New report warns of the threat to UK food supplies from climate change impacts around the world. Creative Commons: Tyler Allen, 2011

Climate change abroad will have a more immediate effect on the UK than climate change at home, warns a report from consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The research, conducted on behalf of the UK’s Department for Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs, found that the UK is likely to be hit by increasingly volatile prices on many commodities as the climate changes.

PwC also said this poses a growing threat to business operations and warned companies that they must invest in assessing their vulnerability and taking steps to mitigate the risks.

The concentration of key imports, including food and materials, in a handful of countries could leave oversea supply chains particularly vulnerable to changing climate patterns, the report said.

It warns that global production of some foodstuffs is concentrated in a few countries.

These are likely to suffer increasing episodes of extreme weather.

The report says there will be opportunities for the UK from climate change but these are likely to be far outweighed by problems.

The opportunities include the ability to export British know-how and reduced shipping costs if the Arctic becomes ice-free. The Arctic looks likely to be a big business opportunity; research estimates suggest that it is likely to attract more than £64bn of investments over the next decade.

The biggest threats are increased volatility in food prices and protectionist measures over food, like India’s ban on selling rice.

“What’s interesting is that threats from climate change overseas appear an order of magnitude higher than domestic threats,” PWC’s Richard Gledhill told BBC News.

Read more: BBC >>

Ocean warming could be the biggest contributor to ice shelf melt in Antarctica, warns a new study. Creative Commons: Liam Quinn, 2011

Bottom-up ice shelf melt, caused by warming oceans, could be the biggest contributor to ice shelf loss in Antarctica, according to a new study looking to shed light on the world’s most mysterious ice sheet.

There is huge scientific interest in understanding and monitoring how the world’s ice sheets are changing. As the ice on land melts it drains into the sea, causing sea levels to rise.

There are several different ways the Antarctic ice sheet is shrinking – from the icy surface to the ocean below – and understanding these processes could be key to knowing how fast this melting ice sheet is raising sea levels.

To understand how most of the ice is lost from Antarctica, a new study just published in the journal Science looks to the ice shelves that surround 75 per cent of the continent.

Ice shelves are floating extensions of land ice that act as buttresses, stopping ice flowing from the interior straight out into the ocean.

Traditionally, scientists thought large chunks of solid ice breaking off the ice shelves was the main source of ice loss from Antarctica – a process known as iceberg calving.

But there’s another way. As the ocean below the ice shelves warms, the ice melts from the bottom up – something scientists call basal melting. With melting from the top and bottom, some ice shelves are getting noticeably thinner, says the new study.

The paper looked at both processes of ice loss across 99.5 per cent of Antarctica’s ice shelves between 2003 and 2008. Overall, the scientists found basal melting caused 55 per cent of ice loss, although they saw quite a lot of variation between regions.

This makes bottom-up ice shelf melt the largest source of ice shelf loss in Antarctica, the paper suggests. Previous studies have estimated the contribution to be more like 30 per cent, or even as low as 10 per cent.

Read more: Carbon Brief >>

Coal plant in Beijing, Creative Commons: Bret Arnett, 2005

China is moving forward to cut greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution with new policies that will regulate top polluting industries.

On Tuesday, the nation initiated its first carbon trading scheme in Shenzhen, which will help the city cut carbon dioxide emissions to 21% below 2010 levels by 2015.

The scheme is one of seven pilot programmes designed to help China as a whole meet its goal of cutting the amount of carbon dioxide emitted relative to economic growth by 40-45%, although absolute emissions are expected to climb.

The Shenzhen market will regulate emissions from the city’s 635 biggest companies, forcing those that breach emission caps relative to economic growth to buy government carbon permits.

China’s current annual greenhouse gas emissions are around 8-9 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent, more than a quarter of the world’s total, and are expected to reach 12-14 billion before peaking towards the end of the next decade.

Although China’s total emissions will continue to rise, analysts said the country’s carbon markets would play a key role in slowing the increase. Dominic Meagher of consultancy China Policy said:

An emissions trading scheme provides incentives to (cut emissions) because the coal and oil producers can make more money if their product emits less GHGs.

Government-owned newspaper Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported Monday that eight carbon dioxide permit transactions would be announced Tuesday, all at 30 RMB (3.67 euros) per permit. That price level would put the Shenzhen market just below EU prices, although observers said it was too early to say whether the market would be able to sustain that price.

China also recently announced new regulations on industry to control the pollutants that caused the heavy smog that blanketed big cities like Beijing earlier this year. The regulations aim to reduce the pollutants that cause smog by 30% by the end of 2017 from their top sources, including industries like iron, steel, petrochemicals, and cement. These pollutants, like ultrafine particulate matter, are hazardous to public health and can cause respiratory illnesses.

Read more about the Shenzhen scheme: Trust.org>>

Environment ministers took a positive step to patch up the EU’s ailing carbon market today, supporting backloading proposals. Creative Commons: EU Parliament 2012

A plan to patch up Europe’s ailing carbon market was endorsed by the European Parliament’s environment committee today, at a vote in Brussels.

Today’s vote saw a set of compromise amendments gain cross-party support, reconfirming the EU Commission’s mandate for a one-off intervention in the carbon market.

It’s not the first time the committee has considered such proposals. It follows a previous vote by the European Parliament which failed to adopt a stronger backloading proposal to help rescue the sickly carbon market.

The latest round of votes are viewed as a second chance to save the flagship scheme and for MEPs to redeem themselves.

Environmental organisations WWF and Climate Action Network (CAN) “cautiously welcomed” this show of support for the new plans to temporarily curb the oversupply of emission allowances in the carbon market, a process known as “backloading”.

Sam Van den plas, EU climate policy officer for WWF said:

Today the ailing EU carbon market was given emergency treatment, as a temporary first step towards structural reforms of the carbon market. Parliament must ensure that it does not let the air out of the ambulance’s tires now. Handing out more blank cheques to energy intensive industries is unnecessary and irresponsible.

WWF and CAN were also joined Greenpeace in criticism of the way in which these proposals have weakened the backloading plan, arguing that the once solid proposal is “now as full of holes as a Swiss cheese”.

Key areas of concern include provisions, within the amendment, which call for a dedicated fund to compensate energy intensive industries, as well as a more generous definition for the sectors at risk of carbon leakage.

Joris den Blanken, Greenpeace EU climate policy director said:

There has been so much backtracking on this plan for a temporary fix of the EU carbon market that it is now only a shadow of what it should have been. The best it will do is give some very short-term relief and act as a fundraiser for polluting industries with no obligation for deeper carbon cuts. Instead of polluters, it is taxpayers that will be picking up the carbon bill.

All three NGOs, along with other experts, are calling for deeper structural reforms to the carbon market.

Backloading, followed by structural reform would help boost Europe’s rock-bottom carbon price, which is currently providing heavy industry with a “license to pollute”, according to the NGO Sandbag.

This plan has garnered high level support from environment ministers from countries including France, Germany and the UK, as well as renewed support from major business associations.

The proposal will now go back to the European Parliament for a vote on the 2nd or 3rd July.

Volvo aims to introduce its electric bus to Gothenburg in 2015. Courtesy of: Volvo, 2013

Volvo’s aim to reduce the environmental impact of its vehicles is a step closer today, following announcements of the companies’ plans to introduce an electric bus system in Sweden and food-waste fuelled trucks in the UK.

Yesterday the Swedish automaker announced it would supply state of the art electric buses to Sweden’s second largest city, Gothenburg in 2015, providing the city with silent, zero-emission electric transportation.

Introduced as part of a wider ElectriCity project, the buses will be powered by renewable energy sources, will pick passengers up from in-door bus stops and will travel between two of the city’s major science parks.

They will even feature on-board technologies such as Wi-Fi.

Olof Persson, President and CEO of Volvo said:

Like something out of a vision of the future, but which is already a reality here and now, buses powered entirely by electricity from renewable sources will become a part of Gothenburg’s public-transport system… This represents an entirely new mode of travel and will allow for the public-transport system to contribute to a more pleasant urban environment.

Volvo also announced plans last week to reduce the environmental impact of its heavyweight fleet, signing a new deal to run its trucks on biogas created from food waste.

The deal with Gasrec, which aims to promote the use of gas-powered trucks in the UK, will see the company become the first manufacturer in the world to produce trucks tailored to run on renewable liquid and gaseous fuels.

The fuel used will be a mixture of liquefied natural gas and liquid biomethane produced from household food waste.

The company will start by targeting businesses which are in close proximity to Gasrec’s refuelling infrastructure – with the first eight pumps opened last month in Daventry, Northamptonshire.

Water shortages will increase with worsening climate change. Creative Commons: Gates Foundation, 2010

A new report from the World Bank paints a stark picture of the world if climate change continues unabated, warning that a warmer planet will keep millions of people trapped in poverty. The report, Turn Down the Heat: Climate Extremes, Regional Impacts and the Case for Resilience (PDF), finds that the significant climate impacts observed today will pale in comparison to the ‘new normal’ with 2°C warming, let alone the potentially catastrophic impacts of a 4°C increase.

These stark findings prompted World Bank President Jim Yong Kim to boldly call for aggressive commitments to global emissions reductions:

There can be no substitute for aggressive national mitigation targets, and the burden of emissions reductions lies with a few large economies.

In scenarios of both 2°C and 4°C of global warming, the World Bank sees a future with serious strains on agricultural production, water resources, and coastal communities. The report paints a picture of climate change spinning out of control when vital elements of human and natural systems cross tipping points and experience abrupt change. It warns against ‘domino effects’ where a web of interrelated climate impacts undermines development.

In particular, the report focuses on the regions on South Asia, Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. In these regions, extreme heat, rising sea-levels, increased flooding and drought, more severe storms and destruction of marine life — all the effects of climate change — will contribute to hardships that include crop devastation, destruction of productive land, food and water shortages and economic crisis (see World Bank infographic).

Areas where the temperature increases have the greatest impact are referred to as ‘hotspots.’ Hardships in hardest hit areas, especially in the 4°C scenario, would reverberate around the world in a ‘domino effect’ that would manifest itself in many forms.

For example, impacts on the agricultural sector are expected to affect the global trade of food commodities, decreasing yields and lowering the nutritional value of crops. This impact could cascade throughout society by increasing the level of malnutrition and childhood stunting, hindering educational performance and ultimately damaging the human capital of a nation.

President Kim:

The scientists tell us that if the world warms by 2°C – warming which may be reached in 20 to 30 years —  that will cause widespread food shortages, unprecedented heat-waves, and more intense cyclones. In the near-term, climate change, which is already unfolding, could batter the slums even more and greatly harm the lives and the hopes of individuals and families who have had little hand in raising the Earth’s temperature.

These stark findings underscore the need for swift global action to avoid the most dire consequences of a warming world. Dramatic technological change, steadfast and visionary political will, and international cooperation are required to tackle climate change and protect people and nature. President Kim:

I do not believe the poor are condemned to the future scientists envision in this report. In fact, I am convinced we can reduce poverty even in a world severely challenged by climate change.

This is the second study in a series of reports on the impacts of global warming prepared for the World Bank by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Climate Analytics. The first ‘Turn Down the Heat’ report came out in late 2012.

The World Bank has been criticized by several NGOs for its support of coal fired power stations in countries like South Africa, Kosovo and India.

Stephanie Tunmore, Greenpeace Campaigner said of The World Bank:

Bold action is needed from all governments, and the World Bank must lead the way by shifting all its energy financing from fossil fuels to renewables and energy efficiency. These are the only solutions that can truly end poverty and avert catastrophic climate change.

New President Jim Yong Kim is known for pushing for climate leadership on the world stage. In light of these recent reports, he said the World Bank will “increasingly look at all its business through a ‘climate lens’.”

