31/12/2009 Observer Last month’s minimalist Copenhagen global climate accord provides a great opportunity. The old deceitful, ineffectual approach is severely wounded and must die. Read the rest of this entry »
31/12/2009 Guardian Rising temperatures on the slopes of Mount Kenya have put an extra 4 million people at risk of malaria, research funded by the UK government warned today. Read the rest of this entry »
31/12/2009 Guardian What does the British embassy in Dubai have in common with West Leeds Rugby Club? Read the rest of this entry »
30/12/2009 BBC A new carbon tax that was supposed to go into effect in France at New Year has been struck down, delivering a blow to President Nicolas Sarkozy. Read the rest of this entry »
28/12/2009 BBC A study by US researchers said allowing these areas to be submerged during storms would reduce the risk of flood damage in nearby urban areas. Read the rest of this entry »
27/12/2009 Guardian Just in case you thought it was safe to stop thinking about biofuels, here comes another study – this time into the ethics. Read the rest of this entry »
27/12/2009 Guardian China’s role at Copenhagen climate summit• Former deputy PM attacks US envoy’s stance at talks. Read the rest of this entry »
25/12/2009 BBCClimate and humans: the long view VIEWPOINT Director, Gibraltar Museum. Read the rest of this entry »
24/12/2009 Guardian Mangroves are some of the areas most vulnerable to climate change, as a new study by the Carnegie Instuttion in California reveals the rapid movement of global warming across the world. Read the rest of this entry »
24/12/2009 BBC US president Barack Obama says people are justified in being disappointed by the outcome of the Copenhagen summit on climate change. Read the rest of this entry »
24/12/2009 BBC Three quarters of Scots would consider fitting a solar panel or other renewable technology to their home but are put off by the cost, a report says. Read the rest of this entry »
23/12/2009 Guardian Copenhagen was a disaster. That much is agreed. But the truth about what actually happened is in danger of being lost amid the spin and inevitable mutual recriminations. Read the rest of this entry »
22/12/2009 BBC When most of the exhausted delegates at Copenhagen’s Bella Centre finally witnessed a deal, it predictably called for huge investment in clean energy technologies to stop climate change. Read the rest of this entry »
22/12/2009 BBC About 45,000 travelled to the UN climate summit in Copenhagen – the vast majority convinced of the need for a new global agreement on climate change. Read the rest of this entry »
22/12/2009 Guardian The last time global negotiations collapsed like this was in Doha, in 2001. Read the rest of this entry »
22/12/2009 Guardian Gordon Brown has called for a reform of the way UN climate talks are held. Read the rest of this entry »
21/12/2009 Guardian Summaries of the press responses around the world. Read the rest of this entry »
21/12/2009 Guardian Barack Obama returned to a snowbound Washington at the weekend clutching a deal that was cast as a step forward by his administration but decried as a waste of paper by critics on both sides of the climate change debate. Read the rest of this entry »
21/12/2009 Guardian The Chinese government expressed quiet satisfaction at the outcome of the Copenhagen talks despite European accusations that it had systematically wrecked the negotiating process. Read the rest of this entry »
21/12/2009 Guardian Environment Copenhagen climate change conference 2009 Copenhagen summit: ‘First step’ to a new order – or a ‘betrayal of our grandchildren’. Read the rest of this entry »
21/12/2009 Guardian Environment Copenhagen climate change conference 2009 Ed Miliband: China tried to hijack Copenhagen climate dealClimate secretary accuses China, Sudan, Bolivia
and other leftwing Latin American countries of trying to hijack Copenhagen. Read the rest of this entry »
21/12/2009 BBC Gordon Brown will accuse a small group of countries of holding the Copenhagen climate summit talks to ransom. Read the rest of this entry »
20/12/2009 BBC Asian giants China and Indonesia have hailed the Copenhagen UN climate summit outcome, despite its cool reception from aid agencies and campaigners. Read the rest of this entry »
19/12/2009 BBC Everywhere you go in Copenhagen, you’re met with two kinds of advertising poster. Read the rest of this entry »
19/12/2009 BBC A US-led initiative called the Copenhagen Accord has formed the centre-piece of a deal at UN climate talks in Copenhagen, despite some countries’ opposition. Read the rest of this entry »
19/12/2009 BBC He came. He did a quick deal. He left. That was how US President Barack Obama intervened in the global warming conference Read the rest of this entry »
19/12/2009 BBC The BBC’s environment correspondent Richard Black analyses key elements of the US-backed climate deal agreed in Copenhagen.
CLIMATE
One widely-accepted definition of “dangerous climate change” is that it begins
at a global temperature rise of 2C.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recommends that to have a
good chance of avoiding this definition of “dangerous climate change”, developed
countries cut emissions by at least 25% from 1990 levels by 2020, and that
global emissions must peak and begin to decline by 2020 at the latest.
This agreement “recognises” the 2C goal but does not endorse it. There is no
peak year, and no collective target for cutting emissions.
The EU considers this package so weak that it will maintain its lower pledge of
keeping its emissions 20% below 1990 levels by 2020, rather than going to its
alternative higher figure of 30%.
Other countries such as Japan and Australia are also likely to stick with their
minimum levels of ambition.
This puts the globe more on track to a 3C rather than a 2C rise.
CLEAN TECHNOLOGY
Sources close to the green business community say the deal is unlikely to
stimulate investment in low-carbon technologies.
That requires either a functioning carbon market with a high enough carbon price
to persuade companies to invest, or a state-directed system of financial levers.
Without near-term ramping-up of research, development and deployment of
low-carbon technologies, the date by which emissions peak moves further into the
distance, if it happens at all.
GEOPOLITICS
The essential partners in this deal were the US and China. India, Brazil and
South Africa played supporting roles – creating the kind of deal that suits the
emerging major economies.
The EU did a lot of the spadework on the day before leaders arrived. But
reportedly, it was not informed that Mr Obama and Mr Wen had done a deal and
were preparing to announce it.
The EU could have prevented this from becoming adopted as a global deal by
refusing to endorse it.
As it does not meet the minimum standards for an acceptable package that several
European countries had put forward, they had a politically defensible reason for
turning it down. If they had, many if not all of the smaller developing
countries would probably have followed them.
In the end, the EU decided not to stand up against the US and China, which
emerge as the winners of this political game.
Ethiopia’ President Meles Zenawi emerged as Africa’s political victor – the
chosen champion of France and the UK as they sought African support for their
finance proposal. He delivered the African Union.
BARACK OBAMA
An immaculately choreographed presentation sequence by the White House saw US
journalists only invited into crucial meetings and given briefings ahead of
others.
Mr Obama announced the deal live on air to a US audience before most governments
had even seen the document involved, ensuring he set the editorial agenda, at
least in the US.
Exclusion of NGOs and press from the final day’s politicking ensured scrutiny of
draft agreements was always a beat behind the action.
Senators opposed to cap-and-trade legislation may call the president over less
than firm language on monitoring and verification of developing countries’
emissions.
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE
The concept that global environmental issues can and should be tackled on a
co-operative international basis has taken a massive, massive blow.
The UN climate convention is the flagship agreement, and its outcomes are
supposed to be negotiated. This deal was presented to the greater body of
countries on a take-it-or-leave-it basis by small group of powerful players.
It is now debatable whether the UN climate convention has a meaningful future,
or whether powerful countries will just decide by themselves, or in a small
group, by how much they are prepared to cut emissions.
That makes optional the established schemes for helping the poorest countries
towards a clean energy and climate-protected future.
The implications for other global treaties that are not meeting their goals,
such as the UN biodiversity convention, can only be guessed at.
Go to: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/sci/tech/8422186.stm
19/12/2009 Guardian Environment Copenhagen climate change conference 2009 Copenhagen heading for meltdown as stalemate continues over emission cutsUN fails in last-ditch efforts to get world leaders to commit to a maximum 2C rise as draft texts get weaker. Read the rest of this entry »
18/12/2009 Guardian Environment Copenhagen climate change conference 2009 Leaked UN report shows cuts offered at Copenhagen would lead to 3C riseUN secretariat initial draft
shows gap of up to 4.2 gigatonnes of CO2 between present pledges and cuts required to limit rise to 2C. Read the rest of this entry »
18/12/2009 BBC Bicycles once used to rule the roads in central Beijing which is expected to pass the four million vehicle mark sometime during the next few days. Read the rest of this entry »
18/12/2009 BBC Nasa satellites have weighed the water lost by the US State of California’s heartland since 2003. Read the rest of this entry »
18/12/2009 BBC A deal appears to be in sight for the final day of the UN climate change talks but there are fears it may not prevent a 3C (5.4F) temperature rise. Read the rest of this entry »
16/12/2009 email message from Bill McKibben. Read the rest of this entry »
16/12/2009 BBC Large-scale protests are expected when ministers begin their discussions at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen on Wednesday. Read the rest of this entry »
15/12/2009 www.realclimate.org Filed under: Climate ScienceCommunicating ClimateIPCCInstrumental Read the rest of this entry »
14/12/2009 www.realclimate.org Black soot and the survival of Tibetan glaciers – an extract from the scientific paper Read the rest of this entry »
14/12/2009 Guardian People are so paralysed by fear and selfishness they cannot save the planet, the archbishop of Canterbury said on Sunday during a church service in Copenhagen. Read the rest of this entry »
14/12/2009 Guardian How climate change sceptic Ian Plimer dodges valid criticism. Read the rest of this entry »
15/12/2009 Guardian This is the moment at which we turn and face ourselves. Read the rest of this entry »
14/12/2009 BBC Acidification of the oceans is a major threat to marine life and humanity’s food supply, Hilary Benn is to warn as the UN climate summit resumes. Read the rest of this entry »
13/12/2009 BBC The first stage of a government-supported electric car trial has started in the West Midlands. Read the rest of this entry »
13/12/2009 Observer Britain faces a ‘perfect storm’ of water shortage and lack of food, says the government’s chief scientist, and climate change and crop and animal diseases will add to future woes. Read the rest of this entry »
1/12/2009 New Scientist Magazine issue 2736. Read the rest of this entry »
12/12/2009 Guardian UK households are slowly going green and are now spending more than £250 a year on environmentally friendly products such as low-energy lightbulbs and energy-efficient appliances, figures suggested today. Read the rest of this entry »
12/12/2009 The Guardian So as we career towards a mediocre outcome in Copenhagen, why do roughly half the people in this country not believe in man-made climate change, when the overwhelming majority of scientists do? Read the rest of this entry »
12/12/2009 BBC Thousands of people are marching through Copenhagen as part of global protests to demand action from leaders at UN climate talks there. Read the rest of this entry »
11/12/2009 Guardian Copenhagen summit shows seas absorbing dangerous levels of CO2, Read the rest of this entry »
2/12/2009 Guardian: Treasury accused of writing a ‘blank cheque’ with taxpayers’ money for bank to make environmentally damaging investments. Read the rest of this entry »
9 BBC Shrinking of food and drink industry likely, says report. • Lord Stern: Sustainable development commissioner Professor Tim Lang explains to Felicity Lawrence why we need to change what we eat. Read the rest of this entry »
11/12/2009 BBC EU leaders have agreed to pay 7.2bn euros (£6.5bn; $10.6bn) over the next three years to help developing nations adapt to climate change. Read the rest of this entry »
10/12/2009 BBC The global average temperature could reach a record high in 2010, according to the UK’s Met Office. Read the rest of this entry »
10/12/2009 BBC Matt Frei’s diary. If the green movement truly wants to convert America it needs to convert more evangelical Christians. Read the rest of this entry »
10/12/2009 BBC Emissions of some greenhouse gases are substantially higher than companies and countries report, say scientists. Read the rest of this entry »
8/12/2009 Guardian The UK Met Office will tomorrow release records from nearly 2,000 measuring stations Read the rest of this entry »
8/12/2009 BBC says the UK Met Office and World Meteorological Organization. Read the rest of this entry »
8/12/2009 Guardian The past 10 years have been the warmest decade recorded in 160 years, despite 1998 being the warmest year on record. Read the rest of this entry »
8/12/2009 Guardian The release of the Met Office temperature data is welcome because everyone will begin to see what the data looks like. Read the rest of this entry »
8/12/2009 Guardian Read the next post in the News List for Monbiot’s Case Notes for this artticle. Read the rest of this entry »
8/12/2009 Guardian My Guardian Comment column this week is about how the climate denial industry achieves its aims. This supplements that post. Read the rest of this entry »
8/12/2009 Guardian Prime minister tells the Guardian he hopes the EU will agree to a cut in emissions of 30% by 2020. Read the rest of this entry »
8/12/2009 Gatwick would still operate with just one runway. Read the rest of this entry »
8/12/2009 BBC The heat is scorching as the young woman knocks on the window of my taxi, though rather than begging for cash she points at my water bottle, then to her mouth. Read the rest of this entry »
7/12/2009 BBC Special report: Copenhagen summit. Read the rest of this entry »
7/12/2009 BBC Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen has described the UN climate summit in Copenhagen as an “opportunity the world cannot afford to miss”. Read the rest of this entry »
7/12/2009 BBC The US government has declared that greenhouse gases threaten human health. Read the rest of this entry »
