cc-other

MEP clashes with bishop over 'climate alarmism'

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

A controversial Conservative Euro MP has careered into a clash with a bishop over his claim that the Church of England has "abandoned religion" to preach the gospel of climate change.

Greenland ice loss behind a sixth of sea-level rise

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:00:00 GMT

The ice cap lost 1500 cubic kilometres of ice between 2000 and 2008, and the loss is speeding up

Harrabin's notes

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 08:42:02 GMT

Arguments over hacked climate change e-mails

Climate crunch

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:47:00 GMT

Unless they end in promises, and a treaty within months, Ed Miliband believes the Copenhagen talks will be a disaster. But can the British energy secretary, in Denmark for a frantic round of pre-summit diplomacy, win the argument?

It's breakfast time in the biggest of Copenhagen's Scandic hotels. Over the obligatory croissants and coffee – and, for those who want it, an off-beam version of the English breakfast – 42 international delegations are preparing to go into a second day of talks. Phones tweet; hushed conversations within teams of negotiators form a low conversational hum.

Look closely, and some of the outlines of modern geopolitics are clear. This morning, the Chinese and Indian delegations are seated together, and locked in conversation. Elsewhere in the hotel, the UK's representatives are doing their thing at an early "EU co-ordination" meeting. In a corner of the restaurant, meanwhile, the US special envoy on climate change – an elusive, austere-looking man named Todd Stern – sits completely alone.

From 7-18 December, the Danish capital will fill up with an extra 20,000 people, there to play their part in what officialspeak calls the 15th Conference of the Parties (or Cop 15), but the rest of us know as the Copenhagen summit: the great global coming-together aimed at securing a much more ambitious successor to the Kyoto treaty, and thereby marking a turning point in the human race's fight against climate change. This week's event, organised by the Danish government under the title Pre-Cop Consultations, is much more low-key, though the guest list includes a huge array of energy and climate change ministers, their aides and negotiating teams – called here to compare notes, have brief and not-so-brief "bilaterals", and somehow inject a slow-moving process with some political momentum.

Among them is Britain's own Ed Miliband, who will turn 40 six days after the summit closes, and has the road-worn air of man who has been travelling far too much. In the build up to December, he has been to China, Brazil, India, Mexico, South Africa and Bangladesh, as well as Poland, Russia, and France (before anyone asks, he and his team offset their flights).

On the flight from London, he underlines the gravity of Copenhagen by alluding to past summits, and describing it as "Bretton Woods plus Yalta multiplied by Reykjavik". In Scandic's restaurant, where he sits for the interview, he comes up with an even more mind-boggling analogy: "Imagine if you knew 189 people, and you got them all together and said, 'Here's how we want you to run a significant part of your lives in the next 30 or 40 years – and by the way, you have to unanimously agree that that's how you want to do it.'"

Give or take sleep, and the closed-off proceedings in the main conference room, I shadow Miliband for around 40 hours. On his first morning here, I hear the stiffened small-talk at early-morning bilaterals, best illustrated by the opening exchange between him and his German counterpart Norbert Röttgen:

"Congratulations on your first presentation in the parliament. I heard some reports that it was a triumph."

"It was OK."

"You're being hailed as a great environmentalist, which is good for your first week in the job."

"Second week."

What really defines my time in Copenhagen, though, is a thrice-daily ritual whereby I collar Miliband as he emerges from the formal negotiations, and try – in vain, usually – to get a firm idea of where the conversation has been going. Usually, he wears a pretty much unreadable expression, though it doesn't take any great effort to understand how much work – somewhat worryingly – has still be done. At the end of Day One, for example, I manage to extract a few brief words from 55-year-old Jairam Ramesh, India's stoic minister of state for environment and forests, who audibly sighs, and will only tell me that "there is still a long way to go".

This week, the news media's understanding of what Copenhagen might achieve has pinballed between pessimism and qualified hope. On Monday, headlines confirmed what most insiders knew, when Barack Obama served notice that a legally binding agreement at Copenhagen was now beyond reach, and he was signing up to the Danish government's plan to exit 2009 with a "politically binding" deal, and follow it with a full treaty in the very near future. By Tuesday, rather more optimistic coverage greeted America and China's joint promise that December would see a "comprehensive" agreement, though plenty of voices still counselled caution and doubt: as far as one Greenpeace spokesperson was concerned, the Sino-American declaration was vague enough to suggest the possibility of both "a real ambitious climate rescue deal" and "another meaningless declaration".

There are two tracks to the build-up to Copenhagen. Politicians travel, and meet, and keep their eye on the stuff that will define the summit's headlines. Meanwhile, negotiators who are devoting their entire working lives to the pre-summit process must regularly congregate in some of the world's major cities, and try to push their way through the detail. Britain's chief negotiator is Jan Thompson, an official on loan from the Foreign Office who, in red patent leather biker boots, looks like anything but. She and Pete Betts – a genial, straight-to-the-point kind of operator, who described himself as "a career bureaucrat" – are known to Miliband as "the two degrees", a reference to the rise in average global temperatures that the world has now resolved to avoid. Miliband says he has long conversations with them at least once a week; on their second night in Denmark, they are still talking animatedly well past midnight.

There is, of course, no end of stuff to discuss. The negotiations' key theme is an ongoing and complex face-off between developed and developing countries (needless to say, post-imperial baggage is unavoidable). For countries already panicked by the effects of climate change – most notably, the 43-strong Alliance Of Small Island States – the prospect of a potentially indefinite delay to a legal deal is evidently causing no end of fear. Such rising powers as China, India and Brazil are watched closely, but the story regularly comes back to the US, whose uncertain stance is partly down to its cagy exit from what Miliband calls "20 wasted years", and the delicacy of America's political system: for a president to come to Europe and dish out commitments before the requisite legislation had passed the Senate would be risky, to say the least.

"What is the art of politics?" he wonders (like a lot of New Labour politicians of his generation, Miliband has a habit of asking himself questions). "It's to simplify, not complexify [sic]. Yes, this is complicated. But actually, in the end, it does boil down to some relatively simple things: how much you're going to cut your emissions, how much finance you're going to provide, what you're going to do about deforestation, and what you're going to about technology. I often think that when people say, 'Oh, this is so complicated,' it becomes an excuse. You get, 'Oh, this is all too complicated – it'll take another five years.'"

But how does he gauge success? "Well, you go on trips, and you have a series of dreadful and depressing meetings where you think nothing is moving. And then you have a really good meeting when you can visualise a breakthrough … in Brazil, I said to the foreign minister, 'Are you going to put 2020 numbers on the table for Copenhagen?' And he said, 'Yeah'. And we all looked at each other and said, 'Well, they've never said that before.' And you come out of the meeting and think, 'That was a pretty significant moment.'"

After the first day's talks, there's a dinner at the Royal Danish Playhouse, which ends with a solo ballet performance titled The Egg. But before those delights, he has to go to a Danish TV studio, do British TV and radio spots, frets about how quickly he talks, and tries to face down scepticism at home.

The script he performs for Channel 4 News and BBC Radio is reiterated to me, with additions, later that night. Despite the uncertainty now hanging over any legally binding deal, Miliband says he wants a full enforceable treaty "within months" of Copenhagen, and says that even the end of 2010 is too late. As one of his advisers frantically scribbles down her version of the conversation (the departmental MiniDisc recorder is kaput), he sets out a simple version of what first has to materialise in December: "a set of commitments from developed and developing countries that can show emissions peaking by about 2020."

He also talks endlessly about the importance of "numbers", by which he chiefly means pledges of specific cuts in emissions from all the major developed countries, and hardened commitments on the funding of "adaptation and mitigation" – where richer countries spending billions on poorer countries' defences against a radically altered climate, and the technology needed to curb their output of greenhouse gases.

Britain, via the EU, has already committed to cutting CO² emissions by 34% by 2020 on 1990 levels. EU governments have also promised €22bn-€50bn (£20bn-£45bn) a year for the developing world as part of a proposed €110bn global package, which, relative to claims that the total annual bill may be four times that, looks deeply disappointing. But right now that is not the main point: outside Europe, even if emissions targets are starting to come in, few developed countries have yet come up with figures for financial help for poorer ones – and in the case of the US, neither have been put on the table.

That fact alone makes one particular element of Miliband's rhetoric remarkable. "I'm willing to say to you, if we don't get any numbers at Copenhagen, it's a failure," he says.

I tell him that strikes me as a rather high-stakes position. "Yeah," he says. "But I don't think it would be successful if we haven't got numbers. What is it if we don't have numbers?"

The thing is, I suggest, politicians don't often say things like that. They tend to make a point of leaving wriggle room for themselves. "No," he says, sharply. "We're not leaving wriggle room. I recognise that fact. In the end, people are smart. They know when you've succeeded, and they know when you've failed. And I've known for many months that there's no point in going out and claiming Copenhagen is a miraculous triumph if there's no numbers."

There are, inevitably, aspects of the UK's policy and positioning that plenty of green voices do not like: a new enthusiasm for the uncertain technology known as "clean coal"; enthusiasm for funding half of Europe's post-Copenhagen commitment to the developing world via private-sector carbon trading; and the fact that the UK has so far only pledged £1bn a year in direct climate-related funding for poorer countries.

But here is the most striking thing. On the couple of occasions that I talk to British officials it is hard to avoid the conclusion that, relative to scores of countries, the UK is on the right side of the argument, and pushing hard. They talk about Copenhagen in the kind of dramatic terms that one perhaps wouldn't expect from civil servants. "If we can make this work," says a man from the Foreign Office, "multilateralism has a future. If not, multilateralism goes pear-shaped. And that will affect all kinds of things: food security, water security, energy security."

By early afternoon on the second day, a few delegations have started to peel away, and are preparing to return home. The hotel foyer is divided between an ever-increasing array of suitcases, the activities of a large number of Chinese journalists and ad hoc huddles of negotiators. Not long after 2pm, Miliband bids me goodbye and disappears into a bilateral with the Brazilians: his flight doesn't leave until six, which gives time for talks, and more talks.

Hovering near the negotiations' security barrier, I grab Kevin Conrad, the climate change envoy from Papua New Guinea. Conrad, a climate change star since 2007 when at the UN climate conference in Bali, he challenged the US: "If you are not willing to lead then leave it to the rest of us, get out of the way," looks urbane, preppy, but also visibly rattled. The previous afternoon, I had heard him vent his spleen to the British team as follows: "What can we do to re-energise this thing? It just feels like it's all going backwards."

"I remain frustrated," he tells me. "How do I put this? There's a calculated repositioning of aspirations, where it's being agreed that we're not going to anything that's binding, we're not gong to do anything substantive, and a lot of people blame everybody else for everything going too slow. And for a small island states like ours, that's very disconcerting." When would he like to see a legally-binding deal?

"We don't know why that can't happen now. And what gives us confidence that there won't be more excuses in a year? Or a year later? We are relocating people as we speak because their islands are now inhabitable … This is growing. It's not a theoretical problem."

He adds: "We want people to stick to the original objective – to come up with the substance of a global deal in Copenhagen. All the elements within the negotiations are moving forward, but we want those settled. We think politicians should come in and settle their differences, and close them off. What do we do? Do we just continue with the differences for another year?"

As if to make British hearts swell, however, when I ask him about his perception of Britain's role in Copenhagen, he says :"The UK, in my view, is one of the strongest and most articulate advocates for getting something done."

Having arrived back at home, I book in a call to a British official, which duly happens on Thursday afternoon, when they talk me through some of what was discussed: new moves from Brazil and South Korea, continued uncertainty about how progress on carbon emissions might be recorded, and whether Copenhagen's outcome might be a matter of one text, or "bits of text". Their closing verdict on two days in the Danish capital may be entirely innocuous, though to certain ears, they will only underline what a nervous moment this is. "No decisions," says the voice at the other end of the line. "But useful."

