Climate Change News
Below are news items on climate change – many with relevance to aviation
Environmental NGOs make a case for the EU ETS as US airlines finally near their day in court over inclusion
Date added: 2 July, 2011
Ahead of the hearing by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over the inclusion
of US airlines into the EU ETS, environmental groups from the US and Europe have
repeated their support for the scheme on both legal and climate change grounds. Tim Johnson of the AEF believed the scheme was “affordable for consumers, environmentally
effective and, above all, fair to industry.” The main question from the ECJ is if the EU directive should apply to those parts
of flights that take place outside the EU.
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Extreme weather link ‘can no longer be ignored’
Date added: 1 July, 2011
Scientists are to end their 20-year reluctance to link climate change with extreme
weather – the heavy storms, floods and droughts which often fill news bulletins
– as part of a radical departure from a previous equivocal position that many
now see as increasingly untenable. Climate researchers intend to assess each unusual event in terms of the probability that it has been
exacerbated or even caused by the global temperature increase seen over the past
century
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Global maritime carbon deal dead in the water
Date added: 30 June, 2011
EU officials believe a global deal to cut maritime CO2 emissions is currently
unachievable. It is unrealistic to expect a MBM deal according to a senior EU source. Shipping currently
emits around 5% of global CO2. EU finance ministers havecalled on the IMO and ICAO to "develop without delay"
a global framework for a carbon pricing system. In a business as usual scenario, shipping emissions – which like aviation, are
not covered by the Kyoto Protocol – are expected to increase up to 75% by 2027.
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Climate change hots up in 2010, the year of extreme weather
Date added: 27 June, 2011
2010 was the joint-warmest on record and also the wettest over land, with sea
ice levels dropping and drought on the rise, and may have been the most extreme in terms of weather since the explosion of Indonesia's
Mount Tambora in 1816. 2010 was the hottest, wettest, and in many cases also the driest and coldest in recorded
history. 2011 is already on track to be exceptional, with a Texan drought, a very warm
European spring and low Arctic ice.
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EU emissions reduction vote postponed – giving Cameron time to win round climate sceptic MEPs
Date added: 25 June, 2011
A key vote in the European parliament on whether to toughen climate change targets has been postponed, giving David Cameron a breathing space in which to head off a planned rebellion by his MEPs. The vote – on whether to raise the EU's emissions reduction target from 20% to 30% by 2020 – was slated to take place on Thursday, but will now be delayed until 4 July. Many MEPs do not agree with the 30% target. (Guardian)
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Bonn climate talks end with no agreement on key areas
Date added: 18 June, 2011
Two weeks of global climate talks in Bonn have ended nowhere near agreement in the 3 key areas of finance, greenhouse
gas emission cuts and the future of the Kyoto protocol. The economic crisis in Europe and elsewhere was making it harder. NGOs said they
were deeply frustrated at the snail pace of negotiations. The Bolivian ambassador
said "The developed countries are not moving. The problem we face is that we are
on a path to [warming of] 4-5C. That is the reality. That worries us very much.
The problem is the lack of ambition,"
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Energy firms fear “tremendous decline” in CO2 price as large firms now hold huge cache of carbon permits
Date added: 18 June, 2011
The EU's carbon market could be flooded with excess pollution permits over the
next decade, deflating prices and undermining investment in green energy, five
EU energy companies have warned. The utilities said falling carbon prices could: "severely hamper business incentives
to invest in low-carbon technologies." Ten steel and cement companies have amassed
240m carbon permits from generous allocations. Aviation will join the EU ETS in Jan 2012.
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Jos Dings (T&E) letter in FT: “Airbus shows an industry refusing to see future”
Date added: 8 June, 2011
In the latest round of industry scaremongering over the inclusion of aviation
in the EU ETS, Airbus and the AEA accuse the EU of creating a “unilateral tax
imposed on 3rd-country carriers”. That description of a unilateral tax imposed on 3rd-country carriers perfectly
fits the US international transportation tax (currently $16.30 a passenger) which
applies to all international flights arriving in or departing from the US. This
tax has been charged for over 10 years, and has caused no trade conflict.
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Climate change in tropics poses food threat to poor
Date added: 4 June, 2011
Why does climate change matter, and why bother to cut emissions (including those
from flying)? Research shows that parts of the tropics are already experiencing
hotter weather, and this can reduce the length of the growing season. That affects
what can be grown, and yields - with even a 5% cut being critical. Already higher
mean temperature is reducing yields for maize and wheat in Brazil and China.
World population is due to grow to 10 billion by 2100.
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Energy: the new thirty years’ war
Date added: 1 June, 2011
The world consumed 13.2bn tons of oil-equivalent from all sources in 2010: 33.6%
from oil, 29.6% from coal, 23.8% from natural gas, 6.5% from hydroelectricity,
5.2% from nuclear energy, and a mere 1.3% from all renewable forms of energy.
Together, fossil fuels supplied 10.4bn tons, or 87% of the total. Even attempting
to preserve this level of energy output in 30 years' time, using the same proportion
of fuels, would be a near-hopeless feat
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