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EU to Approve Change to Emissions Program

European Union lawmakers are set Tuesday to approve a long-sought fix to the bloc’s struggling system for trading carbon-emission rights as Germany and other nations have recently indicated support for the plan to make it more expensive to pollute. The Emissions Trading System was designed to put a price on greenhouse-gas pollution by utilities as the bloc seeks to cut carbon-dioxide emissions by 20% by 2020 versus 1990. But because of an initial oversupply of the emission rights and Europe’s economic slowdown, a surplus of roughly two billion credits has sent their price to €4.50 ($6.17) per metric ton now from a high of nearly €30 per ton five years ago. EU nations have struggled for almost two years to agree on a change that would delay the release of 900 million carbon-emission allowances to market. The European Parliament will vote Tuesday on a proposal to delay the release […]

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Keystone Backers Await Report Vital to Pipeline’s Fate

Supporters and foes of TransCanada Corp. (TRP) ’s Keystone XL pipeline are bracing for the release of an environmental analysis from the U.S. government that could determine the $5.4 billion project’s fate. While the report isn’t the final step, it’s eagerly anticipated because it will answer a question central to whether President Barack Obama approves the project: would Keystone contribute significantly to climate change? Obama has said he wouldn’t support the pipeline if it were found to substantially boost carbon-dioxide emissions that many scientists say are raising the Earth’s temperature. “If that report comes out and it says Keystone is not going to have a significant climate impact, it will be hard for Obama to ignore his own agency’s finding,” said Ross Hammond, senior campaigner for Friends of the Earth, an environmental group based in Washington and Berkeley, California . Keystone has emerged as a flashpoint in the debate […]

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Thousands Moved as Flooding Hits English Coastal Areas

Thousands of people were moved from English coastal areas last night and the River Thames flood barrier protecting London was closed after warnings of the worst tidal surge in 60 years. The Environment Agency said people were at risk of being swept into the sea and were removed from high-risk areas in places such as Great Yarmouth on the east coast. As of 8:22 a.m., 37 severe flood warnings had been issued for England and Wales , the agency said on its website . Seventeen of the alerts, which mean there could be danger to life, were in the Anglian region, the most easterly in England. The U.K. government has called a meeting on the storm response. “In some areas, sea levels could be higher than those during the devastating floods of 1953,” the Environment Agency said on its website. “However, flood defenses built since then mean that many […]

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Cobra to meet as storms threaten worst UK flooding in 60 years

Winds drove seawater on to the prom in Scarborough and threatened to cause floods on the east coast Winds drove seawater on to the prom in Scarborough and threatened to cause floods on the east coast The UK prime minister has called a meeting of the government’s emergency Cobra committee to deal with flooding along the length of the east coast that authorities fear could be the worst in 60 years. Homes were evacuated in some areas, including Great Yarmouth, in Norfolk, as the Environment Agency issued 28 severe flood warnings, its highest category of alert, and said more were expected. The port of Dover, in Kent, was on high alert and warned of possible disruption to Channel ferry services. The agency said sea levels could be higher than those during the devastating floods of 1953 . “Flood defences built since then, including the Thames and Hull barriers, mean […]

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Deadly storm and tidal surge batter northern Europe

Pedestrian struggles against the wind in Rotterdam 6 December 2013 Last updated at 09:26 Hurricane-force winds are battering northern Europe, with the port of Hamburg at a standstill and at least three people dead – two in the UK. Hamburg experienced its biggest tidal surges since the early 1990s. The city’s fish market and some streets by the river Elbe have been flooded. There was also limited flooding in the Netherlands – officials say the sea dykes withstood the onslaught. The Dutch and German authorities cancelled many flights and train services. The Oeresund road-rail bridge, linking Copenhagen in Denmark with Malmo in southern Sweden, has reopened. It had been closed on Thursday evening amid high winds. A woman died in Denmark after a lorry was blown over. In Scotland a lorry driver was also killed on Thursday when his vehicle was blown over near Edinburgh. A man was crushed […]

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NRDC challenges latest report on global warming

Dan Lashof, director of the climate and clean air program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said now is not the time to relax over global warming. “The warming signs are unmistakable and we have the know-how to heed them,” he said in a statement Tuesday. “The world needs to come together, quickly, to take serious actions to slow, stop and reverse climate change.” Lashof was reacting to a report from former U.S. space agency director James Hansen , now with Columbia University, that said the international community should work for no more than a 1 degree Celsius temperature, or about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, increase above preindustrial levels to keep future generations safe from the effects of climate change. That’s in contrast to an assessment from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which said 2 degrees Celsius is the threshold. Hansen’s paper, published on […]

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Snow Falls by Foot in Minnesota as Texas Braces for Ice

Snow fell by the foot across the Upper Great Lakes and Northern Plains as winter storms threatened to coat highways, power lines and trees with ice as far south as Texas . As much as 10 inches (25 centimeters) of snow was forecast in Minneapolis, according to the U.S. National Weather Service, with 40 inches possible on the coastline of Lake Superior northeast of Duluth as the storm moves into Canada. In Texas and Oklahoma , a half-inch of ice may affect electricity and transportation. “Significant travel impacts are possible during this event,” the weather service said in a winter storm warning for Dallas and Fort Worth. “Ice accumulations may make road surfaces impassable at times through Friday afternoon.” The storms are being fueled by a blast of arctic air that has gripped much of western Canada and is spreading through the U.S., […]

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High Winds Batter Scotland as Hamburg Braces for Storm Tides

Winds of up to 90 miles an hour and heavy rain are battering Scotland and England , disrupting road traffic and rail services, as northern Europe braces for heavy storms sweeping across the North Atlantic and the North Sea. Authorities issued severe flood warnings for northern parts of the U.K. as gales spread across the region. ScotRail suspended all rail services, sending trains to the nearest station to allow passengers to disembark safely. The airport in Hamburg, Germany’s main export hub, canceled 17 takeoffs and landings while authorities prepared for storm tides and monitored ships entering the Elbe estuary. A low pressure system dubbed Xaver may reach hurricane force with wind speeds of more than 140 kilometers (87 miles) an hour as it traverses southern parts of the North Sea before reaching landfall on the northern German and Danish coast around noon today, according to the German Weather Service […]

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Australia at risk of severe consequences of climate change

Australia is at risk of severe consequences as a result of climate change, a new book warns. “Four Degrees of Global Warming: Australia in a Hot World,” by a group of scientists and economists, looks at the economic implications of global warming of 4 degrees Celsius – or 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit — by or before 2100. The book’s editor, Peter Christoff, associate professor of environmental policy at the University of Melbourne, says that even if the world’s major economies were to enact current carbon emissions reduction pledges aimed at limiting warming to below 2C, the world is still on track to experience 4C of warming by 2100, The Guardian reports. “Australia is exceptionally vulnerable ecologically to climate change,” Christoff told the newspaper. Four degrees of warming, he said, would mean “a comprehensive transformation for life in Australia, from its wealth to its access to […]

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Federal study warns of sudden climate change woes

A panel of scientists advising the federal government says the world needs to worry more about hard-to-predict sudden changes from global warming than it does about the bigger but more gradual impacts. The National Academy of Sciences looked at warming problems that can occur in years instead of centuries. The panel said Tuesday that melting ice in the Arctic Ocean and mass species extinction are already here and worse than predicted. It says the melting ice could be more of a wild card than originally thought. However, the report said two other abrupt climate threats worried about earlier likely won’t be so sudden. Study co-author Richard Alley compared the threats to the random danger of drunk drivers: If you see them coming, you can get out of the way. © 2013 The Associated Press . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple