As the dust settles after the recent elections, it appears that the Australian Green Party will play a key role in developing national climate change policy.
The new minority government will have to come to terms with the large difference of opinion between the partners concerning emissions reduction targets but the Green Party now possesses some unquestionable leverage.
Although the recent success of the Green Party is due in part to a supposed protest vote in Australia, can they use their influence to deliver on climate reform?
For the rest of 2010, the world will liquidate resource stocks and accumulate carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
This is because August 21st was Earth Overshoot Day which means that we exhausted our ecological budget for 2010 over a week ago. Ecological services provided by nature such as filtering CO2 and producing new raw materials for food have now been drained and used up.
The world’s ecological footprint now exceeds the Earth’s biocapacity and for the rest of the year we are essentially accumulating debt.
Bjorn Lomborg, a self dubbed sceptical environmentalist, has for years been considered a high-profile yet controversial climate change sceptic. In a manifest turn about however, a new book to be published next month by Lomborg will call for tens of billions of dollars to be invested annually to tackle climate change.
The proposed use for this money is to heavily invest into researching and developing clean energy sources. In addition, Lomborg has suggested that this should be lead by governments rather than private industry and that decisive action could resolve the problem of climate change by the end of this century.
Embattled IPCC head, Pachauri has already positively welcomed the new book. Will others be so quick to accept Lomborg’s proposals?
The Guardian reported today that 93% of flyers do not offset their flights.
In a survey carried out by the Civil Aviation Authority at Stansted airport in the UK, only 3% of participants deliberately chose more environmentally friendly airlines and only 9% had taken fewer flights over the past year on environmental grounds. Interestingly though, over half of those questioned were aware of and understood the practice of carbon offsetting.
Is it worrying that the vast majority of people surveyed did not engage in offsetting or does offsetting actually encourage individuals to carry on polluting rather than reducing their own emissions?
Here are some of the latest happenings from the world of climate change:
Mexico’s chief climate change delegate, Fernando Tuleda, has said that even though he does not believe a new treaty will be negotiated in Cancun this year, “that does not mean that there can’t be a spectacular breakthrough.”
A small meeting of scientists, called the Attribution of Climate-Related Events Workshop, met recently to discuss what information is actually needed to determine if climate change can be blamed for extreme weather events.
American voters are being reminded to use the web resources Dirty Energy Money and Bobbing in Petroleum before casting their vote for the 111th Congress. These new tools track the flow of contributions made to members of the US Congress by polluting industries and thus allow voters to choose candidates with cleaner, greener records and policies.
Did you know that women produce 60-80% of the food consumed in developing countries?
The responsibility for feeding families and communities throughout the developing world rests with these women farmers. However, climate change is often making food production more difficult and threatening the lives and livelihoods of millions.
Newsweek took it upon itself this week to highlight 10 current world leaderswho have managed to win serious respect during their time in power.
President of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, was credited as a hero among environmentalists. From hosting underwater cabinet meetings to being quoted by Al Gore and shaming rich countries in Copenhagen, President Nasheed was also elected as a UN 2010 Champion of the Earth.
Interestingly, none of the other leaders listed by Newsweek were complemented for their climate change tackling skills. Who else should be part of the list?
One third of Pakistan is under water. The UN has estimated that $459 million is needed to address this catastrophe but the European body responsible for disaster aid has only committed €10 million. We know they can and should do more.
Climate change is set to cut rice yields throughout Asia, a new report suggested last week.
Scientists studying records from over 200 farms in Thailand, Vietnam, India and China found that despite yields rising due to improved farming techniques, the rate of growth has slowed as nights have grown warmer. It is anticipated that eventually yields will start to reduce.
This latest report builds upon research in 2004 that found rice yields in the Philippines were dropping by 10% for every 1 degree rise in night time temperatures.
How will this impact upon prices and overall food security?
Here are some of the latest happenings from the world of climate change:
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said this week that the Mexico climate change Summit in November must bridge the gap of trust between developed and developing countries.
New footage has been released examining how a large ice island has broken off one of Greenland’s two main glaciers.
A report earlier this week revealed that 17 countries have experienced record temperatures already in 2010.
