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Climate Change Updates May 27, 2013

EU: 2030 climate policy must address global UN deal http://www.rtcc.org/eu-2030-climate-policy-must-address-global-climate-deal/ EU heads of state have agreed to look at the bloc’s 2030 climate and energy targets this year as it continues preparations for the 2015 UN climate deal. The conclusions of a European Council meeting yesterday stated that the 2030 policies should bear “in mind the objectives set for the COP21 [UN talks] in 2015”. Governments have pledged to develop a universal climate treaty through the UNFCCC by the end of 2015 with France hosting the potentially decisive round of negotiations. Poland will host this year’s talks. A Green Paper presenting a tentative framework for 2030 EU energy and climate policy was released in March this year with a 40% emissions reduction target suggested

Disaster risk must be part of new development goals – global forum http://www.trust.org/item/20130523154605-tyulk/?source=hptop GENEVA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Work on reducing the risk of disasters cannot be separated from efforts to tackle climate change and to move towards more sustainable development, an international conference on disaster risk reduction agreed this week.
A draft summary of proceedings at the fourth Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction noted “a consistent call that disaster risk must be overtly recognised” in a new set of development targets that are due to replace the Millennium Development Goals when they expire in 2015.
S. carbon tax could boost revenue, curb climate change – report http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/23/usa-carbon-tax-idUSL2N0E323B20130523 President Barack Obama supports plans to price carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, tailpipes and factories that have been blamed for worsening climate change. Levying a tax on such emissions would both curb carbon dioxide pollution and become a meaningful source of federal revenue, the report concludes. “A carbon tax that covered the bulk of (carbon dioxide) emissions or the carbon content of most fossil fuel consumed in the United States could generate a substantial amount of revenue,” reads the report Effects of a Carbon Tax on the Economy and the Environment released on Wednesday
Saint Lucia signs up for the Carbon War Room’s ‘Ten Island Renewable Challenge’ http://www.renewableenergyfocus.com/view/32579/saint-lucia-signs-up-for-the-carbon-war-room-s-ten-island-renewable-challenge/ Launched at Rio+20 Summit in June 2012, by Branson’s entrepreneur initiativeCarbonHYPERLINK “http://www.carbonwarroom.com/” War Room and Christiana Figueres, Executive Director of the UNFCCC, the Ten Island Challenge aims to work with pioneering island economies to reduce dependency on fossil fuels through the acceleration of commercial opportunities on islands , attracting expert engineering firms and investment. “Solving the energy challenge and marine conservation challenge in the Caribbean go hand-in-hand. I am very pleased that Saint Lucia has decided to join the Challenge – and hope more neighbouring islands will follow,” said Branson. “We are joining the Ten Island Challenge because it is consistent with the goals of our government to develop a renewable energy sector and transition to a Green Economy,” said James Fletcher, Saint Lucia’s Minister of Sustainable Development & Energy
Brown keeps pressing climate change crusade http://www.sfgate.com/news/science/article/Gov-Brown-keeps-pressing-climate-change-crusade-4542034.php MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) — Gov. Jerry Brown warned scientists and policymakers Thursday that they are losing the war on climate change and urged them to become advocates for the planet. “We’ve got a big challenge. It’s daunting,” Brown said. “This is not just about science, this is about activism.” A team of climate change experts gave Brown a new, 20-page call to action during a conference at NASA Ames Research Center sponsored by the nonprofit group Sustainable Silicon Valley.
Heat-related deaths may increase with climate change http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/23/heat-related-deaths-in-nyc-may-increase-with-climate-change/ Heat-related deaths in New York City’s borough of Manhattan may rise about 20 percent over the next decade, according to a new study. Researchers at Columbia University in New York analyzed the relationship between daily temperatures and temperature-related deaths across all seasons between 1982 and 1999 in Manhattan, which comprises the most densely populated county in the United States. The findings were published online May 19 in the journal Nature Climate Change.
The Climate-Change Wars Begin This Summer http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/05/climate-change-wars-begin-this-summer.html The biggest piece of President Obama’s second-term agenda is his widely expected plan for the Environmental Protection Agency to issue new carbon regulations for power plants, a move that could bring the United States in line with the greenhouse-gas-reduction goals it agreed to in Copenhagen and open the way for an international treaty to control climate change. If the administration unveils such a plan, conservatives will undoubtedly challenge its legality. The legal challenge won’t take place for two years, but the two sides are preparing for war already. The field of battle will be the Federal Appeals Court in Washington, D.C.
New EU climate policy unlikely before 2015: Poland http://uk.news.yahoo.com/eu-climate-policy-unlikely-2015-poland-192910930.html#AgyD1Ih The European Union is unlikely to hammer out its new policy on global warming ahead of a global climate deal that could be clinched in 2015, Poland’s environment minister said Wednesday. “A long discussion on climate change is getting underway. There’s no chance that new measures will be adopted during the current terms of the European Parliament and the European Commission,” minister Marcin Korolec told Poland’s PAP news agency. In its efforts to reduce global warming, the international community is to draw up new, universal climate pact by 2015, which should come into effect by 2020. Korolec’s comments come after UN climate chief Christiana Figueres warned last week that the world had entered a “new danger zone”, with record levels of Earth-warming carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere.

