968 arrests at Copenhagen rally
968 arrests at Copenhagen climate rally
- From: AFP
- December 13, 2009
POLICE have arrested almost 1000 people among the violent fringes of a mass rally in Copenhagen intended to put pressure on the UN climate summit to take stronger action.
Tens of thousands of people took part in the march overnight to the heavily guarded conference centre where world powers are struggling to hammer out a deal to combat global warming. Other rallies were held around the world from Australia to the Arctic Circle.
Most of the main Copenhagen rally was peaceful, but police moved in when hundreds of youths clad in black threw bricks and smashed windows. Riot police surrounded the troublemakers and made them sit on the ground with their hands behind their backs before being taken away on buses.
World’s largest ice sheet melting faster than expected
World’s largest ice sheet melting faster than expected
East Antarctic sheet shedding 57bn tonnes of ice a year and contributing to sea level rises, according to Nasa aerial survey
- guardian.co.uk, Sunday 22 November 2009 18.00 GMT
- Article history
Scientists believe that Antarctica could lose more ice than Greenland within a few years. Photograph: Momatiuk-Eastcott/Corbis
The world’s largest ice sheet has started to melt along its coastal fringes, raising fears that global sea levels will rise faster than scientists expected.
The East Antarctic ice sheet, which makes up three-quarters of the continent’s 14,000 sq km, is losing around 57bn tonnes of ice a year into surrounding waters, according to a satellite survey of the region.
Scientists had thought the ice sheet was reasonably stable, but measurements taken from Nasa‘s gravity recovery and climate experiment (Grace) show that it started to lose ice steadily from 2006.
China rejects draft climate deal
China rejects draft climate deal
- From: The Australian
- December 12, 2009
CHINA has accused the developed world of retreating from its undertakings to cut greenhouse gas emissions, rejected a proposal at the Copenhagen conference to reduce financial help to China and described the draft deal Kevin Rudd worked on as creating “a lot of problems”.
The Chinese have accused the developed world of abandoning the Kyoto Protocol and pressuring the developing nations to cut emissions without proper compensation for the “luxury emissions” the West has put out for the past century.
The so-called “commitment circle” draft document worked out between Denmark, Australia and other nations was said to be from a small and isolated group and designed to lift the political standing of individuals.
China’s ambassador to Australian, Junsai Zhang, has forcefully put the Chinese government’s case against proposals to bind developing nations to targets to cut greenhouse gases, drop the Kyoto commitments made by the developed nations and cut the share for China, India and Brazil of a $US10 billion-a-year financial help fund for developing countries to fight climate change.
As climate talks drag on, low-lying atolls are already beimg flooded
As climate talks drag on, low-lying atolls are already being flooded.
I am 17 years old. For my entire life, countries have been negotiating a climate agreement. My future is in front of me. In the year that I was born, amid an atmosphere of hope, the world formed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to solve the climate crisis.
This week I told negotiators at the main plenary session of the UN Climate Change Conference that time is running out and my generation needs them to work together to come up with the agreement that we deserve.
In the Solomon Islands, my homeland, communities on low-lying atolls are already being displaced by rising sea levels. Communities have lived on these atolls for generations. Moving from one province to another in the Solomon Islands is not just like moving house. Your land is your identity. It is part of your culture. It is who you are.
Vulnerable nations at Copenhagen summit reject 2C target
Vulnerable nations at Copenhagen summit reject 2C target
Alliance of Small Island States say any deal that allows temperatures to rise by more than 1.5C is ‘not negotiable’
- guardian.co.uk, Thursday 10 December 2009 13.55 GMT
- Article history
The Alliance of Small Island States is a grouping of 43 of the smallest and most vulnerable countries, including Tuvalu (pictured). Photograph: Matthieu Paley/Corbis
More than half the world’s countries say they are determined not to sign up to any deal that allows temperatures to rise by more than 1.5C – as opposed to 2C, which the major economies would prefer.
But any agreement to reach that target would require massive and rapid cuts in greenhouse gas emissions combined with removal of CO2 in the atmosphere. An extra 0.5C drop in temperatures would require vastly deeper cuts in carbon dioxide and up to $10.5 trillion (£6.5tr) extra in energy-related investment by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency.
Copenhagen is a world and a decade away from Kyoto
Copenhagen is a world and a decade away from Kyoto
Kyoto’s ineffectiveness was due to lack of scientific clarity and lack of public understanding: none of these excuses now apply
- guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 9 December 2009 12.44 GMT
- Article history
Al Gore, centre, shakes hands with Ryutaro Hashimoto, right, who was the Japanese prime minister at the time of the Kyoto talks in December 1997. Photograph: Katsumi Kasahara/AP
Few people outside Japan would have heard of Kyoto prior 1997, its Katsura palace or famous spring blossom. Mention the city now and it is immediately associated with the closest thing we have to an adequate global response to the global climate problem.
As delegates meeting in Copenhagen this month well know, the Kyoto protocol set legally binding requirements for developed economies to achieve emissions reductions by 2012.