Publications by authors named "Y Balkanski"

China's goal to achieve carbon (C) neutrality by 2060 requires scaling up photovoltaic (PV) and wind power from 1 to 10-15 PWh year (refs. ). Following the historical rates of renewable installation, a recent high-resolution energy-system model and forecasts based on China's 14th Five-year Energy Development (CFED), however, only indicate that the capacity will reach 5-9.

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Establishing mineral dust impacts on Earth's systems requires numerical models of the dust cycle. Differences between dust optical depth (DOD) measurements and modelling the cycle of dust emission, atmospheric transport, and deposition of dust indicate large model uncertainty due partially to unrealistic model assumptions about dust emission frequency. Calibrating dust cycle models to DOD measurements typically in North Africa, are routinely used to reduce dust model magnitude.

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Article Synopsis
  • Atmospheric transport and deposition of nutrients can potentially mitigate declines in soil fertility in Central African tropical forests due to biomass accumulation.
  • The study uses a biosphere model to assess how changes in nitrogen and phosphorus deposition impact plant nutrition and carbon sinks in a lowland forest site.
  • It finds that since the 1980s, increased nutrient deposition has significantly contributed to carbon sequestration, comparable to the effects of rising CO2 and climate change, with phosphorus deposition being more influential than nitrogen.
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The potential of mitigation actions to limit global warming within 2 °C (ref. ) might rely on the abundant supply of biomass for large-scale bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) that is assumed to scale up markedly in the future. However, the detrimental effects of climate change on crop yields may reduce the capacity of BECCS and threaten food security, thus creating an unrecognized positive feedback loop on global warming.

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