Participants in the first GHG Mitigation Assessment Workshop.

On June 13-24, the Center's Energy Analysis Program hosted the U.S. Country Studies Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Mitigation Assessment Workshop. The workshop brought together more than 60 scientists and energy policy makers from 16 developing countries including Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. They came to LBL for hands-on training in techniques and models used for GHG mitigation analysis.

The workshop was part of a $1.4 million contract awarded to the Energy Analysis Program by the U.S. Country Studies Program through the Department of Energy. The Country Studies initiative grew out of the commitment made by the United States at the 1992 Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro. There, the U.S. pledged technical assistance for developing countries to help them comply with the Framework Convention on Climate Change established in Rio. The program is designed to help developing and transitional countries: 1) develop inventories of their anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases; 2) assess their vulnerability to climate change; 3) assess their ability to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions; and 4) help form and evaluate strategies for mitigating and adapting to climate change. The Country Studies Program selected the Center's Energy Analysis Program to provide technical support for the third task, because of its substantial knowledge of technologies, policies, and analytical methods for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.

The White House organized an interagency team to oversee the implementation of technical assistance. Thirteen federal agencies underwrite the program, and six are participating in the program's management, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, the Agency for International Development, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of State. Steve Wiel, director of the Energy & Environment Division's Washington D.C. office and one of the project's two co-principal investigators along with Jayant Sathaye, says the interagency team is an impressive feat of cooperation. Rarely--if ever--have so many federal agencies worked so effectively together for such a large undertaking.

In winning a competition among national labs for this contract, the Center brought together a technical support team of 30 researchers from academic, private, and government institutions experienced in global climate change issues. The team includes six U.S. national laboratories: LBL, Oak Ridge, Pacific, Brookhaven, Argonne, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Wiel noted that he is "especially proud of our association with the other national laboratories" because, he says, "I believe that cooperative efforts among the labs is an important way of life for the future of our program."

Intensive Two-Week Training
Workshop participants received two full weeks of analytical training composed of lectures and computer demonstrations. They were divided according to their area of expertise--energy, non-energy, or macroeco-nomic analysis. More than 30 experts provided the detailed analytical instruction. In the energy group, instructors covered methods of, and issues in, mitigating emissions from the industrial, transportation, residential and commercial sectors, addressing both conventional and renewable energy supply. This group worked with sector-specific models, but instructors introduced another technique: the use of integrated energy sector models for mitigation assessment. The non-energy group examined mitigation methods in forestry, agriculture, rangeland, and waste management. The macroeconomic group listened to presentations on top-down models for the analysis of the economic impacts of greenhouse gas mitigation strategies.

Jan Hrebec and Milos Tichy from the Czech Republic study the details of an energy model during a hands-on training session.

Next Steps
At the close of the workshop, participating countries developed and submitted workplans for greenhouse gas mitigation. To provide continuing support to these nations' GHG reduction efforts, the Energy Analysis Program is tailoring specific technical assistance plans for each country. The program's future support will be in the form of further training in the use of specific models, site visits to countries, and regional workshops where national representatives will discuss the results of their studies.

--Lila Schwartz & Nathan Martin

Program and Presenters
US Country Studies Mitigation Assessment Workshop
Workshop Schedule, Overview, and Agenda, June 13-24, 1994

All Tracks: Energy, Non-Energy, Macroeconomic Assessment

Mitigation overview discussion of concepts, models, and assessment process

Computerized methodology demonstration, consultations and training

Key topics--presentation and discussion

Technical potentials, analysis methods and general discussion

Implementation strategies

Joint meetings with US project officers to develop work plan

Presentation of draft work plans

Sectors:

Transport, residential & commercial, industrial, agricultural, energy, forestry, conventional & renewable energy, waste management, and grasslands & rangelands

Other Topics:

Energy and macroeconomic models

Implementation strategies

Plenary session

Academic institutions that participated in the workshop included: the University of California at Berkeley, the University of California at Davis, the University of Michigan, Stanford University, and Oregon State University. Private participants included ICF, Inc., Future Resources Associates, and the Tellus Institute.

Mirka Della Cava
Energy & Environment Division
1250 Maryland Ave. S.W., Suite 150
Washington D.C. 20024
(202) 484-0880