Most recent 20 articles: Climate Change News - Science
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Cancellation of UN climate weeks removes platform for worst-hit communities - Climate Change News - Science (Mar 28) |
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Mar 28 · Comment: The UNFCCC has said it will not hold regional climate weeks in 2024 due to a funding shortfall – which means less inclusion for developing-country voices
A woman of the Turkana tribe waits with plastic containers to get water from a well, amid the worst drought in East Africa's history, February 17, 2023. (Photo: Simone Boccaccio / SOPA Images/Sipa USA)
If the world’s most vulnerable are not at the table, then UN climate talks are no longer fit for purpose.
This week, the UN climate change body (UNFCCC) confirmed that this year’s Regional Climate Weeks will be cancelled until further notice due to lack of funding.
The update comes shortly after ... | By Dulce Marrumbe Read more ...
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What will it take to protect India’s angry farmers from climate threats? - Climate Change News - Science (Mar 27) |
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Mar 27 · Indebted farmers, facing falling yields and water scarcity, want legally guaranteed price support for more crops – but that may not fix their climate woes
Deedar Singh (middle) sits with colleagues by the side of the road at the Shambhu border, between Punjab and Haryana, protesting the government's inaction in providing legal MSP guarantees on crops, February 27 2024 (Photo: Kanika Gupta)
Indian farmers – struggling with erratic weather, shrinking water supplies and falling incomes – have quit their fields in a major new wave of protest, and plan to keep up the pressure on the government ahead of national elections starting on April ... | By Kanika Gupta Read more ...
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Switzerland proposes first UN expert group on solar geoengineering - Climate Change News - Science (Feb 15) |
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Feb 15 · A draft resolution aimed at creating a space for discussion on sun dimming technologies will be debated at the annual summit of the UN’s environment body this month
Solar radiation modification aims to mask the effect of climate change by reflecting more sunlight back into space. Photo: maxime raynal
Switzerland wants to advance global talks on whether controversial solar geoengineering techniques should be used to compensate for climate change by cooling down the earth.
It is proposing to create the first United Nations expert group to “examine risks and opportunities” of solar radiation management (SRM), a suite of largely untested technologies aimed at ... | By Matteo Civillini Read more ...
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Adaptation playbook is the true test of Cop28 for world’s vulnerable - Climate Change News - Science (Dec 10) |
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Dec 10 · While most attention is on fossil fuels, the US is blocking progress on an adaptation playbook, a matter of life or death for many Africans
Seaweed farmers in Tanzania are having to move into deeper waters as seaweed-killing bacteria thrives in warming seas (Photo: Natalija Gormalova / Climate Visuals Countdown)
Although the phase out of fossil fuels has got most of the attention at Cop28, the outcome that will likely make the biggest difference to most people on the planet in the short- and medium-term is if countries come to an agreement on the global goal on adaptation.
This global goal is a playbook for how the world is going to adapt to a climate that is ... | By Mohamed Adow Read more ...
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OECD: Rich countries “likely” to hit $100bn climate finance goal in 2022 - Climate Change News - Science (Nov 17) |
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Nov 17 · Data shows countries provided $89.6bn in 2021, but funding for adaptation declined.
Flooding in north-eastern Nigeria in 2015 (Photo: Immanuel Afolabi/Conflict & Development at Texas A&M/Flickr)
Rich countries “look likely” to have met a long-overdue goal to provide $100 billion a year in climate finance to vulnerable countries in 2022, two years later than promised.
The claim made by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which carries out an annual assessment of the pledge, is based “on preliminary and as yet unverified data” that has not been made public.
Detailed figures have been made available for ... | By Matteo Civillini Read more ...
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UK aid cuts leave Malawi vulnerable to droughts and cyclones - Climate Change News - Science (Nov 13) |
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Nov 13 · After the UK cut short a £52m climate adaptation scheme in Malawi, vulnerable communities saw their livelihoods destroyed by Cyclone Freddy
After cyclone Freddy ravaged Malawi at the start of the year, mother-of-nine Elube Sandram was left staring at a trail of devastation.
Flood water had destroyed all her corn crops, an essential lifeline to feed her family and earn a modest income. The spiralling costs of seeds and fertilisers put replanting beyond her reach.
“The cyclone left me completely with nothing”, she told Climate Home News.
As Sandram searched for help, she said no relief was available aside from the limited support she could obtain from family ... | By Raphael Mweninguwe and Matteo Civillini Read more ...
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Talks to boost ‘underfinanced’ climate adaptation split over money - Climate Change News - Science (Nov 8) |
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Nov 8 · Developing and developed countries are wrangling over whether finance should be included in an adaptation framework to be approved at Cop28
A man building a coastal protection system at Anse Kerlan beach in the Seychelles. Photo: Kadir van Lohuizen / NOOR / UNEP
As years-long negotiations over boosting global efforts to adapt to climate change enter the final stretch, countries are still divided over targets and the funding to achieve them.