Jobs go under climate change department merger http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/jobs-go-under-climate-change-department-merger/story-fn59niix-1226651394381 The merger has also left nearly 90 work terminals vacant at the former climate department HQ in Canberra, prompting questions in a Senate committee today about potential waste. The federal government announced in March it was bundling the portfolios together to form the new super department of Industry, Innovation, Climate Change, Science, Research and Tertiary Education. During a Senate budget estimates hearing today, the department confirmed 16 staff had been deemed “excess” following the merger process. Ten had since taken voluntarily redundancy, at a total cost of $496,968.

Uncertainty no excuse for procrastinating on climate change http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2013/5/27/science-environment/uncertainty-no-excuse-procrastinating-climate-change Today we released research which reduces the range of uncertainty in future global warming. It does not alter the fact we will never be certain about how, exactly, the climate will change. We always have to make decisions when there are uncertainties about the future: whether to take an umbrella when we go outside, how much to spend on insurance. International action on climate change is just one more decision that has to be made in an environment of uncertainty. The most recent assessment of climate change made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007 looked at what is known with high confidence about climate change, as well as uncertainties. It included projections of future global warming to the end of this century based on simulations from a group of complex climate models. These models included a range of uncertainties, coming from natural variability of the climate and the representation of important processes in the models. But the models did not consider uncertainty from interactions with the carbon cycle – the way carbon is absorbed and released by oceans, plant life and soil. In order to allow for these uncertainties, the likely range of temperature change was expanded.

Green groups attack government resistance to EU climate change goals http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/may/26/green-campaigners-attack-government-climate-change Green campaigners and industry experts have hit out at the government’s plans to block new EU-wide renewable energy targets, which they say are essential to cutting greenhouse gas emissions and creating a green economy. Ed Davey, the energy and climate secretary, is to set out on Monday the UK’s position on energy and climate change targets within Europe. He will oppose any new goals on increasing the share of renewable energy in electricity generation, but will argue for climate change goals that would be tougher than any yet agreed in an international forum.

Residents flee the ‘Venice of Africa’ as climate change drowns city http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/26/residents-flee-the-venice-of-africa-as-climate-change-drowns-city/ Ameth Diagne was asleep when the first waves lapped at his back door, the lukewarm, salty water seeping into his bedroom an impassive portent of the final days of his 650-year-old fishing community. He had kept his two wives and many of his 16 children with him long after the neighbours had fled, in the vain hope that his once-bustling, tenacious west African village could survive the remorseless advance of the Atlantic Ocean. “My house used to be two kilometres (1.2 miles) from the sea. I could grow things here because there was fresh water which came from the river,” Diagne said, surveying a stretch of wet sand and rubble which, until last year, had been his living room.

Climate Change: Human Disaster Looms, Says Research http://www.climatecentral.org/news/climate-change-human-disaster-looms-claims-research-16033 Some of the most extreme predictions of global warming are unlikely to materialize, new scientific research has suggested, but the world is still likely to be in for a temperature rise of double that regarded as safe. The researchers said warming was most likely to reach about 4C above pre-industrial levels if the past decade’s readings were taken into account.

Severe weather partly a result of climate change http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nightly-news/52002561/#52002561 Damaging tornadoes are an annual springtime threat in parts of the country, but Monday’s massive storm in Oklahoma, in a year that seems to have had more than its share of extreme weather, has many wondering whether things have gotten even more extreme than usual. NBC’s John Yang reports.

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