Many actions to reduce GHG emissions have wider impacts on health, the economy, and the environment, beyond their role in mitigating climate change. These ancillary impacts can be positive (co-benefits) or negative (conflicts). This article presents the first quantitative review of the wider impacts on health and the environment likely to arise from action to meet the UK's legally-binding carbon budgets. Impacts were assessed for climate measures directed at power generation, energy use in buildings, and industry, transport, and agriculture. The study considered a wide range of health and environmental impacts including air pollution, noise, the upstream impacts of fuel extraction, and the lifestyle benefits of active travel. It was not possible to quantify all impacts, but for those that were monetized the co-benefits of climate action (i.e. excluding climate benefits) significantly outweigh the negative impacts, with a net present value of more than £85 billion from 2008 to 2030. Substantial benefits arise from reduced congestion, pollution, noise, and road accidents as a result of avoided journeys. There is also a large health benefit as a result of increased exercise from walking and cycling instead of driving. Awareness of these benefits could strengthen the case for more ambitious climate mitigation action.
Policy relevance
This article demonstrates that actions to mitigate GHG emissions have significant wider benefits for health and the environment. Including these impacts in cost–benefit analysis would strengthen the case for the UK (and similar countries) to set ambitious emissions reduction targets. Understanding co-benefits and trade-offs will also improve coordination across policy areas and cut costs. In addition, co-benefits such as air quality improvements are often immediate and local, whereas climate benefits may occur on a longer timescale and mainly in a distant region, as well as being harder to demonstrate. Dissemination of the benefits, along with better anticipation of trade-offs, could therefore boost public support for climate action. 相似文献
Glacial varves can give significant insights into recession and melting rates of decaying ice sheets. Moreover, varve chronologies can provide an independent means of comparison to other annually resolved climatic archives, which ultimately help to assess the timing and response of an ice sheet to changes across rapid climate transitions. Here we report a composite 1257‐year‐long varve chronology from southeastern Sweden spanning the regional late Allerød–late Younger Dryas pollen zone. The chronology was correlated to the Greenland Ice‐Core Chronology 2005 using the time‐synchronous Vedde Ash volcanic marker, which can be found in both successions. For the first time, this enables secure placement of the Lateglacial Swedish varve chronology in absolute time. Geochemical analysis from new varve successions indicate a marked change in sedimentation regime accompanied by an interruption of ice‐rafted debris deposition synchronous with the onset of Greenland Stadial 1 (GS‐1; 12 846 years before AD 1950). With the support of a simple ice‐flow/calving model, we suggest that slowdown of sediment transfer can be explained by ice‐sheet margin stabilization/advance in response to a significant drop of the Baltic Ice Lake level. A reassessment of chronological evidence from central‐western and southern Sweden further supports the hypothesis of synchronicity between the first (penultimate) catastrophic drainage of the Baltic Ice Lake and the start of GS‐1 in Greenland ice‐cores. Our results may therefore provide the first chronologically robust evidence linking continental meltwater forcing to rapid atmosphere–ocean circulation changes in the North Atlantic. 相似文献
The impacts of climate change on future river flows are a growing concern. Typically, impacts are simulated by driving hydrological models with climate model ensemble data. The U.K. Climate Projections 2009 (UKCP09) provided probabilistic projections, enabling a risk-based approach to decision-making under climate change. Recently, an update was released—UKCP18—so there is a need for information on how impacts may differ. The probabilistic projections from UKCP18 and UKCP09 are here applied using the change factor method with catchment-based hydrological modelling for 10 catchments across England. Projections of changes in median, mean, high, and low flows are made for the 2050s, using the A1B emissions scenario from UKCP09 and UKCP18 as well as the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 emissions scenarios from UCKP18. The results show that, in all catchments for all flow measures, the central estimate of change under UKCP18 is similar to that from UKCP09 (A1B emissions). However, the probabilistic uncertainty ranges from UKCP18 are, in all cases, greater than from UKCP09, despite UKCP18 having a smaller ensemble size than UKCP09. Although there are differences between the central estimates of change using UKCP18 RCP4.5, RCP8.5 and A1B emissions, there is considerable overlap in the uncertainty ranges. The results suggest that existing assessments of hydrological impacts remain relevant, though it will be necessary to evaluate sensitive decisions using the latest projections. The analysis will aid development of advice to users of current guidance based on UKCP09 and help make decisions about the prioritization of further hydrological impacts work using UKCP18, which should also apply other products from UKCP18 like the 12-km regional data. 相似文献