At Cop28 next month, governments are expected to approve a framework to make the Paris Agreement’s global goal on adaptation (GGA) more concrete. The initiative is aimed at enhancing nations’ resilience to extreme weather ... | By Matteo Civillini Read more ...
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Brazilian government eyes money from Amazon Fund for controversial road - Climate Change News - Science (Sep 26, 2023) |
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Sep 26, 2023 · Brazil’s transport ministry plans to bid for money from the Amazon Fund to pave the world’s “most sustainable highway”
Digger excavating the BR-319. (Photo: Ben Sutherland/Wikimedia Commons)
Brazilian government officials are targeting resources from the Amazon Fund, one of the main bilateral tools for countries to invest in the Amazon, to pay for a controversial road project in the rainforest.
The plan, announced in late August by the country’s Minister of Transportation, Renan Filho, was met with suspicion by environmentalists who are familiar with the fund’s guidelines.
During a press conference announcing new infrastructure ... | By Patricia Figueiredo Read more ...
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Overshoot Commission calls for research into solar geoengineering - Climate Change News - Science (Sep 14, 2023) |
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Sep 14, 2023 · Dimming the sun could “complement” emissions cuts, says panel of leaders, while acknowledging concerns about the risks
Solar radiation modification aims to mask the effect of climate change by reflecting more sunlight back into space. Photo: Luis Boza/Unsplash
Governments should expand research into controversial solar geoengineering, while placing a moratorium on large-scale experiments outdoors, a panel of leaders has recommended.
The Overshoot Commission was set up last year to examine ways of reducing risks if and when global heating surpasses 1.5C.
In a report published on Thursday, it called for an acceleration in emission reductions, more ... | By Matteo Civillini Read more ...
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‘Carbon bomb’ in Argentina gets push from local government - Climate Change News - Science (Aug 31, 2023) |
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Aug 31, 2023 · Argentina’s southern city of Sierra Grande started public hearings for a shipping terminal to export from Vaca Muerta, the world’s second largest shale gas reserve
Orlando Carriqueo, Werken or messenger of the Mapuche Tehuelche Parliament of Río Negro playing a trutruca during the anti-oil rally in March 2023. (Photo: Carolina Blumenkranc)
Regional authorities in Argentina’s southern city of Sierra Grande are pushing a major oil and gas exporting terminal despite ecological and climate concerns.
The Vaca Muerta Sur terminal could bring a surge in Argentina’s oil and gas exports, unlocking the Vaca Muerta field, which holds the world’s ... | By Julian Reingold Read more ...
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Devastating floods test China’s ‘sponge cities’ - Climate Change News - Science (Aug 17, 2023) |
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Aug 17, 2023 · Despite Beijing’s sponge city project, the capital was overwhelmed by recent floods with dozens dying and a new “sponge airport” shut down
FILE PHOTO: A man operates a front loader to evacuate people through a flooded road after the rains and floods brought by remnants of Typhoon Doksuri, in Zhuozhou, Hebei province, China August 3, 2023. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang/File Photo
Recent devastating floods in Beijing have put China’s drive to create “sponge cities” which can handle extreme rain to the test.
Since 2013, China has been trying to make cities like Beijing more flood-proof by replacing roads, pavements and rooftops with natural materials like ... | By Alok Gupta Read more ...
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Mainstream economists accused of playing down climate threat - Climate Change News - Science (Aug 08, 2023) |
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Aug 08, 2023 · Economic models have ignored tipping points, rainfall changes and indoor work, leading them to under-estimate climate change’s economic damage
A woman stands on the logs in front of her ruined house after flash floods in Indonesia (Photo credit: Hariandi Hafid/Greenpeace)
Mainstream economics has consistently understated the economic damage of climate change, according to two recent reports.
As economic models fail to include tipping points, floods, droughts or indoor work, they hugely underplay the economic damage that global warming will do, the reports argue.
The models are relied upon by investors, politicians, central bank governors and influential ... | By Joe Lo Read more ...
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UN deep-sea mining talks deadlocked over agenda clash - Climate Change News - Science (Jul 27, 2023) |
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Jul 27, 2023 · A dozen countries want to officially debate for the first time in history the possibility to halt deep-sea mining, but have faced opposition from China and the island-nation of Nauru.
A new species discovered at 4,100 meters in the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone (CCZ) that lives on sponge stalks attached to polymetallic nodules. Photo: NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research
As crunch talks about the future of deep-sea mining enter the final stretch, governments have not yet been able to agree on the agenda for the meeting at the International Seabed Authority (ISA) in Kingston, Jamaica.
The stalemate is dragging on as attempts to formally discuss a ... | By Matteo Civillini and Sebastian Rodriguez Read more ...
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Morocco’s centuries-old irrigation system under threat from climate change - Climate Change News - Science (Jun 30, 2023) |
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Jun 30, 2023 · As Morocco faces increasingly extreme temperatures, indigenous communities in the country’s southeast suffer the brunt of the climate crisis
The Tinghir province has one of the most water-stressed communities in Morocco. Photo: J
For tourists, a trip to Morocco’s southeast most likely involves taking a coach bus or rented SUV to the Merzouga Desert.
