Former US President, Bill Clinton, has told the Financial Times the US needs to unleash “the greatest concentration of economic activity since we mobilised for World War II” by embracing new energy technology and regulatory incentives to tackle climate change. His comments come as leaders of 80 countries are expected to attend a special UN … Read More
Climate Change
Wal-Mart Seeks Emissions Data
The world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart is to ask its suppliers to measure and report their greenhouse gas emissions in the biggest move to disclose emissions from businesses.Few companies disclose their emissions, making it difficult to judge which are ‘clean’ and which are ‘dirty’. Paul Dickinson, chief executive of the Carbon Disclosure Project, a group of … Read More
UN Chief Calls on Rich to Act
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that rich countries should help the poor ones deal with the challenges of development and climate change by providing the necessary funding and transferring technology. Developed countries should “be prepared to transfer technologies and necessary funding to help those developing countries,” Ban has said on the eve of a high … Read More
OZ: Howard Chased by Polar Bears
On the eve of Australia’s federal election, Prime minister John Howard was followed on his morning walk by polar bears protesting against the destruction of the polar ice caps. The Greenpeace-organised bears tailed Mr Howard on his walk around Canberra’s Lake Burley -Griffin to remind him of the urgency in dealing with climate change and … Read More
IPCC: “Now We Know That It Will Affect Us”
The effects of climate change will be felt sooner than scientists realised and the world must learn to live with the effects, experts have warned. Martin Parry, a climate scientist with the British Met Office, said destructive changes in temperature, rainfall and agriculture were now forecast to occur several decades earlier than thought.
California Loses Car-Climate Case
A US federal judge has dismissed a case brought by California against six leading carmakers over damage caused by the emissions of CO2 from cars. The legal action, the first of its kind, demanded millions of dollars in compensation from General Motors, Ford, Honda, Toyota, Chrysler and Nissan. But the judge ruled that the issue … Read More
Apec Leaders Perform “Stunt” Over Climate
Asia-Pacific leaders meeting in Sydney agreed a climate deal at the week-end that includes an “aspirational” goal to restrain the rise of greenhouse gas emissions to tackle climate change. The only problem is that although China and the US, two of the world’s biggest polluters, are among the 21 nations that have signed the statement, … Read More
BBC Adopts “Cowardly” Position on Climate Change
The BBC is under fire for dropping an awareness-raising programme on climate change. The scrapping of the programme, Planet Relief, an awareness-raising broadcast similar in concept to programmes such as the poverty-focused Comic Relief and Live8, and planned for early next year, is a real cop-out by the BBC. Environmentalists and politicians have rightly criticised … Read More
Arctic Ice-Free by 2030
The Arctic ice cap has collapsed at an unprecedented rate this summer and levels of sea ice in the region now stand at a record low, scientists have warned. Experts said they were “stunned” by the loss of ice, with an area almost twice as big as Britain disappearing in the last week alone. So … Read More
UK “May Miss 2020 Target for CO2”
Further promises by the UK government to meet greenhouse gas targets look unlikely to be met, according to a leading think tank says. Cambridge Econometrics was one of the first to forecast that the government would miss its target to cut CO2 by 20% for 2010.