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Global

Published on 16 August 2016
Hundreds of millions of people are infected with dengue each year, with some children dying in severe cases, and this research helps to address this significant global health problem. Co-lead researcher Associate Professor David Harley from The Australian National University (ANU) said that dengue risk might decrease in the wet tropics of northeast Australia under a high-emissions scenario in 2050, due to mosquito breeding sites…
Published on 8 August 2016
Yet in its most recent report, in 2013, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) used models that paid less attention to soil carbon potentially entering the atmosphere than had earlier reports, concluding that there simply wasn't enough evidence about how warmer global temperatures might impact soil carbon stocks. A new Yale-led paper makes the case that developing meaningful climate projections will rely on understanding…
Published on 8 August 2016
The UN’s flagship Green Fund has been asked to adopt policies to ensure that the next set of projects it approves will respect the rights of tribal communities.  Philippines-based organization Tebtebba wants the GCF to develop policies that mean all initiatives conform with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.  “The positive contribution of indigenous peoples’ traditional knowledge in adaptation should therefore be…
Published on 29 July 2016
The study applied the quirks in the historical records to climate model output and then performed the same calculations on both the models and the observations to make the first true apples-to-apples comparison of warming rates. With this modification, the models and observations largely agree on expected near-term global warming. The results were published in the journal Nature Climate Change. Mark Richardson of NASA's Jet…
Published on 29 July 2016
“This type of risk is present in the two degrees scenario outlined in the Paris agreement, but it could become much more severe and unsustainable under higher temperatures,” she says. Unless countries’ commitments to climate change response are greatly increased by 2030, global mean temperature will rise between 2.6 and 3.1 degrees Celsius by 2100, the study estimates. Fransen adds that pledges should be implemented…
Published on 29 July 2016
By the numbers So far this year, the planet's average temperature has been 2.4 degrees Fahrenheit (1.3 degrees Celsius) warmer than the late 19th century. In 2009, international climate negotiators agreed in the Copenhagen Accord that warming should not increase more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) this century. The Accord's temperature threshold was put in place to hopefully avoid the worst…
Published on 22 February 2016
Using satellite data from 2000 to 2013, researchers come up with a "vegetation sensitivity index," essentially a map of the world based on climate change sensitivity over the previous 14 years. "We have found ecologically sensitive regions with amplified responses to climate variability in the Arctic tundra, parts of the boreal forest belt, the tropical rainforest, alpine regions worldwide, steppe and prairie regions of…
Published on 22 February 2016
The effects of the droughts are still being felt with millions of people on opposite sides of the world experiencing hunger from Ethiopia, in Eastern Africa, to Papua New Guinea, in Oceania, said Robert Glasser, the special representative of the UN secretary-general for disaster risk reduction, at a press conference here. “El Niños and La Niñas are these frequent cycles and what happens when…
Published on 15 February 2016
Well, in certain respects, he has a point. In reaction to the cuts, scientists are making claims about their ability to predict the future, and are failing to consider the politics of climate science. We know it’s happening, now let’s do something In Senate estimates on Thursday, Marshall stated that while CSIRO would not withdraw from monitoring and measuring climate change, there would…
Published on 9 February 2016
Even if global warming is capped at governments’ target of 2C - which is already seen as difficult - 20% of the world’s population will eventually have to migrate away from coasts swamped by rising oceans. Cities including New York, London, Rio de Janeiro, Cairo, Calcutta, Jakarta and Shanghai would all be submerged…
Published on 1 February 2016
In the old days, for example, the typhoon season in Southeast Asia usually started in July and ended in September. Nowadays, the most powerful ones are in the last two months of the year and they come even in the first half of the year. Why? Scientists say that this is because of climate change. Climate change affects rainfall patterns, storms and droughts…
Published on 26 January 2016
Using data on water-dependent power plants and climate change projections, scientists demonstrated that fossil fuel plants could see a 30 per cent drop in efficiency by 2070 due to lack of cooling water. This is because river flow in large parts of regions such as Africa, South Asia and South America is projected to drop drastically because of global warming. Hydropower stations — which…
Published on 18 January 2016
Nature, along with the usually fractious family of nations, conspired to make it a landmark year: almost certainly the hottest on record for the planet as a whole, and a rare moment of unity when 195 states pledged to curb the carbon pollution that drives global warming. Whether the December 12 Paris Agreement is the key to our salvation or too-little-too-late depends on what…
Published on 4 January 2016
These are four key energy and climate issues to watch in 2016:New Commitments to Renewables Some cities and states, especially on the West Coast and in the Northeast, could join the small but growing list of those making a commitment to obtain 100 percent of their electricity from renewable sources in the coming decades. In 2015, Hawaii became the first state to pass a…
Published on 15 December 2015
The agreement, signed by 195 countries, states the “aim to reach global peaking of greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible”. Nations will cut their emissions “rapidly” and “in accordance with best available science” to reach a “balance” between manmade emissions and carbon removals from the atmosphere after 2050, the text says. In a departure from previous climate deals, the Paris agreement says all…
Published on 1 December 2015
The leaders arrived in Paris with high expectations and armed with promises to act. After decades of struggling negotiations and the failure of a summit in Copenhagen six years ago, some form of agreement - likely to be the strongest global climate pact yet - appears all but assured by mid-December. "What should give us hope that this is a turning point, that this…
Published on 1 December 2015
“The portion of the primary energy worldwide that comes from renewables is still small, perhaps only 13-14 per cent of the energy mix. The Asia-Pacific region accounts for a fraction of this, so clearly we are a long way from where we need to be,” says Pradeep Kurukulasuriya, the global lead on climate adaptation for the UN Development Programme. Renewable energy, forest preservation…
Published on 1 December 2015
To achieve that goal - which is tougher than the expected 2 degree Celsius cap at the talks - would require cutting carbon emissions to zero and adopting 100 percent renewable energy by 2050, the nations said. Meeting it would demand much higher ambition at the talks than is now on the table, with experts saying current pledges from over 180 nations to curb…
Published on 16 November 2015 Global
The synthesis report on the aggregate effect of the INDCs A report released by the UNFCCC secretariat assessed the collective impact of 119 separate INDCs from 147 Parties to the UNFCCC[1]. The final full document “Synthesis report on the aggregate effect of the intended nationally determined contributions” can be accessed here. The report notes that if fully implemented, these plans can significantly reduce the…
Published on 9 November 2015 Global
In a report, the bank said ending poverty - one of 17 new U.N. goals adopted in September - would be impossible if global warming and its effects on the poor were not accounted for in development efforts. But more ambitious plans to reduce climate-changing emissions - aimed at keeping global temperature rise within an internationally agreed limit of 2 degrees Celsius - must…
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