As host of this year’s G8, UK Prime Minister David Cameron has come under criticism for omitting climate change from the agenda. Creative Commons: 2012

Civil society groups have criticised the British government for omitting climate change from this year’s G8 agenda, arguing that world leaders have failed to grasp global warming’s impacts on food shortages and economic instability.

As leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the US arrived in Northern Ireland yesterday, issues including the conflict in Syria, tax and transparency took the spotlight.

Despite no hints of climate change being discussed at Lough Erne, Downing Street said the issue had not  “fallen off the agenda” and climate change did get a mention in the meeting’s final communique, as leaders reaffirmed their commitments to “addressing the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly by 2020 and to pursue our low carbon path afterwards.”

And while the document acknowledged climate change as ”contributing factor in increased economic and security risks globally” it still failed to link climate change to wider issues being discussed over the two day meeting, such as food security.

In previous years – 2007, 2008 and 2009 for example – climate was a key issue these countries fought for. This year, however, countries including Germany and France had to lobby heavily for the UK Prime Minister to even talk about climate change at all.

Heading to the talks, French President Francois Hollande made a last ditch attempt to shine light on the issue, saying “the G8 must do its part and give a strong political impetus to curb carbon emissions.”

And with food security, the global economy, and taxation all on the agenda at the G8 Summit, NGOs have warned “that by failing to put climate change on the agenda they have ignored one of the biggest threats” to these issues.

They warned that most G8 governments are failing to grasp the benefits of building low carbon economies that would boost growth, create hundreds of thousands of jobs and limit the threat of global warming to food and other commodities.

Asad Rehman, Friends of the Earth’s International climate change campaigner said:

G8 leaders claim their summit will focus on tackling world hunger, but in failing to put climate change on the agenda they have ignored one of the biggest threats to global food production. The world’s richest nations must urgently end their short-sighted addiction to dirty fossil fuels, stop handing tax-payers money to dirty fossil fuel corporations – and help build a clean, safe and affordable future for us all.

Building a low carbon economy would be a huge boost to the international economy, create hundreds of thousands of jobs and tackle the threat of global warming. And by protecting global food supplies, it would help stop millions from going hungry.

Ahead of this week’s talks, campaigners aimed to highlight climate change’s role in global issues with a series of protest songs, that were performed by artists around the world. By throwing a massive ‘agit8’ concert, the ONE campaign – through the UK-based Enough Food If campaign – aimed to put pressure on the G8 hosts to tackle food security and global hunger.

Other climate campaigners joined a wider G8 protest movement in the UK over the weekend, to warn of the damaging impacts of governments continued investment in fossil fuels was having.

On Monday, EU Commissioner for Climate Action, Connie Hedegaard also warned world leaders meeting in Ireland they must recognise that climate change is not just an environmental issue but an economic one as well. She said:

The economic community and world leaders need to understand what the World Bank and the OECD are saying, that dealing with climate change is not an environmental issue. It’s about preparing your economy for the future.

As well as putting jobs and the global as the “top priority” for leaders in Ireland, the final outcome included strong statements on tax avoidance and evasion.

NGOs and campaigners have welcomed talk on tax reform and have called on leaders to deliver results on tax that are “good for people and planet.” For example, the World Development Movement believe that by stopping corporate tax evasion and avoidance, billions more could be raised and which could then be used as a source of climate finance.

In the UK alone, they estimate that £100 billion is lost each year through tax avoidance and evasion.

As calls for urgent climate action come thick and fast, NGOs warn that rich nation’s can no longer afford to keep dodging their responsibilities.

Even the most conservative institutions are pressing governments to introduce strong measures to tackle climate change. Senior figures and reports from the World Bank, the International Energy Agency and the International Monetary Fund have painted a chaotic picture of a 4ºC warmer world we are currently headed for by the end of this century.

They have provided a raft of measures to cut carbon, respond to climate threats and set the world on a safer path, yet leaders of the G8 and other powerful nations leave their electorates puzzled as they fail to take up the mantle.

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, Chair of the Resilient Communities for America. Creative Commons: Robert Couse-Baker, 2012

Forty-five leading local elected officials committed to creating more resilient cities, towns, and counties in the face of unprecedented extreme weather and energy challenges that threaten communities across the country. Together, they are the inaugural sign-ons to the Resilient Communities for America campaign.

By joining the campaign, they have pledged to take cost-effective actions to prepare and protect their communities from the increasing disasters and disruptions fueled by climate change, such as heat waves, floods, droughts, severe storms, and wildfires. In addition, they called for more action and support from federal leaders.

Climate change is a global phenomenon, but its impacts vary at the local level. This makes strong local leadership, sensitive to the needs of their community, vital to climate preparedness and other aspects of resilience.

Resilient Communities for America is the only U.S. initiative of its kind that seeks to build a broad new movement encompassing hundreds of local governments and their elected officials, from small towns and rural counties to large cities. While some resilience programs or campaigns focus only on large or leading cities, the campaign will cultivate leadership, commitment, and action from the widest range of local governments, in terms of size, geography, and progress.

Mayor Kevin Johnson of Sacramento, CA, Chair of the campaign, said:

A new national movement is emerging, led by mayors who believe that now is the time to take powerful, proactive steps to safeguard our communities, adapt to extreme weather and energy challenges, and transform adversity into economic opportunity. Today I call on my fellow mayors and county leaders across the country to join the campaign and make your own commitment to creating more resilient communities that are strong, self-reliant, prepared, and prosperous.

The campaign includes “paths to resilience” that suggest some of the most effective and important actions to improve community resilience. The main categories of actions include “climate preparedness,” “energy security,” “infrastructure renewal,” and “economic prosperity.” Some of the most cost-effective initiatives have multiple benefits: by expanding renewable energy, for example, a city can increase its energy independence, create local jobs, reduce carbon emissions, and lessen the vulnerability of the electric grid during heat waves.

The new campaign is a project of ICLEI–Local Governments for Sustainability, the National League of Cities, the U.S. Green Building Council, and the World Wildlife Fund.

Current pioneering leaders on board for the campaign include Mayor Vincent Gray (Washington, DC), Mayor Bob Filner (San Diego, CA), Mayor John Cook (El Paso, TX), Mayor Michael Hancock (Denver, CO), and Mayor Mark Mallory (Cincinnati, OH).

The campaign urges local elected officials to take action for climate preparedness and strong infrastructure, and community members have a big role to play in putting pressure on their leaders to become the campaign’s newest signatories.

Ask your local elected officials to sign the Agreement>>

“All pipelines leak, all markets peak” — a slogan of the Tar Sands Blockade. Creative Commons: Elizabeth Brossa, 2012

Pipeline safety is growing more difficult to prove, as oil companies struggle with failing infrastructure and persistent pollution issues from spills that should have been cleaned up long ago. News of pipeline failures are eroding public trust in oil companies to quickly and effectively control toxic spills, much less prevent them in the first place. These events add gravity to President Obama’s pending decision to allow Canadian company TransCanada to build a pipeline across the United States to carry highly corrosive tar sands oil from Montana to the Gulf of Mexico.

Public left in the dark for 11 days while toxic wastewater leaked

Hilary Bird (@hilarybirdcbc) tweeted this picture of the Zama City wastewater spill in Alberta. Source: Twitter, 2013

A huge pipeline failure in Zama City, Canada on June 1st spilled 2.5 million gallons of toxic tar sands wastewater into the environment, in what some are calling the biggest wastewater spill in recent North American history. Alberta’s Energy Resources Conservation Board, however, waited 11 days to issue a public statement reporting the spill’s occurrence, raising doubts about the adequacy of government regulation and transparency.

Locals believe that the wastewater leak might have originated even earlier than June. Dene Tha’ Councilman Sidney Chambaud told The Canadian Press:

There are indications that the spill occurred earlier, during the winter season, but due to ice and snow it wasn’t discovered.

The spill occurred near the territory of the Dene Tha’ First Nation, where the community lives, farms, fishes, and hunts. Yet Houston-based Apache Corp. said in its press release that the spill posed “no risk to the public.” This contradicts a statement by Dene Tha’ Chief James Ahnassay reporting that the spill “seriously affected harvesting areas.”

Lawsuit filed against Exxon for Arkansas spill, failed clean-up

Tar sands oil spilled in Mayflower, Arkansas into a suburban backyard. Source: 350.org, 2013

The March 29th ExxonMobil oil spill in Arkansas, U.S. that sent 84,000 gallons of heavy tar sands oil through a suburban community continues to pollute waterways and contaminate the neighborhood months later, keeping many of the evacuated residents from returning to their homes.

On June 14th, the State of Arkansas and the federal Department of Justice filed suit against ExxonMobil on the grounds that Exxon violated state and federal clean water and air laws, asserting that the company must do more to pay for clean-up costs.

This follows a class-action lawsuit filed by Arkansas residents in April demanding $5 million in damages from Exxon.

Exxon’s history of pipeline failures doesn’t bode well for future pipelines. Exxon was fined $1.7 million for a spill in 2011 that sent 62,000 gallons of oil into the Yellowstone River. In July 2010, a six-foot break in an Exxon pipeline near the Kalamazoo River in Michigan resulted in the largest on-land oil spill, and one of the costliest, in U.S. history.

Landowners grow wary as TransCanada returns to dig up southern leg of KXL

Landowners watch as their land is dug up for a second time, growing wary of TransCanada’s integrity. Creative Commons: Public Citizen, 2013

In Texas, newly laid pipes that could one day be part of the Keystone XL are being dug up and replaced for structural damage. Photographs from the sites by grassroots organization Bold Nebraska show pieces of pipe that have been spray-painted with the word “dent” and flags along the pipeline route that say “anomaly” and “weld.”

Landowners watching TransCanada retrace its steps to excavate and replace brand new pieces of pipe are increasingly suspicious of the integrity of the pipelines: “that it is not a matter of if, but a matter of when this line will leak.”

Michael Bishop, landowner in east Texas whose property is to be dug up once again to replace pieces of Keystone XL pipeline, said:

When the new segments are welded up, how can the public be assured that the work will not be a repeat of the shoddy, prior performance that has brought them back to our properties? If we were concerned about leaking before construction began, how can we have confidence in TransCanada at this point?

Landowners Against TransCanada, an organization formed to provide assistance to landowners in the U.S. to legally fight the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline, launched a petition telling the pipeline and hazardous materials regulatory agency to perform its legal duties to protect human health and the environment, and immediately investigate the pipeline anomalies and stop further construction of the southern segment of the Keystone XL pipeline.

Young child in a refugee camp following the 2011 drought in Somalia. Creative Commons: Feed My Starving Children, 2011

Home to more than a third of the global population, dryland make up 44% of the world’s cultivated systems and account for 50% of livestock.

Every year 12 million hectares of productive land – the area equal to the size of the UK – is lost to desertification and drought. This land could have grown 20 billion tonnes of grain.

With the global population projected to reach 9 billion by 2050, and with a growing demand for food, the world must look to tackle desertification.

To celebrate World Day to Combat Desertification, UN Convention to Combat Desertification Executive Secretary, Luc Gnacadja writes for RTCC on the risks and impacts of the issue around the world:

Drought claims more lives than any other disaster. Over 1.6 billion people have fallen victim since 1979.

For over three decades, the international community has grappled with drought impacts and their mitigation. But relief still dominates. In most cases, the response is too late.

To date, only one country in the world has a comprehensive national drought policy. Why? Droughts are never sudden, so why do they claim lives on par or more than sudden disasters?

Why has the lack of political will to invest in systems to prepare for, respond to and manage drought and its risks persisted when communities from India to Kenya, from United States to Australia show that drought mitigation and resilience are not only viable, but affordable options?

The most affected communities are not standing by but are leading the way to drought resilience and water security.

