A Global Land Use and Biomass Approach to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Fossil Fuel Use and to Preserve Biodiversity

As average growth consumptions per capita and world population will continue to grow, the promotion of sustainable developments during the next half a century implies to take into account environmental aspects, local potentialities and futures changes in population as well climatic, economic and social factors. At the global level, land and fossil fuel availability per capita, capacity of absorption of greenhouse gas emissions are considered the most important environmental factors. Whereas at local levels are to be considered preservation or improvement of soil fertility, of water regimes, of quality of air, soil and water. Biodiversity must be taken into account at both levels to cope also with climate change. But as underlined by IPCC lead authors, up to now there is no tool available to deal with these issues in a comprehensive and adequate manner. A new tool, presented here, the Integrated Environmental Assessment (IEA) has therefore been developed. It takes into account all actions, from the sun to final services, in three stages: solar energy bioconversion and phytomass production at I; conversion of phytomass and non renewable resources into final products and waste disposal at II ; arrangement of products to meet final needs, such as nutrition, housing mobility etc. at III. IEAs start at the global level with the “GIEA” , the results of which are then to be confronted with constraints at local levels from “LIEAs”. This new tool can be used to identify impacts of technological changes in land management and to compare alternative practices better than with LCAs. It was used to analyze environmental impacts of technological changes between 1950 and 2000 in France, in wheat production at stage I. It appeared that not only yields, but also the primary mitigation potential (PMP) per hectare have been multiplied by 4, whereas the net primary energy gain per ha has been multiplied by 3.2. Besides this, 14,5 Mha (the area of the French forest about a quarter of France) land use change could be avoided; in the case of deforestation this would have led to the emission of more than 4 billion tons of CO2. Lessons are drawn from the past and for the next fifty years: In developed and industrialized countries, alternative managements of land and increased use of non food phytomass can and should be envisaged. In Sub-Saharan Africa population is expected to double during the next 50 years and soil fertility is drastically decreasing; agricultural practices are no longer sustainable. If no changes appear in agriculture, forests and GHG emission from deforestation as well as biodiversity are threatened by further and inevitable land use change. Increasing yields per hectare should therefore become the priority; it would at the same time increase food security, improve mitigation and adaptation to climate change, help to combat deforestation and desertification, better preserve biodiversity, and ultimately also allow more bioenergy production: This would improve the food security and at the same time help to achieve the objectives of the three main UN environmental conventions and of the UN Millennium Goal.Greenhouse Gas Emission, Fossil Fuel, Biodiversity

L'énergie dans le développement de la Nouvelle-Calédonie = Energy in the development of New Caledonia

Dans un contexte de raréfaction des ressources en énergie fossile et de changements climatiques, la Nouvelle-Calédonie, qui n'est pas actuellement soumise au protocole de Kyoto, doit répondre aux préoccupations environnementales et trouver les voies et moyens d'une moins grande dépendance énergétique. Au moment où le Territoire définit son Schéma d'aménagement et de développement 2025 et, dans le prolongement, son Schéma de l'énergie et du climat, le Gouvernement de la Nouvelle-Calédonie et l'ADEME, via le Comité territorial pour la maîtrise de l'énergie (CTME), ont demandé à l'Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD) de produire un état des lieux complet et une analyse pluridisciplinaire des enjeux constitutifs de la question de l'énergie dans le développement de la Nouvelle-Calédonie. La maîtrise de l'énergie, les nouvelles technologies en matière de production et de stockage d'énergie, les moyens de réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre, la géopolitique de l'énergie et du climat et la coopération régionale, la gouvernance de l'énergie et du climat en Nouvelle-Calédonie, ont ainsi été examinés au cours de l'année 2009 par un collège d'experts qui en restitue ici le bilan détaillé. Cette expertise collégiale qui a mobilisé l'ensemble des données scientifiques disponibles pour les décliner sur le cas particulier de la Nouvelle-Calédonie, livre une série de recommandations qui pourront utilement venir à l'appui des politiques que le Territoire est sur le point de se donner.ENERGIE ; POLITIQUE ENERGETIQUE ; DEVELOPPEMENT ECONOMIQUE ; GESTION DE L'ENVIRONNEMENT ; EXPERTISE ; PRODUCTION ; CONSOMMATION ; CLIMAT ; POLLUTION ; ATMOSPHERE ; GAZ CARBONIQUE ; STOCKAGE ; ENERGIE RENOUVELABLE ; BIOMASSE ; TECHNOLOGIE ; GEOPOLITIQUE ; RELATIONS INTERNATIONALES ; COOPERATION INTERNATIONALE ; REGLEMENTATION ; RECOMMANDATION ; DEVELOPPEMENT DURABLE ; EFFET DE SERRE ; GOUVERNANCE ; PROTOCOLE DE KYOTO ; CONVENTION CADRE DES NATIONS UNIES SUR LE CHANGEMENT CLIMATIQUE ; NOUVELLE CALEDONIE