The journey is equal parts dramatic and harrowing - with canyon-like views of the Atlas Mountains via treacherous switchbacks, and a vast landscape of desert beyond Ouarzazate.
Along the way - some 330 kilometers from Marrakech - the commune of Imider sits nestled on Morocco’s National Route 10 (N10). Hardly ... | By Rachel Santarsiero Read more ...
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Last-minute compromise avoids break down on adaptation goals - Climate Change News - Science (Jun 16, 2023) |
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Jun 16, 2023 · In fraught nations, developing countries wanted to focus on specific targets, while developed nations only wanted to talk about structure
Members of the G-77/China group huddle in the corridors before final discussions. Photo: IISD/ENB - Kiara Worth
Talks over setting ambitious goals for the world’s efforts to adjust to the effects of climate change were rescued at the very last minute during climate talks in Bonn, following bitter divisions between developing and developed countries.
The fraught negotiations in Germany centered on the framework for the global goal on adaptation, an initiative aimed at enhancing nations’ resilience to extreme weather events, ... | By Matteo Civillini Read more ...
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Bonn talks offer opportunity to bridge the adaptation gap - Climate Change News - Science (Jun 05, 2023) |
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Jun 05, 2023 · With climate devastation growing, we can’t keep sidelining climate adaptation at governments’ climate talks
Farmers from Nego' Kebly village in Luxor receiving training on improved agricultural practices for wheat harvests (Photo: Adaptation Fund)
As negotiators gather for this year’s Bonn climate conference, they must put more focus on setting a global goal on adapting the world to climate change, which is known as adaptation.
So far, global efforts on adaptation have been reactive and incremental for two key reasons. One is a significant shortfall in finance for adaptation and the second is these issues being sidelined in multilateral climate agendas. | By Amy Gilliam Thorp Read more ...
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Reporting on climate adaptation is a mess – here’s how to fix it - Climate Change News - Science (Apr 26, 2023) |
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Apr 26, 2023 · Information about projects to help adapt to climate change is scattered, hard-to-find and incomplete, making keeping track of them impossible
Rising sea levels have caused flooding in the Marshall Islands. (Photo: Genevieve French/Greenpeace)
More and more people are recognising that the world needs to adjust to climate change as well as cut emissions.
In the 2015 Paris Agreement, countries agreed to set a global goal on adjusting, which is known as adaptation. But it is still very difficult to track and demonstrate progress towards this target because of a lack of rigour in how these projects are officially reported and evaluated.
Two years ago, we at the ... | By Richard J T Klein, Nella Canales and Biljana Macura Read more ...
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US pledges $1 billion to Green Climate Fund amid call to keep 1.5C in reach - Climate Change News - Science (Apr 20, 2023) |
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Apr 20, 2023 · Joe Biden urged leaders of major emitting economies to step up efforts to roll out zero-emission vehicles, cut methane emissions and deploy carbon capture technologies
U.S. President Joe Biden convenes the fourth virtual leader-level meeting of the Major Economies Forum (MEF) on Energy and Climate at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 20, 2023. (Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)
The US will provide $1 billion to the UN’s flagship climate fund – its first such contribution in six years.
Joe Biden made the commitment as he hosted a virtual meeting of world leaders on Thursday to spur high-level leadership to limit global warming to 1.5C.
This is the first ... | By Chloé Farand Read more ...
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“Life or death”: Weather-watchers warn against Elon Musk’s Twitter changes - Climate Change News - Science (Apr 14, 2023) |
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Apr 14, 2023 · Elon Musk is charging for automated tweets, making it harder for authorities to warn of extreme weather events
Elon Musk bought Twitter last year (Photo credit: Daniel Oberhaus)
Elon Musk’s changes to Twitter will hinder the US government’s ability to warn citizens about extreme weather, the US National Weather Service (NWS) said.
Twitter recently announced it would limit the number of automated tweets that non-paying users can post to 50 in a 24-hour period. To post more will cost each account $100 a month from April 29.
A spokesperson for the NWS said that, since 2014, it has auto-posted the latest warnings for tornadoes, severe thunderstorms ... | By Joe Lo Read more ...
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Governments battle over carbon removal and renewables in IPCC report - Climate Change News - Science (Mar 23, 2023) |
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Mar 23, 2023 · While the Saudis pushed carbon capture and storage technology, Europeans fought for wind and solar to be talked up in the report.
Negotiators from Saud Arabia and the US huddle with IPCC staff (Photo credit: IISD/ENB Anastasia Rodopoulou)
Governments fought over how their favoured green technologies are described in the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s scientists last week.
As governments met in Switzerland to approve the report, a group led by Saudi Arabia pushed for an emphasis on sucking carbon out of the atmosphere through carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.
But a group of ... | By Isabella Kaminski Read more ...
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