The human interference with the climate system, the perturbation of the carbon cycle through massive release of greenhouse gases, caused by fossil fuel burning and land-use change, is threatening society and represents a key challenge for research and policies in the twenty-first century. Growing evidence of hum- induced climate change has raised public concern calling for urgent international policy actions. Initiatives culminated in the establishment of the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol (1997), where Parties for the first time agreed...

After years of technological development and its important achievements to make our life easier and more comfortable, human society is going to face one of the most difficult challenges of the last century: to stabilize the concentra- tion levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to prevent harmful effects on the climate system. Through a delicate balance between photosynthesis and respiration, terres- trial ecosystems, and in particular forests, are today thought to take up a sig- nificant part of the carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere, sometimes called the "terrestrial carbon...

The human interference with the climate system, the perturbation of the carbon cycle through massive release of greenhouse gases, caused by fossil fuel burning and land-use change, is threatening society and represents a key challenge for research and policies in the twenty-first century. Growing evidence of hum- induced climate change has raised public concern calling for urgent international policy actions. Initiatives culminated in the establishment of the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol (1997), where Parties for the first time agreed...

If not addressed in time, climate change is expected to exacerbate Nigeria's current vulnerability to weather swings and limit its ability to achieve and sustain the objectives of Vision 20: 2020. But there is a lot that can be done, starting now, to avoid such a damaging outcome. This is the overarching message of Toward Climate-Resilient Development in Nigeria. The likely impacts of climate change include the following: - Long-term reduction in crop yields of 20-30 percent - Declining productivity of livestock, with adverse consequences on livelihoods and pastoralism - Large increases in...

This wide-ranging assessment of the data from Italy's national CARBOITALY project to measure the greenhouse gas 'accounts' of the country's landscape provides fresh information and analysis that will provide an empirical foundation to policy making on climate.