Tiempo Climate Newswatch

Listing the "planet in peril" alongside two wars and the financial crisis in his acceptance speech, United States president-elect Barack Obama has made climate change a priority. There is speculation that a bill aimed specifically at boosting the renewable energy industry may come early next year, before a more wide-ranging climate bill, which is described as "mid-to-long-term solution" on Obama's campaign website.

The goal of Obama's climate plan is to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by the year 2050. Under a cap-and-trade programme, emissions credits would be auctioned rather than allocated at no charge to polluters. "Barack Obama could well put off a costly and regressive surcharge until later in 2009 or 2010," reckons Kevin Book at Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co in Arlington, Virginia. Noting that Obama is committed to engaging in the international climate treaty negotiations, Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat, observed that "leadership from the United States on this issue can have a huge impact on the dynamics of these negotiations."

Greenpeace has launched the Forests for Climate (FFC) initiative, which was announced earlier this year. The aim of the initiative is to slow deforestation and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The FFC is a non-market mechanism, intended as an alternative to the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation mechanism, which is supported by the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility.

The basis for the FFC will be Tropical Deforestation Emission Reduction Units (TDERUs). Industrialized nations would have to meet part of their emissions obligations using TDERUs. The resulting funds would be used for "capacity-building efforts and for national-level reductions in deforestation emissions." It is claimed that the FFC is "the only mechanism that involves local and indigenous forest peoples' representatives to ensure their rights and livelihoods are respected."

Italy, Poland and other east European nations, concerned about costs, may weaken European Union (EU) plans to cut carbon emissions by a fifth by the year 2020. Last month, Silvio Berlusconi, Italian prime minister, threatened to veto the plan in order to protect his nations's manufacturers and auto industry.

East European countries want to be able to continue to allocate free carbon emission permits to their power plants under the EU's emissions trading scheme. Poland also wants a stronger link between the climate plan and energy security. Donald Tusk, Poland's prime minister, noted that "the entire European Union has understood the need for secure energy supplies." "We want to deftly tie this to the climate package," he continued. Tusk is concerned that "not all the proposals in the climate and energy package increase the security of energy supplies." There is hope that a compromise can be achieved. "We don't want to block or veto anything really and we hope we will be able to agree it in the end," commented Mirek Topolánek, Czech prime minister.

China has called on the developed nations to commit one per cent of domestic product to assist poorer countries in cutting their greenhouse gas emissions. The financial support, which would largely cover the transfer of green technology, could amount to more then US$300 billion a year. Even such large funds "might not be enough," said Gao Guangsheng of the National Reform and Development Commission. He observed that the developing nations had not fulfilled "some of the promises they made in the past very well."

In a new policy paper on climate change, China repeats its longstanding position that developed countries should take the lead in reducing emissions in view of their historic responsibility and current high level of emissions. It does, though, conclude that developing countries "should actively adopt adaptation measures, reduce their emissions to the lowest degree and fulfill their duties in addressing climate change."

"If we want to tackle climate change challenges, we must look to the untapped potential of the soil to sequester carbon," according to Luc Gnacadja, executive secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). "By doing that, we are improving biodiversity of the soil ecosystem and improving the productivity of the soil, therefore impacting the livelihoods of affected populations," he continued. He argued that tackling desertification and land degradation could help address ongoing global crises. For example, improving land productivity will also boost the capacity to produce more food and therefore tackle the issue of food security. "An ecosystem is like a bank account," he noted. "If we keep on withdrawing, and we don’t invest by feeding the soil and enabling it to regenerate, we are moving towards bankruptcy."

Experts met late October in West Lafayette, Indiana, in the United States, under the auspices of the United Nations, to discuss how the agriculture sector could benefit from funding available through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). "This is a win-win-win opportunity," said Theodor Friedrich from the Food and Agriculture Organization. "We have a chance to slow climate change, help poor farmers make a better living and improve soil health and productivity all at the same time." At present, though agriculture is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, it receives little funding through the CDM. Approaches such as no-till Conservation Agriculture could retain significant amounts of carbon in the soil.

"If our demands on the planet continue to increase at the same rate, by the mid-2030s we would need the equivalent of two planets to maintain our lifestyles," concludes James Leape, head of WWF International. Leape was speaking at the launch of the latest WWF Living Planet Report, which documents the world's evolving ecological footprint. The depletion rate of natural resources now exceeds the planet's capacity to regenerate by 30 per cent.

"We are acting ecologically in the same way as financial institutions have been behaving economically - seeking immediate gratification without due regard for the consequences," commented Jonathan Loh of the Zoological Society of London. The nations with the largest ecological footprint per person are the United Arab Emirates, the United States, Kuwait, Denmark, Australia and New Zealand.

The world needs a Green New Deal as political efforts to protect the environment have proven totally inadequate, according to Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations Environment Programme. "The financial, fuel and food crises of 2008 are in part a result of speculation and a failure of governments to intelligently manage and focus markets. But they are also part of a wider market failure triggering ever deeper and disturbing losses of natural capital and nature-based assets coupled with an over-reliance of finite, often subsidized fossil fuels," he argued as the Green Economy Initiative was launched.

