18 research outputs found
Targeting carbon dioxide removal in the European Union
In principle, many climate policymakers have accepted that large-scale carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is necessary to meet the Paris Agreementâs mitigation targets, but they have avoided proposing by whom CDR might be delivered. Given its role in international climate policy, the European Union (EU) might be expected to lead the way. But among EU climate policymakers so far there is little talk on CDR, let alone action. Here we assess how best to âtargetâ CDR to motivate EU policymakers exploring which CDR target strategy may work best to start dealing with CDR on a meaningful scale. A comprehensive CDR approach would focus on delivering the CDR volumes required from the EU by 2100, approximately at least 50 Gigatonnes (Gt) CO2, according to global model simulations aiming to keep warming below 2°C. A limited CDR approach would focus on an intermediate target to deliver the CDR needed to reach ânet zero emissionsâ (i.e. the gross negative emissions needed to offset residual positive emissions that are too expensive or even impossible to mitigate). We argue that a comprehensive CDR approach may be too intimidating for EU policymakers. A limited CDR approach that only addresses the necessary steps to reach the (intermediate) target of ânet zero emissionsâ is arguably more achievable, since it is a better match to the existing policy paradigm and would allow for a pragmatic phase-in of CDR while avoiding outright resistance by environmental NGOs and the broader public. Key policy insights Making CDR an integral part of EU climate policy has the potential to significantly reshape the policy landscape. Burden sharing considerations would probably play a major role, with comprehensive CDR prolonging the disparity and tensions between progressives and laggards. Introducing limited CDR in the context of ânet zeroâ pathways would retain a visible primary focus on decarbonization but acknowledge the need for a significant enhancement of removals via ânaturalâ and/or âengineeredâ sinks. A decarbonization approach that intends to lead to a low level of âresidual emissionsâ (to be tackled by a pragmatic phase-in of CDR) should be the priority of EU climate policy. © 2018, © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor Francis Group
The promise of new institutionalism: explaining the absence of a World or United Nations Environment Organisation
Integrating carbon dioxide removal into EU climate policy: Prospects for a paradigm shift
Kinematic analysis of work-related musculoskeletal loading of trunk among dentists in Germany
Twenty years of active bat rabies surveillance in Germany: a detailed analysis and future perspectives
Independent measurement of biogenic silica in sediments by FTIR spectroscopy and PLS regression
Enhanced Passive Bat Rabies Surveillance in Indigenous Bat Species from Germany - A Retrospective Study
A Synthetic Peptide Mimic of λ-Cro shows Sequence-Specific Binding in Vitro
Development of small synthetic transcription factors is important for future cellular engineering and therapeutics. This article describes the chemical synthesis of α-amino-isobutyric acid (Aib) substituted, conformationally constrained, helical peptide mimics of Cro protein from bacteriophage λ that encompasses the DNA recognition elements. The Aib substituted constrained helical peptide monomer shows a moderately reduced dissociation constant compared to the corresponding unsubstituted wild type peptide. A suitably cross-linked dimeric version of the peptide, mimicking the dimeric protein, recapitulates some of the important features of Cro. It binds to the operator site O(R)3, a high affinity Cro binding site in the λ genome, with good affinity and single base-pair discrimination specificity. A dimeric version of an even shorter peptide mimic spanning only the recognition helix of the helix-turn-helix motif of the Cro protein was created following the same design principles. This dimeric peptide binds to O(R)3 with affinity greater than that of the longer version. Chemical shift perturbation experiments show that the binding mode of this peptide dimer to the cognate operator site sequence is similar to the wild type Cro protein. A Green Fluorescent Protein based reporter assay in vivo reveals that the peptide dimer binds the operator site sequences with considerable selectivity and inhibits gene expression. Peptide mimics designed in this way may provide a future framework for creating effective synthetic transcription factors