Category: Environment

{A deal to attempt to limit the rise in global temperatures to less than 2C has been agreed at the climate change summit in Paris after two weeks of intense negotiations.}

The pact is the first to commit all countries to cut carbon emissions.

The agreement is partly legally binding and partly voluntary.

Earlier, key blocs, including the G77 group of developing countries, and nations such as China and India said they supported the proposals.

President of the UN climate conference of parties (COP) and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said: “I now invite the COP to adopt the decision entitled Paris Agreement outlined in the document.

“Looking out to the room I see that the reaction is positive, I see no objections. The Paris agreement is adopted.”

As he struck the gavel to signal the adoption of the deal, delegates rose to their feet cheering and applauding.

US President Barack Obama has hailed the agreement as “ambitious” and “historic”, but also warned against complacency.

“Together, we’ve shown what’s possible when the world stands as one,” he said.

And although admitting that the deal was not “perfect”, he said it was “the best chance to save the one planet we have”.

China’s chief negotiator Xie Zhenhua said the deal was not perfect. But he added that “this does not prevent us from marching historical steps forward”.

Nearly 200 countries took part in the negotiations to strike the first climate deal to commit all countries to cut emissions, which would come into being in 2020.

The chairman of the group representing some of the world’s poorest countries called the deal historic, adding: “We are living in unprecedented times, which call for unprecedented measures.

“It is the best outcome we could have hoped for, not just for the Least Developed Countries, but for all citizens of the world.”

Key points

The measures in the agreement included:

• To peak greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible and achieve a balance between sources and sinks of greenhouse gases in the second half of this century

• To keep global temperature increase “well below” 2C (3.6F) and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5C

• To review progress every five years

• $100 billion a year in climate finance for developing countries by 2020, with a commitment to further finance in the future.

Analysis: The BBC’s Matt McGrath in Paris

The speeches and the cliches at the adoption of the Paris Agreement flowed like good champagne – success after all has many fathers! The main emotion is relief. The influence of the COP president, Laurent Fabius, cannot be overstated. His long diplomatic career gave him a credibility seldom matched in this arena. He used his power well.

The deal that has been agreed, under Mr Fabius, is without parallel in terms of climate change or of the environment. It sets out a clear long term temperature limit for the planet and a clear way of getting there. There is money for poor countries to adapt, there is a strong review mechanism to increase ambition over time. This is key if the deal is to achieve the aim of keeping warming well below 2C.

More than anything though the deal signifies a new way for the world to achieve progress – without it costing the Earth. A long term perspective on the way we do sustainability is at the heart of this deal. If it delivers that, it truly will be world changing.

Read more from Matt McGrath

Ahead of the deal being struck, delegates were in a buoyant mood as they gathered in the hall waiting for the plenary session to resume.

Mr Fabius was applauded as he entered the hall ahead of the announcement.

Earlier, French President Francois Hollande called the proposals unprecedented, while UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on negotiators to “finish the job”.

However, the celebratory mood has not been shared among all observers.
‘Almost nothing binding’

Nick Dearden, director of campaign group Global Justice Now, said: “It’s outrageous that the deal that’s on the table is being spun as a success when it undermines the rights of the world’s most vulnerable communities and has almost nothing binding to ensure a safe and liveable climate for future generations.”

Some aspects of the agreement will be legally binding, such as submitting an emissions reduction target and the regular review of that goal.

However, the targets set by nations will not be binding under the deal struck in Paris.

Observers say the attempt to impose emissions targets on countries was one of the main reasons why the Copenhagen talks in 2009 failed.

At the time, nations including China, India and South Africa were unwilling to sign up to a condition that they felt could hamper economic growth and development.

The latest negotiations managed to avoid such an impasse by developing a system of Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs).

In these, which form the basis of the Paris agreement goal of keeping global temperature rise “well below” 2C (3.6F) above pre-industrial levels, nations outline their plans on cutting their post-2020 emissions.

An assessment published during the two-week talks suggested that the emission reductions currently outlined in the INDCs submitted by countries would only limit global temperature rise by 2.7C.

Nick Mabey, chief executive of climate diplomacy organisation E3G, said the agreement was an ambitious one that would require serious political commitment to deliver.