The Green Economy Initiative rests on three pillars: valuing and mainstreaming nature's services into national and international accounts; employment generation through green jobs and the laying out the policies; and instruments and market signals able to accelerate a transition to a Green Economy. Steiner emphasized the "enormous economic, social and environmental benefits likely to arise from combating climate change and re-investing in natural infrastructure - benefits ranging from new green jobs in clean tech and clean energy businesses up to ones in sustainable agriculture and conservation-based enterprises."

A new report from the Chinese Academy of Sciences predicts that the nation's greenhouse gas emissions could double over the next twenty years. The authors of China Energy Report 2008 estimate that, by the year 2030, China's burning of fossil fuels could emit between 11.4 and 14.7 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide. Global carbon dioxide emissions in 2007 were estimated to be about 31.2 billion tonnes.

The authors conclude that, regardless of historical responsibility, China's development path "cannot repeat the unconstrained emissions of developed countries' energy use. We must soon prepare and plan ahead to implement emissions reduction concepts and measures in a long-term and stable energy development strategy." Nevertheless, echoing the government line, economic development must not be sacrificed to climate mitigation. European environment ministers have called on the major developing nations to cut emissions by 15 to 30 per cent below a "business as usual" level as part of a post-Kyoto climate framework.

The United States Department of the Interior is to make more than 190 million acres of federal land available for the development of geothermal electricity generation. Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced that electricity production in the areas to be leased could meet the power needs of 5.5 million homes by the year 2015. Land in the National Park System would not be available for leasing.

The United Kingdom has taken over from Denmark as the world's largest generator of energy from off-shore wind turbines. Mike O'Brien, minister of state for the department of energy and climate change, said that "offshore wind is hugely important to help realize the government's ambition to dramatically increase the amount of energy from renewable sources. Overtaking Denmark is just the start. This will help in the fight against climate change and further secure the UK's energy supplies." The British government plans to boost power generation from wind farms by a third over the course of the coming year and what will be the world's largest wind farm, the Greater Gabbard scheme, should be completed by 2011. It intends to meet 15 per cent of the nations' energy needs by renewable energy sources by the year 2020.

There are fears that the world's poor will be overlooked as the global financial crisis develops. "Who will compensate the innocent countries who are going to suffer from this debacle?" asked John Michuki, Kenya's acting finance minister, last week. "An estimated 1.8 trillion [US] dollars has been found in a matter of weeks to bail out investment bankers. It is outrageous that the world's poorest people, suffering daily from soaring food and fuel prices, are still waiting for their rescue package," commented Shefali Sharma of ActionAid.

In Ethiopia, over six million people now require food assistance. "General food insecurity, prevalence of acute malnutrition, severe pasture and critical water shortages in the livestock sector and drought-induced diseases have exacerbated the emergency situation," reported Mitiku Kassa, minister of agriculture and rural development. The government and international humanitarian partners have appealed for US$265.6 million for food supplies. "The competition to secure these scarce resources has progressively become rather fierce," Mitiku said. "We, as part of the global community, are feeling the impact of the global food constraints."

The California Air Resources Board has released the final version of its new climate change law (AB32). The law combines direct regulations and market incentives with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020. "Our comprehensive approach steers California away from its dependence on fossil fuels and accelerates the state's necessary transition toward a clean-energy future," said Mary Nichols, chairwoman of the Board.

The regulations will lead to reduced greenhouse-gas emissions from vehicles and a lower fuel carbon content. There will be stricter efficiency standards for buildings and appliances. A third of power generated by utilities must be from renewable sources by 2020. The plan also covers a new emissions trading system, restrictions on urban sprawl and new training programmes to move workers toward "green-collar" jobs. The plan has its critics. According to Margo Thorning of the American Council for Capital Formation, the law "will result in a lot of economic pain for Californians." "The cap and trade system will cause 'leakage' of industry to states and countries with no mandatory emission caps resulting in job losses and higher energy prices. This is a high price-tag to pay for no net reduction in greenhouse gases," she continued.

The American Museum of Natural History in New York has launched a new exhibition on climate change. Curator Edmond Mathez proposed the show as he was frustrated that the public was not responding to the alarm voiced by scientists. "The news media was presenting climate change as a controversial issue, which is complete nonsense, it's not," he said.

"Presenting the latest information about what climate change is, what causes it, and alternative energy options, the exhibition makes clear both that there is no single solution for addressing this imperative issue and that a combination of individual and society actions are necessary to, and can successfully, mitigate it," said Ellen V Futter, the museum's president. There are interactive displays where visitors can commit to changes in their behaviour by, for example, recycling, improving energy efficiency or altering transportation use. The show will travel to Spain, Denmark, Mexico and Abu Dhabi after closing in New York in August 2009.

Fears are growing that the global financial crisis may weaken prospects for a strong climate pact. "The problem of climate change is going to stick with us. But the pace and the scale of ambition may be less in the near term," reckons Elliot Diringer at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change in Washington DC. Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat, is concerned that failure to meet the 2009 deadline in the Bali roadmap might mean a "slide into a WTO-like process that goes on without a clearly agreed deadline or, perhaps even worse, that you get a highly fragmented approach to climate change."

