Germany renews efforts to cut carbon emissions
Climate and energy news
UN sets modest hopes for climate pledges at 2015
Paris summit
Reuters reports UN fears from Lima that “government pledges
due in 2015 to cut rising world greenhouse gases will be too weak
to avert the worst of global warming”. However, a global deal is
achievable, head of the UNFCCC Christiana Figueres says: “The sense
of urgency is there”. Figueres also
told the Lima summitthat initial capitalisation of
the Green Climate Fund of $100bn a year would be a “very small
sum”, and that “trillions of dollars … need to flow into …
transformation at a global level”. The Green Climate Fund will
begin disbursing funding next year, RTCC reports.
What makes different years warmer or
colder?
It’s hot. That’s the conclusion of the World Meteorological
Organisation and the UK’s Met Office, both of which published
research yesterday confirming that 2014 will be among the hottest
years on record – and is quite likely to be the hottest.
TheGuardian, the Telegraphand theTimesall covered the story, as did
theBBC. Climate Centrallooked beyond this
single year at the recent trends in global temperatures, while
the Telegraphalso looked at the
effects of rising temperatures on London. The Financial Timessets the news in
the wider context of international climate politics, asking what it
may mean for the UNFCCC process.
Growing appetite for meat ‘risks climate
targets’
People around the world have only a limited understanding of
how much greenhouse gas emissions the meat and dairy sector is
responsible for, a survey of public opinion from thinktank Chatham
House suggests. If people don’t know that the meat and dairy
industry is responsible for emissions, they are less likely to
reduce their consumption, the research says.
Lima climate talks: developing nations urge rich
to aim for zero emissions
Reuters reports from the Lima climate talks, where
developing countries have called on the developed world to do more
to avert the impacts of climate change. The world should be aiming
for “net zero” emissions, they said, with remaining carbon dioxide
emissions balanced by measures such as planting forests. The UN
Conference of the Parties (COP) runs in Lima until the end of next
week, and is a key staging point on the path to agreeing a global
climate deal in Paris next year.
US reassures world on climate
goals
White House chief of staff John Podesta has said that plans
for the country to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by around a
quarter by 2025 compared to 2005 are mainly based on “executive
action” and so unlikely to be derailed by a hostile Republican
Congress. But support from future presidents will also be required
to make the plans a success, he said. Podesta is responsible for
shaping US government climate policy.
Climate and energy comment
Natural gas: The fracking
fallacy
The US has seen phenomenal growth in oil and gas production
from shale extraction. Most projections suggest that this growth
will continue, but new research suggests that there may be reason
for caution – “a careful examination of the assumptions behind such
bullish forecasts suggests that they may be overly optimistic”,
Nature suggests.
New climate science
Potential climate forcing of land use and land
cover change
Atmospheric Chemistry and
Physics
Land policy as well as energy policy is important for
reducing emissions this century, according to new research, the
paper finds 40 per cent of the warming human activity induces today
comes from changing land use, such as clearing forests for farming.
Emissions from non-carbon dioxide greenhouse gases and aerosols
increase the warming that would come from carbon dioxide alone by a
factor of two or three, the calculations show.
Rapid dynamic activation of a marine-based Arctic
ice cap
Satellite observations of the largest ice cap in the
Eurasian Arctic show ice loss is accelerating, increasing 45-fold
in the past two decades. The speed of ice discharge to the ocean,
once tens of metres per year, is now in the thousands, say the
authors. The measurements also show the ice thinning at a rate of
25 metres per year.
How unusual is the 2012-2014 California
drought?
The drought California has been experiencing for the last
three years is the most severe for the past 1,200 years, according
to new research that aimed to put the current event into wider
context. The cause of the exceptionally severe drought is a
combination of unusually low, but not unprecedented, rainfall and
record high temperatures across the region.