Emission reduction
Human activities are the biggest contributor to the increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations. Global human-caused GHG emissions have increased since the pre-industrial era and are now higher than ever. Greenhouse gas emissions contribute to global warming and changing climate patterns. Actions need to be taken at global, national, regional and individual levels to reduce the emissions.
Accurate and comprehensive knowledge of fossil fuel emissions and biomass burning is needed in order to predict and mitigate climate change. Moreover, it is essential to understand their interaction with global biogeochemical cycles, such as Earth's carbon cycle, which is the natural circulation of carbon among the air, water and ecosystems – the three domains of ICOS. Such knowledge allows nations and other actors to calculate their emissions and set up reduction targets accurately.
Our contribution to emission reduction
ICOS is committed to supporting climate action and emission reduction by producing high-quality and standardised greenhouse gas data in the atmosphere, the terrestrial biosphere and oceans. This information is used by scientists as well as by decision makers to reduce emissions in Europe and globally. Below are some examples of how our work contributes to global emissions reduction targets:
We offer relevant data to make Paris Agreement possible
The Paris Agreement aims to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping the global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, while pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The knowledge generated through the use of our data supports efforts to comply with the Paris Agreement objectives. ICOS contributes to this international goal by establishing global standards for observations and by providing open, accessible, and interoperable data to ensure optimal services for societies working to mitigate climate change.
We are also an Observer Intergovernmental Organization (IGO) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which seeks to reach global consensus on actions to mitigate and to adapt to climate change as outlined in the Paris Agreement.
We work towards separating natural & human-caused emissions
Cities require specific attention as they continue to grow and their role in climate change is increasing. A major scientific challenge is how to observe and accurately estimate carbon dioxide emissions from urban areas. ICOS is developing new technologies to estimate human-caused emissions to comprehensively analyse urban emissions. This is done through so-called radiocarbon measurements, in which ICOS will play an important role in the future.
We support the development of climate-smart cities
Urban measurements of greenhouse gas emissions and sinks are important for society and for decision makers. ICOS aims to pave the way towards city observatories that directly support the development of climate-smart cities. We further develop relevant methods for urban greenhouse gas measurements, which are already applied as prototypes. We also provide support and access to scientists and projects that aim to further develop and integrate technologies to detect urban greenhouse gases. This development work has been advanced in recent years in the ICOS Cities project.
Our ground-based measurements complement satellite observations
Linking satellite observations with ground-based measurements is another important way ICOS contributes to emission reduction. Combining carbon dioxide (CO2) observations from space with our ground-based measurements opens enables the development of a comprehensive system of observations.
We are committed to climate action in our own operations
ICOS ERIC (European Research Infrastructure Consortium), the coordinating body of the ICOS research infrastructure, commits to climate action in its own operations.
ICOS ERIC has been committed to measuring its emissions related to business travels and home-work-home commuting of its personnel, and has compensated any remaining greenhouse gas emissions by offsetting them. Other concrete actions include offering only vegetarian food in events and reducing the carbon footprint of the ICOS website through the Website Carbon tool. The annual emissions of ICOS ERIC now regularly reported in its Annual reports.