Schellnhuber: developed countries are ‘carbon insolvent’
Schellnhuber: developed countries are ‘carbon insolvent’
Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Germany’s climate adviser and respected physicist, shares his stark but simple view of how much CO2 we can emit by 2050. From Carbon Commentary, part of the Guardian Environment Network
- guardian.co.uk, Thursday 10 September 2009 11.42 BST
- Article history
Germany’s climate protection adviser has given a stark view of how much CO2 the world can emit. Photograph: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images
Hans Joachim Schellnhuber is the German government’s climate protection adviser and a distinguished physicist. He was interviewed by the German magazine Der Spiegel last week and gave a starkly simple view of how much CO2 the world can emit.
To achieve a two-in-three chance of keeping temperature increases below 2 degrees, humanity can only emit about 750 billion tonnes of CO2 between now and 2050, he said. (I assume that after 2050 Schellnhuber believes that net emissions must fall to zero or below.) 750 billion tonnes spread over today’s world population of 6.7bn means about 110 tonnes per person between now and mid-century.
Yukio Hatoyama sets tougher greenhouse targets
Yukio Hatoyama sets tougher greenhouse targets
September 07, 2009
JAPAN’S next prime minister Yukio Hatoyama has set a greenhouse gas reduction target of 25 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020.
The new target is far more ambitious than the eight-percent reduction advocated by the outgoing conservative government of Prime Minister Taro Aso, which lost parliamentary elections last week.
“As a mid-term goal, we aim at a 25 percent reduction by 2020 from 1990, based on the levels demanded by science to stop global warming,” said Mr Hatoyama, who is due to take over as prime minister on September 16.
Where to now on the CPRS
Where to now on the CPRS?
Normal 0 false false false EN-AU X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 –>
There’s a lot of burn-out in the climate movement right now. A lot of tired people, a lot of grumpy people. I know – I am one!
I can completely understand why – we’ve had a year of not only hard campaigning, but also a particularly distressing one. Dashed hopes aren’t easy to bear, a split movement is difficult to deal with, and too much of the year has been spent campaigning ‘against’ something instead of ‘for’ something else.
But, hard though it may be, Id argue that now is the time when we need to pull out all stops and start campaigning stronger, louder and better!
The CPRS has gone down once, but it’ll be back soon, followed swiftly by the Copenhagen Conference.
Global warming has made Arctic summers hottest for 2.000 years
Global warming has made Arctic summers hottest for 2,000 years
The Arctic has warmed as a result of climate change, despite the Earth being farther from the sun during summer months
- guardian.co.uk, Thursday 3 September 2009 19.00 BST
- Article history
Global warming has nullified the effect of increasing distance between the sun and Earth during the Arctic summer solstice. Photograph: National Science Foundation
Warming as a result of increased levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has overwhelmed a millennia-long cycle of natural cooling in the Arctic, raising temperatures in the region to their highest for at least 2,000 years, according to a report.
India will be key player at Copenhagen conference, says Miliband
India will be key player at Copenhagen conference, says Miliband
Climate change secretary praises India’s renewable targets and ‘big ambitions’, cementing cordial relations between the countries
- guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 2 September 2009 18.31 BST
- Article history
Climate change secretary Ed Miliband. Photograph: David Levene
Ed Miliband, Britain’s climate change secretary, hailed India as a potential “deal maker” in the forthcoming talks in Copenhagen for an international treaty to tackle global warming, stating that the country would not face targets to cut its emissions in the near future because it “took climate change seriously”.
The UK’s “softly-softly” approach has won plaudits in India, and contrasts with that of US secretary of state, Hilary Clinton, whose visit in July resulted in a spat with environment minister Indian environment minister Jairam Ramesh. India has categorically ruled out greenhouse gas cuts, arguing that rich nations caused the problem and must not deny Indians the opportunity to grow out of poverty.
Goggle-eyed protestors swim against carbon trading tide
Goggle-eyed protestors swim against carbon trading tide
Climate Camp activists sat in kayaks and wore goggles at DECC headquarters to protest against carbon trading and capture.
- guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 2 September 2009 13.15 BST
- Article history
Camp for Climate Action protestors at the DECC headquarters, London. Photograph: Amelia Gregory
Visitors to the department for energy and climate change (DECC) headquarters in London this morning would have noticed something odd about the reception area: 15 climate activists wearing arm bands, goggles and sitting in kayaks. The protest, organised by members of the Camp for Climate Action, is a stand against carbon trading and carbon capture and storage technology, ideas the activists say are “false solutions” to climate change.