Impact of Climate Change can be likened to WMD by AFP / The Independent / BBC / AP / The Daily Times 9:34pm 28th Nov, 2005   December 8, 2005    Global climate change talks face stalemate. (AFP)    A global conference on curbing dangerous climate change is facing negotiation gridlock as environment ministers prepare for a three-day meeting in Montreal.    Their talks, crowning a 12-day informal gathering, are under mounting pressure to come up with a commitment for making deeper cuts in emissions of "greenhouse" gases blamed for disrupting the planet"s fragile climate system.    But a wide rift between the United States and Europe means the conference may have a hard time even drafting a compromise on how to go forward, sources here said.    The conference is taking place under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the fruit of the 1992 Rio Summit in which the world"s leaders painted a grim tableau of environmental ills and set down on a path to cure them.    The UNFCCC"s offshoot is the Kyoto Protocol, whose target is the carbon-based gases that act like an invisible blanket, trapping the Sun"s heat and driving up the planet"s surface temperature.    The protocol finally took effect in February this year after a long and agonising gestation marked notably by the walkout of the United States - the world"s number one polluter, in 2001.    It runs out in 2012, and even if its pledges are fully met, the outcome will make only a tiny dent in the problem.    Unrestrained by Kyoto, the oil-addicted United States is continuing to spew out carbon pollution, and it is being joined by China and India, which are gobbling up fossil fuels to power their surging economies.    In the present Kyoto format, only advanced industrialised countries are required to make cuts in their pollution levels, as compared to a benchmark of 1990 levels.    Given that the post-2012 commitment period will take several years to negotiate, countries are now staking out their position in Montreal as to how, and even whether, to insist on binding cuts in emissions, and how far emerging countries should be capped.    The United States has angrily warned off anyone attempting to coax it into legally-binding caps.    President George W Bush, who in the past questioned the very evidence for global warming, says that a voluntary approach, helped by new, cleaner technology, will provide the answer.    That notion is scorned in Europe, the world"s most environmentally-sensitive region, where governments are willing to endorse tougher regulations, such as fuel-efficiency targets and tax breaks for alternative energy, and believe that an emissions cap is the only way to use market mechanisms to help the cleanup.    Greenpeace campaigner Steve Sawyer said he was optimistic the talks would eventually yield a big vote of confidence for Kyoto, possibly setting up an ad-hoc group to launch the post-2012 negotiations.    "It"s messy, but it"s all still to play for," he told AFP. "There"s a lot of goodwill (for Kyoto) from developing countries."    Driven by the use of oil, gas and coal to drive economic growth in the 20th century, atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) today are at their highest in 650,000 years.    A molecule of CO2 takes around a century to degrade and be absorbed by the Earth"s biosphere, which means that even if drastic steps are taken today, the volume in the atmosphere will have a "greenhouse" effect for centuries to come.    Scientists generally say that if the world wants to keep to the bottom end of the temperature rise, global emissions of CO2 will have to peak in 2020 and then fall to half of today"s levels by 2095.    By comparison, the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that on current trends, CO2 emissions will surge by 63 per cent over 2002 levels by 2030.    November 30, 2005.    Global warming set to hit Europe badly. (AFP)    Europe is facing the worst climate change in five millennia as a result of global warming, the European Environment Agency (EAA) has warned in a report.    Europe"s four hottest years on record were 1998, 2002, 2003 and 2004, the agency says. "Ten per cent of Alpine glaciers disappeared during the summer of 2003 alone," the report said. "At current rates, three-quarters of Switzerland"s glaciers will have melted by 2050. Europe has not seen climate changes on this scale for 5,000 years."    The report was issued at the agency"s headquarters in Copenhagen, coinciding with the first full day of debate at key United Nations (UN) talks on curbing the greenhouse gases that stoke global warming.    In the 20th century, the average global temperature rose 0.7 degrees Celsius as a result of burning coal, gas and coal - the carbon fuels that are mainly to blame for the rise.    But the rise in Europe was 0.95 degrees Celsius, 35 per cent higher, because of the continent"s vulnerable location and smaller land mass, the EAA says.    "Without effective action over several decades, global warming will see ice sheets melting in the north and the spread of deserts from the south. The continent"s population could effectively be concentrated in the centre," EAA executive director Jacqueline McGlade said.    The European Union is striving to limit the overall global rise in temperature to 2 degrees Celsius by implementing the UN"s Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse-gas pollution and encouraging the use of cleaner resources.    But Mr McGlade warned: "Even if we constrain global warming to the EU target of a two-degree (Celsius) increase, we will be living in atmospheric conditions that human beings have never experienced. Deeper cuts in emissions are needed".    The report, "The European Environment -- State and Outlook 2005," is an assessment of environmental quality in 31 countries that is published every five years.    