“Paris means governments will go further and faster to tackle climate change than ever before,” he said.

“The transition to a low carbon economy is now unstoppable, ensuring the end of the fossil fuel age.”

COP 21 – the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties – will see more than 190 nations gather in Paris to discuss a possible new global agreement on climate change, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the threat of dangerous warming due to human activities.

SOURCE:BBC:[COP21 climate change summit reaches deal in Paris->http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35084374]

The New Horizons probe has at last returned some of the super-sharp pictures it took of Pluto during its historic flyby in July.

The images released by the US space agency on Friday show details on the surface of the dwarf planet at a resolution better than 80m per pixel.

On Earth at this scale, one could easily discern a city park.

With New Horizons, we see crystal clear views of mountains, craters and smooth ice fields.

“These close-up images, showing the diversity of terrain on Pluto, demonstrate the power of our robotic planetary explorers to return intriguing data to scientists back here on Planet Earth,” said John Grunsfeld, the head of Nasa’s science directorate.

“New Horizons thrilled us during the July flyby with the first close images of Pluto, and as the spacecraft transmits the treasure trove of images in its onboard memory back to us, we continue to be amazed by what we see.”

The probe got to about 12,500km from the surface of the dwarf and acquired a mass of pictures and other instrument data.

But because of the vast separation to Earth, and the modest transmitter on New Horizons, the flow of information back home has been extremely slow.

Indeed, it is expected to take until late 2016 to get everything in the probe’s memory back on the ground.

The mission team prioritised what it wanted to see first, which included some general impressions of Pluto – the broad context. Now, nearly five months on from the flyby, we are being treated to some spectacularly detailed offerings.

Friday’s pictures come from a photographic strip that incorporates a segment of its icy flat terrain informally known Sputnik Planum, and the adjacent rugged al-Idrisi mountains.

“These new images give us a breathtaking, super-high resolution window into Pluto’s geology,” said New Horizons’ chief scientist, Alan Stern, of Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado.

“Nothing of this quality was available for Venus or Mars until decades after their first flybys; yet at Pluto we’re there already – down among the craters, ice fields and mountains – less than five months after flyby! The science we can do with these images is simply unbelievable.”

All the pictures were acquired by New Horizons’ telescopic Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (Lorri).

The probe continues to move deeper into space. It is now about 167 million km beyond the dwarf planet and some 5.2 billion km from Earth.

The spacecraft has been put on a course to fly by another object known simply as 2014 MU69. This will occur in just over three years’ time.

However, the team does not yet have a budget from the US space agency to operate the probe at the roughly 45km-wide body. The scientists plan to submit a formal request for funding in the next few months.

SOURCE:BBC:[New Horizons: Sharpest images of Pluto’s surface->http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35013190]

{New analysis quantifies global impact of evaporation, runoff.}

Humans’ global water footprint is up to 18 percent greater than previous estimates, researchers from Sweden report in a new study.

An analysis of water and climate data from 1901 to 2008 from 100 large water basins around the world revealed more water loss to the atmosphere and less water runoff compared with conclusions from earlier studies. The researchers link both water impacts to human activities. Water management techniques such as irrigation and damming rivers to create reservoirs, rather than climate conditions or geographic location, better explain the findings, they say.

On a global scale, the new results suggest that humans use about 10,700 cubic kilometers of water­­ per year, more than all the water in Lakes Michigan, Huron, Ontario and Erie combined. That’s about 18 percent more than a 2012 estimate for current water use. The level is increasingly unsustainable, the scientists report December 4 in Science.

SOURCE:SCIENCE NEWS:[Humankind’s water use greater than thought->https://www.sciencenews.org/article/humankind%E2%80%99s-water-use-greater-thought]

{Prince Charles is expected to call for better protection of the world’s forests at the UN climate conference in Paris.}

He will condemn corporations which, he will argue, appear not to care if their business activities result in forest destruction.

About a billion people depend directly on forests for their livelihoods.

Negotiators from 195 nations in Paris seek to reach a deal within two weeks to reduce global carbon emissions.

The agreement is also aimed at limiting global warming to 2C (3.6F).
‘Cinderella’ subject

On Tuesday, Prince Charles will speak at a meeting with government ministers and indigenous leaders.