Read more: RTCC >>

The Port Victoria Wind Farm in the Republic of Seychelles accounts for 8 percent of Mahé Island’s energy capacity – the main island of Seychelles. Courtesy of: Masdar, 2013

The Seychelles will soon be benefiting from 6MW of renewable energy capacity, as eight wind turbines have been installed by Abu Dhabi clean energy experts, Masdar.

The Port Victoria Wind Farm, on the country’s largest island Mahe, could account for 8% of the island’s energy generation. Mahe is home to 90% of the country’s population.

The wind farm will be the Seychelles’ first renewable energy project and will displace 5,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, power more than 2,100 homes and save 1.6 million litres of fuel per year.

The project was developed by Masdar and funded by the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development.

They Seychelles currently relies on expensive diesel generators to meet its electricity demand. With fuel accounting for 25% of the country’s total net imports, the island nation is committed to diversifying its energy mix and reducing its reliance on fuel imports.

 With limited options to produce electricity, wind power generation presents a viable solution to meet a national target of 15% energy from renewable sources by 2030.

James Michel, President of the Republic of Seychelles said:

Access to sustainable, clean sources of energy is vital to our long-term economic development. The addition of wind power is a major step towards meeting our clean energy targets and reducing our dependency on imported sources of power. We look forward to further opportunities to assess our wind power potential and continue to diversify our energy mix.

With the price of renewable energy technologies falling, wind and solar power are becoming economically viable solutions to improve energy security and access and helps developing nations insulate themselves from volatile fuel prices.

Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE minister of state and CEO of Masdar said:

In particular, for remote island nations, the integration of sustainable energy can deliver an immediate economic and tangible impact. Today, Seychelles can redirect fuel savings into investment in infrastructure development, social programmes and to spurring economic growth.

The Port Victoria Wind Farm required Masdar to construct eight turbines on two separate islands and connect the wind farm with 3 km of subsea cables. They used advanced turbines that can harness energy during low-to-medium wind speed and that are resilient to corrosion from the salt and humidity of the ocean.

The protesters sit-in in front of the State Department office in Chicago, holding a banner quoting Obama on his promise to act on climate change. Creative Commons: Joe P. Dick/Shooting Stars Inc, 2013.

Twenty-two people, including many former Obama campaign staffers, were arrested in an act of civil disobedience against the Keystone XL pipeline on Monday in Chicago, targeting President Obama’s pending decision on the pipeline. The protest took place following last week’s news of more toxic pipeline spills in Canada and a lawsuit filed against Exxon for its devastating oil spill in suburban Arkansas in March.

The Chicago sit-in was organized by the NoKXL coalition, which includes the Rainforest Action Network, CREDO, and The Other 98%. Organizers say this protest is only the first of many strategic actions against the KXL pipeline.

Reverend Terrence Gallagher, an Obama donor participating in Monday’s sit-in, said:

As a grandfather and avid supporter of President Obama, I respect his words offered in response to the climate crisis but we are out of time for just words. I am risking arrest if that is what is necessary to move him to the action of denying the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. The future well-being of our kids deserves no less of a response.

Chicago, Illinois is Obama’s hometown and the location of his Organizing for Action activist campaign organization, making it a notable location for the protest. The State Department is the agency currently finalizing the environmental impact statement for the Keystone XL, a process that has been troubled by conflicts of interest.

The protest prominently featured several former Obama campaign staffers who are frustrated that the campaign for ‘change’ and ‘hope’ has yet to tackle global climate change, seen by them as one of the greatest issues facing both current and future generations. They are calling on their President to live up to his promise to address dangerous climate change – a promise that would be next to impossible to keep if the KXL tar sands pipeline were built.

In the words of Elijah Zarlin, formerly a Senior National Email Writer on President Obama’s 2008 campaign:

I never thought I’d be back in Chicago to risk arrest in order to get President Obama to do the right thing on climate change. But the fact is, President Obama hasn’t made good on the commitment he made to his staff and supporters to fight climate change. If the president wants our help to push his agenda forward in the second term, Keystone XL is a make or break moment.

Over 62,000 citizens across the U.S. have signed the Pledge of Resistance, committing to participate in or support acts of civil disobedience against the KXL pipeline should the Obama administration recommend its approval. A decision is expected before the end of 2013.

New report from Australia’s Climate Commission warns that 80% of global emissions must be left in the ground. Creative Commons: 2010

80% of the world’s fossil fuel reserves will have to stay in the ground if the planet is to avoid dangerous climate change, according to the latest report by Australia’s Climate Commission.

The international community has agreed that global temperature rise must be kept with 2ºC on pre-industrial levels, and that any rise above this is unacceptably high. The new report warns that with the world already approaching a 1ºC rise, only 20% – or 600 billion tonnes – of the 2,860 billion tonnes of CO2 in known fossil fuel reserves can be burned in order to give the world a 80% of remaining within the 2ºC limit.

Australia’s coal reserves alone represent about 51 billion tonnes of potential CO2 emissions – around a twelfth of the total global carbon budget.

In a significant update to its comprehensive 2011 report, the Climate Commission says that many of the dire consequences of climate change it and the global scientific community have warned about are already evident.

One quarter of the way through Australia’s ‘Critical Decade’, they say there is already clear evidence that the changing climate will bring more ‘Angry Summer’ heatwaves, droughts, floods, strong tropical storms and rising sea levels to Australia, damaging the country’s environment, threatening health and impacting the economy.

The risks posed by an increasingly warming world are now better understood, the scientific consensus is stronger than ever and the financial sector is waking up to the fact that global society must virtually decarbonise in the next 30-35 years to keep the world within the internationally agreed 2ºC limit.

To keep the temperature rise, and by extension the damage of extreme weather, at a “manageable” level the report says global emissions must be trending downwards by the end of the decade.

Professor Will Steffen, a climate commissioner who co-authored the report, said:

We have to get global emissions trending downward by the end of the decade to have any reasonable chance of meeting that 2 degree target. We need to make the right investment decisions. We have to leave most of the fossil fuels in the ground and of course that has obvious implications for investment decisions this decade.

We have to put in place a very clear pathway to a decarbonised economy in the next 30-35 years. That requires us to make smart decisions on investments now.

If an orderly transition from coal, oil and gas to renewable energy is not made, Australia’s economy and investor capital could face huge risks and potential asset stranding, as the majority of fossil fuel reserves become worthless as governments take action on climate change.

The Australian Youth Climate Coalition are calling on their government to push forward with renewable energy. Creative Commons: World Resources Institute, 2012

Reposted from Adelaide Now and authored by Dan Spencer

Dan Spencer is the Australian Youth Climate Coalition’s Repower Port Augusta campaigner and the 2012 Bob Brown Young Environmentalist of the Year.

Australia’s energy mix is at a crossroads.

Nowhere is this better seen than in Port Augusta, where the town’s ageing coal-fired power stations are coming to the end of their life and the community, backed by people across the state, is campaigning for a solar thermal replacement.

The recent debate around the Clean Energy Finance Corporation means this crossroads has a major roadblock. As September 14 nears, politicians and Australian voters need to remember whose future they are shaping at the polls: that of young people and future generations.

Sadly, one of the issues being most politicised this election will directly impact on the lives of young people: how we choose to act on climate change. Not only is support for action on climate change increasingly divided along party lines, there is a stark gap between old and young.

Polling released in the past few days by Essential Research made this divide clear. Among under-35s, 52 per cent of people support carbon pricing and only 25 per cent oppose it. This is remarkably resilient majority support for a policy that has been consistently denigrated since it was introduced.

Sadly, this level of support is not reflected in people over 55, where only 39 per cent support carbon pricing, with 56 per cent opposed.

Essential’s poll reflects the Climate Institute’s 2012 Climate of the Nation report, which also found an age gap in commitment to cutting carbon pollution.

These results show young people are looking further into the future on these issues. Considering the long-term benefits of moving from coal to renewable energy, it isn’t hard to see why.

This election, young people can provide a moral voice highlighting the need for long-term thinking on climate and critical investment in our future. The recent debate around funding for renewable energy projects demonstrates why this youth perspective is vital.

Read more: Adelaide Now >>

Oxford University failed this year’s Green League following a £5.9 million partnership between their Earth Sciences department and Shell. Creative Commons: Steve Evans, 2011

Manchester Metropolitan University has been confirmed as the UK’s greenest university, after topping the 2013 People and Planet Green League – the UK’s most comprehensive ranking of UK educational institutions.

Manchester Met jumped 9 places on last years ranking, after seeing continued improvement year-on-year since it failed the organisation’s first green league in 2007.

Plymouth came out second, for the second year running, while Bangor topped the Welsh list and Edinburgh Napier the Scottish ranking. Gloucester, Brighton and Worcester were all also in the top 5.

Overall People and Planet say the results were excellent showing the success of student-led campaigns to green universities, as well as sector wide reduction targets and the growing number of university Vice-Chancellors who are committed to tackling climate change.

The results also show UK universities are doing more to improve graduate prospects by preparing them for the future low-carbon economy and increasing their focus on sustainability in their curriculum.

47% of universities gained full points for integrating sustainability into their course structure, compared to just 27% just two years ago.

But not all is good news. People and Planet say universities are still failing to make the connection between their own academics’ research on climate change and partnerships and investment they have with fossil fuel companies.

In May 2013, for example, the University of Oxford announced a £5.9 million partnership between their Earth Sciences department and Shell, supporting research into new techniques for extracting dirty fossil fuels.

In response, students from the university launched a Fossil Free Oxford campaign aimed at severing the links between their institution and the fossil fuel industry. Oxford University failed this year’s Green League.

In total only 8 of the 143 universities ranked scored full marks for their ethical investment.

Louise Hazan, who compiled this year’s People & Planet Green League, said:

After a decade of student-led Go Green campaigning, the Higher Education sector has made excellent progress in areas ranging from carbon reduction to ethical procurement. For the first time ever, 100% of universities assessed now have an environmental policy.

However, we’re seeing excruciatingly slow progress from too many universities in some criteria such as ethical investment given the urgency of the climate challenge. We’d encourage those who have failed this year’s Green League ‘exam’ to take a leaf out of Manchester Metropolitan’s book

See the full results: People and Planet >>

Pakistani children, Creative Commons: Million Dollar Mission, 2010

Pakistan is seeing a surge in the spread of diseases caused by contaminated drinking water. This rise, especially alarming in children, is attributed to climate change’s influence on seasonal rain patterns, which has reduced the flow of the Indus River and the availability of fresh water.

Cases of vector-borne diseases have increased rapidly in the country this year, particularly in Sindh, and experts have linked this phenomenon to the irregular rain patterns.

“This year, the rise in vector-borne diseases including diarrhoea, cholera, gastroenteritis, typhoid, and hepatitis is due to environmental factors and the effects of climate change,” says Dr Iqbal Memon, renowned paediatrician and president of the Pakistan Paediatric Association.

Monsoon season in Pakistan normally starts in the middle of July and continues till mid-September and in the monsoon season, the consumption of contaminated water from freshwater sources caused outbreaks of water-borne diseases, especially in the rural areas of Sindh.

“But we are seeing a rise in the cases if diarrhoea, cholera, gastroenteritis and typhoid cases, which shows that safe drinking water is unavailable in our freshwater sources, which was not the case in the past,” explains Dr Memon.

He adds that thousands of children have been diagnosed with vector-borne diseases in Sindh during the last couple of months.

A few decades back, Dr Memon recalls, the Indus River used to flow at full strength prior to the monsoon season in the country and freshwater was abundantly available to local communities during all seasons.

Now there is no water in the Indus River. Ponds and riverines in Sindh have become contaminated, but people have no other option but to use that water for drinking and cooking. This lack of freshwater is purely due to environmental reasons.

Dr Memon says water-borne diseases will increase following normal rains in the province as factors like environmental pollution and contamination of water bodies will remain in place.