November 29, 2005    “Impact of Climate Change can be likened to WMD”, by Steve Connor. (The Independent / UK)    Climate change can be likened in its destructive scale to the effects of using weapons of mass destruction, according to Britain"s leading scientist.    Lord May of Oxford, the president of the Royal Society, will say that the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina is an example of the sort of extreme weather event that climate change can trigger.    The impacts of climate change are many and serious, he contends. They include rising sea levels, changes in the availability of drinking water, and an increase in the risk of extreme weather such as floods, droughts and hurricanes.    Lord May, a former chief scientist for the Government, will say the seriousness of weather extremes, exemplified by Katrina"s impact on New Orleans, invite comparison with weapons of mass destruction".    In his final address to the Royal Society as its president, and to coincide with the Montreal meeting on climate change, Lord May criticised US President George Bush for failing to follow through on the climate change commitments made by his father when he was president.    The current President Bush failed even to mention climate change, global warming or greenhouse gases in a 2,700-word speech on energy that he made immediately after the Gleneagles G8 communiqué, Lord May said, "In short, we have here a classic example of the problem or paradox of co-operation ... the science tells us clearly we need to act now to reduce inputs of greenhouse gases but unless all countries act in equitable proportions, the virtuous will be economically disadvantaged while all suffer the consequences of the sinners" inaction. In this sense, the climate-change disaster which looms this century is an appallingly large-scale experiment in the social sciences."    "If this experiment is to end in success for humankind, then it is essential that progress be made at the Montreal meeting." Carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas generated by man-made emissions, has risen from 280 parts per million (ppm) before the Industrial Revolution to 380 ppm today. It is projected to increase to 500 ppm by the middle of the century.    "It is worth noting that the last time our planet experienced greenhouse gas levels as high as 500 ppm was some 20 to 40 million years ago, when sea levels were around 100m higher than today."Average global temperatures were projected to rise by between 1.4C and 5.8C by 2100 because of global warming, yet many, including some economists, found it difficult to grasp the significance of the figures given that daily temperatures could fluctuate by as much as 10C.    "There is a huge difference between daily fluctuations, and global averages sustained year on year; the difference in average global temperatures between today and the last ice age is only about 5C."    Lord May said that the Montreal meeting should initiate a study of target levels for greenhouse gas emissions as a basis for discussing an action plan. Countries must sever the link between economic growth and increasing emissions of greenhouse gases.    "Appropriately constructed economic instruments, such as a carbon tax, could help motivate a reappraisal of this perverse message. Initiating such a study of target levels in Montreal should not diminish the pressure for all countries to start cutting emissions now."    28 November 2005    Climate summit opens in Montreal. (BBC News)    The first United Nations climate conference since the Kyoto agreement came into force in February has opened with the US still resisting targets.    Delegates meeting in the Canadian city of Montreal are to discuss how targets on cutting greenhouse gas emissions over the next seven years will be met. They will also look at what measures will follow in 2012 when Kyoto expires.    As the talks opened, Canada urged wider participation in measures to tackle "a terrible danger for the planet". The host government is trying to find a formula which would enable the US, other industrialised countries and the developing nations to unite under a combined statement on future action. Thousands of scientists, officials and environmentalists are attending 12 days of talks.    US resistance    The US, which fears the Kyoto deal could harm development and economic growth, has in any case said it would resist the Canadian proposal. President Bush"s chief environmental advisor, James Connaughton, made clear the US would not support binding targets. Because the US has not ratified Kyoto, it will take no formal part in discussions held under its provisions.    However, the Americans do have a place at the table in Montreal, because they are participants in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change - the broader agreement which gave rise to the legally binding protocol.    Canadian Environment Minister Stephane Dion said he was interested in seeking a rapprochement amongst countries with different views on the best approach to tackling climate change. "Let us set our sights on a more effective, more inclusive long-term approach to climate change... More action is required now," he said at the opening of the conference.    Environmental pressure groups argue it is pointless to attempt to re-engage the Bush administration on meaningful worldwide action on global warming. "The one thing... we cannot afford is to allow this US administration to hold the rest of the world hostage while they go on about voluntary this and voluntary that," Steve Sawyer of Greenpeace told the BBC.    