John Harris

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Model predicts future deforestation

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:02:51 GMT

Projections could help Central African nations in Copenhagen climate talks.

Bob Ward: This climate email-hacking episode is generating more heat than light

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:40:07 GMT

Another skirmish has broken out in the long-running battle between climate scientists and so-called sceptics, and this one is likely to lead to more public confusion

Another skirmish has broken out in the long-running battle between climate scientists and so-called sceptics, with the hacking of email messages between some of the world's leading researchers on global temperature trends. But as usually happens in the blogosphere, this episode is generating more heat than light and is likely to lead to more public confusion over the causes of climate change.

For the past few years, a small group of climate change 'sceptics' have been poring over scientific journal papers that report historical trends in temperatures from around the world, as recorded by directly by thermometers and other instruments, and by 'proxies', such as tree rings. Their primary objective has been to seek out evidence that global warming has been invented by climate researchers who fake their data.

Among their main targets have been papers published by research teams led by Michael Mann at Pennsylvania State University and Phil Jones at the University of East Anglia, and particularly those featuring the famous 'hockey stick' graph, showing that average temperature in the northern hemisphere was relatively stable and constant for most of the last couple of millennia, but rose dramatically upwards in the last 100 years. This graph appeared prominently in the landmark Third Assessment Report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2001, which concluded that "most of the observed warming over the last 50 years is likely to have been due to the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations".

The attacks on the hockey stick graph led the United States National Academy of Sciences to carry out an investigation, concluding in 2006 that although there had been no improper conduct by the researchers, they may have expressed higher levels of confidence in their main conclusions than was warranted by the evidence.

The 'sceptics' believe they have been vindicated and have presented the hockey stick graph as proof that global warming is not occurring. In doing so, they have ignored the academy's other conclusion that "surface temperature reconstructions for periods prior to the industrial era are only one of multiple lines of evidence supporting the conclusion that climatic warming is occurring in response to human activities, and they are not the primary evidence".

More importantly, these skeptics have not overturned the well-established basic physics of the greenhouse effect, namely that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas and increasing its concentration in the atmosphere causes the earth to warm. They also have not managed to make melting glaciers and rising sea levels, or any other evidence of warming, disappear into thin air. But they have managed to confuse some of the public about the causes of climate change.

Over the past five years, Mann and Jones in particular have been subjected not only to legitimate scrutiny by other researchers, but also to a co-ordinated campaign of personal attacks on their reputation by 'sceptics'. If the hacked e-mails are genuine, they only show that climate researchers are human, and that they speak badly in private about 'sceptics' who accuse them of fraud.

It is inevitable as we approach the crucial meeting in conference in Copenhagen in December that the sceptics would try some stunt to try to undermine a global agreement on climate change. There is no smoking gun, but just a lot of smoke without fire.

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

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Climate sceptics claim leaked emails are evidence of collusion among scientists

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:15:00 GMT

Hundreds of emails and documents exchanged between world's leading climate scientists stolen by hackers and leaked online

Hundreds of private emails and documents allegedly exchanged between some of the world's leading climate scientists during the past 13 years have been stolen by hackers and leaked online, it emerged today.

The computer files were apparently accessed earlier this week from servers at the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit, a world-renowned centre focused on the study of natural and anthropogenic climate change.

Climate change sceptics who have studied the emails allege they provide "smoking gun" evidence that some of the climatologists colluded in manipulating data to support the widely held view that climate change is real, and is being largely caused by the actions of mankind.

The veracity of the emails has not been confirmed and the scientists involved have declined to comment on the story, which broke on a blog called The Air Vent.

The files, which in total amount to 160MbB of data, were first uploaded on to a Russian server, before being widely mirrored across the internet. The emails were accompanied by the anonymous statement: "We feel that climate science is, in the current situation, too important to be kept under wraps. We hereby release a random selection of correspondence, code and documents. Hopefully it will give some insight into the science and the people behind it."

A spokesperson for the University of East Anglia said: "We are aware that information from a server used for research information in one area of the university has been made available on public websites. Because of the volume of this information we cannot currently confirm that all this material is genuine. This information has been obtained and published without our permission and we took immediate action to remove the server in question from operation. We are undertaking a thorough internal investigation and have involved the police in this inquiry."

In one email, dated November 1999, one scientist wrote: "I've just completed Mike's Nature [the science journal] trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie, from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith's to hide the decline."

This sentence, in particular, has been leapt upon by sceptics as evidence of manipulating data, but the credibility of the email has not been verified. The scientists who allegedly sent it declined to comment on the email.

"It does look incriminating on the surface, but there are lots of single sentences that taken out of context can appear incriminating," said Bob Ward, director of policy and communications at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics. "You can't tell what they are talking about. Scientists say 'trick' not just to mean deception. They mean it as a clever way of doing something - a short cut can be a trick."

In another alleged email, one of the scientists apparently refers to the death of a prominent climate change sceptic by saying "in an odd way this is cheering news".

Ward said that if the emails are correct, they "might highlight behaviour that those individuals might not like to have made public." But he added, "Let's separate out [the climate scientists] reacting badly to the personal attacks [from sceptics] to the idea that their work has been carried out in an inappropriate way."

The revelations did not alter the huge body of evidence from a variety of scientific fields that supports the conclusion that modern climate change is caused largely by human activity, Ward said. The emails refer largely to work on so-called paleoclimate data - reconstructing past climate scenarios using data such as ice cores and tree rings. "Climate change is based on several lines of evidence, not just paleoclimate data," he said. "At the heart of this is basic physics."

Ward pointed out that the individuals named in the alleged emails had numerous publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals. "It would be very surprising if after all this time, suddenly they were found out doing something as wrong as that."

