About PNNL
Joint Global Change Research Institute
The Joint Global Change Research Institute in College Park, Maryland, is a collaboration between the University of Maryland and the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which is operated for the federal government by Battelle. The JGCRI was formed in 2001 to bring together some of the world's foremost experts on global climate change in an effort to better understand the phenomenon, its far-reaching implications, and how to reduce its impacts.
The JGCRI and its researchers:
- In the Columbia River System of Washington State, residents and industries likely will be faced with the choice of water for summer and fall hydroelectric power or spring and summer releases for salmon runs, but not both. Accelerated Climate Prediction Initiative research, or ACPI, shows that with climate change, the river cannot be managed to accommodate both. In fact, the window for successful salmon reproduction in the Pacific Northwest may become so compressed by climate change that some species could cease to exist regardless of any current or future water policies.
- Provide counsel to the U.S. government as well as foreign nations, international bodies such as the United Nations and many leading multinational private firms on how to craft durable, cost-effective strategies for addressing climate change.
- Introduce energy-efficient technologies to developing countries, including China, and have worked with the World Bank to get loans for Russia and other nations to install more energy efficient systems.
- Examine how greenhouse-gas induced changes in climate might affect agriculture and natural resources and, in turn, land-use patterns and economic welfare.
- Evaluate the potential effects of global change and the ability of people to adapt. By identifying vulnerability, nations can better predict how people will be most affected in their livelihood and what sort of assistance would be most helpful. The JGCRI approach has been used by the United Nations Development Programme to create guidelines to assist developing countries in preparing national reports to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.
- Increase understanding of the soil carbon sequestration process in an effort to increase no-till agriculture. This type of agriculture produces crop yields similar or better than those obtained with conventional tillage practices, protects soil against erosion, and results in increased storage of carbon in the soil.
- Undertaken, along with Canadian researchers, a comprehensive review of candidate geologic formations that might be suitable for geologic storage of carbon dioxide.
- Have written hundreds of scientific articles, technical reports and proprietary studies for clients that are defining the state of the art in understanding the technological and economic implications of stabilizing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases over the course of this century.