UK government officials, negotiating on behalf of the EU as Britain holds the current presidency, are determined to use the Montreal talks to demonstrate that binding targets on cutting greenhouse gas emissions are here to stay. They also believe flexibility will be needed in the measures developing countries may be persuaded to adopt to limit the growth in their own emissions as their economies expand.    The BBC"s correspondent in Montreal, Liz Blunt, says even big emitters of CO2 like India and China may be happy to reduce emissions if they can do it without hampering their rapid development.    Montreal, November 28, 2005    "U.N. Climate conference to open in Canada", by Beth Duff-Brown. (AP Wrter)    Thousands of environmentalists and government officials from around the world have descended on Montreal to brainstorm on how to slow the effects of climate change.    The U.N. conference, with some 10,000 participants from 180 nations, is considered the most important gathering on climate change since 140 nations ratified the Kyoto Protocol in 1997.    That landmark agreement, negotiated in Japan"s ancient capital of Kyoto, targets carbon dioxide and five other gases that trap heat in the atmosphere, and are believed to be behind rising global temperatures that many scientists say are disrupting weather patterns.    The treaty took effect in February and calls on industrialized nations to dramatically cut their gas emissions between 2008 and 2012. The conference that opens Monday will set new agreements on how much more emissions should be cut after 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol expires, though most signatories are already falling far short of their targets.    The European Union appears to be taking the lead, endorsing a plan in June to bring emissions of greenhouses gases down 15 percent to 30 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.    The Kyoto accord was delayed by the requirement that countries accounting for 55 percent of the world"s emissions must ratify it. That goal was finally reached - nearly seven years after the pact was negotiated - with Russia"s approval last year.    The United States, the world"s largest emitter of such gases, has refused to ratify the agreement, saying it would harm the U.S. economy and is flawed by the lack of restrictions on emissions by emerging economies such as China and India.    Kyoto calls on the world"s top 35 industrialized countries to cut carbon dioxide and other gas emissions by 5.2 percent below their 1990 levels by 2012.    The targets for cuts vary by region: The European Union initially committed to cutting emissions to 8 percent below 1990 levels by 2012; the United States agreed to a 7 percent reduction before President Bush, who advocates the development of alternatives to fossil fuels, rejected the pact in 2001.    The conference comes amid new research showing there is now more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere - a major contributor to greenhouse gases - than at any point in the last 650,000 years. The study by the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica, published earlier this month in the journal Science, analyzed tiny air bubbles preserved in Antarctic ice for millennia.    Earth"s average temperature, meanwhile, has increased about 1 degree Fahrenheit in recent decades, a relatively rapid rise. Many climate specialists warn that continued warming could have severe effects, such as rising sea levels and changing rainfall patterns, variations already devastating ancient communities and wildlife, such as the Inuit and polar bears of Canada"s far northeastern regions.    Skeptics sometimes dismiss the rise in greenhouse gases as part of a naturally fluctuating cycle. The new study provides more definitive evidence countering that view.    Deep Antarctic ice encases tiny air bubbles formed over hundreds of thousands of years. Extracting the air allows a direct measurement of the atmosphere at past points in time, to determine the naturally fluctuating range.    A previous ice-core sample had traced greenhouse gases back about 440,000 years. This new sample, from East Antarctica, goes 210,000 years further back in time.    Today"s rising level of carbon dioxide already is 27 percent higher than its peak during all that time, said lead researcher Thomas Stocker of the University of Bern, Switzerland.    November 28, 2005    "Changing climate change", by Jeffrey Sachs. (The Daily Times - Pakistan)    Fossil fuels are plentiful, but harmful; renewable sources like wind are good for the climate but not plentiful. Solar power is plentiful but not cheap. Nuclear power is plentiful but not safe. Improved technologies can offer a way out of this bind, but only if we think and act ahead    The 10 warmest years on record have all occurred since 1990, and 2005 is likely to be the warmest ever. This year, we"ve gotten a taste of the many kinds of dangers that lie ahead: more extreme hurricanes, massive droughts, forest fires, spreading infectious diseases, and floods. The climate is changing, and more is yet to come.    The world"s governments will meet in Montreal at the end of November to plot the next steps, including specific measures that the world could adopt if the Bush administration abandoned its wilful neglect of this critical issue.    Climate change is equated with global warming, but much more than warming is involved. The rising concentration of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases is leading to more extreme storms, higher-intensity hurricanes, rising ocean levels, melting glaciers and ice sheets, droughts, floods and other climate changes. Even the chemistry of the land and ocean is changing, with the ocean becoming more acidic, thus threatening coral reefs, as a result of higher carbon dioxide concentration.    