Read more: The News International>>

The Ecuadorean Amazon has long suffered from oil pollution that is inadequately cleaned up by oil companies. Creative Commons: Rainforest Action Network, 2010

An oil spill in Ecuador has crossed international borders and contaminated the drinking water of communities along tributaries of the Amazon River, leaving state-backed oil company Petroecuador scrambling to contain the spread of the spill downriver and potentially into Brazil.

Oil spilled from Petroecuador’s Trans-Ecuador pipeline after a May 31st landslide in the Andean foothills has now reached the Peruvian Amazon. The landslide that destroyed a 330-foot section of the pipeline is blamed on heavy rain in the province of Sucumbios near the El Reventador Volcano, one of Ecuador’s most active volcanoes.

The broken pipeline spilled some 11,000 barrels, or 420,000 gallons, of crude oil into the Quijos River, a well-known whitewater adventure river on the eastern slopes of the Andes.

The oil was carried east into the River Coca, a tributary of the Napo River, which flows into the Amazon River.

The oil has polluted drinking water in the city of Puerto Francisco de Orellana, also known as Coca, a city of 80,000 and the capital of Orellana Province. Clean water is being supplied by tanker truck. Petroecuador has also distributed food rations and cans of drinking water to the residents of 13 other Ecuadorean communities affected by the spill.

The spilled oil has now reached the Peruvian Amazon region of Loreto, and, hundreds of miles away, Brazil has been put “on alert” to watch for the oil slick. Peruvian Environment Minister Manuel Pulgar Vidal called the spill a “very serious problem.” Peru could seek financial compensation, “but first we have to look at the extent of the problem,” he told the newspaper “El Comercio.”

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has apologized to Peru “for the problems we have caused.”

Read more: Environmental News Service>>

Creative Commons: Dmitry Fedoseev, 2005

People of diverse faiths representing every region around the world gathered in Switzerland in May to discuss the intersections of environmentalism, theology, and climate change. They shared not only how their churches are responding locally to the impacts of climate change, but also how they are asking governments and the international community to implement effective policies that support those most vulnerable.

Organized by the World Council of Churches (WCC) programme Care for Creation and Climate Justice and the Ecumenical Institute of Bossey, the seminar was held 14 to 17 May. More than thirty international participants came together to address the theme “Eco-theology: caring for creation today and building a sustainable world for tomorrow.”

A two-day meeting of the working group on climate change followed the seminar, focusing on preparations for the WCC’s upcoming assembly and advocacy at the United Nations forums. The WCC 10th Assembly is set to take place in Busan, Republic of Korea, 30 October to 8 November, under the theme “God of life, lead us to justice and peace”.

Ernst M. Conradie, senior professor of religion and theology at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa, opened the seminar raising contemporary challenges to Christian eco-theology after fifty years of debates on the subject. Conradie was also the guest editor of the latest issue of The Ecumenical Review on “ecumenical and ecological reflections on the God of life”.

Looking for an adequate theological rationale for Christian earth keeping, his address raised issues of ethics, biblical, systematic and pastoral theology as well as interfaith implications. Stressing the counter-intuitive character of the Christian witness of communities, he pleaded for an eco-theology embodied in the Christian values that promote care for creation.

At the seminar, presenters from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific region shared how churches and communities are addressing issues related to ecological destruction and climate change at the grassroots level.

Read more: World Council of Churches>>

The climate talks ended today, where some steps forward were made ahead of the COP19 conference in Poland in November. Creative Commons: UNFCCC, 2013

As climate talks in Bonn draw to a close, NGOs have called on governments to up their game before the year’s end by agreeing on a 2014 deadline for new country pledges to cut carbon pollution.

Civil society groups gathered for the latest round of preparatory UN climate talks have reacted to a mixed outcome by raising expectations for the main event, which will be held in Warsaw, Poland this November.

The UNFCCC Secretariat has stressed that governments have taken steps forward in the negotiations this week, and UN Climate Chief Christiana Figueres said Bonn has provided an important opportunity for countries to share ideas.

She said:

This has been an important meeting because governments are moving faster now from the stage of exploring options to designing and implementing solutions. Governments are demonstrating increasingly broad support for this energy transformation.

While progress was made on developing ways to measure national climate commitments, NGOs argue that numbers have to be on the table in order to make this work.

Greenpeace said a deadline for getting commitments out in the open quickly is vital to remain on track towards an ambitious 2015 climate treaty.

Ruth Davies, Greenpeace UK, Political Advisor said:

We need a 2014 deadline for countries to put their emissions cuts on the table because we do not want a repeat of the disastrous Copenhagen summit where countries struggled to compare national climate action commitments at the last minute.

NGOs also called for loss and damage and finance to take a prominent role at November’s climate conference – with negotiations on these issues being held back by the standoff in one of the negotiating tracks.

They are pushing for a Financial Ministerial to take place alongside the November conference to strengthen climate finance flows and ensure that the pledges on the table remain attainable.

Brandon Wu, Senior Policy Analyst at ActionAid said:

International climate finance will be the beating heart at the centre of any international agreement – it will help poor and vulnerable communities deal with climate impacts, and it will drive the global clean energy transformation as well as any effective loss and damage mechanism. After these talks in Bonn, it’s clear that climate finance needs an urgent adrenalin shot.

Climate impacts were at the forefront of ministers’ minds during Bonn as governments were offered a strong reminder of the size of the task at hand.

Just outside the negotiations bubble, across much of Germany and Central Europe, towns and cities have been hit by a series of devastating floods over the last two weeks that forced tens of thousands of people to leave their homes and left at least a dozen people dead.

This week the credit rating agency Fitch warned that the damage in Germany alone could cost the insurance industry €3 billion, while the total cost of the flood damage in the country could be as high as €12 billion.

Meanwhile on the opposite side of the Atlantic, New York City’s Mayor, Michael Bloomberg announced a $20 billion plan to protect the city from the threat of future storms made more destructive because of climate change.

Such measures will include floodwalls, levees and gates as well as flood proofing for property owners and hospitals.

With climate change already impacting millions across the world, the Climate Action Tracker initiative also offered their own stark warnings to governments.

Its latest briefing found that current measures pledged by governments are inadequate, leaving the world on track for 4ºC warming by 2100.

With climate change already impacting millions across the world, this rise in temperatures could have devastating impacts for the planet and its people.

If countries continue to take steps towards stronger climate change, however, and increase the momentum from the talks in Bonn onto Warsaw and beyond, all may not be lost.

Calling for an “energy sector revolution”, experts say governments still have a chance to protect the world from runaway climate change and a global temperature rise beyond 2°C.

This week the International Energy Agency called for restrictions on the dirtiest coal plants, a crackdown on methane leaks from oil and gas production, a phase out of certain fossil fuel subsidies, and a major roll-out of targeted energy efficiency technologies.

Showing that the “revolution” is already getting underway, the global renewables industry reported that 2012 was the year with the second highest renewables investments so far.

They also said, however, that the industry needs stable policy in developed nations, so that it can keep growing, keep producing jobs and help solve the climate crisis.

As diplomats from across the world leave Germany this weekend and look ahead to Poland at the end of the year, NGOs are calling on them to heed these warnings from experts, provide a clear pathway forward to 2020, and help create the policy certainty needed globally to encourage low carbon investment.

Offshore wind turbines, Creative Commons: C.G.P. Grey, 2009

According to two new reports on the global status of renewable energy, the industry posted strong rates of investment and new installation in 2012, proving itself as more than an ‘alternative’ source of energy.

The world’s economies, however, continue to spend $6 subsidizing fossil fuels for every $1 spent to support the growth renewable energy.

Global Wind Day on Saturday, June 15th, is an opportunity to highlight this harmful disparity just ahead of the G8 summit in the UK. These major economies, as members of the G20, pledged in 2009 to ‘phase out and rationalise over the medium term inefficient fossil fuel subsidies while providing targeted support for the poorest’ – a much applauded decision that has yet to see significant follow-through.

Not only do these subsidies continue to sponsor the activities that cause climate change, but they work against the creation of stable government support for the renewable energy industry. The lack of reliable, long term support for renewables creates uncertainty that holds back the potential of the industry.

Despite uncertainty, however, the industry has achieved striking successes so far.

The promising trends seen in the industry were reported by two sister publications, REN21’s Renewables 2013 Global Status Report and Frankfurt School – UNEP/BNEF’s Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2013, launched together on June 12th, 2013.

The publications report that 2012 was the second highest year ever for renewable energy investments, totaling $1.3 trillion since 2006. Additionally, the installation of new renewable energy continues to grow, adding new, clean energy capacity both on and off the grid.

This growth isn’t limited to developed nations – in fact, developing nations are quickly rising to the top of this burgeoning industry. In 2012, renewable energy investments in developing nations totaled $112 billion, just shy of the $132 billion invested in developed nations. This is a dramatic shift from 2007, when developed nations invested 2.5 times more in the industry.

The sector employs an estimated 5.7 million people worldwide, with high rates of employment in Brazil, China, India, the EU, and the United States. Jobs are also growing in other nations, with an increasing number of technicians and sales staff in off-grid sectors of the developing world. In Bangladesh for example, selling, installing, and maintaining small solar panels employs 150,000 people directly and indirectly.

Amongst the good news, the publications point out that 2012 investment rates were down from their 2011 high. Examples of contributing factors to the decline include a 34% drop in the U.S. as well as similar decreases in Italy and Spain due to policy uncertainties.

In Japan, however, new feed-in tariffs for installations contributed to a 73% spike in renewable investment. Japan is now on track to the world’s largest solar market. In only seven months following the introduction of the tariffs, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry approved 12,258MW of solar projects.

Policy uncertainty led to an overall decline in investments – but as the success of Japan’s tariffs shows, the decline can be temporary. REN21’s report demonstrates that the right policies can drive the successful integration of larger shares of renewables.

Shifting policy priorities to bolster the growth of the renewable energy sector, not just for providing economic growth but also for advancing the clean solutions needed to fight climate change, is vital for the future. The first step in showing serious commitment to do so will be cutting down harmful fossil fuel subsidies.

Join the European Wind Energy Association in sending a message to the representatives at the G8 summit demanding that they lead the way in eliminating support for climate-change inducing fuels and breakdown the political barriers to greater clean energy growth.

Send the G8 a wake-up call! >>

Learn more about Global Wind Day>>

Feed-in-Tariffs have helped more people instal solar power in Japan. Creative Commons: 2008

Japan could be on course to become the world’s largest market for solar energy, just two years after the Fukushima power station melt down took virtually all of its nuclear fleet offline.

Analysts at Deutsche Bank suggest that Japan could take over the top spot for solar power within the next two years, while industry consultant IHS said that in revenue terms, Japan could overtake current leader Germany this year.

It expects to see sales of $20 billion of solar modules in 2013.

Following the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the government in Japan announced last year that it aimed phase out nuclear power by 2040.

Data released by the Japan Photovoltaic Energy Association on Friday showed that first quarter installations in Japan rose nearly three-fold to 3,809MW, helped by the introduction last July of above-market incentives in the form of feed in tariffs (FiTs).

Those FiTs, widely used around the world, were wound back in April from 37.8 yen (37.5 cents) per kilowatt hour from 42 yen, but according to Bloomberg is still more than twice those of China (1 yuan or 16c/kWh) and Germany (0.1082 Euro of 14c/kWh).

In the seven months from the introduction of the tariffs and the end of February, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry approved 12,258MW of solar projects – both residential and non-residential – at the higher tariff, and Deutsche Bank estimates that Japan will have an annualised “run rate” of up to 9,000MW.

The Deutsche Bank analysts said the tariffs had already had an impact on costs, with the total system costs for large-scale projects declining by nearly 30 per cent from 280 yen/watt in the last quarter of 2012 to as low as 200 yen/W now.