Professor Michael Mann, director of Pennsylvania State University's Earth System Science Centre and a regular contributor to the popular climate science blog Real Climate, features in many of the email exchanges. He said: "I'm not going to comment on the content of illegally obtained emails. However, I will say this: both their theft and, I believe, any reproduction of the emails that were obtained on public websites, etc, constitutes serious criminal activity. I'm hoping the perpetrators and their facilitators will be tracked down and prosecuted to the fullest extent the law allows."

When the Guardian asked Prof Phil Jones at UEA, who features in the correspondence, to verify whether the emails were genuine, he refused to comment.

The alleged emails illustrate the persistent pressure some climatologists have been under from sceptics in recent years. There have been repeated calls, including Freedom of Information requests, for the Climate Research Unit to make public a confidential dataset of land and sea temperature recordings that is "value added" by the unit before being used by the Met Office. The emails show the frustration some climatologists have had at having to operate under such intense, often politically motivated, scrutiny.

Prof Bob Watson, the chief scientific advisor at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said, "Evidence for climate change is irrefutable. The world's leading scientists overwhelmingly agree what we're experiencing is not down to natural variation."

"With this overwhelming scientific body of evidence failing to take action to tackle climate change would be the wrong thing to do – the impacts here in Britain and across the world will worsen and the economic consequences will be catastrophic."

A spokesman for Greenpeace said: "If you looked through any organisation's emails from the last 10 years you'd find something that would raise a few eyebrows. Contrary to what the sceptics claim, the Royal Society, the US National Academy of Sciences, Nasa and the world's leading atmospheric scientists are not the agents of a clandestine global movement against the truth. This stuff might drive some web traffic, but so does David Icke."

Leo Hickman

James Randerson

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Climate change survey says 83% willing to make sacrifices

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:56:29 GMT

More than 80 per cent of people believe climate change is a serious threat and are willing to make sacrifices to combat it, a survey by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) showed today.

Climate change denial MEP attacks church

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:11:08 GMT

Roger Helmer says Anglican hierarchy has dropped the gospel in favour of 'the new religion of climate alarmism'

A Tory MEP has accused the Church of England of having "abandoned religious faith entirely and taken up the new religion of climate alarmism instead".

Roger Helmer, who resigned from the Tory frontbench in Europe when the Westminster leadership dumped its promised referendum on the Lisbon treaty, used a magazine article to urge the Church to "get back to the gospel".

Referring approvingly to the work of another writer who said bishops were spending more time "preaching climate change than the gospel of salvation", Helmer wrote: "The recent multi-faith conference at Windsor suggests that other world religions are taking the same line on climate change. This is particularly ironic at a time when the world is cooling and when more and more scientists around the world are breaking cover to challenge the theory of man-made global warming. Perhaps world religions should have more faith in God, and less in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change."

The Bishop of Leicester, Tim Stevens, said Helmer had not aired these views when he debated climate change in Leicester cathedral and asked whether "this was merely courtesy, or was it because the opportunity for a platform meant more to him than exposing his views to scrutiny or challenge from a live audience".

Helmer is one of a growing band of European politicians threatening to cause trouble for the Tory frontbench in the first few months of any government it may form. He and his eurosceptic colleagues insist they will not drop their campaign for a referendum on Lisbon.

Analysis by the leftwing website Next Left has shown that the top 10 Tory bloggers are climate change sceptics. This week Helmer convened a conference of climate change deniers at the European parliament. Speakers included Ross McKitrick, a Canadian professor who has said data indicating global warming has been fiddled; Tom Segalstad, a Norwegian geologist who says human-released CO2 would not have a large effect on the climate; Fred Goldberg, co-author of the polemic The Global Warming Scam; Hans Labohm, a Dutch professor who challenges the existence of global warming; and Professor Fred Singer, who wrote the documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle.

Allegra Stratton

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

UK climate unit's e-mails hacked

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:13:41 GMT

The e-mail system of one of the world's leading climate research units has been breached by hackers.

Industrialized Nations Unveil Plans to Rein in Emissions

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:55:22 GMT

Prior to a climate change meeting scheduled for Copenhagen, industrialized countries, except the United States, are offering targets to curb greenhouse gases.

Dr Ego vs The Elements in climate change video

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

A video explaining climate change by presenting it as a good versus evil battle of superheroes is being released ahead of the Copenhagen summit to try to educate people about the problem.

In pictures

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:25:18 GMT

Helena Christensen documents climate change

Business of Green: Storm Over the Chamber

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:43:02 GMT

Thomas Donohue, the United States Chamber of Commerce’s president, expressed hostility toward climate legislation, which led several businesses to resign in protest.

Portraits of Peru: Why supermodel Helena Christensen returned to her roots

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:13 GMT

When I imagine the horrible effects of climate change, I think of icebergs shrinking in Antarctica. But last month, I travelled to tropical Peru to see a hidden side of a global crisis.

Norway and Guyana sign rainforest deal

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Guyana and Norway yesterday hailed a historic agreement that will see the Scandinavian country invest $250m (£150m) to preserve the rainforests of the Latin America nation. With world leaders warning that no legally binding agreement will be possible at the climate summit in Copenhagen next month, the two comparative minnows completed one of the biggest forest conservation deals ever signed.

World on course for catastrophic 6° rise, reveal scientists

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

The world is now firmly on course for the worst-case scenario in terms of climate change, with average global temperatures rising by up to 6C by the end of the century, leading scientists said yesterday. Such a rise – which would be much higher nearer the poles – would have cataclysmic and irreversible consequences for the Earth, making large parts of the planet uninhabitable and threatening the basis of human civilisation.