Others see potential benefits. "It's the environmental opportunity of a lifetime," said Bill Valentine of the HOK Group. "The heart of sustainability is conserving and not wasting, and this idea of getting clients to think about projects that are actually less expensive rather than more expensive and still sustainable these days gets a lot of good traction," he continued. Others see benefits in lower greenhouse gas emissions. "It's a cruel thing to say... but if we are looking at a slowdown in the economy, there will be less fossil fuels burning, so for the climate it could be an advantage," observed Paul Crutzen of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, Germany.

"The battle for life on earth will be won or lost in cities," warned Ahmed Djoghlaf, executive secretary of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, interviewed by Reuters at the annual congress of the International Union for Conservation of Nature in Barcelona, Spain. He would like to see more cities adopt the Curitiba Declaration on Cities and Biodiversity developed in Brazil, whereby 34 mayors agreed to protect biodiversity by, for example, setting aside more land for parks, planting trees, shifting to renewable fuels and improving recycling.

"Forests have a unique ability to simultaneously reduce greenhouse gas emissions, capture carbon and lessen the vulnerability of people and ecosystems to climate change," according to a statement from the Forests Dialogue alliance put before the congress. The alliance said forest carbon storage projects should not be a substitute for deep cuts in industrial emissions of greenhouse gases and must aim to curb poverty, strengthen land rights, safeguard indigenous peoples and improve forest management. The statement on forests and climate change aims to guide the climate treaty negotiators in the inclusion of forest protection.

Brazil has released for consultation a national plan to address climate change and its impacts. "Brazil has done its part in the mitigation of climate change and is determined and committed to doing more, using its full national capacity as part of an overall effort to combat climate change," the plan states. "This initiative is important because it helps to incorporate climate issues into all government programmes and projects," commented Suzana Kahn Ribeiro, secretary of climate change and environment quality of the Ministry of Environment.

The National Plan on Climate Change covers mitigation, vulnerability, impacts and adaptation, research and development and empowerment and public awareness. It sets sectoral targets to be met by promoting sustainable development in the industrial and agricultural sectors, maintaining a high proportion of renewable energy in electricity production, encouraging the use of biofuels in the transportation sector and reducing deforestation. A moratorium on the selling of soybeans from deforested areas of the Brazilian Amazon is proposed.

The latest global data show that the growth in atmospheric carbon levels continues to accelerate. "This new update of the carbon budget shows the acceleration of both carbon dioxide emissions and atmospheric accumulation are unprecedented and most astonishing during a decade of intense international developments to address climate change," commented Pep Canadell, executive director of the Global Carbon Project.

Emissions growth over the period 2000-2007 was four times faster than in the previous decade, and was greater than even the most fossil fuel-intensive projection by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Carbon emissions from the combustion of fossil fuel and land use change reached 10 billion tons in 2007. Natural carbon sinks are growing but slower than the growth in atmospheric carbon concentrations.

"Blaming cities for greenhouse gas emissions misses the point that cities are a large part of the solution," argues David Satterthwaite of the International Institute for Environment and Development in London. "Well-planned, well-governed cities can provide high living standards that do not require high consumption levels and high greenhouse gas emissions."

Satterthwaite reckons previous studies have over-estimated urban emissions. He recommends that emissions be allocated to consumers rather than producers. "The problem is not cities but a minority of the world’s population with high-consumption lifestyles. A large proportion of these consumers live not in cities but in small towns and rural areas," he concludes.

South Africans consider climate change a serious threat but are more concerned about other problems, according to a recent survey. "When we asked people what the most important challenges facing South Africa were, the list started with unemployment, HIV/AIDS, economic issues and poverty. The environment was number 10. If you're not sure where your next meal is coming from, it's more pressing than something that will affect future generations," said John Seager of the Human Sciences Research Council.

Grace Bent, Nigerian senator, has called for urgent assessment of the impact of development projects, which, she fears, may be making her nation more vulnerable to climate change. Speaking at a conference in the United Kingdom earlier this year, she said that "environmental impact assessment must be conducted on some of these things they call environmental developmental projects in Lagos." "That is why at the senate level, we are putting every machinery in place and that is why senate committee is working on the Climate Commission Bill," she continued.

A British jury has accepted that six campaigners had a "lawful excuse" in causing more than £35,000 worth of damage to a coal-fired power station to prevent greater damage caused by climate change. James Hansen of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in the United States testified at the trial regarding the dangers posed by global warming and called for a moratorium on all coal-fired power stations.

"This verdict marks a tipping point for the climate change movement," commented defendant Ben Stewart from Greenpeace. "When a jury of normal people say it is legitimate for a direct action group to shut down a coal-fired power station because of the harm it does to our planet, then where does that leave Government energy policy? We have the clean technologies at hand to power our economy. It's time we turned to them instead of coal," he added.