Read more: Renewable Economy >>

Petition calls on the UK government to give local people the same power to ban fracking as given over windfarms. Creative Commons: Daniel Foster, 2013

The UK’s Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles has recently announced his intention to introduce new planning guidance allowing local communities to block windfarms.

But giving local communities a veto on windfarms raises the question: will the same apply for those who oppose fracking?

While any move to increase local democracy should be welcomed, it currently appears that the government does not have the intention of granting the same powers to communities wanting to oppose shale gas.

Fracking – the process of extracting gas from rock such as shale – can be highly disruptive to nearby communities, poses a very significant threat to groundwater and human and animal health, is extremely energy-intensive and has huge implications for climate change.

Furthermore, even optimistic estimates suggest the UK has only enough shale gas to keep the country going for a few years.

Critics of shale gas say the latest move is another clear example of the present government’s relentless pursuit of gas, and its ambivalence towards renewable energy; the announcement has come just days after the government voted against introducing stringent new targets to decarbonise our electricity supply by 2030.

Chancellor George Osborne is determined to bet the UK’s energy future on a shale gas boom. Yet giving communities in Sussex, Lancashire and beyond the same veto would kill the already tiny chance that the US fracking revolution can be repeated in the UK.

A petition, set up by campaigning group 38 Degrees, aims to urge Pickles to give local communities equal power to block fracking projects and send a clear message that vested interests cannot influence planning policy.

Sign the petition >>

Diplomats continue to meet for discussions in Bonn as the week draws to a close. Creative Commons: Adopt a Negotiator, 2013

Day 10 at the Bonn Climate Change Conference

The track of negotiations focused on a 2015 deal and near-term climate action – or the ‘ADP,’ as we say in Bonn – closed today on a positive note with countries acknowledging the usefulness of the roundtable and workshop discussions from both a substantive and ‘cooperative spirit’ perspective. In fact, government negotiators from across the political spectrum shared glowing descriptions of their ADP efforts in today’s IISD video round-up. Everyone acknowledged that it is time to move to putting concrete proposals on the table in Warsaw for both achieving the 2015 climate deal and ramping up near-term climate action before that deal takes effect.

The Polish Government is saying all the right things at this point about making finance one of the key priorities of COP 19 and we think it is a FAB idea to invite Finance Ministers to come to the COP in Warsaw. The Green Climate Fund was established in Cancun in 2010, it well past the time to develop the roadmap to long term funding that was promised in Copenhagen and shore up woefully inadequate medium term funding.

Our friends at the Climate Action Network had a standing room only audience for their side event on equity frameworks! It’s a geeky crowd, but they have good taste. Congratulations to CAN and all GCCA partners who worked hard to take equity frameworks from concept to hallway conversations to the floor of the negotiations in Bonn. There is still a long way to go – but without equity, we won’t get the level of ambition that science demands or that people deserve. We need both.

YOUNGO is ensuring delegates fly home from Bonn with Intergenerational Justice on their brains and in their consciousness. The UK Youth Climate Coalition published great pics.

YOUNGO also pressed the idea of intergenerational justice in a conversation with Ban Ki-Moon today. After asking the UN Secretary General how youth could best contribute to efforts to secure a 2015 deal and near-term climate action, he was unequivocal in suggesting they should challenge their governments, change their consumption patters and push companies to protect the future from climate change. Watch the full exchange here.

Friday is the last day of negotiations. Our partners will give their closing press conference at 14:30 CEST. Tune in live and get the final word from Greenpeace, WWF Poland, and Beijing’s Greenovation Hub.

This week, several groups are publicly demanding that President Obama take ambitious climate action by doubling down on one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions: new and existing fossil fuel power plants. The pressure on President Obama to align his actions with his words on climate change is ramping up.

Thursday, U.S. Senators from states hit by Hurricane Sandy sent a letter to the President calling on him to set limits on carbon pollution from power plants. The letter, signed by U.S. Senators Menendez (New Jersey), Schumer (New York), Gillibrand (New York), Blumenthal (Connecticut) and Murphy (Connecticut) described the devastation that Hurricane Sandy caused in their states and pressured him to act quickly to regulate one of the leading causes of climate change.

From the letter:

Superstorm Sandy, and the possibility of even more devastating storms in the future, clearly demonstrates the urgency of squarely addressing the causes of climate change and its effects. … Confronting this crisis will help protect our communities from the increasing costs of climate change – not just the financial cost of rebuilding after extreme weather, but the human cost of putting families and communities back together in the wake of these tragedies.

This week, NRDC launched a new campaign asking President Obama, “How much longer for climate action?” expressing widespread frustration that he has failed to follow through with his bold statements on climate change at his inauguration and again at his 2013 State of the Union address. The campaign features NRDC Trustee and spokesperson Robert Redford, who aired a commercial calling on Obama to have “the courage of his convictions” to act on climate change.

NRDC, like the group of Senators, is also urging ambitious action to slash emissions from power plants. In the words of Frances Beinecke, President of NRDC,

The good news is President Obama can start making big reductions in global warming pollution today. Under the Clean Air Act, the Environmental Protection Agency can set standards to curb carbon pollution from its largest source—coal-fired power plants. Even while Congress remains paralyzed, the president can move forward and reduce carbon pollution by 26 percent and generate up to $60 billion in public health and climate benefits by 2020.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed limits on carbon pollution from new power plants last year, and 3.2 million Americans commented in support of the standards, but the administration has yet to finalize the standards—or propose limits on carbon pollution from existing power plants. According to the World Resources Institute, power plants are one of the top opportunities for substantial greenhouse gas reductions between now and 2035, and their regulation does not require approval from Congress.

Without new action by the U.S. Administration, greenhouse gas emissions will increase over time. The United States will fail to make the deep emissions reductions needed in coming decades, and will not meet its international commitment to reduce emissions by 17% below 2005 levels by 2020.

Scientists have warned that global warming is helping to intensify extreme weather events like Hurricane Sandy, and will lead to even more extreme weather in the future. In New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, 97% of people live in areas hit by at least one weather-related disaster in the last six years.

repowermap.org

Have you installed a solar energy system, a geothermal heatpump, or other renewable systems yourself? Or have you insulated your building to make it more energy efficient?

Add your example to the repowermap.org map to make it visible and inspire others to take action as well.

Run by a broad network of organisations, local and regional authorities and other energy actors, the map aims to encourage people to follow the example of their neighbourhood for using renewable energy and energy efficiency.

The repowermap.org initiative allows people to show off the local action they have taken to contribute to climate protection, and the accompanying information is aimed at helping people take the first steps to renewable energy projects.

Since 2008, over 13,000 projects have been mapped across Europe.

Add your renewable energy project >>

50 protesters from around 30 groups gathered to met Stephen Harper outside the UK Parliament. Creative Commons: 2013

Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper was met in London today by tar sands protesters as he attempted to deliver a prestigious speech to the UK Parliament

With toxic water seeping into Canadian soil, Harper travelled to London, where he was given privileged access to British MPs from both Houses of Parliament in a last ditch attempt to get the UK to support Canadian tar sands oil in Europe.

But he was greeted by three separate anti-tar sands protests both outside and inside Parliament.

Outside on Parliament Square, 50 campaigners representing 30 environmental groups used banners, placards and chants to make their voices heard. One protester was dressed as Senate Page Brigette DePape who was fired after holding a “Stop Harper” sign on the Canadian Senate floor in 2011.

Meanwhile, in a separate protest two activists from a group calling themselves “Love Canada, Hate Tar Sands”(LCHTS) attempted to block the Sovereign’s Entrance Gate to the room where Harper was speaking.

They poured “oil” on themselves and their anti-tar sands shouts were heard inside the room as Harper stood up to begin his address. At the same time, three more activists from LCHTS entered the Parliament building and scaled the roof, in an attempt to get to where Harper was speaking. They livestreamed their protest for some time until being removed by security.

Jess Worth, from UK Tar Sands Network, said:

Today’s multiple protests demonstrate just how strongly people in the UK feel about the Harper government’s attempts to force their dirty tar sands oil onto Europe. This is part of an unstoppable global movement of resistance to tar sands extraction, expansion and pipelines.

The science is clear: to have a chance of avoiding runaway climate change, we need to leave unconventional fossil fuels in the ground. It’s time the Harper government accepted this fact and stopped putting the interests of Big Oil above all our collective futures.

Some MPs voiced their own concerns over the catastrophic impacts of tar sands, tabling a motion calling on the UK government to back proposed EU rules that will discourage future imports of this oil into the trading bloc.

Caroline Lucas, MP who tabled the Early Day Motion said:

Tar sands oil is one of the dirtiest, most polluting fuels out there and the extraction process causes environmental destruction an almost unimaginable scale. Indigenous communities in Canada and elsewhere are now speaking out about the human and ecological rights violations and economic devastation being inflicted by companies like Shell who are hell-bent on extracting tar sands at any cost.

David Cameron must make it clear to the Canadian Prime Minister during his visit to the UK that such dirty fuels have no place in the UK or Europe, and UK Ministers must commit to supporting proposals to label tar sands oil as more carbon intensive than other fuels through the EU Fuel Quality Directive.

The widespread, transatlantic opposition to the expansion of Canada’s dirty energy infrastructure appears validated by news of a huge spill of 9.5 million litres of toxic waste from an oil and gas operation in northern Alberta.

Harper has further meetings planned with the British Prime Minister David Cameron, French Ministers and US President Barack Obama, where activists fear he will continue to spread disinformation in order to build support for pipeline construction and the development of overseas markets for tar sands oil.

He is the latest in a string of top Canadian politicians to come to Europe, with the aim of lobbying against a piece of EU climate legislation (the Fuel Quality Directive) which could label the tar sands as more polluting than conventional oil and discourage its future import, closing off Europe as a desperately-needed potential market.

Tar sands oil is considered to be responsible for a higher proportion of carbon emissions than other sources of oil and has come under intense criticism for its contribution to climate change.

Critics also say the industry is ignoring a range of problems including health impacts on First Nations communities, environmental degradation associated with toxic tailing ponds, health impacts on regional wildlife, high levels of water use and water contamination and widespread loss of land.

Protests against the KXL, Creative Commons: National Wildlife Federation, 2011

CREDO, Rainforest Action Network and the Other 98% have announced their first planned act of civil disobedience as part of the Pledge of Resistance to the Keystone XL pipeline. On Monday, June 17th, citizens will participate in a sit in and risk arrest at the State Department office in downtown Chicago, IL. This sit in will kick off a summer of hundreds of volunteer-led, grassroots actions ready to be deployed at strategic targets around the country to demand that President Obama reject the pipeline.

So far, over 62,000 people have signed the coalition’s Pledge of Resistance to risk arrest in peaceful, dignified civil disobedience if President Obama’s administration issues a draft National Interest Determination in favor of the Keystone XL pipeline. A decision is expected in the Fall of 2013.

The groups also launched NoKXL.org as the online hub where they will provide resources to activists who have signed the pledge, along with other ways activists can get involved to stop the Keystone XL pipeline.

Participants in the first action will protest Monday outside of the State Department, the agency currently engaged in finalizing the environmental impact statement of the Keystone XL, a process that has been wrought with conflict of interest and insufficient science.

Locating the action in Chicago is notable because it is President Obama’s hometown. In the words of Becky Bond, CREDO’s Political Director:

Many of President Obama’s best supporters have pledged to risk arrest to stop Keystone XL and next week’s action in Chicago is a preview of what’s to come if his State Department recommends approval of the pipeline. The people who knocked on doors, donated to his campaign and helped put him in the White House are watching to see if President Obama will side with a foreign oil company or keep his promise and take real action to fight climate change, starting with rejecting Keystone XL. The president said in his State of the Union speech ‘If Congress won’t act soon to protect future generations, I will.’ We’re taking action to hold him to that promise.

