Carbon Economy and Carbon
Footprint
Júlia Seixas and Francisco Ferreira
Abstract
Climate change is a global concern caused by human activities, notably since the
industrial revolution. Observed climate changes and evidences of its impacts on
natural and human systems have been increased in the last decades, making
climate emergency a priority for a growing number of governments, businesses,
organizations and individuals. From the 80s of last century, science has
supported key political decisions, in particular within the multilateral framework
under the United Nations Framework Convention of Climate Change. The Paris
Agreement, adopted in 2015, is the central piece to strengthen the global
response to tackle climate change, by keeping the global average temperature
to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the
temperature increase to 1.5 °C at the end of this century. This long-term global
temperature goal requires a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources
and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases around 2050. The transformation of
all human activities towards carbon neutrality demands for high innovation and
dedicated instruments and tools. Carbon pricing mechanisms promoting clean
technologies and processes, and carbon footprint tools quantifying and
delivering emissions reduction from products, organizations, cities and individuals, are explored in this chapter.
Keywords
Climate change Á Greenhouse gas emissions Á Paris Agreement Á Carbon
footprint Á Carbon pricing Á Climate innovation
J. Seixas (&) Á F. Ferreira
CENSE—Center for Environmental and Sustainability Research,
School of Science and Technology, NOVA University of Lisbon, Campus de Caparica,
Caparica, Portugal
e-mail: mjs@fct.unl.pt
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
J. J. G. Moura et al. (eds.), Enzymes for Solving Humankind's Problems,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58315-6_1
3
Footprint
Júlia Seixas and Francisco Ferreira
Abstract
Climate change is a global concern caused by human activities, notably since the
industrial revolution. Observed climate changes and evidences of its impacts on
natural and human systems have been increased in the last decades, making
climate emergency a priority for a growing number of governments, businesses,
organizations and individuals. From the 80s of last century, science has
supported key political decisions, in particular within the multilateral framework
under the United Nations Framework Convention of Climate Change. The Paris
Agreement, adopted in 2015, is the central piece to strengthen the global
response to tackle climate change, by keeping the global average temperature
to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the
temperature increase to 1.5 °C at the end of this century. This long-term global
temperature goal requires a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources
and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases around 2050. The transformation of
all human activities towards carbon neutrality demands for high innovation and
dedicated instruments and tools. Carbon pricing mechanisms promoting clean
technologies and processes, and carbon footprint tools quantifying and
delivering emissions reduction from products, organizations, cities and individuals, are explored in this chapter.
Keywords
Climate change Á Greenhouse gas emissions Á Paris Agreement Á Carbon
footprint Á Carbon pricing Á Climate innovation
J. Seixas (&) Á F. Ferreira
CENSE—Center for Environmental and Sustainability Research,
School of Science and Technology, NOVA University of Lisbon, Campus de Caparica,
Caparica, Portugal
e-mail: mjs@fct.unl.pt
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
J. J. G. Moura et al. (eds.), Enzymes for Solving Humankind's Problems,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58315-6_1
3