Anthropogenic emissions
AR5 Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability, Glossary, published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defines anthropogenic as: ‘Resulting from or produced by human activities.’
It defines anthropogenic emissions as: ‘Emissions of greenhouse gases, greenhouse gas precursors, and aerosols caused by human activities. These activities include the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, land use changes, livestock production, fertilization, waste management, and industrial processes.’
Climate Change 2021 – The Physical Science Basis, Annex VII: Glossary, written by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and published by Cambridge University Press in 2023, defines anthropogenic removals The withdrawal of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from the atmosphere as a result of deliberate human activities. These include enhancing biological sinks of CO2 and using chemical engineering to achieve long-term removal and storage. Carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS), which alone does not remove CO2 from the atmosphere, can help reduce atmospheric CO2 from industrial and energy-related sources if it is combined with bioenergy production (BECCS), or if CO2 is captured from the air directly and stored (DACCS). [Note: In the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for national GHG Inventories (IPCC, 2006), which are used in reporting of emissions to the UNFCCC, ‘anthropogenic’ land-related GHG fluxes are defined as all those occurring on ‘managed land’, i.e., ‘where human interventions and practices have been applied to perform production, ecological or social functions’. However, some removals (e.g., removals associated with CO2 fertilization and N deposition) are not considered as ‘anthropogenic’, or are referred to as ‘indirect’ anthropogenic effects, in some of the scientific literature assessed in this report. As a consequence, the land-related net GHG emission estimates from global models included in this report are not necessarily directly comparable with land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) estimates in national GHG Inventories.]’
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