Category:

U.S. and China Reach Climate Deal After Months of Talks

BEIJING — China and the United States made common cause on Wednesday against the threat of climate change , staking out an ambitious joint plan to curb carbon emissions as a way to spur nations around the world to make their own cuts in greenhouse gases. The landmark agreement, jointly announced here by President Obama and President Xi Jinping, includes new targets for carbon emissions reductions by the United States and a first-ever commitment by China to stop its emissions from growing by 2030. Administration officials said the agreement, which was worked out quietly between the United States and China over nine months and included a letter from Mr. Obama to Mr. Xi proposing a joint approach, could galvanize efforts to negotiate a new global climate agreement by 2015. It was the signature achievement of an unexpectedly productive two days of meetings between the leaders. Mr. Obama and Mr. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

EU sees light at the end of the climate tunnel

Chair Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Rajendra Pachauri speaks at the UN Climate Summit one day before the 69th United Nations General Assembly in the UN building in New York City on September 23, 2014. UPI/John Angelillo "We have a choice and we must have the political courage to act now, with ambition and collectively," Members of the European Union in October agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent, increase the renewable energy footprint by 27 percent and enhance energy efficiency by 27 percent from a 1990 benchmark by 2040. Miguel Arias Cañete, European commissioner for climate action and energy, told the European Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety the bloc has the policies in place to arrest climate change . A report published last week by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found emissions of carbon dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas, from the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Coal versus climate in Australia

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has described the science on climate change as ‘crap’ [Getty Images] Australia continues to frustrate efforts by fellow G20 members to include climate change on the agenda at the upcoming leaders’ summit in the eastern city of Brisbane this weekend. As the host nation sets the G20 meeting’s agenda , Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott – an avowed sceptic of human-caused climate change – has resisted calls for global warming to be discussed when world leaders gather on November 15 and 16. Despite a recent official draft summary of proceedings appearing to make token references to climate change, the level of importance afforded to the issue remains unclear. Climate change was on the agenda at the previous eight G20 summits. Since forming the government in September 2013, Abbott has repealed Australia’s nascent emissions trading scheme and slashed funding to agencies and programmes promoting renewable energy and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Harsh Winter Outlook Made a Bit More Dire by Early Snow

Remember how evidence was mounting last month that early snowfall was accumulating across Siberia? And remember how there’s a theory that says this snowfall signals a cold winter? So in the two and half weeks since, the news for the winter-haters has, unfortunately, only gotten worse. About 14.1 million square kilometers of snow blanketed Siberia at the end of October, the second most in records going back to 1967, according to Rutgers University ’s Global Snow Lab . The record was in 1976, which broke a streak of mild winters in the eastern U.S. In addition, the speed at which snow has covered the region is the fastest since at least 1998. Taken together they signal greater chances for frigid air to spill out of the Arctic into more temperate regions of North America , Europe and Asia , said Judah Cohen, director of seasonal forecasting at Atmospheric and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Midterms were a ‘bloodbath’ for environmental policy, say advocates

Just days after a United Nations panel  warned that failure to dramatically and quickly curb the burning of fossil fuels would do "irreversible damage"  to the planet, the U.S. electorate on Tuesday voted in a Congress even more committed to the carbon status quo.  Controversial projects such as the  Keystone XL pipeline  enjoy strong backing by the Republican House and Senate leadership. Some newly elected politicians want gas and oil production boosted to turn America into "the next Saudi Arabia," and have questioned the existence of climate change. Despite a few bright spots, especially at the local level, the election results suggested that — if anything — Washington would become even more resistant than it already has been to legislate action on global warming. “We had some wins, but it was pretty much a bloodbath,” said Wenonah Hauter, the director of national environmental group Food and Water Watch. “I think […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Sierra Club finds “silver lining” in climate report

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, right, addresses the media at the launch of the Synthesis Report of the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on Nov. 2, 2014, in Copenhagen, Denmark. UN Photo/Amanda Voisard WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 (UPI) — The "silver lining" to a U.N. report on climate change is that deploying more renewable energy is affordable, the executive director of the Sierra Club said. A weekend report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found emissions of carbon dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas, from the combustion of fossil fuels accounted for 78 percent of the total emissions increase from 1970 to 2010. Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, says the IPCC is clear that the global addiction to "dirty fossil fuels" is having global consequences. "The silver lining to the report is that it recognizes clean energy climate solutions are affordable and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Oil Rout to Weigh on Alberta’s Carbon Emissions Policy

Oil’s 25 percent slide since June will play a role in Alberta ’s new climate and carbon regulations, Premier Jim Prentice said. The Canadian province will make a decision by the end of December on whether to raise its levy of C$15 ($13.29) a metric ton for large carbon emitters, while revisions on a broader range of climate policies may come at the same time, Prentice said. The drop in the price of oil, which is probably here to stay for a while, means it’s “time for caution,” he said. “You have to be very careful how you balance the environmental enhancements with the effects on your competitiveness,” Prentice said in an interview at Bloomberg’s Calgary office on Oct. 31. Environmental groups and U.S. and European legislators have highlighted the higher carbon intensity of Alberta’s oil sands, the world’s third largest crude reserves, as a reason for slowing construction […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Fossil Fuel Caps Urged as Scientists Warn of Climate Woes

Print Back to story The world can only consume a fraction of the known deposits of fossil fuels if it’s to avoid the most dangerous effects of climate change , according to the biggest assessment of the issue. Burning reserves of oil, natural gas and coal already identified by national governments and commodity companies would cause widespread droughts, more-violent storms and melting of polar ice caps, a long-awaited report by a panel of climate scientists gathered by the United Nations said. The finding, encapsulated in a so-called carbon budget for the world, is crucial because it tells governments how much room they have to maneuver in balancing measures to reduce emissions that may be costly to companies and the economy, against the predicted consequences of doing nothing. “At the current rates, the carbon budget will be depleted within just a few decades,” Alden Meyer , director of policy at […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Oil industry says US EPA’s refinery emissions rule would cost $20 billion

Washington (Platts)–29Oct2014/359 pm EDT/1959 GMT The US Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed regulations on toxic air emissions from oil refineries would cost the industry $20 billion, according to trade groups representing oil producers and refiners. In comments filed with the EPA Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute and and American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers said the proposed rule would be too onerous and could actually lead to higher greenhouse-gas emissions. "EPA’s proposed regulations could drive up costs and roll back environmental progress, forcing refineries to increase emissions by installing hundreds of costly new flare systems at a time when industry has been working with EPA to reduce flaring," API Director of Regulatory and Scientific Affairs Howard Feldman said in a statement. Tuesday was the deadline for public comments on the regulations. The proposed rule, which would update the EPA’s almost two-decades-old toxic emissions standards for refineries, would for the first time […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple