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Greenhouse-gas emissions by industrialised countries at new high: UNFCCC
AFP
Emissions of greenhouse gases by industrialised countries have broken new records, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) said on Tuesday ahead of a crucial forum on tackling global warming.
In 2005 — the latest year for which the 40 industrialised countries which have signed and ratified the UNFCCC have reported data — the total emissions of greenhouse gases by this group “rose to an all-time high,” the UNFCCC said.
“The increases in emissions came from both the continued growth in highly industrialised countries and the revived economic growth in former East Bloc nations,” it said. Transport accounted for the biggest growth in emissions of any sector.
(20 November 2007)
U.N. says it’s time to adapt to warming
Alan Zarembo and Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times
In the final installment of its landmark report, the climate-change panel says many countries will just have to learn to live with the effects.
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The United Nations’ Nobel Prize-winning panel on climate change approved the final installment of its landmark report on global warming on Friday, concluding that even the best efforts at reducing CO2 levels will not be enough and that the world must also focus on adapting to “abrupt and irreversible” climate changes.
New and stronger evidence developed in the last year also suggests that many of the risks cited in the panel’s first three reports earlier this year will actually be larger than projected and will occur at lower temperatures, according to a draft of the so-called synthesis report.
The report from the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change summarizes thousands of pages of research produced over the last six years by delegates from 140 countries and is expected to serve as a “how-to” guide for governments meeting in Bali, Indonesia, beginning Dec. 3 to hammer out a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which is set to expire in five years.
(17 November 2007)
The blunt and alarming final report of the United Nations
Elisabeth Rosenthal, International Herald Tribune
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, released here by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, may well underplay the problem of climate change, many experts and even the report’s authors admit.
The report describes the evidence for human-induced climate change as “unequivocal.” The rise in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere thus far will result in an average rise in sea levels of up to 4.6 feet, or 1.4 meters, it concluded.
“Slowing – and reversing – these threats is the defining challenge of our age,” Ban said upon the report’s release Saturday.
Ban said he had just completed a whirlwind tour of some climate change hot spots, which he called as “frightening as a science-fiction movie.”
He described ice sheets breaking up in Antarctica, the destruction of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, and children in Chile having to wear protective clothing because an ozone hole was letting in so much ultraviolet radiation.
(18 November 2007)
Related by Elisabeth Rosenthal: U.N. Report Describes Risks of Inaction on Climate Change
Californians’ Serious (and Sunny) Climate Outlook
Anna Fahey, Sightline
When it comes to climate, we’ve been watching California for a while and wondering why the climate buzz is particularly loud in Cali. Does citizen concern spur lawmakers into action or does state action spur buzz among citizens? Or both?
Nowadays it’s definitely both. Californians are ahead of the curve when it comes to opinions about both threats from climate pollution and potential opportunities; they’re savvy about policy options, and regional impacts.
According to the pollsters, quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle, “one of the striking findings of the poll was that there was little difference in views on warming based on party affiliation.” In my opinion, this is at least partly because GOP Governor Schwarzenegger has taken a lead on climate policy, allowing party lines to blur when it comes to responsible choices for all Californians who are thinking about the future they’d like to leave their kids and grandkids. (When he’s talking about climate, Arnie mentions the legacy we’re leaving our grandchildren in almost every speech these days.)
Here are some findings from a poll released last Friday that surveyed more than 1,000 state residents.
(16 November 2007)
Coal addiction hinders climate cleanup
Alan Zarembo, Los Angeles Times
The cheap and abundant fossil fuel powers growth in Asia’s developing nations and adds to global warming.
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Coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, is the crack cocaine of the developing world.
It is the inexpensive and plentiful fuel powering the rising economies of Asia — and because of that, it has become one of the most intractable problems in combating global warming.
Even as the political will and grass-roots support to rein in rising carbon dioxide levels is growing, a large segment of the world is using more coal than ever.
The addiction threatens to undercut the landmark work of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore for work on global warming.
(18 November 2007)
