Archive for the ‘Russia & Near East’ Category

Threatened surge in coal emissions

With countries abandoning nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima disaster there is likely to be a massive increase in coal use that could have devastating consequences for the fight against climate change.

That was the stark message delivered today at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi by Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency (IEA), who warned that those countries now committed to phasing out nuclear power are likely to see greenhouse gas emissions rise in the short to medium term Read the rest of this entry »

Facebook has made a major commitment to renewable energy, pledging to work with Greenpeace to source more clean energy to power its giant data centres.

The social networking giant announced this afternoon that it will work closely with Greenpeace to enhance the energy efficiency of its IT infrastructure, switch from coal to renewable energy where possible, and promote clean energy to its millions of users.

The agreement represents a major victory for the green NGO, which has run a high-profile, two-year campaign dubbed Unfriend Coal, designed to encourage Facebook to reduce its reliance on the coal-fired power stations it often uses to run its giant server farms. Read the rest of this entry »

A last-gasp international deal was agreed in the early hours of the Durban Summit yesterday morning, which for the first time commits all countries to signing on to a new legally bound climate change treaty.

In dramatic scenes, Ministers reached an agreement on a new text almost 36 hours after the scheduled close of the two week summit.

The text, known as the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action, will see the EU and a handful of other countries extend the Kyoto Protocol into a second commitment period, allowing for the continuation of emission reduction initiatives enabled by the treaty such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Read the rest of this entry »

Indian officials have rejected the EU-backed proposals targets for a binding global climate treaty agreed by 2015 Senior diplomats also accused China of failing to clarify whether it will sign up to legally enforced emissions

Reports in The Guardian said that Indian environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan yesterday ruled out signing up to the EU proposal, which would see the Kyoto Protocol extended for a second commitment period on the understanding that all countries, including large emerging economies, agree to finalise a parallel binding treaty by 2015. Read the rest of this entry »

EU secures support from developing country for new plan that would see parallel treaty run alongside Kyoto

In Durban an intensive first week of negotiations culminated on Friday with the release of a new ‘roadmap’ from the EU, outlining plans to extend the Kyoto Protocol and agree a parallel legally binding treaty that will set emissions reductions targets for all countries

However as ministers gather today observers have again warned that long running talks to reach an international agreement on climate change are at risk of collapse.

The EU is proposing that a new treaty be agreed by 2015 and enacted by 2020, delivering binding commitments from all countries to curb emissions. Read the rest of this entry »

The Durban conference on Climate Change seems to have sprung into life as the Least Developed Countries (LDC) bloc and the Alliance of Small Island States (Aosis) tabled papers saying a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol, which expires next year, should not be delayed. No surprise here – after all, it is these nations that are most vulnerable to climate change.

The need for a new agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which sets emissions reduction targets and provides the basis for global carbon markets, was also brought home by a Brazilian negotiator admitting there is no future for the UN’s carbon trading system without such a deal. Read the rest of this entry »

The EU is going head to head with China and other emerging economies by refusing to back down on its demand that developing countries commit to legally binding emissions-cutting targets at the Durban climate change conference. This represents a significant toughening of its negotiating stance from previous climate change summits.

The Guardian reports that the EU team is determined an extension of the Kyoto Protocol must include those countries left out of the original set of carbon-reduction commitments, including China, the world’s largest emitter, and India.

The US, along with Japan, Russia and Canada have ruled out joining any second commitment period of the Kyoto agreement, but both China and India want the Kyoto deal to continue beyond its scheduled expiration next year. However, they argue that as developing countries they should only have to sign up to non-binding targets that are substantially less stringent than those imposed on developed nations. Read the rest of this entry »

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 »