Comportamiento del crecimiento de plántulas de cacao (Theobroma cacao L.), en vivero, sembradas en diferentes volúmenes de sustrato

The increasing demand for cocoa crops requires high quality plant production. Plants grown in containers or pots have limited nursery survival. The space for root growth and sustrate volume in cacao seedlings in a nursery were tested using diverse plastic containers: tubete (0.4 L), bag (1.6 L) and bucket (3.0 L), the treatments were distributed in a completely random experimental design. Leaf number, width, length; stem and root length; plant height; stem diameter; leaf, stem, root and total fresh weight were evaluated. The cocoa seedlings observed were significantly affected (P≤0.05) by the restriction of space and volume in the root growth area. The highest growth restriction was in the tubete, where container substrate volume is only 1 kg compared with the bag/3 kg and the bucket/5 kg. The development of seedlings grown in tubete was normal until 60 days compared with the bag and the bucket. Abnormal plant growth occurred in the bucket at 120 days and the bag at 90 days.  La creciente demanda del cacao requiere la producción de plantas de alta calidad y su crecimiento en materia, limita su sobrevivencia en vivero. Se evaluó el efecto del espacio de crecimiento radicular y volumen de sustrato sobre el crecimiento de plantas de cacao, empleando diferentes envases plásticos: tubete (0,4 L), bolsa (1,6 L) y balde (3 L) en vivero. Los tratamientos se distribuyeron en un diseño experimental completamente al azar. Los caracteres evaluados fueron: número de hojas, ancho de las hojas, longitud de las hojas, longitud del tallo, longitud de la raíz, altura de la planta, diámetro del tallo, peso fresco de las hojas, peso fresco del tallo, peso fresco de la raíz y peso fresco total. El crecimiento de las plántulas de cacao se vieron afectadas significativamente (P≤0,05) con la reducción del espacio y volumen donde se desarrolla la raíz en etapa de vivero. Se encontró mayor restricción en el crecimiento de la raíz y de estructuras aéreas en el recipiente tubete, donde el volumen de sustrato es únicamente de 1 kg, comparativamente con la bolsa de 3 kg y el balde de 5 kg, acentuándose más esta restricción a través del tiempo. Las plántulas que crecieron en el recipiente de 1 kg se desarrollaron normalmente hasta los 60 días, con una tasa de crecimiento posterior muy baja comparativamente con la bolsa y la matera donde en esta última no se presentó estrés hasta los 120 días ya que contaron con mayor espacio y cantidad de nutrientes. En el caso de la bolsa el incremento la tasa de crecimiento fue muy bajo a partir de los 90 días. 

Impact of Cultural Tourism Upon Urban Economies: An Econometric Exercise

In recent years, interest in tourism has spread rapidly throughout many small and medium European cities, which previously have not necessarily considered themselves as tourist destinations. Tourism is increasingly seen as a potential lever towards high economic growth, measured both in terms of income and employment. In the present Working Paper we report the analysis on the economic impact undertaken in the framework of the PICTURE Project, showing the results of a novel econometric exercise to statistically assess the impacts of cultural tourism upon European municipalities. More precisely the analysis aims at estimating the effects of tourism specialisation on local income and prices. The Working Paper is built as follows. Section 1 presents and discusses secondary data about tourism facts and figures, including the economic impact of tourism upon European economies, with a focus on cultural tourism. An extensive review of literature, which identifies the main categories of impacts and the currently available methodologies to assess them, is undertaken. Section 2 focuses on the state of the art. Section 3 describes the database built for the analysis, sources and variables. In order to visually represent the spatial variability of the main parameters, a series of thematic maps at NUTS 3 level(Maps of European tourism), using GIS (Geographical Information System) are also included in the Working Paper. Section 4 shows the results of the econometric analysis of European panel data for the estimation of the effects of tourism specialisation on both local incomes and prices. Section 5 concludes

Climate Change: National and Local Policy Opportunities in China

Climate Change poses a wide range of potentially very severe threats in China. This aggravates the existing vulnerability of China and is one of the big challenges faced by the Chinese government. Adaptation programmes and projects are being developed and implemented at national and local level. As China is engaged in heavy investment in infrastructure development as a consequence of the rapid process of development and urbanization, mainstreaming adaptation into such development process is a priority for China. China has also made positive contributions to reducing greenhouse gas emissions through participations in the CDM under the Kyoto Protocol framework. Although mitigation is not a priority at national or local level, it has been integrated into national and local development plans explicitly. This paper addresses the following questions: What is the policy space for climate change mitigation and adaptation policy at national and local level and what is already being done? The three case studies at local level - Beijing, Guangdong and Shanghai presented here, highlight the local benefits in terms of local pollution of integrating mitigation policies into local development. However, financial constraints usually prevent such a positive policy integration. National policies and international cooperation aiming at bridging the financial gap and promoting technology transfer would help in integrating local pollution control and mitigation efforts in China today