Mitigation options for climate change

Abstract

Climate change is defined as change in climate over time, whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activity. Adaptive capacity is the ability of a system to adjust to climate change (including climate variabil- ity and extremes) to moderate potential damages, to take advantage of opportunities or to cope with the conse- quences. Vulnerability is the degree to which a system is susceptible to, and unable to cope with, adverse effects of climate change, including climate variability and extremes. New options for carbon sequestration in agriculture and forestry as well as changes in land-use such as deforestation contributes respectively to 13 and 17 % of total anthropogenic greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions. Though the carbon dioxide emissions from agriculture are small, the sector accounts for 60 % of all nitrous oxide (N O mainly from fertilizer use) and 50 % of methane (CH , 2 4 emitted mainly from natural and cultivated wetlands and enteric fermentation). The IPCC estimates that the poten- tial of agriculture (excluding forestry) global technical mitigation for will be 5,500 to 6,000 Mt CO -equivalent/year 2 by 2030, 89 % of which are assumed to be from carbon sequestration in soils.