Between 12th to 14th March 2019, a joint general assembly of the two Horizon2020-funded projects CHE (CO2 Human Emissions) and VERIFY (Verifying Greenhouse Gas Emissions) took place at ECMWF in Reading, UK, with over 110 scientists and stakeholders attending.
The CO2 Human Emissions (CHE) project coordinates efforts towards developing a European monitoring capacity for anthropogenic CO2 emissions.
The three-day event was co-organised by the two projects to boost synergies and increase collaboration, with each project having a dedicated day interspersed by a joint “Science Day”.
Over 110 scientists and stakeholders attended the Joint CHE-VERIFY General Assembly
Day 1, focussing on the CHE project, was opened by ECMWF Director-General Florence Rabier with a Welcome address highlighting the importance of the CO2-related activities to ECMWF. This was followed by presentations by the European Commission’s Hugo Zunker and Bernard Pinty, who outlined the Vision for a CO2 Monitoring and Verification Support (MVS) Capacity within the framework of the EU’s Copernicus Programme. This was followed by a presentation of the CHE EU Project Officer Monika Kacik, providing an overview of the H2020 plans related to the CO2 MVS, including the potential follow-up project for CHE.
The sessions then focused on presenting and discussing the progress and plans of the different CHE work packages:
Reconciling top-down and bottom-up estimates (presented by Maarten Krol, Wageningen University and Research)
Library of simulations for emissions and atmospheric transport (presented by Hugo Denier van der Gon, TNO)
Uncertainty trade-off for fossil fuel emissions (presented by Greet Janssen-Maenhout, EC-JRC)
Attributing CO2 emissions from in-situ measurements (presented by Frederic Chevallier, CEA-LSCE)
Towards a prototype of a European anthropogenic emission monitoring system (presented by Anna Agusti-Panareda, ECMWF)
International Stakeholder Coordination and Liaison (presented by Richard Engelen, ECMWF)
The first day was then wrapped up by feedback provided by the chair of External Expert Group, Peter Rayner, and the chair of the External Advisory Board, Han Dolman.
Day 2 provided the opportunity for a joint “Science Day” between the two projects. Following two scene setting talks on International/ Global Monitoring Initiatives (Oksana Tarasova, WMO) and the European CO2 initiative in the international context (Greet Janssen-Maenhout, EC-JRC), there were in total 5 sessions on various topics, each with several talks by invited speakers followed by discussions. The session topics included:
Uncertainties on the carbon cycle - satellites
Uncertainties on the carbon cycle - in-situ
Improving uncertainties associated to anthropogenic CO2 emissions
Other GHGs and CO2 co-emitted species
Way forward
The day was concluded by a presentation of Richard Engelen (ECMWF) on the operational perspectives of the CO2 MVS, with a first view of the operational setup informed by the expertise gained in the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS).
Both Day 1 and Day 2 included poster sessions where participants presented their research in relevant areas.
Poster Session at the Joint CHE-VERIFY General Assembly
Day 3 finally was dedicated to the VERIFY project. Following on from an opening talk by Ana Bastos (LMU) on the Impact of the 2018 European summer drought on GhG balances, and a feedback by VERIFY Project Officer Erwin Goor, the sessions focused on presenting and discussing the status of the various work packages and activity streams within the VERIFY project:
Project Management Status (presented by Stefanie Kirschke, ARTTIC, and Philippe Peylin, CEA-LSCE)
GHG MRV user requirement framework (presented by Dirk Guenther, UBA, and Lucia Perugini, CMCC)
Verification methods for fossil CO2 emissions (presented by Hugo Denier van der Gon, TNO, and Paul Palmer, U Edinburgh)
Verification methods for terrestrial CO2 sources and sinks and carbon stocks (presented by Pete Smith, U Aberdeen, and Philippe Peylin, CEA-LSCE)
Verification methods for CH4 and N2O emissions (presented on behalf of Rona Thompson, NILU)
Input to international programmes and society (presented by Werner Kutsch, ICOS)
GHG country reporting (presented by Glen Peters, CICERO, Roxana Petrescu, VU, and Philippe Ciais, CEA-LSCE)
Anthropogenic CO2 emissions from existing and future satellites (presented by Michael Buchwitz, U Bremen)
The final day was wrapped up by a presentation and discussion on data integration and data flow for 2019, as well as feedback from the external advisory board, presented by Yasjka Meijer, ESA.
Gianpaolo Balsamo (ECMWF), coordinator of the CHE project, commented: “With CHE and a potential follow-on project, as well as contributions from VERIFY, we are on track for an early prototype with limited capabilities by 2021, a full prototype by 2023, and an operational system by 2026. Events such as this Joint General Assembly are immensely important to focus the activities and achieve the best possible outcome.”
Richard Engelen (ECMWF), CHE Project International Liaison and also involved in the VERIFY project, agreed: “It was really good to have scientists from both projects together in one location to present and discuss progress and especially to interact on shared scientific challenges. Developing a future Copernicus CO2 emission monitoring service is very ambitious and to be successful we need to ensure we combine all the expertise that is available in Europe and the wider international community. Having meetings like these are important to share the common goal.”
Presentations and posters from the General Assembly, as well as recordings of the science day, are available at the events page.
An article on the event has also been published by ECMWF here.