The meeting is aimed at promoting forest partnerships in which indigenous people gain legal rights to their land and then share commercial activities.

Forests play a vital role in stabilising the climate, yet every year about 12 million hectares (30 million acres) of woodlands are destroyed, the BBC’s environment correspondent Roger Harrabin says.

According to a recent paper, that is responsible for about 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Forests are something of a “Cinderella” subject at climate conferences, our correspondent says. They are essential for the climate – but forest solutions are typically complex and local, and they do not lend themselves easily to sweeping global agreements.

On Monday, US President Barack Obama said the UN conference, known as COP21, could be a “turning point” in global efforts to limit future temperature rises.

He urged negotiators to deliver a meaningful deal, because the “next generation is watching”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin also addressed the conference.

During negotiations for the preceding Kyoto Protocol, Russia was the last industrialised nation to ratify the global agreement, allowing the landmark deal to come into force in 2001.

Mr Putin said: “We have demonstrated we can ensure economic development and take care of our environment at the same time.”

In a diplomatic play on semantics, probably to highlight the differing points of view between industrialised and emerging economies, Chinese President Xi Jinping told the conference he did not see the Paris talks as a turning point nor a “finish line, but a new starting point”.

He also reiterated China’s pledge to start cutting its emissions from a peak in 2030.

Analysis – Matt McGrath, BBC environment correspondent, at COP21

So what can we glean from the warm words and good intentions of the leaders?

There are certainly positive omens. Leader after leader sang the same hymn – climate change is a huge challenge, only co-operation on a global level can solve it, and my country is doing great!

Still, there were obvious divisions.

Progress may or may not happen over the next two weeks.

One negotiator told me the whole idea was for the leaders to come, speak and happily be on their way without toppling this carefully constructed applecart.

Unlike in Copenhagen in 2009.

“The leaders fully understand the political nature, the political difficulties. They are coming here to provide manoeuvring guidance,” he said with a hint of irony.

“And we as negotiators will then have to fix it.”

British Prime Minister David Cameron used his address to consider how future generations would respond to the idea that it was “too difficult” for this generation of politicians to reach an agreement in 2015.

Tuvalu Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga made a stark observation in his passionate address: “If we save Tuvalu, we will surely save the world.”

“Like other nations in the Pacific, our survival depends on the decisions we take here in Paris,” he said, reflecting the concerns of many Small Island States (SISs) around the globe.

“We stand on a cliff edge. Either we stand united and agree to combat climate change, or we all stumble and fall.”

World leaders are attending the start of the two-week meeting to give impetus to the talks, after the high-profile failure of the Copenhagen summit in 2009.

SOURCE:BBC:[COP21: Prince Charles to call for forest protection->http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34971307]

{A critical UN conference aimed at agreeing a new global approach to climate change is set to open in Paris.}

The meeting, known as COP21, will see negotiators from 195 countries attempt to finalise a new treaty over the next two weeks.

Political leaders from 147 countries will address the conference throughout Monday.

But the poorest countries say they fear being “left behind” in the push to agree a deal.

The French government will officially take over the running of the talks during the opening ceremony on Monday.

Thousands march for climate change

Police have locked down the conference centre in Le Bourget, closing roads in the area amid strict security for the leaders’ visit.

Presidents and prime ministers will address the gathering amid a growing sense of optimism that an agreement can be secured.

“It will be the turning point, which is what the world requires,” said French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius at a news conference over the weekend. Mr Fabius will chair the conference until it reaches a conclusion.
Boost for solar

The leaders, who will only stay at the meeting for one day, are likely to make a number of significant announcements during the day to boost the fight against rising temperatures.

France and India will announce a global alliance that aims to bring together 100 solar-rich countries in tropical regions to rapidly expand the availability of electricity from the Sun.

There are also expected to be announcements on funding for renewable energy research.

But among the warm words and good intentions, there are growing concerns among the very poorest countries that their interests might be sacrificed in the clamour for compromise.

Most of the discussions here will revolve around a new deal that would limit global warming to 2C.

Assessments of the more than 180 national plans that have been submitted by countries suggest that if they were implemented the world would see a rise of nearer to 3C.

However, the 48 members of the least developed countries (LDC) group at these talks say that for them, anything more than 1.5 degrees would be catastrophic.

