Validation of CO2 emissions informing climate change mitigation policies

Impact Case Study I

Societal issue addressed: As governments and businesses develop actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reliable systems for validation of reported emissions are needed to verify that emissions are being accurately reported and to monitor the effectiveness of polices to reduce emissions.
Who & How: Dr Heather Graven created the first atmospheric observation-based system to provide independent evaluation of fossil fuel CO2 emissions on the scale of a political state, utilising measurements of the ratio of carbon isotopes ( 14C/C) in atmospheric CO2.
Application: The system was used to validate reported greenhouse gas emissions in California, which formed the basis of California’s climate policy.
Results: The project addressed a key difficulty in the identification of manmade CO₂ emitted by fossil fuel burning, as opposed to natural CO₂ emitted from plants or bacteria. The direct beneficiaries are California’s government and citizens, but the impact is much broader as the system is serving as a model for similar systems being developed elsewhere including the European Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.