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Limiting the Magnitude of Future Climate Change (2010)

Chapter: Appendix D: Acronyms, Energy Units, and Chemical Formulas

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Acronyms, Energy Units, and Chemical Formulas." National Research Council. 2010. Limiting the Magnitude of Future Climate Change. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12785.
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APPENDIX D
Acronyms, Energy Units, and Chemical Formulas

ACRONYMS

AEF America’s Energy Future

ARRA American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

BEA Bureau of Economic Analysis

BEST Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training

BTAs Border Tax Adjustments

CAA Clean Air Act

CAFE Corporate Average Fuel Economy

CBO Congressional Budget Office

CCCSTI Committee on Climate Change Science and Technology Integration

CCS Carbon capture and storage

CDM Clean Development Mechanism

CER Certified emission reduction

DOD U.S. Department of Defense

DOE U.S. Department of Energy

DOI U.S. Department of Interior

DOS U.S. Department of State

EIA Energy Information Administration

EISA Energy Independence and Security Act

EMF Energy Modeling Forum

EPA Environmental Protection Agency

EPRI Electric Power Research Institute

EU ETS European Union Emissions Trading Scheme

GAO Government Accountability Office

GDP Gross domestic product

GHG Greenhouse gas

GWP Global warming potential

IEA International Energy Agency

IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

LCFS Low Carbon Fuel Standards

Page 256 Cite
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Acronyms, Energy Units, and Chemical Formulas." National Research Council. 2010. Limiting the Magnitude of Future Climate Change. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12785.
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LED Light-emitting diode

LUCF Land-use change and forestry

NAAQS National Ambient Air Quality Standards

NRC National Research Council

NREL National Renewable Energy Laboratory

NSF National Science Foundation

OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

R&D Research and development

REDD Reducing emissions from deforestation in developing nations

RFS Renewable Fuels Standard

RGGI Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative

RPS Renewable Portfolio Standard

S&E Science and engineering

TRB Transportation Research Board

UNEP United Nations Environmental Program

UNFCCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

USDA U.S. Department of Agriculture

VMT Vehicle miles traveled

WCI Western Climate Initiative

WTO World Trade Organization

CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS

CFCs Chlorofluorocarbons

CH4 Methane

CO2 Carbon dioxide

HFC Hydrofluorocarbons

NMHCs Nonmethane hydrocarbons

NOx Nitrogen oxides

O3 Tropospheric ozone

PFCs Perfluorocarbons

PM Particulate matter

N2O Nitrous oxide

SF6 Sulfur hexafluoride

SO2 Sulfur dioxide

VOC Volatile organic compounds

Page 257 Cite
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Acronyms, Energy Units, and Chemical Formulas." National Research Council. 2010. Limiting the Magnitude of Future Climate Change. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12785.
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UNITS USED (FOR ENERGY, POWER, MATTER)

J: joule. The energy of one watt of power flowing for one second

GJ: gigajoule, 109 joules

EJ : exajoule, 1018 joules

BTU: British thermal unit. The energy to raise the temperature of one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit.

quad: a quadrillion (a million-billion, or 1015 ) BTUs, equal to 1.055 × 1018 joules (1.055 EJ). A unit commonly used in discussing global and national energy budgets

W: watt, a unit of electric power (= 1 J of energy per second)

kW: kilowatt, a thousand (103 ) Watts

GW: gigawatt, a billion (109 )Watts

TW: terawatt, a trillion (1012) Watts

kWh: kilowatt-hour, or the amount of energy when one kW is used for one hour. Equivalent to about 3,400 BTU or 3,600,000 Joules

Metric ton (i.e., of CO2) is one thousand kilograms, or about 2,200 pounds

MMT: million metric tons of CO2

Mt: megaton, a million (106) metric tons

Gt: gigaton, a billion (109) metric tons

Tg: teragram, a billion (109)kilograms, or one million metric tons

ppm: parts per million, a measure of atmospheric concentration of some greenhouse gases

Barrel (oil): ~42 gallons. The United States uses about 20 million barrels of oil each day.

Page 258 Cite
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Acronyms, Energy Units, and Chemical Formulas." National Research Council. 2010. Limiting the Magnitude of Future Climate Change. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12785.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Acronyms, Energy Units, and Chemical Formulas." National Research Council. 2010. Limiting the Magnitude of Future Climate Change. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12785.
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Page 256 Cite
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Acronyms, Energy Units, and Chemical Formulas." National Research Council. 2010. Limiting the Magnitude of Future Climate Change. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12785.
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Page 257 Cite
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Acronyms, Energy Units, and Chemical Formulas." National Research Council. 2010. Limiting the Magnitude of Future Climate Change. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12785.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Acronyms, Energy Units, and Chemical Formulas." National Research Council. 2010. Limiting the Magnitude of Future Climate Change. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12785.
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Limiting the Magnitude of Future Climate Change
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Climate change, driven by the increasing concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, poses serious, wide-ranging threats to human societies and natural ecosystems around the world. The largest overall source of greenhouse gas emissions is the burning of fossil fuels. The global atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, the dominant greenhouse gas of concern, is increasing by roughly two parts per million per year, and the United States is currently the second-largest contributor to global emissions behind China.

Limiting the Magnitude of Future Climate Change, part of the congressionally requested America's Climate Choices suite of studies, focuses on the role of the United States in the global effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The book concludes that in order to ensure that all levels of government, the private sector, and millions of households and individuals are contributing to shared national goals, the United States should establish a "budget" that sets a limit on total domestic greenhouse emissions from 2010-2050. Meeting such a budget would require a major departure from business as usual in the way the nation produces and uses energy-and that the nation act now to aggressively deploy all available energy efficiencies and less carbon-intensive technologies and to develop new ones.

With no financial incentives or regulatory pressure, the nation will continue to rely upon and "lock in" carbon-intensive technologies and systems unless a carbon pricing system is established-either cap-and-trade, a system of taxing emissions, or a combination of the two. Complementary policies are also needed to accelerate progress in key areas: developing more efficient, less carbon-intense energy sources in electricity and transportation; advancing full-scale development of new-generation nuclear power, carbon capture, and storage systems; and amending emissions-intensive energy infrastructure. Research and development of new technologies that could help reduce emissions more cost effectively than current options is also strongly recommended.

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