IPCC climate impacts report launched
Climate and energy news
IPCC report: ‘Climate change is happening andno one in the
world is immune’
The negative effects of climate change are already
beginning to be felt in every part of the world and yet countries
are ill-prepared for the potentially immense impacts on food
security, water supplies and human health, according to today’s
IPCC report into the impacts of climate change. The
Britain faces food price rises, floods and deadly heatwaves as a
result of climate change
The Telegraph focuses on the local effects of climate
change for the UK – from heatwaves to food price rises – according
to today’s IPCC report. It also features comments by US Secretary
of State,
IPCC report: Climate change a threat to security, food and
humankind
The Guardian focuses on the human risks identified in the
latest report from the IPCC, released today. Warming is leading to
more volatile weather patterns and already reducing crop yields,
the report finds, increasing the risk of conflict. The paper’s
front page story focuses
Scientists clash over UN climate report
Two of leading climate researchers have clashed over a
report on the impact of global warming and rising sea levels,
according to the front page of the Financial Times. Chris field,
chief author of the study by the IPCC challenged the views of an
economist drafting a key chapter. Field made the comments about
Professor Richard Tol of the University of Sussex in the UK. Tol
has called the report “alarmist” but Field suggested Tol is upset
because his research has not been better represented in the
summary.
UN study says climate change already hitting food supply
The IPCC’s new report has found an ill-prepared world is
already suffering from effects evident across the oceans and on all
continents, including lands growing crucial food crops, reports the
FT. The most notable effects have been on the natural world,
including extinction of some species, acidification of oceans and
melting glaciers.
Government will be able to ‘keep the lights on’
Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey says the
government has a strategy that will “keep the lights on” despite
concern over a diminishing buffer of electricity capacity. Speaking
to the BBC, Davey said the country had the “healthiest pipeline of
investment in our history”. Electricity market regulator Ofgem last
year warned spare electricity production capacity could fall to two
per cent by 2015, and some have warned a competition probe could
deter investments.
Coal is new black gold under the North Sea
Scientists have discovered vast deposits of coal lying
under the North Sea, potentially holding enough energy to power
Britain for centuries, the Sunday Times reports. The work reveals
the sea bed holds up to 20 layers of coal extending from Britain’s
northeast coast far out under the sea – and that much of it could
be reached with the technologies already in use to extract oil and
gas.
How climate change will brew a bad-tasting, expensive cup of
coffee
Damian Carrington, The
Guardian
A perfect storm of rising heat, extreme weather and
ferocious pests mean the highland bean is running out of cool
mountainsides on which it flourishes, the front page of Saturday’s
Guardian says. “The rise in global temperature is of great concern
for us in the coffee industry because it will – and has already
started – putting the supply of quality coffee at great risk,” Dr
Tim Schilling, executive director of the World Coffee Research
programme, based at Texas A&M University, told the paper. The
James Lovelock: environmentalism has become a religion
The Guardian
Britain must take lead in global warming battle, says Ed
Davey
Damian Carrington, The
Observer
Britain must lead the international battle against global
warming, says energy and climate change secretary Ed Davey, who
added that not to do so would be “deeply irresponsible”. His
comments, made on the eve of a landmark UN report on the impacts of
global warming, are in pointed contrast to chancellor George
Osborne’s statement in September that he did not want the UK to be
“the only people out there in front of the rest of the world”.
Climate and energy comment
The hellish monotony of 25 years of IPCC climate change
warnings
The latest blockbuster United Nations report on the impacts of
climate change makes dire reading, just as the first one did almost
a quarter of a century ago, says columnist Graham Readfearn.
Elsewhere,
IPCC expert wrap: costs of climate change mounting, time to
adapt
James Whitmore and Michael Hopkin, The
Conversation
The Conversation interviews experts on what the IPCC’s
report means to them. Global income could fall by up to two per
cent in response to an average global temperature increase of two
degrees Celsius. Experts say policymakers must move to adapt to the
world’s new conditions while working to cut emissions.
Bees and the crops they pollinate are at risk from climate change,
IPCC report to warn
Bees already face numerous threats and climate change will
exacerbate them. This affects the timing and success of
pollination, and our ability to produce food, reports the
Telegraph. The piece quotes the draft IPCC report: “”Climate
change, after land-use changes, can be regarded as the second most
relevant factor responsible for the decline of pollinators.”
After shale gas, now for tight oil
The government is sitting on a report by the British
Geological Survey on the UK’s potential reserves of tight oil,
according to the Financial Times. Tight oil is harder to reach that
conventional sources and will need to be accessed using hydraulic
fracturing. Butler says the resource could be of huge value to the
UK and calls on the government to put political concerns aside and
publish the report.