Carbon - Global Cycle to Regional Budget

The “Carbon Workshop 2008: Global Cycle to Regional Budget” will be held at the National Library Auditorium, Wellington on 14 and 15 April 2008. We look forward to bringing together the broad range of carbon researchers from within New Zealand along with overseas experts to review our current understanding of the global carbon cycle and to look ahead at the research challenges associated with the need to mitigate fossil carbon emission and develop policies for carbon constraint.

In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) through its fourth assessment report (4AR) has drawn attention to the unequivocal evidence for warming of the climate system in recent decades that is “very likely” due to increasing anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations. Understanding how increasing anthropogenic greenhouse gas is unbalancing the carbon cycle is critical for accurate future prediction of climate. The Global Carbon Project has been established with the goal of developing a complete picture of the global carbon cycle, including both its biophysical and human dimensions together with the interactions and feedbacks between them. This workshop opens with Keynote addresses from Dr, Pep Canadell, Executive Director of the Global Carbon Project and Prof Martin Manning (Director of IPCC WG1 Support Unit for 4AR). At a time of rapid evolution of research ideas, tools and policy development, this workshop – with a New Zealand focus - reviews current understanding and looks ahead at some of the research that can guide future sustainable development and avoidance of dangerous interference with the climate system.

The programme is built from 4 sessions (1) The Global Carbon Cycle (2) New Zealand Terrestrial Carbon Budget and (3) Mitigation and Carbon Policy and (4) a carbon research poster session. The proceedings will be published in a peer reviewed volume of Biogeochemistry.
The programme has been made possible through collaboration and financial support of the Royal Society of New Zealand (and work of the NZ International Geosphere Biosphere Programme committee), the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), Landcare Research Ltd. and Geological and Nuclear Sciences (GNS).

IGBP studies the interactions between biological, chemical and physical processes and human systems and collaborates with other programmes to develop and impart the understanding necessary to respond to global change.