Sérgio Abranches
The release of IPCC’s Summary Report for Policymakers today has ended speculations that animated the social media over the last few weeks, but has not eliminated controversies. A full view of the scientists’ take on the scientific state of the art on the physics of climate change will have to wait for the final draft of the Working Group I contribution to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report due on 30 September. More »
Sérgio Abranches
China is braced to become a green technology powerhouse even before it transitions towards a green economy. Although having to manage a huge carbon stock, after relying mainly in coal and oil to fuel its economy for many decades, China has become the world’s major investor in clean energy. More »
Sergio Abranches
US scientists report a remarkable convergence of results from rigorous quantitative studies showing that climactic changes are strongly correlated with a rise in interpersonal violence (assaults, rapes and murders), as well as group conflicts and war. More »
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
A balance of the decisions made at the Climate Convention (UNFCCC) since Bali, in 2007, would show that there has been little more than formal progress. The most concrete outcome so far has been the result of the frustrated COP15 held in Copenhagen, in 2009. Large emitters outside the Kyoto Protocol have pledged to reduce their carbon emissions for the first time. Among them The United States, China, India, and Brazil. 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 »
