Emissions Trading Used to Subsidize Overseas Rivals
Some of the companies that have complained loudest about the European Union's environmental measures are using the EU's emissions trading scheme (ETS) to give money to rivals in other countries instead of cutting their own greenhouse gas emissions, it has emerged. A report by Sandbag, a non-governmental organization that examines carbon trading, f… Read More
Report: Coal Plants Smothering Communities of Color
Coal plants place a disproportionate burden on poor and largely minority communities, exposing residents to high levels of pollutants that affect public health, according to a new report led by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).… Read More
CO2 Hits New High; World Could Warm 7°F by 2060
The amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached a record 390.9 parts per million (ppm) in 2011, according to a report released Tuesday by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). That’s a 40 percent increase over levels in 1750, before humans began burning fossil fuels in earnest. Although CO2 is still the most significant… Read More
October Ties for 5th Warmest; Winter Forecast Uncertain
As Climate Central reported on Nov. 9, the U.S. is very likely to set a record for the warmest year on record, unless the rest of November and all of December are among the coldest ever seen for such a period, which is unlikely. According to Jake Crouch of NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., there is a greater than 90 percent c… Read More
Winds Seen As Key Driver Of Antarctica’s Growing Sea Ice
Writing in Nature Geoscience, Paul Holland of the British Antarctic Survey and Ronald Kwok of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have found the case’s smoking gun. “Our main conclusion is that the drift of ice has changed over the past two decades, Holland said in an interview. “And we’ve linked these changes to changes in winds over that same perio… Read More
Obama Affirms Support for Action on Climate Change
Obama reaffirmed his view that manmade emissions of greenhouse gases are contributing to global warming, and stated his intent to continue to take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. “I am a firm believer that climate change is real, that it is impacted by human behavior and carbon emissions, he said, noting that “We have an obligation to f… Read More
Amid Energy Boom, Report Warns of Unsustainable Path
The oil and natural gas boom in the U.S. is having far-reaching effects on the global energy landscape, according to the “World Energy Outlook report released by the International Energy Agency (IEA). The report shows that the U.S. is likely to become the largest global oil producer by about 2020, overtaking Saudi Arabia and Russia, although Saudi… Read More
Kyoto Protocol: Australia Signs up for Second Phase
Negotiations towards a new global treaty on climate change took a small step forward on Friday as the Australian government announced it would join up to a continuation of the Kyoto protocol beyond 2012. At the end of this month, governments will meet in Doha, Qatar, to discuss a new treaty that would be signed in 2015 and come into force from 202… Read More
