4th Week

Climate Change

Term: 2022-2

1st Unit: The Science of Climate Change - Carbon

Lecturer: Naldi Carrión Puelles

What Is Carbon?

Carbon is an element that moves naturally

between stores, principally the atmosphere,
oceans, vegetation, and solid Earth. Carbon
stored in the atmosphere, in the form of
greenhouse gases, determines the strength of the
greenhouse effect.
What Is Carbon?
Human processes have accelerated the
transfer of carbon from stores deep below the
Earth’s surface, as fossil fuels, to other stores
in the atmosphere and oceans. Carbon
dioxide, or CO2, is the primary greenhouse
gas emitted by human activities, and policies
to control modern climate change frequently
focus on reducing our emissions of this gas.

To limit the average global temperature

increase in line with the Paris Agreement,
atmospheric concentration of greenhouse
gases must stabilize, and the human activities
producing these gases need to be
decarbonized.
What Is Carbon Cycle?
But constructing rational climate change policies requires more than just knowing how
much CO2 humans are dumping into the atmosphere.

It requires an understanding of the carbon cycle – how carbon moves between the
atmosphere, ocean, land biosphere, and rocks on the Earth.

This will help us understand what happens to carbon dioxide after it is emitted into the
atmosphere, which in turn will help us understand the future trajectory of our climate.
constituent abundance GHG

N2 78% No

O2 21% No

Ar 1% No

H 20 0-4% Yes

Remainder 0.05% Mostly

Remainder = small # seems irrelevant BUT crucial for life on planet

Let’s change units (0.05% small) – trace gases
Percent (%) = number per hundred
  Thus 78% N2 means 78 out of every 100 molecules of air is N2

A concentration expressed in parts per million = number per million

Of remainder – 0.05% = 500 ppm most are CO2  
  410 ppm CO2 (2019) means 410 out of every one million molecules of air is CO2
most important GHG for Climate Change, and second most important GHG behind water
vapour
After CO2, next most important GHG is Methane – CH4
Constituent Abundance

CO2 (carbon dioxide) 410 ppm

CH4 (methane) 1.88 ppm

N20 (nitrous oxide) 0.32 ppm

O3 (ozone) Varies, up to 10 ppm

Halocarbons parts per billion

Not all equal in ability to warm the planet. 2019 figures.

Global Warming Potential
Constituent Power relative to CO2
2rd column
CO2 (carbon dioxide) ------
shows per
molecule
CH4 (methane) 27x to 86X warming due
to each one
N20 (nitrous oxide) 273x to 310x relaFve to
CO2
O3 (ozone) varies
1 molecule of CH4

Halocarbons Thousands of times x27 more powerful

than 1 molecule of

CO2
Not all equal in ability to warm the planet. Policy implicaFons.
Atmosphere & land-biosphere interactions

Plot shows
Seasonal cycle of
CO2
CO2 increases
autumn/winter NH
CO2 decreases
spring/summer NH

Why?

Not all equal in ability to warm the planet. Policy implicaFons.

 Respiration Release to
atmosphere

CH20 + O2 → CO2 + H2O + energy

Transfer of CO2 CO2 increases NH autumn

from Biosphere and winter because plants
Plant From die and release CO2 back
back to
material is atmosphere into atmosphere. This
Atmosphere
consumed reacFon called
respiraFon.
 Release to
atmosphere
Photosynthesis

ReacFon when plants

grow

Transfer of CO2 from

Atmosphere to Plants on
surface. Also produces O2
which is where oxygen we
Carbohydrate –
From sunlight breath comes from.
you can think of
atmosphere
it as a chemical
formula for a
plant
We can think of this as a Carbon Cycle

Called a Carbon Cycle

because C is always
flowing between
reservoirs

1 GigaTonne = 1
Billion Tonnes
Fluxes between reservoirs roughly balanced over year. But not balanced at each point during year. Most land mass in NH.
During NH spring and summer: photosynthesis CO2 + H20 + energy → CH2O + O2
During NH spring and summer: photosynthesis
CO2 + H20 + energy → CH2O + O2
CO2 goes up or down?
During NH autumn and winter: respiraFon
CH20 + O2 → CO2 + H2O + energy
CO2 goes up or down?
Working Group III contribution to the IPCC Fifth Assessment
Report
Working Group III contribution to the IPCC Fifth Assessment
Report
Working Group III contribution to the IPCC Fifth Assessment
Report
Carbon Cycle

Carbon also cycles

between atmosphere &
ocean interactions

One of CO2’s most

important properFes
– readily dissolves in
water. This enables
transfer from
Atmosphere to ocean.
Carbon Cycle

Roughly balanced
under normal
circumstances
Leaky bucket analogy
Beyond emissions of CO2
From Rio92 the highly consumption in wealthy countries
is targeted as the biggest barrier to sustainable
development.
Sustainable consumption and production...“the
production and use of goods and services that respond to
basic needs and bring a better quality of life, while
minimising the use of natural resources, toxic materials
and emissions of waste and pollutants over the life
cycle, so as not to jeopardise the needs of future
generations.” (UNEP, 2008, p.21)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GorqroigqM
50
Activity 2

Prepare a report:
1. Look up the emissions for your country on the World Bank carbon emissions
table , compare them with other countries from your region, and with other
regions and appoint major differences found. Why do you think those
differences exist? (https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.ATM.CO2E.PC)
2. Report your country’s INDCs Intended Nationally Determined Contributions
(INDCs), and appoint its major strategies to accomplish their commitment.
Prepare a presentation to share in class highlighting your key findings.