Boreal forests' carbon stores need better management

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Boreal forests' carbon stores need better management

Nature 462, 276 (2009). doi:10.1038/462276a

Authors: Stuart Pimm, Nigel Roulet & Andrew Weaver

In the run-up to next month's climate-change treaty negotiations in Copenhagen, there is a pressing need to inform policy discussions about the importance of carbon management of northern boreal forests, as well as of tropical forests.Boreal carbon pools account for more of the overall

Water should take centre stage at climate talks

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Water should take centre stage at climate talks

Nature 462, 276 (2009). doi:10.1038/462276c

Author: Yulia Timoshkina

Political agreement on water rights and usage should be at the heart of climate-change conference discussions (see http://www.nature.com/roadtocopenhagen). Policy-makers, whose real agenda may be their standing with their electorates, should recognize that water is an ideal vehicle for reaching a useful aggregate agreement.Water

A force to fight global warming

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

A force to fight global warming

Nature 462, 278 (2009). doi:10.1038/462278a

Authors: Will R. Turner, Michael Oppenheimer & David S. Wilcove

Natural ecosystems and biodiversity must be made a bulwark against climate change, not a casualty of it, argue Will R. Turner, Michael Oppenheimer and David S. Wilcove.

Palaeoclimate: Kink in the thermometer

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Palaeoclimate: Kink in the thermometer

Nature 462, 295 (2009). doi:10.1038/462295a

Authors: David Noone

Temperature estimates derived from isotopes in polar ice cores reveal much about Earth's past climate. According to the latest analysis, interglacial periods were rather warmer than previously thought.

Leaders Will Delay Deal on Climate Change

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:25:40 GMT

President Obama and other world leaders have decided to put off the task of reaching a climate change agreement at a global climate conference scheduled for next month.

Copenhagen – how the Danes will salvage a deal

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:48:00 GMT

The organisers of the Copenhagen climate conference have conceded that it cannot deliver a legally binding deal. What is left for it to offer?

Observatory: Changes in the Climate and a Windier Great Lake

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:57:45 GMT

Chalk up another effect of climate change: it’s getting windier over Lake Superior.

Climate change gives ancient trees growth spurt

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:00:00 GMT

Rising temperatures are boosting the growth of the oldest trees on Earth, but the adolescent growth spurt may – or may not – benefit the climate, say scientists

Douglas Alexander & Bert Koenders: The moral imperative behind a Copenhagen deal

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:29:33 GMT

Next month's climate change meeting in Copenhagen is even more important in the fight against poverty than the 2005 G8 meeting at Gleneagles.

Leaders plan a 'two-step' environment deal

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

President Barack Obama joined other leaders of the Asia-Pacific nations yesterday in accepting that a long-planned summit in Copenhagen next month on climate change will be unable to forge a new global treaty on cutting greenhouse emissions and will have to put off reaching a final deal until next year or even later.

Countdown to Copenhagen: The President's lonely dilemma

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Can the world reach a new deal to combat climate change without the world's richest country, the world's sole superpower? Such is the question looming over the Copenhagen climate change summit, now only three weeks away, as the international community waits anxiously to see if President Barack Obama can publicly commit the United States to action on global warming.

Paradox lost: molecular collisions kept early Earth warm

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:00:00 GMT

2.5 billion years ago, the sun was so faint, the oceans should have been ice. They weren't, and now a modelling study suggests the greenhouse effect, and nitrogen explain why

Copenhagen in the balance

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:34 GMT

The UN is to hold a conference in Copenhagen next month that it hopes will lead to a dramatic shift in the world's attitude to climate change.

Will carbon dioxide give Miliband the slip?

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:32 GMT

For once, Miliband the younger grabbed the headlines. Brother and cabinet colleague David had for weeks dominated the news pages over speculation that he would snaffl e the position of the European Union's first foreign secretary. But last week it was the turn of Ed Miliband, the Climate Change Secretary, who took centre stage after drafting one of the most comprehensive energy statements by this or any modern government.

'Kyoto principles' crucial in climate talks - China

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:23:29 GMT

China will insist the main principles of the Kyoto Protocol are retained in any new global climate change pact, even though others are seeking to abandon them, a high-ranking climate official on Saturday.

Ray Mears: We'll struggle to survive climate change

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:00:00 GMT

Ray Mears is Mr Bushcraft. He wants people to be confident about surviving in the wild, but reckons most of us won't make it through a global climate crisis

Trees in far north provide biggest climate benefit

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:51:00 GMT

Planting forests in the tropics could be a waste of time and money, compared with planting them at high latitudes

Gloomy Energy Report Sets the Stage for Climate Talks

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:53:50 GMT

The revised forecast by the International Energy Agency came with a warning that governments must soon tackle climate change by curbing energy demand.

Mini ice age took hold of Europe in months

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:00:00 GMT

Detailed studies of ancient climate have revealed that the onset of Europe's "Big Freeze", 13,000 years ago, was anything but glacial

Environmental Agency Warns 2 Staff Lawyers Over Video Criticizing Climate Policy

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:07:24 GMT

Two lawyers from the Environmental Protection Agency posted an online video that criticized the Obama administration’s climate change policy.

Bureaucrats clash on shape of climate deal

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Bureaucratic detail should be the last thing that prevents an agreement to save the planet from climate change. After all, the outline of the issue is simple: every government in the world now accepts that the amount of carbon dioxide being emitted from human sources will lead to a disastrous overheating of the atmosphere, if it is not checked.

Darling urges action on climate change

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 11:57:41 GMT

Chancellor Alistair Darling today urged the world's most powerful finance ministers to treat climate change with the same urgency they gave to the world economic turmoil.

Britain rules out climate treaty at summit

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

British Government officials believe there is no hope of signing a legally binding climate change treaty in Copenhagen next month.

Mass extinction blamed on fiery fountains of coal

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:19:00 GMT

One of Earth's worst-ever mass extinctions may have been caused by carbon dioxide released by exploding mixtures of magma and coal

Fix climate change or else, say military top brass

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:07:00 GMT

An international panel of military officers warns that climate change threatens global security and stability

Giant climate deal is too little says UN chief

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:15:04 GMT

The giant cash deal to save the planet – proposed by Europe for the forthcoming Copenhagen climate conference – will not be enough, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, said today.