4/12/2009 BBC There are substantial variations in the amount of carbon being absorbed by the North Atlantic Ocean, a study shows. Read the rest of this entry »
7/12/2009 BBC Almost two-thirds of Scots believe climate change is an immediate and urgent problem, according to a poll commissioned by BBC Scotland. Read the rest of this entry »
7/12/2009 Guardian A climate change journey from the mountains to the sea. Read the rest of this entry »
7/12/2009 Guardian We need to build a low carbon economy across the world, with a deal that helps developing nations and ensures trust.T Read the rest of this entry »
The papers that will carry the Copenhagen editorial Read the rest of this entry »
7/12/2009 Copenhagen climate change conference 2009 Gordon Brown says climate change deal must be legally binding in six months• PM urges world to make historic agreement • Obama acts to cut US emissions. Read the rest of this entry »
7/12/2009 Environment Carbon emissions China’s carbon emissions will peak between 2030 and 2040, says ministerBeijing official gives strong indicator for when China’s output of greenhouse gases will start to fall Cooling towers of a coal-fired power plant in Beijing. Read the rest of this entry »
7/12/2009 The Guardian We do so because humanity faces a profound emergency. Read the rest of this entry »
7/12/2009 BBC The Copenhagen conference intended to agree a new international framework for controlling greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is about to begin. Read the rest of this entry »
7/12/2009 BBC Concern is rising about climate change around the world, according to a poll by GlobeScan for the BBC.N Read the rest of this entry »
6/12/2009 BBC Click read more to get links to two world wide surveys. Read the rest of this entry »
5/12/2009 BBC Landmark climate talks to begin. Read the rest of this entry »
5/12/2009 Guardian Hacked emails and a political victory in Australia have emboldened the denial lobby. Read the rest of this entry »
5/12/2009 GuardianUK should open borders to climate refugees, says Bangladeshi ministerEurope and US should also be responsible for millions who will be displaced by climate change, says Abul Maal Abdul. Read the rest of this entry »
5/12/2009 BBC UN hits back at climate sceptics. The UN’s official panel on climate change has hit back at sceptics’ claims that the case for human influence on global warming has been exaggerated. Read the rest of this entry »
5/12/2009 New Scientist …. , when they both put numbers to their pledges to cut their nations’ carbon footprints. Read the rest of this entry »
5/11/2009 Guardian Scientists fear oddball coalition may influence Copenhagen talks. Read the rest of this entry »
5/12/2009 Guardian ‘Dangerous, deceitful` attempts to derail Copenhagen condemned. Read the rest of this entry »
5/12/2009 BBC Fears are growing for the future of water supplies in one of Latin America’s fastest-growing urban areas – Bolivia’s sprawling city of La Paz and its neighbour El Alto. Read the rest of this entry »
5/12/2009 News Demonstrations have been under way around the UK to urge action on climate change ahead of the Copenhagen summit. Read the rest of this entry »
5/12/2009 BBC Met Office to reveal climate data.The Met Office (MO) is to announce it will publish the raw data it uses to analyse man-made global warming. Read the rest of this entry »
5/12/2009 BBC Obama to attend climate forum end. Read the rest of this entry »
4/12/2009 Guardian Europe’s carbon trading scheme suffered a blow yesterday as the Danish government was forced to rush an emergency Iaw through parliament to clamp down on a virulent form of VAT fraud. Read the rest of this entry »
4/12/2009 BBC Sir Muir Russell will head an independent review into the e-mails leaked from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) in Norwich, UK. Read the rest of this entry »
4/12/2009 BBC The UN panel on climate change says claims UK scientists manipulated global warming data to boost the argument it is man-made should be investigated. Read the rest of this entry »
4/12/2009 BBC News – Nepalese ministers have held a cabinet meeting on Mount Everest to raise awareness of the effects of climate change. Read the rest of this entry »
3/12/2009 www.realclimate.org Unsettled Science. Read the rest of this entry »
3/12/2009 Living World Issue 238 Winter 2009 Today’s global population is around six billion people, and our dominant form of agriculture is Read the rest of this entry »
3/12/2009 BBC E-mails hacked from a climate research institute suggest climate change does not have a human cause, according to Saudi Arabia’s lead climate negotiator. Read the rest of this entry »
3/12/2009 BBC Meeting the demand for family planning in poor nations is a cheap and effective way to cut CO2 emissions, a new website initiative claims. Read the rest of this entry »
3/12/2009 BBC If Australia does not silence its sceptics and reduce its emissions there is a real risk of the nation becoming uninhabitable. Read the rest of this entry »
3/12/2009 BBC Copenhagen climate change conference 2009 Copenhagen climate change talks must fail, says top scientistExclusive: World’s leading climate change expert says summit talks so flawed that deal would be a disaster. Read the rest of this entry »