Tiempo Climate Newswatch

The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will come into force on February 16th 2005. The Russian Federation handed ratification papers to the United Nations last week. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomed the development as a "historic step forward," ending a "long period of uncertainty." The Kyoto Protocol was drafted in 1997.

With the Protocol’s entry into force: 1) industrialized nations must meet quantitative targets for limiting their greenhouse gas emissions, reducing their combined emissions of six major gases to 5.2 per cent below 1990 levels by the period 2008-2012; 2) the framework for an international carbon trading market will come into being; 3) the Clean Development Mechanism will move to full operation, encouraging investments in developing-country projects that limit emissions and are consistent with sustainable development goals; and 4) the Adaptation Fund will start preparations to assist developing countries cope with the impacts of climate change.

More information

• BBC
• UNFCCC Secretariat

• Statement by Kofi Annan
• Kyoto Protocol FAQ, BBC

The leaders of the Arctic peoples have slammed the United States for blocking international efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions. "The short-term economic policy of one country should not be able to trump the entire survival of one people," said Sheila Watt-Cloutier of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference. She was speaking at an international conference that launched the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment.

The foreign ministers of the Arctic Council countries, including the United States, meet on November 24th to discuss the implications of the Arctic Assessment. Indigenous leaders have called for a "robust" and "strong" declaration from this gathering. "To be honest I don't expect a good declaration," warned Geir Tommy Pedersen of the Saami Council. "The United States is the big bad wolf when it comes to climate policy. It is blocking efforts to flesh out political recommendations."

More information

• Terra Daily
• BBC

• Science Daily
• Download report

Tropical birds sing in response to cues in the environment. Climate change threatens to disrupt this behaviour and hence the breeding cycle, according to recent research. Scientists from Virginia Tech and the University of Washington, Seattle, compared the behaviour of the rufous-collared sparrow at two sites on either side of the Andes mountain range, only 25km apart but experiencing very different climatic conditions. The results showed differences in the timing of breeding and related variability in the song-control systems in the two populations.

Outside of the tropics, day-length triggers singing and the start of the breeding season, with testosterone the physiological cue. "We think it's probably still testosterone that causes tropical birds to sing," according to Ignacio Moore of Virginia Tech, but that, with day-length relatively constant, "the environmental cue is different." Climate change could be the reason for observed changes in breeding and migration in birds, he continued, "if the brain is truly sensitive to environmental cues, the changes due to global warming could have "effects we haven't thought of yet."

More information

• Science Daily

• Song of the rufous-collared sparrow, Andrés Sepúlveda