15 October 2018 - 19 October 2018
IIASA

Training workshop on the GAINS model for experts from Eastern Europe, Caucasus, and Central Asia

A GAINS model training workshop for experts from Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) countries will be conducted by scientists from the AIR program.

 © Elwynn | Dreamstime.com

© Elwynn | Dreamstime.com

The GAINS workshop is being organised in the context of the latest work plan of the Executive Body to the UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution for the implementation of the Convention in 2018–2019 (ECE/EB.AIR/140/Add.1). This work plan includes activities on capacity-building and awareness-raising to promote ratification and implementation in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA), particularly as it relates to the ratification and implementation of the latest three amended protocols, namely the Protocol to Abate Acidification, Eutrophication and Ground-level Ozone (Gothenburg Protocol), the Protocol on Heavy Metals and the Protocol on Persistent Organic Pollutants. None of the countries in the EECCA region has yet ratified the Gothenburg Protocol.

The GAINS model was used to support the negotiations of the Protocol to Abate Acidification, Eutrophication and Ground-level Ozone (Gothenburg Protocol). At the workshop the EECCA country experts will be provided with in-depth training on the methodology and capabilities of GAINS, culminating in hands-on experience using their own country data. Enhancing the ability of national experts to use the GAINS model efficiently will help Parties in setting their emission reduction targets for 2020 and beyond, which is a necessary step in the ratification process for the amended Gothenburg Protocol.


GAINS Model

The GAINS model explores cost-effective emission control strategies that simultaneously tackle local air quality and greenhouse gases so as to maximize benefits at all scales. Launched in 2006 as an extension to the RAINS model, GAINS provides an authoritative framework for assessing strategies that reduce emissions of multiple air pollutants and greenhouse gases at least cost, and minimize their negative effects on human health, ecosystems and climate change. GAINS is now implemented for the whole world, distinguishing 165 regions including 48 European countries and 46 provinces/states in China and India.

GAINS is used for policy analyses under the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP), e.g., for the revision of the Gothenburg Protocol, and by the European Commission for the EU Thematic Strategy on Air Pollution and the air policy review. Scientists in many nations use GAINS as a tool to assess emission reduction potentials in their regions. For the negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), a special version of GAINS has been developed to compare greenhouse gas mitigation efforts among the Annex-I countries.

The GAINS model can be operated in two ways:

  • In "scenario analysis" mode, it follows emission pathways from sources to impacts, providing estimates of regional costs and the environmental benefits of alternative emission control strategies.
  • In "optimization" mode, it identifies where emissions can be reduced most cost-effectively. The model identifies a balance of concrete measures for different pollutants, sectors, and countries/regions that achieve air quality and greenhouse gas reduction targets at least cost, considering the contributions of different pollutants to different air quality and climate problems.

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Last edited: 11 October 2018

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