Science & Health
Global climate models have underestimated the amount of CO2 being absorbed by plants, according to new research. The BBC writes:
Scientists say that between 1901 and 2010, living things absorbed 16% more of the gas than previously thought. The authors say it explains why models consistently overestimated the growth rate of carbon in the atmosphere.
But experts believe the new calculation is unlikely to make a difference to global warming predictions. The research has been published in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Working out the amount of carbon dioxide that lingers in the atmosphere is critical to estimating the future impacts of global warming on temperatures.
About half the CO2 that's produced ends up in the oceans or is absorbed by living things.
But modelling the exact impacts on a global scale is a fiendishly complicated business. In this new study, a team of scientists looked again at the way trees and plants absorb carbon.
Meanwhile, IKEA Group, the world's biggest furniture retailer, may introduce an internal carbon emissions price to help its drive to protect the environment and create a "new and better" company, chief executive Peter Agnefjall said. Reuters reports:
IKEA, seen as global trend-setter among retailers on green issues, is also on target to invest $1.5 billion in solar and wind power by 2015, and bought a higher proportion of its wood and cotton from sustainable sources in 2014 to aid consumers shift to greener lifestyles. "
We see sustainability as a driver of building a new and better IKEA," Agnefjall told the Reuters Global Climate Change Summit. "It is a driver of a renewal of our business, renewal of our products and a driver of innovation of all kinds."
After attending a U.N. summit on climate change in New York on Sept. 23, Agnefjall said the Swedish furniture giant will consider internal carbon pricing -- a system that can give incentives to shift investment from fossil fuels. "There was a lot of discussion about carbon pricing and putting an internal price on carbon," he said of the meetings in New York. "That's definitely something we bring home and that we will analyze in the coming months."
