The governments of the world’s top two greenhouse gases emitters, United States and China, agreed Wednesday to tighten pollution standards on heavy trucks, increase energy efficiency in transport, buildings and industry, and a number of other initiatives to curb greenhouse-gas emissions. More »
Sergio Abranches
After a week of informal conversations in Bangkok, Thailand, negotiators already know what stumbling blocks they will face on the way towards a successful meeting of the parties to the Climate Convention, COP18, in Doha, Qatar, November 26 to December 7. Most of the obstacles come from an old quarrel between the US and Europe, on the one side, and China, India and Brazil, on the other, on the meaning of the principle of common but differentiated obligations under the Climate Convention. More »
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which provides policy-makers with the current state of climate science, has issued today a statement on the Durban outcome. It shows concern about the decision to “adopt a universal legal agreement on climate change as soon as possible, but not later than 2015, to be adopted and come into force from 2020.” The Durban agreement reinstates the decision to review the Copenhagen/Cancun pledges to reduce emissions in the light of the IPCC next report, to be released in 2013. The IPCC has been asked what impact these agreements will have on global warming. More »
Global warming is showing no signs of slowing down and further increases are to be expected in the next few decades, shows a new study published today, in the Environmental Research Letters. More »
Global carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels have increased by 49 per cent in the last two decades, shows study published in the journal Nature Climate Change. More »
Sergio Abranches
COP17 in Durban is braced to start dealing with a deadlocked agenda. Negotiators will have to find a middle ground to prevent the talks to collapse and wreck the United Nation’s architecture for climate change policy and politics. More »
