Emission baselines are a means of assessing the potential environmental and financial performance of a project. Because the calculational methods vary, the emission baselines themselves vary considerably, and many potential baseline shapes are valid for a given project type. They could be made more consistent, comparable, and transparent by setting out guidelines on how they should be calculated and reported, addressing the length of time over which different project types generate emissions benefits, the issue of uncertainty, whether emission baselines should be calculated in the same manner for greenfield and replacement projects, how to deal with learning issues, and how to calculate the environmental benefits of energy efficiency measures. This report summarizes presentations made at a conference cosponsored by 19 organizations examining the potential and observed effects of climate change on wildlife. A central theme was the fragility of ecosystems and the environmennt.
Evidence shows that some impacts are occurring.
Glacial retreat is evident. Climate change will add an additional stress to the many existing threats to biological diversity. Species with very small geographic ranges are overwhelmingly threatened with extinction. Northward shifts of butterfly populations match temperature increases in those locales. In Monterey Bay, species with southerly ranges have become more abundant and those with northerly ranges have declined as sea-surface temperatures have increased 1oC in the past 30 years.