Most recent 30 articles: Climate Change News - Science
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It’s time to end the UN’s artificial divide between biodiversity and climate - Climate Change News - Science (Oct 21, 2024) |
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Oct 21, 2024 · Comment: The biodiversity and climate crises are interlinked – and failing to coordinate our response leaves critical ecosystems like forests and peatlands at risk
A few days before the start of the World Nature Conference, CBD COP16 in Cali, Colombia, Greenpeace activists demonstrate on the United Nations square in front of the UN campus in Bonn, Germany, using a display of five dominoes showing plants and animals. (Photo: IMAGO/Bonn.digital via Reuters Connect)
An Lambrechts is a senior campaign strategist at Greenpeace International; Cyril Kormos is founder and executive director of Wild Heritage; and Virginia Young is director of the International Forests and ... | By An Lambrechts, Cyril Kormos and Virginia Young Read more ...
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Guyana’s carbon-credit deal to protect forests undermines its forest protectors - Climate Change News - Science (Oct 03, 2024) |
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Oct 03, 2024 · Comment: Guyana’s Indigenous communities are under siege from all sides – including an opaque carbon-offsetting scheme agreed by the government on our lands
The world's highest single drop-off of water, the Kaieteur Falls, are seen from a natural overlook above the Potaro River in southwest Guyana, on August 9, 2000. (Photo: Reuters file/Stringer)
Mario Hastings is a community leader and former Toshao of Kako Village in Upper Mazaruni, Guyana.
The Essequibo region of Guyana where I live lies at the heart of Guyana’s economic expansion – it’s one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. Essequibo is also the home of many of Guyana’s Indigenous ... | By Mario Hastings Read more ...
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Delaying the EU’s anti-deforestation law is not an option - Climate Change News - Science (Sep 03, 2024) |
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Sep 03, 2024 · Comment: The EU’s new deforestation law was seen as a breakthrough in the global battle against forest loss, but it’s provoking fractious debate among governments and producers
People dry cocoa beans in the Ivorian cocoa farming village of Djigbadji, commonly known as Bandikro or Bandit Town, located inside the Rapides Grah protected forest and destroyed by forest authorities in January 2020, in Soubre, Ivory Coast on January 7, 2021. (Photo: REUTERS/Luc Gnago)
Nicole Polsterer is the sustainable production and consumption campaigner at forests and rights NGO, Fern.
Initially the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) was hailed as a game-changer in the fight ... | By Nicole Polsterer Read more ...
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Climate disasters challenge right to safe and adequate housing - Climate Change News - Science (Aug 22, 2024) |
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Aug 22, 2024 · Climate-proofing homes is now an essential response to regular extreme weather events and can help prevent displacement
Climate disasters displace millions of people each year.
In 2023, the figure reached 26.4 million worldwide as a result of floods, storms, wildfires and other disasters, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).
Climate change is not solely responsible, but the frequency and intensity of extreme weather is increasing as global temperatures continue to rise. As a result we can expect that more and more people will face losing their homes and their livelihoods.
It is commonplace to see people boarding up their homes and ... | By Adam Wentworth Read more ...
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The UN can set a new course on “critical” transition minerals - Climate Change News - Science (Aug 20, 2024) |
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Aug 20, 2024 · Comment: A high-level panel is working to define principles for responsible mining, which will be presented to the UN General Assembly in September
Indigenous protesters march with banners, flags and placards during a demonstration on "La Pachamama," or Mother Earth Day on August 1, 2023 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Indigenous leaders from Jujuy protested against a provincial constitutional reform they claim is an attempt against their ancestral rights to lands the state aims to use for lithium mining. (Photo by Mariana Nedelcu/SOPA Images/Sipa USA/via Reuters)
Claudia Velarde is Co-director of the Ecosystems Program at the Interamerican Association for Environmental ... | By Claudia Velarde, Stephanie Weiss and Jessica Solórzano Read more ...
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FAO draft report backs growth of livestock industry despite emissions - Climate Change News - Science (Aug 14, 2024) |
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Aug 14, 2024 · Experts say the UN’s food agency has shied away from recommending less animal farming, though cutting methane emissions is a quick way to curb warming
Aerial view of dairy cows eating at a breeding base on August 12, 2024 in Lingwu, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of China (Photo: Yuan Hongyan/VCG/via Reuters)
The livestock industry is essential for food security and economic development, according to a draft report by the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) that reinforces its defence of practices in the emissions-heavy sector in recent years.
