11 October 2012 - 12 October 2012 IIASA

Workshop on Global Nitrogen Scenarios for the 21st Century

Increasing emissions of nitrogen constitute multiple environmental challenges at different spatial scales. A comprehensive assessment of these problems and their linkages to related issues requires adequate projections of nitrogen release into the environment.

The workshop will review the key assumptions of the currently available nitrogen scenarios for the 21st century and discuss our understanding of the factors that could lead to different developments.

Up to now, global scenarios of future nitrogen emissions have emerged as a side-product of the global RCP greenhouse gas emission scenarios developed for the climate modelling community. However, as the RCP process focuses on GHG emissions, the current scenarios might not span the entire possible range of future nitrogen emissions, and do not explicitly address the scope – and importance – of possible policy interventions to manage nitrogen at the different stages.

The workshop will review the key assumptions of the currently available nitrogen scenarios for the 21st century. Presentations will discuss our understanding of the factors that could lead to different developments (breakpoints and options for policy interventions). Concepts to describe drivers and to establish parameters for the release of nitrogen compounds, specifically to the atmosphere, will be discussed.

The workshop is organized under the auspices of the International Nitrogen Initiative and the Task Force on Reactive Nitrogen. It will contribute to the ECLAIRE project.

For participation, please contact Wilfried Winiwarter.

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Last edited: 04 October 2012