The United Nations has launched the Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation Programme (UN-REDD), which could provide the foundation for a tradeable carbon credit system. "Forests are worth more alive than dead... and their ecosystem services and benefits are worth billions if not trillions of dollars if only we capture these in economic models," commented Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations Environment Programme.

Nine countries - Bolivia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Indonesia, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Tanzania, Vietnam and Zambia - will receive assistance during the initial phase. It is hoped that UN-REDD will be included in any post-Kyoto agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. "Reducing deforestation in developing countries is a key element of addressing the global climate change challenge," said Ban Ki-moon, United Nations secretary-general.

The nation's first cap-and-trade market in greenhouse gas emissions has opened in the United States, with ten northeastern states, under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, conducting an initial auction of permits. By the year 2012, the region's power companies must stabilize emissions at current levels or else turn in permits bought in the market. The emissions cap will be lowered ten per cent from current levels by 2019.

There is concern regarding just how the revenue will be spent. "There is a real danger that auction proceeds will be diverted to state budgets rather than used to accelerate the transition to a clean-energy economy," warned a New York Times editorial. Laurie Burt, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, commented that "we need to develop creative ways to make sure the benefits of energy efficiency are going to all ends of the spectrum of energy consumers, not just large consumers, but low income citizens and tenants."

"This is the most effective and least expensive way to safeguard the environment," said Jens Stoltenberg, Norwegian prime minister, as he signed a US$1 billion agreement to prevent deforestation in Brazil. The agreement covers the first contribution to the Amazon Fund, set up by the Brazilian government in August this year. The new fund aims to raise US$21 billion over 13 years for conservation and sustainable development.

"The Amazon Fund breaks new ground because money is only paid out if deforestation is actually halted," commented Lars Løvold from the Rainforest Foundation. Payments will be dependent on assessments of annual deforestation rates based on satellite data. Norway and Brazil will also cooperate in research and development in the areas of forest surveillance and carbon emissions assessment.

Richard Blakeway, environmental advisor to Boris Johnson, London's mayor, has recommended promoting green roofs to demonstrate the city's commitment to environmental protection in the run-up to the 2012 Olympics. "The mayor has very much put green roofs at the centre of his [climate change] adaptation policy and his city greening policy," he said. With energy use reduced due to the increase in insulation, one scheme in Canary Wharf is saving over £5,000 a year, he reported. The city of Sydney, in Australia, is developing guidelines and planning controls for green roofs.

Lighter colours for roofs, which would increase the amount of solar radiation reflected back to space, is the recommendation of a team of researchers in the United States. "The potential energy savings in the United States is in excess of US$1 billion annually," said California energy commissioner Art Rosenfeld, part of a team from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. From 2009, new residences and retrofit constructions in California will have to have "cool-coloured" roofs.

The Antarctic ozone hole is larger in 2008 than in the previous year but it is not expected to exceed the size reached in 2006, reports the World Meteorological Organization. By September 13, the hole covered an area of 27 million square kilometers.

International efforts under the Montreal Protocol have succeeded in reducing atmospheric concentrations of the most harmful ozone-depleting chemicals and, notwithstanding variability from year to year, recent data suggest that ozone levels in the upper atmosphere have stabilized. Marking the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer, Ban Ki-moon, United Nations secretary-general, warned that global economic adversity should not divert attention away from the need to protect the environment. "Safeguarding the planet has often been seen as a luxury, and as a burden on economic recovery and development," he said. "But the remarkable story of the ozone layer... shows such thinking for what it is: mere myth."

Oxfam has called on the industrialized nations to base their climate policies on existing international human rights principles and stop using economic excuses to avoid their responsibilities. "Climate change is a matter of international justice," said Kate Raworth, author of the new report on climate justice from Oxfam. "Human rights principles give an alternative to the view that everything - from carbon to malnutrition - can be priced, compared and traded," she continued. "These principles must be put at the heart of a global deal to tackle global climate change."

The Oxfam report identifies three areas where current policy diverges from existing human rights principles. Rich countries’ failure to cut their emissions since 1992 have put the world at a high risk of exceeding a catastrophic level of warming, which would cause widespread violation of rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration. Adaptation financing is under-resourced. US$2 billion is needed just to meet the most urgent and immediate adaptation needs of the 50 least developed countries but total contributions to that end now stand at just US$92 million. Rich countries are failing to deliver sufficient finance and technology to help poor countries shift to low-carbon pathways and realize their right to development. The report has been submitted to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, which is currently reviewing the relationship between international human rights and climate change.

A new set of international laws may be needed as the Arctic opens up due to climate warming, according to experts gathered at a recent meeting in Iceland. "Many experts believe this new rush to the polar regions is not manageable within existing international law," said A H Zakri, head of the United Nations University's Institute of Advanced Studies in Yokohama, Japan. Shipping passages along the north coasts of Russia and Canada have both thawed this year.