Former and current FAO officials and academics have criticised the document, seen by Climate Home ... | By Arthur Neslen Read more ...
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IPCC’s input into key UN climate review at risk as countries clash over timeline - Climate Change News - Science (Aug 05, 2024) |
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Aug 05, 2024 · Most governments want reports ready before the next global stocktake, but a dozen developing nations are opposed over inclusivity concerns
IPCC delegates exchange views on the final day of the session in Sofia, Bulgaria. Photo: Photo by IISD/ENB | Anastasia Rodopoulou
Governments have again failed to agree on a schedule for producing key climate science reports as deep divergences blocked progress at a meeting of the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) last week.
At the talks in Sofia, Bulgaria, most countries supported a faster process that would see three flagship reports assessing the state of climate science delivered by mid-2028, in time ... | By Matteo Civillini Read more ...
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The IPCC must produce its flagship report in time for the next UN global stocktake - Climate Change News - Science (Jul 31, 2024) |
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Jul 31, 2024 · Comment: An IPCC author from the Global South on why aligning the two timelines is crucial for the integrity of international climate cooperation
A plenary meeting at the 61st session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in Sofia, Bulgaria. Photo: IISD/ENB | Anastasia Rodopoulou
Dr Youba Sokona is an energy and sustainable development expert from Mali and was a vice chair of the IPCC’s sixth assessment cycle.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) seventh Assessment Report can and must be ready in time for the second Global Stocktake (GST).
The IPCC report plays a pivotal role in assessing climate change science and ... | By Youba Sokona Read more ...
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UN chief appeals for global action to tackle deadly extreme heat - Climate Change News - Science (Jul 25, 2024) |
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Jul 25, 2024 · António Guterres calls extreme heat “the new abnormal” as he urges countries to step up protection of vulnerable populations
Iraqi workers harvest potato crops, which has been damaged by a heatwave and environmental and climatic changes, in Mosul, Iraq, July 15, 2023. REUTERS/Khalid Al-Mousily
People everywhere are struggling with the fatal impacts of worsening extreme heat, which is also damaging economies, widening inequalities and undermining the world’s development goals, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said on Thursday.
Calling for global action to limit the devastating consequences, the head of the United Nations said “billions ... | By Megan Rowling and Matteo Civillini Read more ...
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Africa cannot afford to be complacent about solar radiation management - Climate Change News - Science (Jul 04, 2024) |
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Jul 04, 2024 · Comment: As the solar geoengineering debate heats up, it is time for voices across the continent to work together and make themselves heard
A solar eclipse is viewed from the Bayfront Convention Center in Erie, USA, on April 8. Photo: Greg Wohlford / USA TODAY NETWORK
Saliem Fakir is the executive director of the African Climate Foundation. Shuchi Talati (PhD) is the executive director of the Alliance for Just Deliberation on Solar Geoengineering.
Global temperatures have crossed 1.1oC above pre-industrial levels. They are likely to cross the 1.5oC Paris Agreement threshold within the next decade, and despite countries’ pledges to reduce the greenhouse gas ... | By Saliem Fakir and Shuchi Talati Read more ...
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Despite dilution, officials say new nature law can restore EU carbon sinks - Climate Change News - Science (Jun 20, 2024) |
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Jun 20, 2024 · To meet climate goals, the European Union needs to reverse the decline of its carbon-storing ecosystems like forests and peatlands
A squirrel in a forest in Finland (Photo: Markus Mauthe/Greenpeace)
A razor-thin vote in favour of the EU’s nature restoration law on Monday has salvaged the bloc’s ability to restore its climate sinks and reach its net zero goal, top officials told Climate Home.
The regulation, which tasks the EU’s 27 member states with reviving their land and water habitats and planting billions of trees, was narrowly passed by EU environment ministers.
The controversial law only gained enough backing because Austria’s minister for climate ... | By Arthur Neslen Read more ...
