Øivind Hodnebrog

The HYway project contributes to the understanding of the climate and environmental risks and co-benefits of a hydrogen economy and aims to advise policymakers and industry on options for addressing those risks.

The development of green ammonia (NH3) has recently gained wide interest due to its potential to decarbonize ammonia production and as a carbon-free solution for energy storage and transportation. Green ammonia production is purely based on renewable energy sources and no carbon is associated with its use, e.g. as a chemical fertilizer, or when ammonia is combusted in an engine. However, the production and use of ammonia come with other climate and environmental challenges due to its alteration of the Earth’s nitrogen cycle.

In REGAME we will update chemistry transport models (FLEXPART, OsloCTM) to include the kinetic isotope effect (KIE) of methane (CH4), enabling better constraints on the CH4 budget (KIE is dependent on source/ sink). We will update the atmospheric inversion framework FLXINVERT to include novel use of satellite CH4 fields (Sentinel 5P). This will include significant changes to FLEXINVERT, which will also be applicable to other satellite data e.g. carbon dioxide (co₂) and improve the model capabilities to handle large data fields in general. With these upgrades we assess CH4 emissions from the major sources (wetlands, biomass burning, anthropogenic) at the global scale using all available data (e.g. ICOS, NOAA data, data on ebas.nilu.no). This data includes measurements from the Zeppelin Observatory in the Arctic, to Troll in Antarctica, i.e. from pole-to-pole.

BUDGET will increase our understanding of the causes to why climate models have such large differences in future Arctic rainfall and summer precipitation in northern Europe. This will be accomplished using satellite data and climate model calculations over the last 40 years. The analyzes will provide knowledge of whether processes related to transport in the atmosphere, evaporation or absorption of radiation are the reasons for different results from the climate models. By using and developing the climate models with most realistic precipitation changes and largescale processes in accordance with ground-based observations and satellite measurements, we can improve estimates of precipitation change and related climate extremes.

The SUSCAP project is investigating how climate change and air pollution impact crop growth, development and yield in Europe with the aim of increasing the sustainability of agriculture and reduction in the threats to crop resources use efficiency.