There is concern, for example, that the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which covers the rights of states to impose restrictions such as compulsory pilots for ships in "particularly severe climatic conditions" or when ice covers the sea for "most of the year," may have to be revised. The definition of "particularly severe" conditions could become a problem, warns Tullio Scovazzi of the University of Milano-Bicocca in Italy. WWF is calling for a new international convention to protect the Arctic as escalating industrial activity increases the risk of oil spills.

The New Zealand parliament has agreed to the establishment of an emissions trading scheme, which will start operation in 2009. The scheme will cover all sectors of the economy, with a phased start for different sectors. It will include agriculture, responsible for around half the nation's greenhouse gas emissions. "For the first time we will start factoring in the true cost of greenhouse gas emissions into our economy," said David Parker, minister for climate change.

There has been concern about the economic impact of emissions trading. Federated Farmers warned that the scheme would "cost New Zealand significant real money and is unlikely to achieve the global outcomes sought." Rio Tinto has said that it would "put the [Tiwai Point aluminium] smelter on the path to closure." The phased start for different sectors has also been criticised. While welcoming the scheme, Trevor Sikorski of Barclays Capital in London commented that "it's really from 2010, when most of the big power producers come in, that it starts to look interesting." New Zealand aims to be carbon neutral across the energy sector by the year 2040.

The Northern Hemisphere warmth of the most recent ten years is greater than at any time over the past 1300 years according to the latest estimate of long-term temperature trends derived from indirect climate data. The evidence used includes information from marine and lake sediment cores, ice cores, coral cores and tree rings. "We looked at a much expanded database and our methods are more sophisticated than those used previously," said Michael Mann of Penn State University in the United States.

The researchers assessed the use of tree-ring data in the analysis, an aspect of earlier studies that had drawn criticism. "Ten years ago, we could not simply eliminate all the tree-ring data from our network because we did not have enough other proxy climate records to piece together a reliable global record," said Mann. "With the considerably expanded networks of data now available, we can indeed obtain a reliable long-term record without using tree rings." Tree-ring data can be used, with care, to extend the record back a further 400 years. The recent warmth is without precedent even over this longer period.

Ross Garnaut, government adviser, has called for a focus on biosequestration to reduce the impact of the new Australian emissions trading regime. "We are, of the OECD countries, probably the country in the world with the largest area of woodlands and forest per capita and this vast area is going to provide very large potential for biosequestration of many kinds," he said. He considers that Northern Australia's savannahs have great potential to store carbon.

The drought that, for many years, has been affecting Australia's main food-growing region, the Murray-Darling river system, has intensified. Eighty per cent of the region's eucalyptus trees are dead or stressed. "It seems to me from what we've seen to date, there's no indication that it's going to end in the immediate future," said Wendy Craik of the Murray-Darling Basin Commission. Over the past two years, water inflows have been at an all-time low. "What we really need to make some inroads in the situation is a big wet, and what our weather models aren't showing is a strong likelihood of a big wet over the next few months," said Neil Plummer of the National Climate Centre.

The price of carbon may rise as a result of the downward adjustment of the number of certified emissions reductions (CERs) likely to be issued over coming years. The revised estimate is the result of bottlenecks in the approval process for Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects. The Carbon Market and Investors Association recently said that delays were resulting in "losses with regard to both opportunity costs and real costs to CDM developers."

Henrik Hasselknippe at Point Carbon commented that the United Nations Environment Programme had been trying to reduce the bottlenecks through the appointment of more staff, but an increase in the number of applications and tightening of the approval process has meant continuing delays. He is confident, though, that the situation will improve. "There are always areas that can be improved," he said, "but we shouldn't forget that this market is still very young and it is getting better all the time."

The European Union was heavily criticized for not committing additional funds to assist the developing country response to climate change as the Accra Climate Change Talks came to a close. "A serious and equitable response to climate change will require rich countries to pay billions in public funds to help poor countries develop in a sustainable, low carbon manner. So why has the European Union, which likes to claim global leadership in the response to climate change, turned up with empty pockets again?" asked Nelson Muffuh, adviser to Christian Aid, speaking on behalf of a number of African non-governmental organizations. The World Bank announced last week that developing countries would require 170 billion US dollars between now and the year 2030 to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Developing nations continued to resist pressure to expand the number of countries covered by binding emissions reduction targets.

Long-standing obstacles remained firmly in place at the Accra talks. The United States, for example, continues to refuse to accept binding emissions targets and this position is unlikely to change before the presidential elections later this year. Japan, Canada, Russia and Australia were also accused of stalling tactics. Nevertheless, Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat, is confident that progress is being made. "Governments are very committed to this process. I feel sure that the train will reach Copenhagen as planned," he said. Agreement on a post-Kyoto framework needs to be reached by the time of the Copenhagen meeting in December 2009. Agreement does seem likely on the inclusion of deforestation-related measures in any post-Kyoto framework, backed by a new financial mechanism. The possibility of sector-specific emissions reduction targets, aimed at high-polluting industries, was a major focus of discussion in Accra. It has been agreed that developing countries will not have to accept binding sectoral targets, though voluntary sectoral initiatives may be included in an upgraded Clean Development Mechanism. The next negotiations will take place in Poznañ, Poland, in December 2008.

