Shili Yang

Developed and developing world responsibilities for historical climate change and CO2 mitigation

At the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference in Cancun, in November 2010, the Heads of State reached an agreement on the aim of limiting the global temperature rise to 2 °C relative to preindustrial levels. They recognized that long-term future warming is primarily constrained by cumulative anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, that deep cuts in global emissions are required, and that action based on equity must be taken to meet this objective. However, negotiations on emission reduction among countries are increasingly fraught with difficulty, partly because of arguments about the responsibility for the ongoing temperature rise. Simulations with two earth-system models (NCAR/CESM and BNU-ESM) demonstrate that developed countries had contributed about 60–80%, developing countries about 20–40%, to the global temperature rise, upper ocean warming, and sea-ice reduction by 2005. Enacting pledges made at Cancun with continuation to 2100 leads to a reduction in global temperature rise relative to business as usual with a 1/3–2/3 (CESM 33–67%, BNU-ESM 35–65%) contribution from developed and developing countries, respectively. To prevent a temperature rise by 2 °C or more in 2100, it is necessary to fill the gap with more ambitious mitigation efforts.

Analyses of extreme climate events over china based on CMIP5 historical and future simulations

Based on observations and 12 simulations from Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) models, climatic extremes and their changes over China in the past and under the future scenarios of three Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) are analyzed. In observations, frost days (FD) and low-temperature threshold days (TN10P) show a decreasing trend, and summer days (SU), high-temperature threshold days (TX90P), heavy precipitation days (R20), and the contribution of heavy precipitation days (P95T) show an increasing trend. Most models are able to simulate the main characteristics of most extreme indices. In particular, the mean FD and TX90P are reproduced the best, and the basic trends of FD, TN10P, SU and TX90P are represented. For the FD and SU indexes, most models show good ability in capturing the spatial differences between the mean state of the periods 1986–2005 and 1961–80; however, for other indices, the simulation abilities for spatial disparity are less satisfactory and need to be improved. Under the high emissions scenario of RCP8.5, the century-scale linear changes of the multi-model ensemble (MME) for FD, SU, TN10P, TX90P, R20 and P95T are −46.9, 46.0, −27.1, 175.4, and 2.9 days, and 9.9%, respectively; and the spatial change scope for each index is consistent with the emissions intensity. Due to the complexities of physical process parameterizations and the limitation of forcing data, great uncertainty still exists with respect to the simulation of climatic extremes.

Climate System Responses to a Common Emission Budget of Carbon Dioxide

AbstractGlobal warming as quantified by surface air temperature has been shown to be approximately linearly related to cumulative emissions of CO2. Here, a coupled state-of-the-art Earth system model with an interactive carbon cycle (BNU-ESM) was used to investigate whether this proportionality extends to the complex Earth system model and to examine the climate system responses to different emission pathways with a common emission budget of man-made CO2. These new simulations show that, relative to the lower emissions earlier and higher emissions later (LH) scenario, the amount of carbon sequestration by the land and the ocean will be larger and Earth will experience earlier warming of climate under the higher emissions earlier and lower emissions later (HL) scenario. The processes within the atmosphere, land, and cryosphere, which are highly sensitive to climate, show a relatively linear relationship to cumulative CO2 emissions and will attain similar states under both scenarios, mainly because of the n...

A brief introduction to BNU-HESM1.0 and its earth surface temperature simulations

Integrated assessment models and coupled earth system models both have their limitations in understanding the interactions between human activity and the physical earth system. In this paper, a new human–earth system model, BNU-HESM1.0, constructed by combining the economic and climate damage components of the Dynamic Integrated Model of Climate Change and Economy to the BNU-ESM model, is introduced. The ability of BNU-HESM1.0 in simulating the global CO2 concentration and surface temperature is also evaluated. We find that, compared to observation, BNU-HESM1.0 underestimates the global CO2 concentration and its rising trend during 1965–2005, due to the uncertainty in the economic components. However, the surface temperature simulated by BNU-HESM1.0 is much closer to observation, resulting from the overestimates of surface temperature by the original BNU-ESM model. The uncertainty of BNU-ESM falls within the range of present earth system uncertainty, so it is the economic and climate damage component of BNU-HESM1.0 that needs to be improved through further study. However, the main purpose of this paper is to introduce a new approach to investigate the complex relationship between human activity and the earth system. It is hoped that it will inspire further ideas that prove valuable in guiding human activities appropriate for a sustainable future climate.