The coalition will train 1,000 activists to lead civil disobedience actions in their communities, at State Department Offices, federal buildings and other strategic targets. In order to train these local action leaders, the groups announced that they will run regional weekend trainings in 25 cities nationwide throughout July. These trained activists will go on to organize and prepare the thousands of pledgers to take part in hundreds of local actions across the country in the months leading up to President Obama’s decision.

Take action to stop the toxic KXL pipeline!

Pledge to resist the KXL >>

Scientists warn that climate change could increase the frequency of flooding at many of the world’s biggest rivers. Creative Commons: 2008

Climate change could see calamitous floods usually considered once-in-a-century events come around every 10 years or so by the end of the 21^st century, according to a Japanese-led scientific study.

The report, published in Nature Climate Change, found that climate change will likely worsen floods on rivers such as the Ganges, the Nile and the Amazon this century, while other rivers, including the now inundated Danube, may be less prone.

Over the last two weeks much of Central and Eastern Europe has experienced flooding which has left tens of thousands of people forced to leave their homes and at least a dozen people dead.

Credit rating agency, Fitch has this week warned the damage in Germany alone could cost the insurance industry €3 billion, while the total cost of the flood damage in the country could be as high as €12 billion.

The European Environment Agency has used the floods to further strengthen their call for greater adaptation across the continent.

The latest study found that overall large increases in flood frequency are expected in South-East Asia, central Africa and much of South America.

The researchers said severe floods would happen more often on most of the 29 rivers reviewed in detail including the Yangtze, the Mekong and the Ganges in Asia, the Niger, the Congo and the Nile in Africa and the Amazon and Parana in Latin America.

The Rhine in Europe is also expected to see an increase in the frequency of flooding.

A handful of other river basins including the Mississippi in the US and the Euphrates in the Middle East are expected to see a decrease in risk of flooding and the scientists warn that there are wide bands of uncertainty.

Experts have struggled to predict how individual rivers will react to climate change. The most recent assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said there was a “low confidence” in projecting changes in flood risk due to regional complexity.

But climate scientists believe, overall, rising temperatures will increase the risk of floods as warmer air can absorb more moisture and so cause more rain. Change in wind and other factors could leave some areas getting wetter, while others get drier.

Over the last three decades, floods have claimed around 200,000 lives and caused around $400 billion in economic damage. They have also cost an estimated three billion people their homes, farms, businesses and livestock.

The latest findings will help go some way to countries preparing for deluges, say the researchers. Flood barriers, building bans on flood plains and flood resistant crops could all help limit the impacts.

Courtesy of: Bob Ward

Reposted from Eco-Business and authored by Bob Ward. 

Governments around the world have just received one of the most important scientific reports ever written. It provides the starkest assessment yet of how the earth’s climate is responding to rising levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and creating risks for billions of people from extreme weather events and rising sea levels.

A confidential draft of the new report on the causes and consequences of global warming was sent to governments to review on June 7, ahead of the publication of the final version this autumn. Compiled for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change by 255 scientific experts from universities and research institutes in 38 countries, the report (which later leaked) provides an up-to-date overview of the findings of thousands of recent peer-reviewed research papers.

Most important, the latest IPCC report – part of its fifth comprehensive assessment in its 25-year history – includes an analysis of new computer projections of how global warming might develop by the end of the century. The initial results show that, at current rates of emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, average global temperature could be at least three degrees centigrade higher by the end of this century than it was before the onset of the Industrial Revolution and widespread burning of fossil fuels.

At a United Nations summit in 2010, governments agreed that emissions should be reduced sharply in order to limit global warming to two degrees centigrade by the end of this century. So the new IPCC report is likely to increase pressure on world leaders ahead of another UN meeting in 2015 to conclude a new international treaty on climate change, including legally binding emissions cuts.

Among the major issues that have been covered by recent research – and that are addressed in the IPCC report – are current trends in greenhouse-gas concentrations and global temperatures. The scientific literature indicates that the level of atmospheric CO2 today is about 40% higher than the pre-industrial level. It is at its highest since the Pliocene Epoch about three million years ago, when the planet was 2-3 degrees centigrade warmer, the polar ice caps were much smaller, and the global sea level was about 20 meters higher.

Meanwhile, global surface temperature has already risen by about 0.8 degrees centigrade. Although the rate of increase has been lower over the past 15 years than it was before, nearly all climate scientists believe that the slowdown is temporary, and that warming will accelerate again in the near future.

Governments will negotiate a summary of the new IPCC report line by line at a special meeting in Stockholm at the end of September, with the main report to be published shortly thereafter. Two more major reports – focusing on the challenges of adapting to the effects of climate change and how to mitigate the worst potential consequences through emissions cuts – will follow next year. Together with a synthesis of the main conclusions, they will complete the fifth assessment.

The IPCC, established by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Program, has provided policymakers with authoritative information concerning the state of knowledge about climate change since 1988. Its last comprehensive assessment, in 2007, concluded that global warming over the previous 50 years had been “unequivocal,” and that there was a 90% chance that most of it was caused by human activity, such as the burning of fossil fuels.

But the IPCC also attracted controversy when it admitted in 2010 that a volume on the consequences of climate change erroneously suggested that, at current rates of melting, all of the glaciers in the Himalayas would disappear by 2035, rather than within a few centuries.

This small but significant mistake prompted an invitation from the IPCC to the world’s leading national science academies to review its procedures.

As a result of the academies’ recommendations, the IPCC tightened its review methods, created a new process for correcting possible mistakes in future reports, and introduced a more explicit policy for dealing with potential conflicts of interest among authors.

Opponents of the IPCC have unsuccessfully attempted to undermine the new report by selectively leaking earlier versions. They have quoted sections out of context in order to create a misleading impression of its contents, falsely claiming that research shows that cosmic rays from outer space are responsible for global warming.

Nevertheless, governments and the public can be confident that the report will be the most reliable scientific assessment of climate change that has ever been produced. Most critically, it will allow people to read for themselves the authoritative verdict of the world’s scientific community on the evidence for climate change. Citizens can then judge the effectiveness of efforts to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions – and decide whether their governments are doing enough to manage the risks posed by climate change.

Bob Ward is Policy Director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science. 

Young people at the Bonn Climate Talks have called for diplomats to focus on intergenerational equity. Creative Commons: Tariq Al-Olaimy/Adopt a Negotiator, 2013

Reposted from the Adopt-a-Negotiator website and authored by Tariq Al-Olaimy. 

At a press briefing earlier this morning, YOUNGO, the UN youth constituency at the climate talks,  spoke of their belief that Intergenerational Equity and therefore the primary objective of the climate negotiations is currently threatened by a pathological lack of ambition and blame shifting between countries.

Future generations are the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.  Accordingly any idea of the ‘dangerous impacts of anthropogenic climate change’ should be measured by how it will affect our children.  With the atmospheric concentration of CO2 reaching 400 parts per million just a few weeks ago, it is easy to imagine that current decision makers simply do not care about future generations.  Worryingly, the current negotiations for a 2015 agreement have been stuck on the issue of equity with little to no discussion of Intergenerational Equity.  This has to change.

Youth at the UN Climate talks have put forward a number of concrete ways to help halt the rise of atmospheric CO2 and ensure that we limbo below 1.5 degrees of warming and ensure the safety of future generations:

1.   The ADP agreement must include the principle of “Intergenerational Equity” within the preamble of the negotiating text and an Arbiter to help operationalize the principles of the convention, including Intergenerational Equity.  We call upon parties to undertake a workshop at COP19 to discuss Intergenerational Equity and ways of institutionalising and operationalizing this principle within the ADP.

2.   All countries need to drastically increase their mitigation ambition by raising their targets including moving to the upper bracket for ‘conditional’ targets.  This should be supported by the phasing out of fossil fuel subsidies by 2020 (production subsidies in non-Annex I countries and both production and consumption subsidies in Annex I).

YOUNGO believe that if their ideas are not integrated into the work of negotiations, and ambition heightened, then the tug of war between the interests of developing and developed countries could cut away any chance of Intergenerational Equity in a warmer world.

Negotiations are the UN Climate Talks are beginning to wrap up before its close on Friday. Creative Commons: Adopt a Negotiator, 2013

Day 9 of the Bonn Climate Change Conference

The two remaining tracks of negotiations – SBSTA and ADP – are moving into wrap-up mode with delegates now looking toward Warsaw. There is no shortage of pressing agenda items to cover. This was underscored by Climate Action Tracker’s latest updated report released on Wednesday, showing that governments are less likely than ever to deliver on the Copenhagen pledges, let alone keep global warming below 2degC. According to report author Bill Hare, “If Governments don’t take any further action, we are already facing a 40% chance of warming exceeding 4°C by 2100 and a 10% chance of it exceeding 5°C in the same period.” The only good news on mitigation was from the smallest and most vulnerable countries, such as the Marshall Islands and a group of Caribbean nations, all of which are moving toward renewable energy faster than other nations.

AOSIS Ambassador Marlene Moses sets out a reasonable proposal with timelines for countries between now and when they arrive in Warsaw. Without additional negotiating sessions, national capacity can be spent on preparing to make these commitments in energy efficiency and renewable energy (and climate finance) later this fall.

Keeping the SBI stalemate in perspective, Greenpeace’s Ruth Davis has an excellent piece in RTCC suggesting that difficult negotiations are evidence that leaders are paying attention. Essential reading for weary climate campaigners.

The REN 21 Renewables 2013 Global Status Report

The REN 21 Renewables 2013 Global Status Report was released today with information that “Investments went down in 2012 mostly due to a sharp drop in solar prices, however In terms of power generation capacity, 2012 was another record year with 115 GW of new renewables installed worldwide, equivalent to just over half of total net additions”

Some head turning stats:

• In China, wind power generation increased more than that from coal and passed nuclear power output for the first time.
• In the European Union, renewables accounted for almost 70% of additions to electric capacity in 2012, coming predominately from solar PV and wind power. In 2011 (the latest data available), renewables met 20.6% of the region’s electricity consumption and 13.4% of gross final energy consumption.
• The United States added more capacity from wind power than any other technology, and all renewables made up about half of total electric capacity additions over the year. However, the, investment was down 34% to $36 billion, mainly due to uncertainties over US policy.

“YOUNGO CALLING”

This is not a new version of The Clash’s classic “London Calling” album, but rather a YOUNGO-Ban Ki Moon chat. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will host a meeting with YOUNGO, the official youth constituency to The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The virtual call between New York and Bonn will take place this Thursday, 13 June,18:30-18:45 CET, and participants will be able to tune in through webcast and can engage on twitter using the #TellBanKiMoon hashtag to send their messages and ideas to the Secretary General on issues related to youth, climate change and intergenerational equity.

Throughout the current round of climate negotiations, YOUNGO have pushed government negotiators to institutionalise the principle of intergenerational equity within the proposed 2015 climate change agreement. The Adopt a Negotiator site has the details.

‘It’s my generation’s responsibility to fight climate change’

Wael Hmaidan – Director of the Climate Action Network-International – in an interview with Duetsche Welle reminds us that even the smallest breakthrough in climate negotiations can be measured in lives saved.

Air conditioning units line a street in Hong Kong. Creative Commons: Niall Kennedy, 2008

Over the weekend, U.S. President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping made a negotiating breakthrough by agreeing to a joint phaseout of a short-lived yet powerful greenhouse gas, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).

By proving their willingness to compromise on HFCs, these two political powerhouses may be paving a pathway towards cooperation on larger climate issues that have historically divided them. The agreement marks an important step forward in what have been long international political debates on regulating the causes of climate change.

HFCs, while a potent climate pollutant, are dwarfed in quantity by global release of carbon dioxide, the primary gas responsible for human-caused climate change.