The specific patterns of change are not known precisely, but the risks of continuing on our current global course are widely appreciated. Yet the United States has refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol, which does little to change the long-term course of events on the planet, since it calls for only small steps up to the year 2012.    Under the terms of the UN treaty on climate change, the signatories, virtually the whole world, are to gather each year to discuss the treaty"s implementation. The conference in Montreal, the 11th such meeting, should look beyond 2012, so that the world gets onto a safe and sustainable long-term climate path.    The actions that are needed are difficult to introduce, because they go to the heart of the world"s use of energy, particularly its use of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and gas), which, when burnt, release carbon dioxide - the key source of rising greenhouse gases - into the atmosphere. Yet the world economy depends on fossil fuels, and developing countries will need to use more, not less, of them as their economies grow. Even if the world runs out of oil and gas in the coming years, coal will prove to be plentiful, and solid coal can be converted at relatively low cost to liquid fuels for automobiles and other uses.    Unfortunately, clean, renewable energy sources that do not emit carbon dioxide, such as wind power and geothermal power, are not yet sufficient. Solar power can be produced on the required scale but is too expensive under current technologies. Nuclear power is relatively cheap, and could be plentiful, but poses huge dangers for increased proliferation of nuclear-weapons materials.    So: fossil fuels are plentiful, but harmful; renewable sources like wind are good for the climate but not plentiful. Solar power is plentiful but not cheap. Nuclear power is plentiful but not safe.    Improved technologies can offer a way out of this bind, but only if we think and act ahead. There are two main kinds of technologies that look most promising. The first is energy conservation through more fuel-efficient vehicles. New hybrid automobiles, pioneered by Toyota, use both gasoline and electric power to boost gasoline efficiency approximately two-fold. A massive changeover to more fuel-efficient vehicles would make a big difference, especially as the numbers of vehicles on the road soars in China, India, and other developing countries.    The second big technology that could make a major difference is called carbon capture and storage. The idea is to capture the carbon dioxide that is emitted in power plants and other big factories when fossil fuels are burned, thereby preventing it from entering the atmosphere. The captured carbon is then pumped into underground storage sites such as empty oil fields and other suitable locations.    All of the key aspects of the technology capturing the carbon dioxide, putting it into pipelines for shipment, and then depositing it underground - have already been demonstrated, but they have not yet been tried, and proven, on a large scale. There is strong evidence, however, that it would not cost the world huge amounts to undertake large-scale carbon capture and storage.    The problem is timing. The changeover of the world"s vehicles to hybrid and other efficient technologies will take decades, not years. So will the changeover of power plants to carbon capture and storage. If we procrastinate, the dangers posed by climate change will confront us as we talk, debate, and plan. The world needs to start acting soon, very soon, if it is to head off the major threats.    All major regions of the world will need to be involved. Today"s developing countries are not yet major emitters of carbon dioxide, but with economic growth they will become so. Therefore, all countries, both developed and developing, need to do their part, with rich countries helping poor countries cover the financial costs of adjustment.    Plenty of carbon dioxide will be emitted into the atmosphere as the world"s climate negotiators fly to and from the Montreal meeting. Let"s press our governments to make real progress when they meet; otherwise they will be merely adding to the problem.    (Jeffrey Sachs is professor of economics and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University)    24 November 2005    "CO2 highest for 650,000 years", by Richard Black. (BBC News)    Current levels of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere are higher now than at any time in the past 650,000 years. That is the conclusion of new European studies looking at ice taken from 3km below the surface of Antarctica.    The scientists say their research shows present day warming to be exceptional. Other research, also published in the journal Science, suggests that sea levels may be rising twice as fast now as in previous centuries.    The evidence on atmospheric concentrations comes from an Antarctic region called Dome Concordia (Dome C). Over a five year period commencing in 1999, scientists working with the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (Epica) have drilled 3,270m into the Dome C ice, which equates to drilling nearly 900,000 years back in time.    Gas bubbles trapped as the ice formed yield important evidence of the mixture of gases present in the atmosphere at that time, and of temperature. "One of the most important things is we can put current levels of carbon dioxide and methane into a long-term context," said project leader Thomas Stocker from the University of Bern, Switzerland.    "We find that CO2 is about 30% higher than at any time, and methane 130% higher than at any time; and the rates of increase are absolutely exceptional: for CO2, 200 times faster than at any time in the last 650,000 years."    Another study reported in the same journal claims that for the last 150 years, sea levels have been rising twice as fast as in previous centuries..
	Next (more recent) news item
	Next (older) news item