Climate Change News
Below are news items on climate change – many with relevance to aviation
Global deal on climate change in 2010 ‘all but impossible’
Date added: 1 February, 2010
According to senior figures across the world involved in the negotiations, a
global deal to tackle climate change - from the next climate summit in Mexico 2010 - is all but impossible, leaving
the scale and pace of action to slow global warming in coming decades uncertain.
Many say only a legally binding deal setting "top-down" global limits on emissions
can ultimately avoid the worst impacts of rising temperatures, but an agreement
does not reduce one molecule of CO2 – it's national policies that do that.
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Ed Miliband defends climate change science
Date added: 31 January, 2010
Ed Miliband has reaffirmed that recent controversies over scientific data have not undermined efforts to tackle global
warming. One problem has been an error that hugely brought forward the estimated
date for the melting of the Himalayan glaciers. Ed Miliband said it would be
"profoundly irresponsible" to use one "mistake" as an excuse not to act, and this
one error did not "undermine decades of climate research" and the "majority of scientists
say that".
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DECC quarterly figures for UK aviation turbine fuel show a decline
Date added: 30 January, 2010
DECC produce figures each quarter, to show the amount of energy of all sorts
being used in the UK. One of the statistics they collect is the amount of aviation turbine fuel used
in that quarter. During all of 2008, the amount droped by 3% - compared to 2007. During the first quarter of 2009 it fell by 7.1% compared to the same quarter
in 2008. During the second quarter it fell by 2.7% and in the third quarter by 3.7%. 4th quarter figures not yet out.
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Economic growth ‘cannot continue’ if the world is to tackle climate change
Date added: 25 January, 2010
Continuing global economic growth "is not possible" if nations are to tackle
climate change, a report by an environmental think-tank, the New Economics Foundation, has
warned. It says "unprecedented and probably impossible" CO2 cutss would be needed to hold temperature
rises below 2C and at a growth rate of just 3% the "carbon intensity" of the global economy would
need to fall by 95% by 2050 from 2002 levels - an average annual cut of 6.5%.
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Cutting the deficit is the top priority of Tory candidates (reducing Britain’s carbon footprint is the lowest priority)
Date added: 22 January, 2010
ConservativeHome and ConservativeIntelligence have just polled the 250 Tory candidates in our most winnable seats, and published the personal priorities of the 141 that answered the survey. They find cutting the deficit is top-of-the-league. Helping small businesses is priority 2 and reducing welfare bills is priority 3. Lowest of the list is reduction in Britain's carbon footprint; only 8 adopted candidates said it would be a top priority for them.
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EU to appoint new Climate commissioner – Hedegaard will work on NOx
Date added: 13 January, 2010
The prospective European Commissioners for Energy and Climate Action are to be grilled by MEPs during 3 hour "job interviews" this week. If she get the post of Commissioner for Climate Action, she has said she will work with colleagues to bring the issue of NOx from aircraft forward, and address it early in the next Commission.
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Last-minute agreement at Copenhagen marks turning point for the world
Date added: 13 January, 2010
What lies ahead after the apparent failure at Copenhagen? Perhaps the ad hoc
leadership by the so-called Copenhagen 5 (C-5), representing 45% of the world's
population and 44% of global greenhouse gas emissions, constitutes a new and potentially
historic alliance, a symbol, perhaps, of a new world order. The next few months
will offer strong indicators of whether nations whose heads of state endorsed
the accord will treat it as binding.
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MPs URGE GOVERNMENT TO INCREASE CARBON REDUCTION TARGET
Date added: 11 January, 2010
The EAC has called on the Government to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by
42% cut by 2020 - to enable the UK to play its part in giving the world a 50:50
chance of not exceeding a global 2C rise in temperature. It also said it was important
to reduce the likelihood of exceeding 2C to well below this 50% risk. We are
only track for our current 34% target because of the recession. We need to prevent
offset credits from countries with no limits on carbon emissions. (FoE)
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How do I know China wrecked the Copenhagen deal? I was in the room – Mark Lynas
Date added: 22 December, 2009
Mark Lynas was in the final negotiations on the Copenhagen Accord. He says: The China wrecked the talks, intentionally humiliated Barack Obama, and insisted on an awful "deal" so western leaders would walk away carrying the blame. it was China's representative who insisted that industrialised country targets, previously agreed as an 80% cut by 2050, be taken out of the deal. China, backed at times by India, took out all the numbers that mattered.
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Copenhagen – what was decided and what comes next
Date added: 20 December, 2009
There are hundreds of articles and analyses of the Copenhagen non-accord, and
what was and was not achieved. Here are some of the sources, and some key points.
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