebbles came to the University of Illinois as Professor and Head of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences in 1994. He also led the development of the School of Earth, Society, and Environment at the University, and was its first director. Dr. Wuebbles is an expert in atmospheric physics and chemistry, with over 500 scientific publications related to the Earth's climate, air quality and stratospheric ozone. He also provides analyses and development of metrics for translating science to policy and societal responses. He has been a leader in many international and national scientific assessments, including being a coordinating lead author on international climate assessments led by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), thus contributing to IPCC being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. He coled Volume 1 of the 2017 4th U.S. National Climate Assessment. Amongst his major awards, Dr. Wuebbles has received the Cleveland Abbe Award from the American Meteorological Society, the Stratospheric Ozone Protection Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the Bert Bolin Global Environmental Change Award from the American Geophysical Union. He is a Fellow of three major professional science societies, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Geophysical Union, and the American Meteorological Society. He was a member of the joint U.S. National Academy of Science and UK Royal Society Committee on Climate Change that wrote Climate Change: Evidence and Causes in 2104 and updated it in 2020. He led special assessments of climate change and its impacts on the Great Lakes region, and on Illinois in 2019 and 2021, respectively. He also coauthored the 2021 Climate Action Plan for the Chicago Region. In 2022, he chaired a committee for the National Academy of Sciences that wrote a special report on a framework for greenhouse gas emissions inventories being used in consideration of policies to reduce the emissions affecting climate change.

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