“For the LDCs, economic development, regional food security, ecosystems, and the very survival of their populations and livelihoods are at risk if talks aim only for a 2C world,” said Giza Gaspar Martins from Angola.

“The heads of state will be in Paris to set the tone for the negotiations. We renew our call for an ambitious, robust and binding climate deal that does not leave behind the most vulnerable among us.”

While the arrival of the leaders will give a significant boost to the conference, the practical difficulties of securing a deal have not gone away.
‘Differentiation’ issue

At present the negotiating text runs to more than 50 pages of dense text, filled with brackets, indicating disagreement.

Teams of negotiators actually began the work on Sunday conscious of the fact that so many issues remain unresolved.

The hope is that, by the end of this week, a new draft agreement will be ready for environment ministers to haggle over during the second half of the conference.

One of the biggest differences is said to be over what’s termed “differentiation” in the talks.

The US and other wealthy countries object to the fact that in these negotiations, a country is determined to be developed or developing based on its wealth when this body was formed back in 1992.

They argue that any new deal must accurately reflect the current position, meaning that a larger number of countries would have to share the burden of cutting carbon.

SOURCE:BBC:C[OP21: Poor countries fear being ‘left behind’ in rush for deal->http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34960051]

{Demonstrations are getting under way worldwide to demand action to stop climate change on the eve of the UN summit in Paris.}

More than 2,000 events are taking place, with tens of thousands of people already out in Sydney, Australia.

In Paris itself, activists plan to form a “human chain” in a scaled-down rally following the recent attacks.

Activists want action to limit the rise in the average global temperature to 2C (3.6F) above pre-industrial levels.

In Sydney, many people carried placards reading “There is no Planet B” and “Solidarity on a global scale”.

Mayor Clover Moore tweeted to say that, according to organisers, the true number of demonstrators was “at least 45,000”, which would make it the biggest ever such march in Sydney, if confirmed.

In the city of Adelaide, South Australia, a rally of about 5,000 people highlighted the impact that climate change has on health, food security and development.

“Those who did the least to cause the problem are feeling the impacts first and hardest, like our sisters and brothers in the Pacific,” said Oxfam campaigner Judee Adams.

As sea levels rise because of climate change, many low-lying Pacific nations fear they could disappear beneath the waves.

In Paris, the human chain will be formed by more than 3,000 people linking arms along the 3km (1.9 miles) route of a march through the city that was called off after the 13 November attacks.

“This is a moment for the whole world to join hands,” said Iain Keith, one of the organisers.

There is also a plan to leave hundreds of pairs of shoes on Place de la Republique to remember those left frustrated in their plans to march.

Some climate change rallies were also held on Friday and Saturday.

About 150 world leaders are due to attend the Paris talks including US President Barack Obama, China’s Xi Jinping, India’s Narendra Modi and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

French President Francois Hollande has called for “a binding agreement, a universal agreement, one that is ambitious” at the Paris talks but warned that achieving it will not be easy.

“Man is the worst enemy of man,” he said. “We can see it with terrorism. But we can say the same when it comes to climate. Human beings are destroying nature, damaging the environment.”

COP 21 – the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties – will see more than 190 nations gather in Paris to discuss a possible new global agreement on climate change, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the threat of dangerous warming due to human activities.

SOURCE:BBC:[Rallies call for climate change action ahead of Paris summit->Rallies call for climate change action ahead of Paris summit]

{The Nile Basin Development Forum (NBDF) has called on Rwandans to adopt climate change resilience measures to mitigate climate change and carry on their activities in a sustainable manner. }

The message was conveyed on recently during a forum that centered around ways of mitigating climate change effects.

The NBDF coordinator John Gakumba, argued that there are climate change mitigations that can assure resilience and sustainably harvest from the environment without compromising future generations.

“It is potation important that we harvest from the environment with caution. So adoption of resilient practices and adaptation to new technologies and environmental aggregates are inevitable,” he advises.

Gakumba also demonstrated Community based climate change adaptation mechanisms that NBDF has utilized to educate residents of Gatsibo district, Kirehe and Bugesera districts to counter climate changes effects.