Debategraph: Copenhagen - What’s happening?

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:48:27 GMT

The balance of probability, if the recent downbeat pronouncements from the UN are to be believed, is that the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen next month will end, like a Spike Milligan sketch, with the actors shuffling offstage, staring into the half-distance, mumbling "What are we going to do now? What are we going to do now?"

Pay us oil money, or the rainforest gets it

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:00:00 GMT

Ecuador's offer to refrain from drilling for oil in the Amazon rainforest in exchange for money could be a novel way of combatting climate change

Climate change will melt snows of Kilimanjaro 'within 20 years'

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

The snows of Mount Kilimanjaro – the highest mountain in Africa – may soon be falling on bare ground following a study showing that its ice cap is destined to disappear entirely within 20 years, due largely to climate change.

Money is the key to the success of Copenhagen

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

You think it's about greenhouse gases. You think it's about carbon emissions. And it is. But the Copenhagen agreement on climate change that the world community will attempt to sign in December is just as much about money – enormous, mind-boggling amounts of money.

The unwanted equation: poverty vs climate change

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

The proposed Copenhagen climate treaty has plenty of jargon – "mitigation" and "adaptation" are two examples already given. But the key word may yet turn out to be "additionality".

Study claims meat creates half of all greenhouse gases

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Climate change emissions from meat production are far higher than currently estimated, according to a controversial new study that will fuel the debate on whether people should eat fewer animal products to help the environment.

Bridging the Generation Gap on Climate

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:11:36 GMT

The march of climate change up the global agenda has prompted an often poignant conversation between the generations.

PM hails EU climate fund 'breakthrough'

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Europe's leaders will present a £90bn plan to cut the world's greenhouse gas emissions at the United Nations climate change summit in Copenhagen. After hours of wrangling at the EU summit in Brussels this week, they gave broad backing to Gordon Brown's calls for developed nations to put a price on tackling global warming.

We still have a chance to save polar bears

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:49:00 GMT

Polar bears and other ice-dependent species could survive if we act now to limit and manage human activity in the Arctic

Paying for protection of the global ecosystem.

I. Bond; M. Grieg-Gran; S. Wertz-Kanounnikoff — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:24:08 GMT

Tropical deforestation and forest degradation contributes to global greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation ...

Brown's opposition to climate change plea

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Next month's crucial climate change conference in Copenhagen could be jeopardised by European wrangling over the cost of tackling global warming, Gordon Brown warned EU leaders.

China outperforms US on green issues

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:02:00 GMT

The country is doing more to tackle climate change than it gets credit for: in fact, it beats the US in some key environmental measures

Plan to protect polar bears' icy habitat

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:22:00 GMT

The US has proposed designating part of Alaska's coast as "critical habitat" for polar bears – but will it be enough to save the species?

Power station protest ends with arrests

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:21:57 GMT

A climate change protest being staged on top of a power station chimney came to an end today.

Go veggie to fight global warming, says expert

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 09:50:03 GMT

One of the world's leading climate change gurus urged people to become vegetarian today, to help beat global warming.

Canada's tar sands may be just too dirty

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:12:00 GMT

Even carbon capture and storage may be unable to cut greenhouse gas emissions enough to make the Athabasca tar sands an environmentally friendly source of useable fuel

Protesters climb power station chimney

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:55:48 GMT

Activists have climbed a power station chimney in a protest over climate change.

Rainforest treaty 'fatally flawed'

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:01 GMT

A vital safeguard to protect the world's rainforests from being cut down has been dropped from a global deforestation treaty due to be signed at the climate summit in Copenhagen in December.

Historic chance to halt the scourge of deforestation

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:01 GMT

At last, the wreck of the rainforests is being tackled. One of the key parts of the Copenhagen climate agreement which the international community will try to construct in December is a comprehensive treaty aiming to reduce deforestation rates in the developing countries by at least 50 per cent by 2020.

Obama says US in global race to develop clean energy

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:26:00 GMT

At a speech at MIT on Friday, the president said that "the nation that wins this competition will be the nation that leads the global economy"

Stealthy wind turbines aim to disappear from radar screens

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:22:00 GMT

An innovative redesign of wind turbine blades could render them invisible to radar – making them more palatable to air traffic controllers and the military

How green is your pet?

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:47:00 GMT

It's time to wise up to the ecological pawprint of your furry friend – it may be doing more environmental damage than an SUV

Adopt green tech by 2014 to avert climate calamity

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:02:00 GMT

The world will have to switch to a low-carbon economy within five years or risk runaway global warming, says WWF

We will be billions of dollars poorer when coral dies

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:34:00 GMT

The world's coral reefs "earn" $172 billion every year, but they're on the brink of collapse, economist says

Birth of the Appalachians triggered mass extinction

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:29:00 GMT

The birth of the US mountain chain may have led to a major ice age and a mass extinction

US steel-makers temper climate deal hopes

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:17:00 GMT

Lobbying has led to Congress considering tariffs on developing nations, which could be a deal-breaker at December's climate change talks in Copenhagen

Kew seed bank has 10% of all plants – and counting

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 06:00:00 GMT

The Millennium Seed Bank has reached its initial target of collecting 10 per cent of the world's known wild plant species

Melting glaciers bring 1980s pollution revival

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:16:00 GMT

Alpine glaciers are now releasing nasty chemicals that settled on them decades ago and have since been banned

Roger Beachy: GM crop pioneer now US farm science chief

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:05:00 GMT

The head of the new National Institute of Food and Agriculture explains his links to the biotech industry and how farming can adapt to climate change

US climate bill feels the heat

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:46:00 GMT

A climate-change bill has at last been introduced to the US senate, but the opposition to the emission cuts it contains is huge

How can environmental change impact energy generation?