Influence of recent carbon emissions on the attribution of responsibility for climate change

International negotiations on carbon emission reduction largely depend on the attribution of historical responsibility for climate change. In recent years, carbon emissions of developing countries have clearly increased because of rapid industrialization and now exceed those of developed countries. However, recent carbon emissions (2006-2011) have not been considered in previous attribution studies. In this study, we investigate the influence of recent carbon emissions on historical responsibilities of developed and developing countries, using a fully coupled global climate-carbon model CESM (Community Earth System Model). The simulations demonstrate that developed (developing) countries contributed about 55%-62% (38%-45%) to global CO2 increase, temperature rise, upper ocean warming, and sea ice reduction by 2011. Compared with results excluding recent carbon emissions, the responsibility of developed (developing) countries is reduced (increased) by 1%-2%. These results indicate that carbon emissions in recent years have little influence on the long-term attribution of historical responsibility. Although recent carbon emissions in developing countries have grown significantly and now exceed those of developed countries, emissions and corresponding responsibility transferred from the developed to developing world through international trade have been ignored. This is a topic that requires further study.

The response of vegetation to rising CO2 concentrations plays an important role in future changes in the hydrological cycle

The effects of increasing CO2 concentrations on plant and carbon cycle have been extensively investigated; however, the effects of changes in plants on the hydrological cycle are still not fully understood. Increases in CO2 modify the stomatal conductance and water use of plants, which may have a considerable effect on the hydrological cycle. Using the carbon–climate feedback experiments from CMIP5, we estimated the responses of plants and hydrological cycle to rising CO2 concentrations to double of pre-industrial levels without climate change forcing. The mode results show that rising CO2 concentrations had a significant influence on the hydrological cycle by changing the evaporation and transpiration of plants and soils. The increases in the area covered by plant leaves result in the increases in vegetation evaporation. Besides, the physiological effects of stomatal closure were stronger than the opposite effects of changes in plant structure caused by the increases in LAI (leaf area index), which results in the decrease of transpiration. These two processes lead to overall decreases in evaporation, and then contribute to increases in soil moisture and total runoff. In the dry areas, the stronger increase in LAI caused the stronger increases in vegetation evaporation and then lead to the overall decreases in P − E (precipitation minus evaporation) and soil moisture. However, the soil moisture in sub-arid and wet areas would increase, and this may lead to the soil moisture deficit worse in the future in the dry areas. This study highlights the need to consider the different responses of plants and the hydrological cycle to rising CO2 in dry and wet areas in future water resources management, especially in water-limited areas.

Quantitative Estimation of the Climatic Effects of Carbon Transferred by International Trade.

Carbon transfer via international trade affects the spatial pattern of global carbon emissions by redistributing emissions related to production of goods and services. It has potential impacts on attribution of the responsibility of various countries for climate change and formulation of carbon-reduction policies. However, the effect of carbon transfer on climate change has not been quantified. Here, we present a quantitative estimate of climatic impacts of carbon transfer based on a simple CO2 Impulse Response Function and three Earth System Models. The results suggest that carbon transfer leads to a migration of CO2 by 0.1–3.9 ppm or 3–9% of the rise in the global atmospheric concentrations from developed countries to developing countries during 1990–2005 and potentially reduces the effectiveness of the Kyoto Protocol by up to 5.3%. However, the induced atmospheric CO2 concentration and climate changes (e.g., in temperature, ocean heat content, and sea-ice) are very small and lie within observed interannual variability. Given continuous growth of transferred carbon emissions and their proportion in global total carbon emissions, the climatic effect of traded carbon is likely to become more significant in the future, highlighting the need to consider carbon transfer in future climate negotiations.