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Bonn bulletin: Fears over “1.5 washing” in national climate plans - Climate Change News - Science (Jun 13, 2024) |
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Jun 13, 2024 · Next round of NDCs in focus as negotiations wrap up with a final push to resolve fights on issues including adaptation and just transition
Delegates inside the conference centre for the UN climate change talks in Bonn, Germany, June 13, 2024. (Photo: UNFCCC/Amira Grotendiek)
At an event on the sidelines of Wednesday’s talks, the “Troika” of COP presidencies was very clear that the next round of national climate plans (NDCs) must be aligned with a global warming limit of 1.5C. The three countries – the UAE, Azerbaijan and Brazil – have all promised to set an example by publishing “1.5-aligned” plans by early next year.
What their negotiators were not so clear on, ... | By Megan Rowling, Joe Lo and Matteo Civillini Read more ...
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Bonn makes only lukewarm progress to tackle a red-hot climate crisis - Climate Change News - Science (Jun 12, 2024) |
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Jun 12, 2024 · Comment: At mid-year UN talks, negotiators have achieved little to get more help to those struggling with fiercer floods, cyclones and heatwaves in South Asia
People fill water from a supply tanker of the Delhi Government, during a heat wave, at Sangam Vihar, on June 9, 2024, in New Delhi, India. (Photo: Sanjeev Verma/Hindustan Times/Sipa USA)
Partha Hefaz Shaikh is Bangladesh policy director for WaterAid.
Thousands of country representatives have spent the last two weeks in Germany at the UN Bonn Climate Conference, marking the mid-year point to the biggest climate summit of the year: COP29.
But despite being a core milestone each year for global climate ... | By Partha Hefaz Shaikh Read more ...
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Climate, development and nature: three urgent priorities for next UK government - Climate Change News - Science (May 31, 2024) |
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May 31, 2024 · Comment: Revitalised global leadership from Britain can make a difference at a deeply troubling and fractured time for world affairs
Edward Davey is head of the World Resources Institute Europe UK Office.
In three vital and interrelated areas – climate, development and nature – the next UK government could play a significant role in driving progress at a critical time.
It needs to start office on day one with a plan that positions the UK ahead of key summits on those issues – summits that will have a critical bearing on people, planet, and future generations. The time to start preparing is now.
The NATO summit begins within days of the UK general election now ... | By Edward Davey Read more ...
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Developing countries need support adapting to deadly heat - Climate Change News - Science (May 30, 2024) |
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May 30, 2024 · Comment: Many vulnerable people in South Asia are already struggling to protect themselves from unbearably high temperatures – which are set to worsen
Abdul Jaffar, 21, who is a labourer drinks juice to cool off from the heat after he received medical treatment, during a hot summer day as a heatwave continues, at the Heat Stroke Response Centre in Civil Hospital in Jacobabad, Pakistan May 25, 2024. (Photo: REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro)
Fahad Saeed is a climate impact scientist for Climate Analytics, based in Islamabad, and Bill Hare is CEO and senior scientist at Climate Analytics.
Pakistan’s southern province of Sindh has been sweltering under 52°C heat in recent ... | By Bill Hare and Fahad Saeed Read more ...
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Argentinian scientists condemn budget cuts ahead of university protest - Climate Change News - Science (Apr 22, 2024) |
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Apr 22, 2024 · Right-wing President Javier Milei has taken an axe to funding for education and scientific bodies, sparking fears for climate research
A medical student walks past a placard announcing the time left before the budget for the university runs out, at the entrance of the University of Buenos Aires Medical School, in the run-up to a national strike on April 23 against Argentina's President Javier Milei's policy of cuts in public education, in Buenos Aires, Argentina April 17, 2024 (Photo: REUTERS/Agustin Marcarian)
As a budget freeze for Argentina’s public universities amid soaring inflation leaves campuses unable to pay their electricity bills and climate science ... | By Julian Reingold Read more ...
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Cancellation of UN climate weeks removes platform for worst-hit communities - Climate Change News - Science (Mar 28, 2024) |
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Mar 28, 2024 · 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, 2024) |
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Mar 27, 2024 · 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, 2024) |
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Feb 15, 2024 · 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, 2023) |
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Dec 10, 2023 · 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, 2023) |
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Nov 17, 2023 · 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, 2023) |
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Nov 13, 2023 · 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 08, 2023) |
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Nov 08, 2023 · 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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