C. Paskal — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:54:57 GMT

Energy generation, extraction, refining, processing and distribution require a multifaceted global infrastructure. However, much of that infrastructure ...

Telecommunications are a powerful tool for positive change

Sheila K; Katrin V — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 18:14:48 GMT

This report, published by the UN Foundation, examines real life examples of and trends in wireless technology solutions being used to drive change in ...

Is water adaptation planning effective?

G. Bjrklund — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:07:56 GMT

The Report looks at water adaptation aspects in ongoing processes of formulating and implementing National Adaptation Programmes of Action – NAPAs. ...

Is water adaptation planning effective?

G. Bjrklund — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:07:56 GMT

The Report looks at water adaptation aspects in ongoing processes of formulating and implementing National Adaptation Programmes of Action – NAPAs. ...

Are rights-based approaches the way forward for conservation?

J. Campese; T. Greiber; T. Sunderland; G. Oviedo — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 12:55:15 GMT

The links between the realisation of human rights and the conservation of natural resources and biodiversity are receiving increasing attention worldwide. ...

Climate change could fuel further conflict in the Middle East

O. Brown; A. Crawford — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 12:55:03 GMT

Climate models are predicting a hotter, drier and less predictable climate in the Middle East, a region already considered the world's most water-scarce ...

Ensuring human security can lead to better opportunities for human development in the Arab world

M. El-Sayyid; M. Al-Rasheed; S. Benjelloun; Et al — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 12:12:40 GMT

This report examines human development in the Arab world through a human security lens, calling on policymakers and other stakeholders to move away ...

Migration, climate change and environment

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:03:57 GMT

Environmental factors have long had an impact on global migration flows. Although there is limited reliable data on the subject, the scale of such ...

Migration, climate change and environment

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:03:57 GMT

Environmental factors have long had an impact on global migration flows. Although there is limited reliable data on the subject, the scale of such ...

The business case for high-biodiversity REDD projects

J. Ebeling; J. Fehse — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:58:31 GMT

This report explores whether there is a business case for high-biodiversity REDD projects and schemes and how such a business case could be created or ...

The Next Big Thing for Climate Change? - Tapping the Soil’s Huge Potential as a Carbon Sink

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 22:00:00 GMT

Addressing appropriate climate change and environmental concerns in existing Norwegian programmes and projects in Uganda

H. O. Ibrekk; J. E. Studsrod — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:39:36 GMT

This paper tries to identify possible ways and means of addressing appropriate climate change and environmental concerns in existing Norwegian programmes ...

Agriculture: A necessary complication in the climate negotiations

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 22:00:00 GMT

Despite a sense that the international climate change negotiations, convened in Bonn, Germany this week, are grinding forward at a painfully slow pace, there is a momentum to the process that makes adding new ideas very difficult. It took several years of behind the scenes technical work and at least two years of carefully planned campaigning to get the deforestation issue substantively on the table. While we know that agriculture can make a vital contribution to addressing climate change, it lags behind the forest discussion and effectively including it in the Copenhagen deal at this late date will be no easy thing.

A guide to climate change for indigenous peoples

R. de Chavez; V. Tauli-Corpuz; E. Baldo-Soriano; et al. — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:50:03 GMT

This manual has been written to empower indigenous peoples to participate more effectively in shaping relevant policies and actions taken to address ...

A guide to climate change for indigenous peoples

R. de Chavez; V. Tauli-Corpuz; E. Baldo-Soriano; et al. — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:50:03 GMT

This manual has been written to empower indigenous peoples to participate more effectively in shaping relevant policies and actions taken to address ...

Guiding principles for including climate adaptation in poverty reduction efforts

K. Ulsrud; L. Sygna; K. O'Brien — Wed, 27 May 2009 15:04:29 GMT

This report aims to contribute to the increased understanding of how to integrate climate change adaptation in poverty reduction projects and programs ...

Guiding principles for including climate adaptation in poverty reduction efforts

K. Ulsrud; L. Sygna; K. O'Brien — Wed, 27 May 2009 15:04:29 GMT

This report aims to contribute to the increased understanding of how to integrate climate change adaptation in poverty reduction projects and programs ...

Will reducing emissions influence climate change?

M. van Noordwijk; H. Purnomo; L. Peskett — Wed, 20 May 2009 12:26:39 GMT

This paper summarises a study undertaken by the Indonesian Forest Climate Alliance (IFCA) to support Indonesian stakeholders to participate in global ...

Can energy efficient technologies reduce green house gas emissions?

E. Worrell; L. Bernstein; J. Roy — Mon, 18 May 2009 14:23:12 GMT

This paper discusses the potential contribution of industrial energy-efficiency technologies and policies to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions ...

Importance of wetlands in relation to climate change

D. Pritchard — Fri, 08 May 2009 10:12:11 GMT

This paper summarises the importance of wetlands in relation to climate change and eaxmines their potential role in the measures for Reducing Emissions ...

Importance of wetlands in relation to climate change

D. Pritchard — Fri, 08 May 2009 10:12:11 GMT

This paper summarises the importance of wetlands in relation to climate change and eaxmines their potential role in the measures for Reducing Emissions ...

Comprehensive policy options addressing global challenges

S. Varghese — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:02:50 GMT

This report investigates the role of agriculture in addressing global challenges related to climate, water and food. Based on three international events ...

Comprehensive policy options addressing global challenges

S. Varghese — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:02:50 GMT

This report investigates the role of agriculture in addressing global challenges related to climate, water and food. Based on three international events ...

Climate change and african agriculture: a Ricardian analysis

P. Kurukulasuriya; R. Mendelsohn — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:31:20 GMT

This paper examines the impact of climate change on cropland in Africa using a ricardian cross-sectional approach. Relying on farm data from an 11-country ...

Climate change and african agriculture: a Ricardian analysis

P. Kurukulasuriya; R. Mendelsohn — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:31:20 GMT

This paper examines the impact of climate change on cropland in Africa using a ricardian cross-sectional approach. Relying on farm data from an 11-country ...