A meat-eating diet results in almost twice as much greenhouse gas emissions as a vegetarian diet, according to a new study from the Institute for Ecological Economy Research in Berlin. Going vegan, giving up meat and dairy products, would reduce emissions more than seven-fold and, if all the vegan food was organic, the overall reduction would be by a factor of seventeen.

"The cow is a climate bomb," warns Thilo Bode of Foodwatch. Producing a kilo of beef generates almost three times the emissions generated in raising a kilo of pork. Meat should become a luxury food once more; "it's time we went back to the days of the Sunday roast," says Bode. The study concludes that, overall, the worst source of agricultural emissions, making up 30 per cent of the total, is the draining of wetlands during land conversion, as a result of the carbon released from the soil.

"Governments should urgently review their energy subsidies and begin phasing out the harmful ones," says Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). "Many fossil fuel subsidies are introduced for political reasons but are simply propping up and perpetuating inefficiencies in the global economy," he continued. Steiner was commenting on a new UNEP report on the role of energy subsidies in generating climate change. The study estimates that energy subsidies, which are almost all for fossil fuels, total about 0.7 per cent of world gross domestic product (GDP) each year. "Cancelling these subsidies might reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as six per cent a year while contributing 0.1 per cent to global GDP," the report concludes.

"Some countries spend more on subsidies than on health and education combined... they stand in the way of more environmentally friendly technologies," warns Kaveh Zahedi, climate change coordinator at UNEP. In India, liquefied petroleum gas subsidies, intended to get fuel to poor households, totaled US$1.7 billion in the first half of 2008 but they are mainly benefiting higher-income households. The report calls for smarter subsidies, such as tax breaks, financial incentives or other market mechanisms, which could generate benefits for the economy and environment if properly targeted.

Opening the latest round of climate treaty negotiations, the Accra Climate Change Talks, John Agyekum Kufuor, president of Ghana, called for an "international deal... in which developing countries commit to plan for climate resilient development. In return the international community should commit to provide adequate, predictable, long-term funding and support in terms of technology transfer and capacity building." The Accra meeting is the latest stage in the development of strengthened long-term action on climate change. Agreement needs to be reached by the time of the Copenhagen meeting in December 2009. "The clock is ticking," Kufuor warned. "We need to be pragmatic and move beyond rhetoric to make progress as we move towards Copenhagen."

In his opening address, Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat, noted that Africa is "the climate change regimes's forgotten continent," with a limited number of Clean Development Mechanism projects and relatively low funding from the Global Environment Facility. "If this meeting can be a step towards the design of a regime that helps Africa to achieve clean economic growth and deal with the impacts of climate change through effective mechanisms that deliver on finance, technology and capacity-building, you will have done very important work here," he continued. The Accra discussions will cover the finance and technology needed to limit emissions and adapt to climate change, sectoral approaches to emissions reduction and sector-specific actions and reducing emissions from deforestation.

"Climate change is not science fiction. As your countries know all too well, it is real and present," said Ban Ki-moon, United Nations secretary general, in a message to the Pacific Islands Forum Summit held in Alofi, Niue. The United Nations and Samoa intend to set up an Inter-Agency Climate Change Centre to assist in coordinating support for Pacific Island countries in responding to climate impacts in the region. "The challenges for the region are no longer a matter for research or scientific theory and modelling. The evidence is quite clear that climate change is already wreaking havoc here," Toke Talagi, Niue prime minister, told the summit delegates. "We shouldn't wait until a worse human catastrophe occurs before acting."

The Niue Declaration on Climate Change, issued as the summit ended, notes that "despite being amongst the lowest contributors to factors causing climate change, the Pacific Islands region is one of the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change including its exacerbation of climate variability, sea level rise and extreme weather events." The Declaration commits Forum members to continue to develop Pacific-tailored approaches to combating climate change. It encourages the Pacific’s development partners to increase technical and financial support for action on adaptation, mitigation and, if necessary, relocation, calling for increased support for efforts to move towards alternative and renewable energy sources.

"Behind the world food crisis is a global freshwater crisis, expected to rapidly worsen as climate change impacts intensify," said James Leape, WWF head, as the 2008 World Water Week opened in Stockholm. "Irrigation-fed agriculture provides 45 per cent of the world's food supplies, and without it, we could not feed our planet's population of six billion people." He warned that many irrigation areas are drawing more water from rivers and groundwater reserves than can be sustained, especially in view of climate change.

A new survey of 53 cities from the International Water Management Institute concludes that 80 per cent are using untreated or partially-treated wastewater for food production. "Irrigating with wastewater isn't a rare practice limited to a few of the poorest countries," reported Liqa Raschid-Sally, lead author of the report. "It's a widespread phenomenon, occurring on 20 million hectares across the developing world, especially in Asian countries, like China, India and Vietnam, but also around nearly every city of sub-Saharan Africa and in many Latin American cities as well."

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has launched a youth version of its latest Human Development Report, which focuses on climate change. "We hope the call to action against climate change will be heard in every continent, every country, city and town and in every family," said Cecilia Ugaz of UNDP's Human Development Report Office. "We can change our today, little by little, person by person and with that obtain a more sustainable tomorrow for coming generations," she continued.

