EYE-CLIMA – Verifying emissions of climate forcers

The Paris Agreement aims to limit global warming to well below 2°C, and preferably to below 1.5°C, by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) globally. Progress towards this target will be monitored through a process known as the Global Stocktake in which the progress on emissions reductions will be assessed every 5-years (the first is to be completed in 2023).

Currently, progress is assessed by National Greenhouse Gas inventories (NGHGIs) (Annex-I-countries) and Biennial Update Reports (non-Annex-I countries). However, these emission inventories/reports suffer from lack of frequency (especially for non-Annex-I countries) and inherent uncertainties. Therefore, there is a strong interest in having independent information on progress towards emission reductions based on observations of the atmospheric concentration of the different greenhouse gases – from satellites as well as from ground-based networks. Changes in atmospheric concentrations represent the integrated effect of human emissions, natural fluxes, atmospheric transport, and any atmospheric production and loss. Thus, by accounting for atmospheric production and loss, changes in concentrations can be used to constrain human emissions and natural fluxes. This is known as the “top-down” method.

More information on the project can be found HERE