Costs and benefits of renewable electricity in South Africa

A. Marquard; B. Merven; E. Tyler — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 11:18:22 GMT

This paper models the costs and benefits of setting a target of generating 15% of South Africa's electricity from renewable sources by 2020. The ...

Analysing the food crisis: key ways of improving food security

C. Nellemann; M. MacDevette; T. Manders — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 11:30:03 GMT

This report provides the first summary by the UN of how climate change, water stress, invasive pests and land degradation may impact world food ...

Arab perspectives on sustainability

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 10:51:41 GMT

The absence of a unified Arab perspective towards the sustainability approach and a lack of local capacity to generate a knowledge body which can contribute ...

Contributing to high carbon rural development in the humid tropics

P. Minang; B. Swallow; V. Meadu — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 18:57:21 GMT

Large areas of the humid tropics are like mosaics, combining features of forests and agriculture and housing hundreds of millions of people. Land uses ...

Drivers of change behind illegal logging

M.N. Rosander — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 18:31:49 GMT

This report provides an overview of the issues, root causes, and driving forces behind the crimes related to illegal logging. The report includes ...

Effective management and cooperation of transboundary waters

C. Sadoff; T. Greiber; M. Smith; G. Bergkamp — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 16:39:04 GMT

Nations share more than 260 international river basins which cover nearly half of the Earth's surface. As demand for water grows in all countries, ...

Understanding urban environmental changes in Latin America

R.S. Rodriguez; A. Bonilla — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 08:20:35 GMT

Despite the central role of urban areas in socio-economic and geo-political change processes at the local, regional, and global level, as well as in ...

The role of ICT in developing a low carbon economy

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 16:35:19 GMT

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has increased productivity and supported economic growth across the globe. But what impact does ...

Future prospects for Joint Implementation

A. Korppoo; O. Gassan-zade — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 10:40:30 GMT

This paper looks at the likely future of Joint Implementation (JI) in the fight against climate change. It also compares JI to the Clean Development Mechanism ...

Framework for an agreement on adaptation to climate change

E. Levina — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:32:05 GMT

In view of the climate change challenges, this paper aims to outline a possible framework for an agreement on adaptation. It highlights several issues ...

Reducing CO2 emissions from coal-powered electricity in India

A.,P. Chikkatur — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 11:04:53 GMT

Forming part of a wider series, this paper explores strategies for reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from coal-powered electricity. It reviews coal ...

Improving land and water management

D. Bossio; K. Geheb — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 11:26:47 GMT

Following from the Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture project, this book examines the relationships and linkages between land ...

A comprehensive look at the state of the environment in the Arab world

M.K. Tolba; N.W. Saab — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 11:57:03 GMT

The state of the Arab environment stands at a pivotal juncture with numerous environmental problems both current and imminently threatening the region. ...

How does climate change affect children in Nepal?

D. Gautam; K. Oswald — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:21:36 GMT

In 2008 Children in a Changing Climate's research programme worked with ActionAid Nepal, and its partner organisations, to help poor children in ...

How does climate change affect children in Nepal?

D. Gautam; K. Oswald — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:21:36 GMT

In 2008 Children in a Changing Climate's research programme worked with ActionAid Nepal, and its partner organisations, to help poor children in ...

The positive impact of decentralised renewable energy technologies

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:55:34 GMT

This paper analyses the positive impact of decentralised renewable energy technologies that enhance climate change adaptation capacity in developing countries ...

The impact of demographic and climate change on migration patterns in developing countries

R. Black; D. Kniveton; R. Skeldon — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 15:07:12 GMT

This working paper seeks to explore the potential impact of future demographic and climate change on migration patterns in developing countries, in order ...

Can a cap and share scheme assist South Africa?

J. Wakeford — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:25:53 GMT

This study seeks to identify the initial impact that a global cap and share (C&S) scheme might have on South Africa, based on a set of limiting assumptions. ...

Strategies towards a shift to sustainability

W., M. Adams; S., J. Jeanrenaud — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 15:31:50 GMT

In a changing world, this paper asks the question: 'how does one devise strategies for society that will allow a peaceful, equitable, fulfilled human ...

Integrating climate change and sustainable development in Asia

Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 12:54:16 GMT

Based on strategic research carried out at the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), this paper is a summary of current climate change ...

India's future lies in renewable energy

A. Ringwald — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 11:13:21 GMT

India has developed to a stage where it is generally recognised that renewable energy is the most substantial and sustainable solution to its future ...

Compilation of articles focusing on environment and poverty reduction

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 09:34:35 GMT

The paper features a collection of short articles that focus on the complex links between environment and poverty reduction. The articles discuss how ...

Climate change and sub-Saharan Africa: points of vulnerability and potential for adaptation

H. Connor; L. Mqadi; P. Mukheibir — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:22:42 GMT

Africa is vulnerable to climate change on two fronts: firstly, because of existing vulnerabilities and secondly, due to capacity limitations for ...

Taking the necessary measures to address climate change impact in Lebanon

N. Farajalla — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 10:09:50 GMT

Lebanon does not currently have baseline data on which to formulate climate adaptation and mitigation measures. This paper aims to prompt dialogue ...

Biodiversity is the key to global food security in a changing climate

J. Cotter; R. Tirado — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:33:16 GMT

Climate change will profoundly affect agriculture and food security worldwide and will particularly impact smallholder farmers in poor countries. ...

Addressing the underlying causes of the food crisis: pointers for the G8

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:21:53 GMT

Millions of people around the world are suffering food shortages, unaffordable food prices and hunger, primarily due to industrial farming, bad harvests ...

Acidic Ocean

One consequence of the historically unprecedented level of CO2 in the atmosphere that fossil fuel burning has caused, in addition to a warmer climate, is higher concentrations of dissolved CO2 … [Read more]