Young people aged 16 to 25 prepared the report, including their own messages, artworks and testimonials as well as summarizing the main points of the Human Development Report. "Do not wait fifty years to gaze regretfully at your changed face in the mirror and the scarred face of Mother Earth around you. Know that when you heard the call you listened and you played your part. The choice is yours!" write the compilers.

China is to double sales tax on cars with engines larger than four litres and cut taxes on the smallest cars to reduce pollution. "Autos are the giants of energy consumption and pollution emissions and this is a major part of the effort to conserve resources and reduce emissions," the Finance Ministry announced. China is the world's second largest market for passenger cars. According to the World Health Organization, air pollution triggers diseases that kill over half a million Chinese residents each year.

The United States could reduce fuel consumption by a half over the next 25 years if lighter, hybrid vehicles were available claims a new report from researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The researchers estimate that the weight of the average car could be cut by 20 to 35 per cent without compromising security and convenience and that this would cut fuel consumption by between 12 and 20 per cent. Hybrid electric cars could reduce consumption by up to a factor of four. But it's not just a matter of technological development, drivers attitudes must also change. "We've got to get out of the habit of thinking that we only need to focus on improving the technology - that we can invent our way out of this situation," says co-author John Heywood. "We've got to do everything we can think of, including reducing the size of the task by real conservation."

At least thirty cities in the United States are expected to commit to disclosing their greenhouse gas emissions under a new voluntary programme. The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability will provide the reporting tools and each city will assemble comparable emissions data.

"Over 70 per cent of total global emissions are generated from cities and if you don't measure these emissions, you cannot manage them," said CDP chief executive Paul Dickinson. "This is a vital step for city councils who wish to gain a better understanding of their own impact and, by improving their understanding of risks and opportunities associated with climate change, best prepare their cities for a carbon constrained world," he continued.

"Ultimately, the cities hardest hit by climate change will be the ones least prepared," warns Neeraj Prasad of the World Bank. Prasad was speaking as a new handbook on improving the resiliency of cities was launched by the World Bank and its collaborators, the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction and the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery.

Cities play a central role in the economy. The manual estimates that a one-metre rise in sea level will create a loss of two per cent in national Gross Domestic Product as water supplies, agriculture, fisheries, tourism and energy security are affected. The handbook, intended as a tool for city managers, provides sound practices from cities worldwide. It uses a dual track approach to encourage cities to develop their own strategies for adaptation and to mitigate the consequences of future natural disasters, as well as identifying means of limiting greenhouse gas emissions. "Every city is different. You have to respond based on what your city is," Prasad says. "There is no cookie-cutter solution to climate change impacts. It's important that you are able to anticipate the likely impacts on your city and make the decision to deal with that."

The trend towards more frequent tropical downpours seems worse than expected, according to a new study. The researchers compared rainfall fluctuations with trends in temperature and atmospheric moisture. "We saw a distinct signal of the increased frequency of increased rainfall as the tropics warmed up and then a reduction as the tropics cooled down," said Richard Allan of the University of Reading in the United Kingdom. The link is stronger than suggested by climate modelling studies.

The 2008 Atlantic hurricane season will be more active than predicted earlier, the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has reported. The forecast now stands at 14 to 18 named storms, with six to nine developing into hurricanes. "One of the key things that's critical is the fact that a couple of named storms have formed in the deep tropics and usually that's a very strong indicator that the season will be above normal," said Gerry Bell at the Climate Prediction Center. Other forecast groups have also predicted a more severe storm season than expected.

Scientists from the Australian National University claim that untouched eucalypt forests store three times more carbon than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has assumed. "In Australia, and probably globally, the carbon-carrying capacity of natural forests is underestimated and therefore misrepresented in economic valuations and in policy options," the researchers conclude.

The difference arises because older forests store a greater amount of carbon in the soils and trees. The IPCC estimate generalizes across old-growth stands and younger plantations. The oldest areas of forest, with trees up to 80 metres tall, can store 2000 tonnes of carbon per hectare. According to Brendan Mackey, co-author of the study, "protecting the carbon in natural forests is preventing an additional emission of carbon from what we get from burning fossil fuel."

South Africa will require all new coal-fired power stations and coal-to-liquid plants to have carbon capture facilities. "We have to move away from dirty coal as the dominant source of energy... Where we continue to rely on coal we want to make sure that it is cleaner coal," said Marthinus van Schalkwyk, environmental affairs minister. The announcement came as the South African government agreed on a "progressive policy" on climate change, the latest development of the 2006 Long Term Mitigation Strategy. The policy includes a commitment to curb national emissions from the year 2020 onwards. A further carbon tax, on business, is under consideration. The government is committed to a shift away from energy-intensive and towards carbon-neutral industries.

