Archive for the ‘Africa & Middle East’ Category

A leading green think tank has forecast a bleak future for the world’s only global agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions, as 192 countries gather in South Africa to discuss the future of the Kyoto Protocol.

According to The Guardian, Eileen Claussen, president of the Centre for Climate and Energy Solutions, predicted yesterday that the Kyoto Protocol, which sets international emissions-cutting targets, will emerge “alive from the United Nations conference, but it will be on life support”. Read the rest of this entry »

UN climate chief quotes Nelson Mandela in opening address: “It always seems impossible until it is done”

The Durban Climate Summit kicked off today with the chair of the conference invoking the leadership skills of Nelson Mandela in a bid to push countries towards an agreement on limiting global greenhouse gas emissions.

Delegates from more than 190 countries gathered in the South African city were told by Christiana Figueres, the UN’s lead climate official, that a future commitment to slash greenhouse gas emissions is “the defining issue of this conference”. Read the rest of this entry »

According to a UN backed report – changing the way people cook in the developing world could play a significant role in slowing global warming at the same time as reducing premature deaths and crop losses.

Shifting from traditional biomass cookstoves to more efficient fan-assisted ovens, or stoves fuelled by Liquefied Petroleum Gas or biogas, is one of 16 low-cost measures the body suggests could help slash levels of harmful ‘black carbon’ particles.

Other proposals include reducing emissions from coal mines and processes related to the production and transport of oil and gas, and accelerating the roll out of methane capture systems at landfill sites. Read the rest of this entry »

South African President says COP17 must establish $100bn Green Climate Fund and determine future of Kyoto Protocol

South Africa’s president has strongly urged world leaders to deliver a successful outcome at climate change talks starting next week, including finalizing the $100bn Green Climate Fund and agreeing a future for the Kyoto Protocol – adding that South Africa was fully prepared to host the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), in Durban.

However, he warned that the conference, which starts on 28 November, must be driven by a high level of ambition to protect the environment. Read the rest of this entry »

As developed nations move to delay new treaty, China steps up demands for real progress in Durban

China has released a new whitepaper reiterating its demand that the Kyoto Protocol be extended immediately to ensure there is no gap following the end of the first commitment period next year. By doing so the awakening Giant has put itself on a collision course with industrialised nations over their plan to delay any new international climate change treaty until 2020. Read the rest of this entry »

Rich nations privately admit likelihood of long delay – despite pledge for new treaty by 2012

Ahead of critical talks starting next week – it seems the world’s richest countries have given up on forging a new treaty on climate change to take effect this decade, with potentially disastrous consequences for the environment through global warming.

Most of the world’s leading economies now privately admit that no new global climate agreement will be reached before 2016 at the earliest, and that even if it were negotiated by then, they would stipulate it could not come into force until 2020. Read the rest of this entry »

Bloomberg New Energy Finance predicts annual investment in new renewables capacity will approach $400bn by 2020

Global investment in renewable energy infrastructure will double over the next 10 years, soaring to $395bn a year by 2020, according to a major new report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF).

The report, entitled Global Renewable Energy Market Outlook, also predicts that growth will be maintained throughout the 2020s, with annual investment in new capacity and retrofitting of existing infrastructure reaching $460bn by 2030 Read the rest of this entry »

Over the next ten years, from 2011–2020, countries all over the world are taking action to help save the variety of life on Earth so that we can live more in harmony with nature. Our wellbeing is dependent on the health of our ecosystems.

This decade is critical as it’s the timeframe for implementing the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity agreed in Nagoya Japan in October 2010. Read the rest of this entry »