Global Change and the Mercury Cycle
Overview
A key goal of mercury policy is the reduction in mercury emissions, particularly to atmosphere. However, it is now recognised that the contribution of anthropogenic and natural emissions to our understanding of the global mercury budget is not sufficiently comprehensive to make accurate and confident assessments.
To produce a policy briefing on unknowns and uncertainties in the natural inventory of mercury IKIMP held a 2-day workshop on Natural Emissions, Global Change and the Global Mercury Cycle at the Dept of Earth Sciences, Oxford University, on 24-25 May 2011.
Team
* David Pyle (Lead)
* Tamsin Mather
* Murray Gardner
* John Holmes
* Mel Witt
Main points arising from the workshop
- There is clear evidence from the global mercury cycle of the urgent need to reduce anthropogenic mercury emissions at source.
- There will be a time lag between anthropogenic mercury emissions reductions and the response, seen throughout the global mercury cycle.
- It will be important to evaluate the effectiveness of measures to reduce anthropogenic mercury emissions and to do this within a sound scientific framework.
- Climate change will have impacts on the global mercury cycle.
Outcomes
A briefing document for policymakers has been produced and is available for download:
Current understanding of the global mercury cycle: implications in the context of reducing anthropogenic emissions
Background documents to the workshop
Agenda for Natural Emissions, Global Change and the Global Mercury Cycle workshop.
Pre-meeting briefing notes.
Presentations from Day 1 (coming) – Please respect the authorship of the presentations and provide credit where due.
At the end of Day 1 the delegates all enjoyed an evening dinner at the Cherwell Boathouse, Oxford