“We have helped citizens to meet nutrition needs through kitchen backyard gardens (uturima tw’igikoni), we have donated solar power equipment, we have built for them traditional stoves that are fuel-saving to avoid deforestation and tipped them on the best ways of rainwater harvesting and keeping it longer in reservoirs.”

Some beneficiaries of the program have expressed satisfaction of increased knowledge on mitigating climate change effects and advised for the program to reach all Rwandans.

“We have built our knowledge levels on how we can utilize tree planting in the prevention of soil erosion and why trees are more than just construction and cooking items. We appreciate the project for having saved our woods,” says Gakazi Jennifer, a resident of Nyagatare district.

MUSONI Didace, Division Manager of Data Observations, Quality Control and Processing Division at Rwandan Meteorology Agency highlighted the need to address climate changes effects as they impact health, agriculture and other development activities.

On 30th November, 2015 an international meeting will be held in France to seek common ground among all nations of the world to address climate change.

{Public support for a strong global deal on climate change has declined, according to a poll carried out in 20 countries.}

Only four now have majorities in favour of their governments setting ambitious targets at a global conference in Paris.

In a similar poll before the Copenhagen meeting in 2009, eight countries had majorities favouring tough action.

The poll has been provided to the BBC by research group GlobeScan.

Just under half of all those surveyed viewed climate change as a “very serious” problem this year, compared with 63% in 2009.

The findings will make sober reading for global political leaders, who will gather in Paris next week for the start of the United Nations climate conference, known as COP21.

It’s being billed as the best opportunity in six years to achieve a significant advance on tackling rising temperatures.

In 2009, in Copenhagen, the leaders failed to deliver a strong outcome despite widespread public expectation that a deal was needed.

The BBC asked the GlobeScan research group what their long-term polling suggested about public opinion on climate negotiations

Around 1,000 people in each of 20 countries were questioned about their attitudes. The survey was carried out in January and February of 2015.
Declining support

The number rating climate change as a very serious issue in richer countries declined significantly from 2009, while support for strong action at the Paris conference has only grown in three of the 20 countries polled.

Canada, France, Spain and the UK are the only four with majorities in favour of their governments taking a leading role.

All told an average of 42% of those polled want their government to play a leadership role in setting ambitious targets, while another 41% want their government to take a more moderate approach and support only gradual action.

“The public are less concerned about climate change, and when you put that in the context of the climate conference in Paris, the findings show less support for an ambitious and binding agreement at a global level than there was ahead of COP15 in 2009 in Copenhagen,” said Lionel Bellier, from GlobeScan.

“It’s not an abrupt change of views, the trend seems to be now towards a softer approach.”

Public support has also declined in developing countries including China and Indonesia. The pollsters believe that global economic recession has played a significant role in changing people’s perspectives on rising temperatures.

“When we look at the broad range of environmental issues, they all have gone down in terms of concern, in all countries, since 2009, at the same time you see that concerns about the economy have risen, and what’s capturing the agenda is terrorism, which has risen up the agenda over the last two years.”

Commenting on the findings, former UN Executive Secretary, Yvo de Boer, now with the Global Green Growth Institute, said he wasn’t surprised there had been some fall-off in support since 2009 when he chaired the meeting in the Danish capital.

“It is certainly true that in the run-up to Copenhagen there was very broad international support and enthusiasm to see a strong outcome,” he told BBC News.

“There was obviously very significant disappointment when that didn’t happen and on top of that came the financial crisis, so I do think there is a pre-occupation with more direct economic concerns of today.”

What may also cause concern for political leaders meeting in Paris is the growing sense among rich and poor countries that taking action on climate change could be costly and might destabilise fragile growth.

“The slowdown of the economy in China in the past 12 months has certainly impacted people’s views, but also people are increasingly worried about the impact on their economies of curbing emissions, if we take major steps on climate change,” said Lionel Bellier.

The pollsters suggest that citizens globally are becoming more informed about climate change. They also found more than twice as many people today blame rising levels of carbon dioxide from human activities for extreme weather events as compared to a similar poll carried out in January 2000.

COP21 – the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties – will see more than 190 nations gather in Paris to discuss a possible new global agreement on climate change, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the threat of dangerous warming due to human activities.

SOURCE:BBC:COP21: [Public support for tough climate deal ‘declines’->http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34900474]