Land-based climate mitigation, combining multi-data sources to assess potential contribution to the Paris Climate Agreement (NERC GW4+ DTP Projects 2018-19)

This PhD will compare and reconcile estimates of greenhouse gas sources and sinks from the land, identifying key reasons for the differences including data, methods, and attribution to “anthropogenic activity” versus “natural” processes. The project will include comparison of global models, satellite data, and country reporting under UNFCCC. This project will benefit from access to the Global Carbon Project’s international multimodel synthesis activity, and to ongoing projects co-ordinated by the supervision team. Results will feedback into methodological development, working with the UK JULES ecosystem model. Tropical South America and South East Asia are selected as case study regions as they account for over 60% of land sector emissions. These are areas where increasing amounts of inventory and satellite data are becoming available. This studentship will include an internship at INPE in Brazil working direct with data providers and remote sensing experts. Co-benefits of forest mitigation (biodiversity, flood and landslide resilience) will be explored at Cardiff University’s field site in Borneo. Outputs will provide evidence of relevance to country NDC development. The student will work with CASE partner UK Department of Business Energy and Industrial Strategy to embed understanding of, and co-produce information of relevance to, the UNFCCC policy process.