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Global temperatures will increase by around 3 degrees Celsius despite current efforts to cut emissions and to limit the temperature increase to below 2 degrees Celsius, researchers have found. It also stated that 100 INDCs included an adaptation component, which demonstrates the global imperative of adapting to climate change alongside efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Figueres said the collective plans have the capability…

As costs increase, cities are realizing that investing solely in traditional, built infrastructure isn’t always the best use of tight budgets. Instead, some urban areas are benefitting from natural infrastructure or “green” infrastructure, a strategically planned and managed system of natural lands, working landscapes and other natural soil and vegetation systems across a watershed or within a city, that perform many of same functions…

Rich countries have promised to mobilize $100bn a year by 2020 in climate finance for poor countries, and they remain well short of their target even though a number of key nations such as the UK, China and France have upped their funding pledges in recent weeks. But the total amount of investment required for the climate mitigation and adaptation measures necessary to limit…

Climate change could arrive with startling speed. New research has identified at least 37 “tipping points” that would serve as evidence that climate change has happened – and happened abruptly in one particular region. And 18 of them could happen even before the world warms by an average of 2°C, the proposed “safe limit” for global warming. Weather is what happens, climate is…

In earlier times, a natural disaster or sustained inclement weather would be followed by a tedious and lengthy insurance process with an expert being sent out to a farm to inspect the damage: too costly in poor or emerging countries where small holdings are often located in the back of beyond. But all that is in the past. Now climate-linked insurance schemes are increasingly…

“But unfortunately, on climate finance, today in the world…” “In the absence of an effective global response, annual economic losses due to climate change are projected to exceed $400 billion by 2030 for the V20, with impacts far surpassing our local or regional capabilities”, said Philippines Finance Minister Cesar Purisima. World Bank President Jim Yong Kim has lauded Bangladesh’s role in empowering women and…

Community-led initiatives that combat desertification, flooding and drought are widespread across Africa but need to be significantly scaled up and backed with research to avert the spiralling threat of food insecurity, according to the Montpellier Panel's assessment, published today (25 September). "Change will come from the bottom up as local people take action for themselves," says Ramadjita Tabo, one of the study's authors…

At the climate summit in Paris, governments will gather to decide upon a universal climate agreement that should send clear signals the world is accelerating toward a future with less pollution and much more clean energy. The agreement must also detail how countries around the world are going to regularly ramp up their efforts. Many details remain to be resolved, but the events of the…

100 million of these reef-reliant peoples live in the Coral Triangle – singled out in the report as “richer in marine natural capital” than anywhere else on earth. Currently, fisheries exports from the Coral Triangle – which encompasses the waters of Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Timor Leste – amount to around $5bn (£3.3bn), including 30% of the global tuna…

German photographer Kerstin Langenberger sighted the bear stranded on an ice floe, its bones visible through its wet fur, in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago, far north of the Arctic Circle. She posted the image to Facebook on Aug. 20, writing that the bear’s terrible condition was not an unusual sight. The photo quickly made its way from Facebook to other social and viral news media…

Carbon pricing, including emissions trading schemes from California to China, now covers about 12 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions in a sign of momentum before a U.N. summit on climate change in Paris in December, it said. The number of carbon pricing instruments, both implemented or planned, has risen to 38 from 20 since 2012, it said. South Korea began carbon trading this…

“It’s clear that climate change is going to have dramatic consequences for disaster risk reduction, particularly for poorer countries,” said Mr. Phil Evans, Government Services Director at the United Kingdom’s Met Office. The scale of the challenge makes it all the more important to seize the unique opportunity of 2015, given that this year sees three interlocking events: The World Conference, then a…

“What was surprising to me was that even in the most benign scenario, the drought effects are quite severe,” said Tom Oliver, the lead author of the new study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, and an ecologist at the Center for Ecology and Hydrology. The study relies on data from 129 sites at which 28 butterfly species are tracked in the UK…

Although the melting of glaciers is a well-documented effect of climate change, a new study has now shown how alarming this rate of ice-loss is. According to the study, published in the International Glaciological Society’s Journal of Glaciology, the first decade of the twenty-first century witnessed a “historically unprecedented” rate of glacial ice melt. “The observed glaciers currently lose between half a metre and…

All of this is according to a study published this week in Nature Climate Change. In the study, a group of researchers took a close look at data collected in 2007 and 2008 by the Gallup World Poll. Research on public perceptions of climate change is a new field, and until this point has been dominated by studies in Australia, the United States, and…

Quality of life in urban areas is already compromised by air, water and noise pollution. However, climate change threatens the services essential to urban living. Moreover, on current urban population growth trends, the impacts of climate change can only get worse. More than half of the world’s population – around 54 % – already live in urban areas and by 2050, the global urban…

For the new study published in the journal Science on Thursday, scientists have found that the abrupt climate changes over the course of the Late Pleistocene era, which goes back at least 50 years ago, could explain the disappearance of the large mammals. The researchers compared the data on the extinction of megafaunal species with records of severe climate events and found an association…

MANILA: At a conference in Paris on Jul 7-10, more than 2,000 scientists discussed debated and proposed ideas on dealing with the effects of climate change. Momentum is building ahead of the UN conference on climate change at the end of the year. It aims to reach a deal to limit global warming to a 2°C rise in temperature, but this will not be…

There is a willingness from the developed countries and even from some emerging economies to provide that money. But there is still no agreement on how to channel the funds, or which countries should be prioritized. This has been the most difficult question over the years. It could be argued that there are poor and vulnerable communities in every country, including the developed countries…

The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces last month was the highest logged in 136 years. Temperatures in June 2015, at 0.88°C above the 20th century average of 15.5°C, surpassed the previous record set just one year ago by 0.12°C. Unusually high temperatures were also logged in February, March and May of this year.Land records The global land temperature in June…