The agreement is not trivial, however. The U.S. is the largest consumer of HFCs and China is the largest producer of HFCs. A phase-down agreement could cut the equivalent of 90 billion tons of carbon dioxide over the coming decades.

In the words of Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme:

Along with a variety of recent signals from several key countries including China and the United States, this one on HFCs by these two key economies is welcome as the world moves towards a universal UN treaty on climate change by 2015.

Part of the agreement between Obama and Jinping solved a procedural dispute on how to regulate HFCs that has long halted action. The U.S., along with Canada and Mexico, have historically supported regulating HFCs under the Montreal Protocol. China and India have opposed this amendment since 2009, favoring instead to regulate them under the UNFCCC process, since HFCs are greenhouse gases.

Under the current agreement between the U.S. and China, the institutions of the Montreal Protocol will be used to reduce HFC consumption and production, while emissions will be reported to the UNFCCC.

HFCs are gases created by chemical companies for use in refrigeration and air conditioning. They are a successor to chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), the gases first used in coolant technology. Nations agreed to sloweliminate use of CFCs under the Montreal Protocol, established in 1987, because they depleted the ozone layer.

HFC use around the world is increasing, especially in developing countries that are expanding their demand for refrigeration. Alternatives to HFCs include environmentally friendly natural refrigerants as well as HFOs, another fluorinated gas with unknown environmental consequences.

New report highlight the economic and social impacts of the health risks caused by coal power in Europe. Creative Commons: CEE Bankwatch Network, 2011

Air pollution from European coal power stations causes 22,300 premature deaths a year, according to a new study from Stuttgart University.

Commissioned by Greenpeace International, the report found another 2,700 people are expected to die prematurely each year if a new generation of 50 coal plants planned across the continent goes ahead.

It calls on the European Union to halt the development of these plants and to set a binding renewable target for 2030.

The analysis found that pollution from coal plants is now linked to more deaths than road traffic accidents across Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. In Germany and the UK the levels of deaths from coal power and road accidents are nearly level.

The health impacts of burning coal are also costing governments and companies from across Europe billions of pounds a year in disease treatment and loss of productivity.

Almost five million working days were lost in 2010 because of illnesses linked to pollution for coal plants, such as asthma and heart attacks.

Greenpeace International energy campaigner Lauri Myllyvirta said:

The results are staggering. The only way to eliminate the health impacts associated with burning coal in Europe is to phase out these dirty power plants and replace them with clean renewable energy.

The current EU renewable energy target has been proven to boost renewable energy and help modernise energy systems and the economy. Europe must continue down the path of clean renewable energy by setting an ambitious, binding 2030 renewable energy target.

Despite previous warnings from medical experts, who priced the total health costs of coal power at  €43 billion each year, the EU is moving forward with a new generation of dirty coal and lignite power plants.

To highlight the problem facing Europe, Greenpeace mapped all of these planned coal and lignite plants, as well as every plant currently in operation across the continent – along with its health impacts.

While Poland, Germany, Romania, Bulgaria and the UK were found to have the dirtiest coal plants, the report emphasises the cross-border threats of power stations, as fine particles, soot and dust travel between member states.

Earlier this month, local communities and green groups in Poland voiced their concerns about their government’s plans to increase its share of coal power, calling for a moratorium on coal and lignite expansion.

This coincided with a warning from experts that coal pollution could be responsible for 3,600 premature deaths in Poland alone.

Greenpeace is calling for the EU to halt new coal production and to adopt a strong target that would see renewable energy sources generate 45% of the bloc’s energy needs by 2030.

They say such a target would help create “sustainable clean power, thousands of new jobs and economic opportunities”.

They are also calling for the EU to adopt a strong emissions reduction target of 55% by 2030.

A new study provides an update of the latest research on ice sheets. Creative Commons: Dr Mike Goebel/NOAA, NMFS, SWFSC, Antarctic Marine Living Resources (AMLR)

A major new review of the latest research on ice sheets has provided an update about what scientists know about the world’s two biggest bodies of ice – the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.

Since the time of the last Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change report (AR4) in 2007, advanced monitoring and modelling of the ice sheets has helped scientists to build up a greater picture of the ice sheets’ contribution to sea level rise.

In 2007, the report suggested that the two ice sheets together were raising sea levels by about 0.42mm per year – about 15% of total sea level rise. The latest review, published in the journal Nature, found that over the next 10 years, the contribution could double to 0.82mm annually.

Scientists now have a greater amount of reliable data to help create these predictions – in 2007, they only has 10 years worth of sea level data – while advances in satellite techniques have helped to refine estimates.

In Greenland, loss of ice is adding about 0.7 mm to sea levels each year. Surface melting reached record levels in the past few years, but Greenland is also losing chunks of solid ice too. Glaciers and ice flows are transporting more ice from the heart of the ice sheet out to sea where it floats, displacing water and forcing sea levels up.

It’s likely the Greenland ice sheet will drive more sea level rise in the future too, the article says. Although climate models predict more snow will fall over Greenland, those gains are likely to be outpaced by losses from melting and shedding.

The article highlights processes which might amplify ice loss from the ice sheet. For example, both the loss of nearby Arctic sea ice and melting on the surface of the ice sheet reduce the amount of sunlight reflected. Instead, that heat is absorbed, raising surface temperatures.

At the other end of the planet, the picture is a little less clear. But overall, data indicates the Antarctic ice sheet is losing mass. The review suggests Antarctica is adding a more modest 0.2 mm per year to sea levels.

But different parts of the ice sheet are changing in different ways. The Antarctic Peninsula and West Antarctica is losing solid ice, as huge bodies of ice acting as buttresses to ice flows break up under rising temperatures. But the picture in East Antarctica is somewhat different – here the ice sheet is growing thanks to an increase in snowfall.

Read more: Carbon Brief >>

The ILO will put sustainability and environmental issues at the centre of its conference to support workers across industries as they look to green their businesses. Creative Commons: 2010

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) is set to address environmental and sustainability issues as it meets for the 102^nd Session of the International Labour Conference in Geneva this month.

Running from 5^th to 20^th June, this year’s conference will put the issues of sustainability and green jobs on the top of the agenda for discussion by ILO constituents; workers, employers and governments.

It is the first time the topic has featured on the conference’s agenda since 1990 when the Director-General presented a report on “Environment and the World of Work” and a resolution was adopted by constituents concerning environment, development, employment and the role of the ILO.

The resolution remains broadly relevant but the ILO acknowledge the need to re-address the issues. The extent of the challenges, the knowledge on the issues and the political resolve to act have all increased dramatically over the last three decades.

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) – who will be attending the conference – aim to show how the world of work is at the forefront of the challenges arising from environmental degradation.

They will call for a strategy to be developed to shift from current unsustainable models of production to more sustainable ones and ensure environmental sustainability while at the same time realising decent work for all.

In their briefing document for the event the ITUC set out key questions to be discussed at the conference:

• How do the current environmental problems – including climate change, water scarcity, biodiversity loss and deforestation – affect the world of work?

• What are a main opportunities to advance decent work for all in the shift to environmental sustainability?

• What challenges will the world of work face in implementing environmental sustainability?

• What can be learned from previous transitions and their impacts for the new transition to sustainable development?

• What policies and intuitions will be needed to manage these challenges and promote green and decent jobs and the ‘greening’ of all enterprises?

• What should the ILO’s priorities be to help assist constituents to capitalise on the opportunities presented by the transition to environmental sustainability?

Read more: ITUC briefing paper >>

700,000 people in Ghana are facing food insecurity because of climate change, according to a new survey. Creative Commons: Neil Palmer, CIAT, 2010

700,000 people in Ghana are at risk of hunger as climate change takes it toll on the country’s food security, according to a survey from the World Food Programme.

The survey found that 16% of households – representing 680,000 people – in the north of the country, are either severely or moderately food insecure due to increases in drought, storms and flooding because of climate change.

Experts say the development and promotion of disease and pest tolerant crop varieties; the development of Phosphorous efficient and Nitrogen fixing crop varieties, such as cowpea and soybean; and improved farming systems could all help address the threats facing households in Ghana.

“Severe warming, floods and drought may reduce crop yields. Livestock may be at risk, both directly from heat stress and indirectly from reduced quality of their food supply, while fisheries would be affected by changes in water temperature,” Hans Adu-Dapaah, director of the Crop Research Institute (CRI), told IANS.

He said evidence of climate change in Ghana was that the mean annual temperature had increased by one degree Celsius since 1960, on an average rate of 0.21 degree Celsius per decade.

Adu-Dapaah said total annual rainfall in Ghana has shown a decreasing trend between 1960 and 2006, with an average of 2.3 mm per month per decade, adding that the long term trends were difficult to identify because annual rainfall in Ghana was highly variable on inter-annual and inter-decadal timescales.

Adu-Dapaah said the impact of climate change was increasingly becoming severe and that long-term projections indicated crop yields could fall by up to 50 percent by 2020 and net revenues from crops could drop by as much as 90 percent by 2100.

Read more: IANS >>

On Friday the Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB), the Alberta government’s industry regulator, released a report stating that tar sands companies have failed to comply with pre-existing agreements to limit the amount of water used in tar sands extraction and processing as well as the amount of polluted water that ends up in the region’s growing toxic tailings ponds.

The release of the report coincides with massive floods near Fort McMurray, wreaking havoc on the city’s infrastructure. Since Friday the region has seen between 80 and 180mm of precipitation. Major highways have been closed, roads have been partially washed out, buildings flooded and homes evacuated. The city of Fort McMurray officially declared a state of emergency today, while unseasonably high temperatures prompt snow melt and rain is forecast to continue throughout the week.

Share this graphic on Facebook: http://is.gd/JQjCA0

The immediate question is apparent: what threat does the flooding pose to the massive tailings ponds lining the Athabasca River and the millions of litres of toxic contaminants they contain?

Read more: DeSmog Canada >>

Youth activists show their frustration over the work Russia effectively blocked from seeing progress. Creative Commons: Tariq Al-Olaimy/Adopt a Negotiator, 2013

Day 8 of the Bonn Climate Change Conference

“It’s a most unfortunate situation”

Indeed it is. These were the words of UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres today commenting on the reality that SBI will not make any progress in Bonn.

If you have followed the Daily Tck since Day 1 of this Intersessional you will know that Russia blocked the adoption of the SBI agenda. This was ostensibly done because they wanted SBI add the UNFCCC rules of procedure to that agenda before diving into substance. Now, however, after 7 days of blocking substance, many are wondering how much of this protest was actually about the SBI agenda and how much is about retribution for what Russia considered unfair treatment in Doha when their objections to amendments to the Kyoto Protocol were ignored.

Adopt a Negotiator has coverage of the CAN / YOUNGO action outside the Maritim this morning, where many of our partners expressed their frustration over the work Russia effectively blocked from seeing progress in SBI – climate finance, loss and damage, NAMAs (UNFCCCese for national mitigation efforts), and more.

Poland hosts COP 19 briefing for Bonn delegates

Poland hosted a briefing on their priorities for the Warsaw climate summit (COP19) at the end of the year; which was an opportunity to allay concerns and skepticism over their intentions. However, their emphasis the importance of business involvement, and their host role being that of a representative of the Eastern European Group rather than the European Union did little to build confidence among our partners. Even business interests would have a hard time arguing the UNFCCC has been lacking for business involvement!

NGOs highlighted the need for leadership through domestic policy as an important element of any COP host’s duties, but the Polish representatives chose not respond. Hardly surprising when just last week Polish President Donald Tusk announced the government was going to revive the mega coal plants that investors deemed too risky to build last April.

On a more positive note, Poland announced they would work with the COP20 and COP21 hosts as a troika – giving us a better shot at ensuring Warsaw delivers what’s needed.