Arsenic is a prevalent contaminant at US Superfund sites where remediation by pump and treat systems is often complicated by slow desorption of As from Fe and Al (hydr)oxides in aquifer solids. Chemical amendments that either compete with As for sorption sites or dissolve Fe and Al (hydr)oxides can increase As mobility and improve pump and treat remediation efficiency. The goal of this work was to determine optimal amendments for improving pump and treat at As contaminated sites such as the Vineland Chemical Co. Superfund site in southern New Jersey. Extraction and column experiments were performed using As contaminated aquifer solids (81 ± 1 mg/kg), site groundwater, and either phosphate (NaH2PO4·H2O) or oxalic acid (C2H2O4·2H2O). In extraction experiments, phosphate mobilized between 11% and 94% of As from the aquifer solids depending on phosphate concentration and extraction time (1 mM–1 M; 1–24 h) and oxalic acid mobilized between 38% and 102% depending on oxalic acid concentration and extraction time (1–400 mM; 1–24 h). In column experiments, phosphate additions induced more As mobilization in the first few pore volumes but oxalic acid was more effective at mobilizing As overall and at lower amendment concentrations. At the end of the laboratory column experiments, 48% of As had been mobilized from the aquifer sediments with 100 mM phosphate and 88% had been mobilized with 10 mM oxalic acid compared with 5% with ambient groundwater alone. Furthermore, simple extrapolations based on pore volumes suggest that chemical treatments could lower the time necessary for clean up at the Vineland site from 600 a with ambient groundwater alone to potentially as little as 4 a with 10 mM oxalic acid. 相似文献
Garnet-bearing mantle xenoliths have been recovered from Quaternary alkali basalts, both within and peripheral to the Hangay
dome of central Mongolia. Microfabric analysis and thermobaromery, combining empirical thermobarometers and the self-consistent
dataset of THERMOCALC, indicate that garnet websterites from the Shavaryn-Tsaram volcanic centre at the dome core were formed
in the spinel-lherzolite upper mantle at pressures of 17–18 kbars and temperatures of 1,070–1,090°C, whereas garnet lherzolites
were derived from greater depths (18–20 kbars). Garnet lherzolites from the Baga Togo Uul vents near the dome edge were formed
at 18–22 kbars under significantly cooler conditions (960–1,000°C). These xenoliths reveal reaction coronas of (1) orthopyroxene,
clinopyroxene, plagioclase and spinel mantling garnets; (2) spongy rims of olivine replacing orthopyroxene and (3) low-Na,
low-Al clinopyroxene replacing primary clinopyroxene. Trace-element abundances indicate that clinopyroxene from these coronas
is in chemical equilibrium with the host magma. The thermobarometric and textural data suggest that lherzolite xenoliths from
both sites were derived from depths of 60–70 km and entrained in magma at 1,200–1,300°C. The average rate of ascent, as determined
by olivine zoning, lies in the range 0.2–0.3 m s−1. The contrast in thermal profiles of the upper mantle between the two sites is consistent with a mantle plume beneath the
Hangay dome with elevated thermal conditions beneath the core of the dome being comparable to estimates of the Pleistocene
geotherm beneath the Baikal rift. 相似文献
From a watershed perspective, Boston Harbor, MA, USA is an ideal site for eelgrass restoration due to major wastewater improvements.
Therefore, by focusing on site selection and transplant methods, high survival and expansion rates were recorded at four large
eelgrass-restoration sites planted in Boston Harbor as partial mitigation for a pipeline construction project. Transplanted
sites met and exceeded reference and donor bed habitat function after 2 years. Hand planting and seeding in checkerboard-patterned
transplant plots were efficient and effective methods for jump-starting eelgrass growth over large areas. Although restoration
through planting can be successful, it is highly site specific. Even using a published site-selection model, intensive fieldwork
was required to identify sites at fine enough scale to ensure successful planting. Given the effort required to identify scarce
potential sites, we recommend that future focus includes alternative mitigation strategies that can more adequately prevent
eelgrass loss and address water quality degradation which is the leading cause of dieback, site unsuitability for planting,
and lack of natural re-colonization. 相似文献