The Japanese government plans to cut national carbon emissions by up to 80 per cent by the year 2050. It will start carbon trading on an experimental basis later this year and boost research into carbon capture technologies. Solar power production will increase tenfold by 2020 and nine more nuclear reactors will be built by 2018. "Japan must continue showing leadership on the issue of environment," Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said. "To lead the world, Japan must take the initiative by achieving a low-carbon society." It is intended that the price of a solar power system will halve in three to five years and that, by 2020, every other new vehicle will be "next generation" cars, such as electric cars.

"If we cannot even manage trade, how should we then find ourselves in a position to manage the new challenges lying ahead of us" such as climate change, said European Union agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer-Boel as the latest Doha round of world trade talks broke down. "The bottom-line of the disagreement between the rich and developing countries arises from the fact that the developed do not want to remove agricultural subsidies and the developing nations like China and India also want to start giving their farmers support by controlling dumping from Europe and the United States," said Rwandan delegate Antoine Ruvebana. Ruvebana described the failure of the talks as a "missed opportunity" to uplift millions from poverty.

"It's a good thing that there was no agreement," said Daniel Mittler from Greenpeace International. "What was on the table was unacceptable, therefore it's no loss that negotiations have failed," he continued. He reckoned it would be "disastrous" to liberalize, as proposed, sectors such as fisheries, forestry and electrical waste products, where proper regulation is required. Lori Wallach of Public Citizen wants to see a new agenda focused on fixing existing World Trade Organization rules. "Thank God no deal was reached," she said, "because the proposal under consideration would have exacerbated the serious economic, food security and social problems now rocking numerous countries."

The United Nations (UN) is cutting the use of air conditioning in its New York offices under the new Cool UN initiative. During a one month trial, the air conditioning will be switched off at weekends and, during the week, office temperatures will be set at 77°F, five degrees higher than previously. If the trial is successful, office temperatures will be set five degrees lower than usual during winter. The one month trial should cut energy use by ten per cent. Over a year, the financial savings could amount to one million US dollars.

"We have succeeded in moving climate change to the top of the international agenda for action, and this means that the UN must take action itself," said Ban Ki-moon, UN executive secretary. "We must lead by example and if we are to ask others to take action, we must do so as well." As office temperatures rise on August 1st, staff, delegates and diplomats are being invited to relax clothing protocols and wear lighter attire or don their national dress rather than wear business suits. Men can leave their ties off.

Climate change could cost the nations of the Andes US$30 billion a year by 2025, according to a new report prepared for the Andean Community (CAN). At the report's launch, the CAN Secretary General, Freddy Ehlers, argued that, as the current development model is incompatible with the planet’s sustainability, a new model is needed that would guarantee human development and a harmonious relationship with nature.

"Climate change is already happening. Floods, droughts, landslides, frosts, and landslips virtually doubled between 2002 and 2006, as compared with the five-year period 1987-1991," reported Carlos Amat y León, the study coordinator. "Since 1970, every single province in the CAN countries has experienced at least one hydrometeorological disaster." According to the assessment, deglaciation in the Andes could, by the year 2020, jeopardize the water supply for drinking, hydroenergy and farming for close to 40 million people. The supply of water to the Amazon could be threatened as global warming develops further.

A Greenhouse Development Rights framework has been proposed that would allow poorer countries to continue developing while contributing to greenhouse gas emissions reductions without any substantial effect on their economies. The scheme weights each nation's emissions by its wealth to determine a fair way to apportion emissions controls. Nations with high weighted emissions, as well as taking on responsibility for the bulk of emissions reductions, would subsidize emissions controls and adaptive measures in the poorer nations with low emissions.

A key aspect of the framework is that wealth is assessed after setting aside the income of the poorest inhabitants of each country in order to protect their interests. The overall aim is to treat "luxury" emissions differently from "survival" emissions. "We are trying to propose what would be fair," said Tom Athansiou of EcoEquity. The plan has been developed by EcoEquity and the Stockholm Environment Institute.

An internal review has criticized the performance of the World Bank in supporting environmental projects. A persistent lack of environmental focus was observed in each step of the lending chain, from determining the priorities that shape development projects to environmental standards and monitoring in the field. The review, by the Independent Evaluation Group, found that pledges of environmental sustainability were often not translated into practice when it came to financing dams, pipelines, and so on.

Moreover, the World Bank's estimate of its funding of environmental projects "appears to overstate the actual volume of resources going directly for environmental improvement," the report observes. One of the review's authors, John Redwood, has described problems in assessing environmental funding levels as "one of our great frustrations." "The priority given to lending for ENRM (environmental and natural resource management) appears to be modest," states the report.

The Australian government has released a new plan for combating climate change. "We confront a daunting reality: we cannot continue to pour carbon pollution into the atmosphere as if there is no cost," said Penny Wong, climate change minister. "As one of the hottest and driest continents on earth, Australia’s economy and environment will be one of the hardest and fastest hit by climate change if we don’t act now," she continued. The goal is to cut national emissions by 60 per cent by the year 2050.

The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, which is essentially an emissions trading scheme, will cover stationary energy, transport, fugitive emissions, industrial processes, waste and forestry sectors and all six greenhouse gases covered by the Kyoto Protocol. It