Banking ADP progress this week

The delays at SBI notwithstanding, we’re hearing that the ADP track of negotiations – which focuses on the 2015 treaty and near-term climate action – will not formally close at the end of this session. Instead they will simply continue their work at COP19. One less potential fight over the agenda is good news – allowing negotiators to maximize the few days of negotiations available.

COP 20 announced for Peru, Venezuela promises an ‘innovative’ pre-COP

Peru announced that it plans to host the 2014 Conferene of Parties (COP20). This puts a country actively wrestling with the effects of climate change in the host seat for what we expect will be a crucial meeting on the way to a 2015 climate deal. Venezuela will host a pre-COP ministerial. Of the two countries making announcements about future meetings, Venezuela’s caught our eye:

“As an innovation, Venezuela has proposed that this meeting allows the peoples of the world and the organised society to express themselves and make contributions, something unusual in these UN forums, where the civil society participation has been limited to brief statements as observers in plenary sessions, not having access to core discussions of the negotiations and with no possibility of raising their proposals directly to the Convention.”

New Global Wind Day app aims to give people the chance to call on their country’s leaders to ditch fossil fuels and focus on renewables. Creative Commons: Jeff Hayes, 2008

By Tom Rowe, reposted from ewea.org

The global temperature is rising. Freak weather events are multiplying. Climate change is happening.

And yet governments are giving $6 to polluting fossil fuels for every $1 dollar that goes to clean renewables.

World leaders must move now to renewable, clean energy sources like wind energy.  And with the new app for Global Wind Day (15th June) you can tell them to do it and why.

On 17 and 18 June, leaders of the governments of the world’s eight wealthiest countries are meeting in the UK. The leaders of these countries, such as Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel and François Hollande, are ultimately responsible for the continuing and growing support for dirty fossil fuels given by their governments.

Such subsidies are up nearly 30% from 2010 to $523bn in 2011 (IEA, 2012) compared to $88bn for renewables.

Before this upcoming G8 meeting, you can personally send the leader of your choice a message. Login to Facebook and use the Global Wind Day app to directly message one of the G8 leaders, with your choice of image and text.

It’s easy, fun, fast and effective – the app will allow you to show how you feel about the world’s most powerful countries continuing support of climate-change inducing fuels.

You’ll be joining a growing movement around the world that is calling for the removal of aid for polluting fuels.

Read more: ewea.org >>

Download the app >>

Flooding in New York after Hurricane Sandy, Creative Commons: 2012

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has proposed a $20 billion plan to protect the city from the threat of future storms made more destructive because of climate change.

The plan includes building floodwalls, levees, and gates, as well as funding greater flood-proofing measures for property owners and hospitals.

This announcement follows new, expanded warnings about New York City’s vulnerability to climate change released by the Bloomberg administration on June 10th.

Based on new maps released by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), city officials estimate that 398,000 New Yorkers currently live in the 100-year flood plain, and by 2050 that number will rise to  800,000.

The $20 billion pales in comparison to the nearly $100 billion spent by the U.S. federal government in 2012 on disaster relief after a year of exceptional drought, floods, fires, and storms. The UN reports that these disaster costs will only escalate in the coming years.

It is one of the most ambitious projects ever proposed for defending a major U.S. city from the rising seas and severe weather that climate change is expected to bring. It was outlined seven months after Superstorm Sandy drove home the danger by swamping lower Manhattan and smashing homes and businesses in other shoreline neighborhoods.

“This is urgent work, and it must begin now,” Bloomberg said in a speech at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, acknowledging that much of the work would extend beyond the end of his term this year. “Piece by piece, over many years and even decades, we can build a city that’s capable of preparing better, withstanding more and overcoming anything.”

It remains to be seen how the ideas will fare in a future mayoral administration and what kind of support — financial and otherwise — they might get from the federal government and other entities, not to mention from New Yorkers themselves.

Read more: Washington Post>>

Diplomats meeting in Bonn. Creative Commons: Adopt a Negotiator, 2013

Content and interviews by Sébastien Duyck, reposted from Adopt a Negotiator. For news and insights on international climate talks, follow Adopt a Negotiator. 

The first week of the June 2013 Bonn climate talks concluded with very mixed results, with some negotiations moving forward positively while others have been completely stalled. The next days will be crucial for a succesful outcome this year as there will be no additional session between the end of the week and the opening of the annual climate conference in Warsaw where decisions have to be made. To summarize the past six days of negotiations and to map expectations in relation to the coming few days, we have asked NGOs experts to give us brief introductions to the state of play of the discussions related to the issue that they are following most closely…

The striking lesson from this first week of negotiations is that the three negotiating tracks progress at very different paces. Mark Lutes (WWF) gives us a brief overview on where the negotiations stand in relation to each of the three tracks currently ongoing in Bonn.

The negotiations around finance will be an important key to the success of the discussions towards a 2015 global deal as the capacity of developed countries to deliver on their engagements has the potential to increase trust between developed and developing countries as well as to enable the latter to scale up their climate policies. Meera Ghani (CAN-Europe):

Adaptation is another important element of the negotiations towards the 2015 agreement, although countries have not yet clarified which role should this issue play in relation to the future package agreement. Sven Harmeling (GermanWatch) also emphasizes the negative impact of the agenda dispute in the SBI track on the negotiations related to “loss and damage.”

Many observers had highlighted the progress of discussions on equity as one of the major outcome of the previous negotiations round. Julie-Anne Richards (CAN-International) confirms that the past week built on this positive dynamics as countries further discussed the role of equity to define obligations under the future agreement.

Finally, Jan Kowalzig (Oxfam-International) emphasizes the upcoming steps for countries to increase ambition on mitigation actions in the short term. Mitigation action is certainly the corner stone of the negotiations under the Durban platform both in relation to both short term actions and post 2020 commitments.

Mexican President Pena Nieto, pictured at the World Economic Forum on Latin America 2013. Creative Commons: WEF, 2013

During National Environmental Week in Mexico last week, President Enrique Peña Nieto presented the National Climate Change Strategy, which lays out a domestic plan for reducing emissions and promoting resilience.

In 2012, Mexico became the second nation to enact national climate change legislation. It also saw a 595% increase in domestic clean energy investments in 2012, up to $1.9 billion, showing important progress on its climate ambitions.

President Peña Nieto said that the plan was based on eight axes of action, as well as the basic goals of increasing research, promotion of environmental issues and international cooperation.

The eight axes are:

• Reducing vulnerability to climate change;
• Decreasing the vulnerability of production systems;
• Increasing the capacity of ecosystems to adapt to the effects of climate change;
• Accelerating clean energy;
• Reducing energy consumption;
• Transitioning towards models of sustainable cities;
• Promoting better agriculture and forestry practices; and,
• Reducing emissions of short-life pollutants.

The government will gradually begin to remove subsidies for electricity and water, so that rates for these services reflect real costs, including the environmental damage involved in their provision, Peña said.

He said the federal government would require energy pricing that uses a life cycle analysis, taking into account emissions of greenhouse gases. There will still be compensatory measures for vulnerable groups, however, he said.

Read more: Ooska News>>

United airplane, Creative Commons: Peter Russell, 2007

United Airlines’ most loyal customers are demanding that the company be a leader by actively supporting strong climate action to cut aviation emissions.

Over 500 ‘premier status’ flyers, including billionaire investor Tom Steyer, have written to United calling on the company to stop being a major opponent to both U.S. and international climate action, just ahead of its annual shareholder meeting.

The Flying Clean campaign to cut airplane pollution and hold United accountable, which has also received more than 85,000 petition signatures from flyers, is taking off during the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) meetings this week in Montreal.  Governments meeting at ICAO this week are expected to discuss a global mechanism for regulating aviation emissions, which account for 5% of human-caused global warming.

United Airlines and the U.S. aviation industry have a history of obstructing agreement at ICAO. Several other nations and international airlines have shown support for an international emissions reduction plan. Again and again, however, U.S. airlines have opposed almost all serious efforts to regulate aviation climate pollution at the international, regional, or national levels.

Thousands of United’s customers are urging the company to support a strong agreement in ICAO to establish common-sense policies to curb airplane pollution that help avoid the worst impacts of climate change. They are asking United to align its actions with its ‘green’ public image and be an industry leader by supporting aviation emissions cuts.

As the only governing body that can pass a global plan to cut aviation emissions, ICAO has the power to make a big difference in the fight against climate change. This is both in the interest of the planet and the airline business. United Airlines lost more than $90 million in revenue because of Hurricane Sandy, and climate change will make similar extreme weather events more likely.

Aviation is a highly polluting industry that uses massive quantities of fossil fuels.  Aviation would be the seventh largest emitter of climate change pollution in the world if it were a country. International aviation, however, is not included in Kyoto Protocol goals and there is no international regulation of emissions. On top of this, the industry’s carbon dioxide emissions are expected to grow rapidly: if left unchecked, airplane pollution will double by 2020 and quadruple by 2050.

The second week of the UNFCCC climate talks got underway in Bonn yesterday. Creative Commons: Adopt a Negotiator, 2013

Day 7 of the Bonn Climate Change Conference

As Russia steadfastly refuses to allow a key track of negotiations (SBI) to move forward by blocking the agenda from adoption, emotions can get the better of anyone who is desperate to see progress made. Chris Wright, our incredibly talented and creative Negotiator Tracker from Australia poured his frustrations into this satirical take on an an old Beatles classic “Oleg it Be‘ received its global launch today on the AAN website. Is anyone at the Kremlin at Beatles fan?

Progress in Bonn thus far, setting the table for Warsaw (and beyond)

With a little help from his friends (clearly this a Beatles themed Daily Tck), Sebastien Duyck produced a succinct video blog of progress made so far in Bonn and still needs to be accomplished from many of our partners’ perspectives.

SBI saga notwithstanding, there was surprising progress made in REDD, the co-chairs of Long Term Finance (IISD’s video update has more) heard a helpful exchange of views. We also heard good proposals on the table regarding adaptation, with some countries actually starting to reference the need for an agreement on equity.

The agreement between China and the US to work together in phasing down HFCs, announced last Friday, was greeted with great enthusiasm by many of our partners. Today the ‘Like Minded Group’ -  a negotiating block of developing countries – chimed in opposing the move. They argue that the Montreal Protocol lacks the “common but differentiated responsibilities” principle, which they presumably fear could lead to developing countries being burdened with more than their fair share of the costs of any solution. The Montreal Protocol meeting start June 24th.

In order to stay on track for an ambitious 2015 climate deal and in order to scale near-term climate action before that deal takes effect, we need this Bonn session to set out which decisions will be made in Warsaw this November. The IEA’s Special Report on Climate and Energy issued today should provide negotiators with all of the incentive they need to ensure that we receive increases in ambition by 2014 and climate finance and technology to support those actions. We should also have the key elements of a 2015 deal sorted out by the end of the year. CAN published a helpful “expectations” article in today’s ECO. Without funds available for additional negotiating sessions between now and then, the stakes are high.

From Bad Godesberg to the future, reflections on today’s new IEA report

GCCA Communications Director Christian Teriete joined Adopt a Negotiator’s Joshua Wiese in today’s video update on the AaN website. He focused his remarks on the release of a major IEA report published today, warning governments that nothing short of an “energy sector revolution” is required to protect the world from runaway climate change and a global temperature rise beyond 2°C. The report proposed four near-term measures to put the world on track for limiting global warming to safer levels – all delivering co-benefits for public health and energy security while not hampering economic growth.  Christian did the video interview walking the streets of Bad Godesberg, a section of Bonn where many of our partners stay during the negotiations, offering commentary on tourist sites along the way. You can watch his informative (if not dizzying) video interview here, and also learn more about the IEA report on our TreeAlerts website.

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Each year the New Zealand Youth Delegation sends young people to the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change annual Conference of the Parties (COP). The delegation travelled to Copenhagen in 2009, Cancun in 2010 and Durban in 2011.

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