World temperature could rise rapidly by 2020 – ‘Our model shows we may have less time left than expected to prevent world temperature from rising above these thresholds’

10 March 2016 (University of Queensland) – Global warming could occur more quickly than expected, according to a new model by University of Queensland and Griffith University researchers. The model is the first to include ‘energy use per person’ as a predictive factor rather than focusing solely on economies or populations. It forecasts that population […]

EU set to emit 2 gigatons more CO2 than Paris climate pledge – ‘The current proposals are not consistent with what was agreed in Paris’

By Arthur Neslen29 February 2016 BRUSSELS (Guardian) – The EU is set to emit 2bn tonnes more CO2 than it promised at the Paris climate talks, threatening an agreement to cap global warming at 2C, a note from the European commission has revealed. Carbon prices will rise too slowly to cut industrial emissions as much […]

Leonardo DiCaprio’s Oscars speech was about climate change, which could be worse than we thought

By Chris Mooney 29 February 2016 (Washington Post) – On Sunday night while accepting a long-anticipated Oscar for best actor, for his role in “The Revenant,” Leonardo DiCaprio seized the moment to highlight the plight of the planet. “Making “The Revenant” was about man’s relationship to the natural world,” DiCaprio said. “A world that we […]

University of Chicago professors urge fossil fuel divestment over climate change – ‘Profiting from these industries conflicts with the paramount social value of avoiding significant and permanent degradation of our planet’

By Suzanne Goldenberg22 February 2016 (Guardian) – More than 250 professors at the University of Chicago have called on the school to fight climate change by ridding itself of fossil fuel holdings – a gesture that would have exceptional resonance from the former home of Barack Obama and alma mater of current presidential contender Bernie […]

Global warming has dropped off the political radar – Was the Paris agreement the zenith of climate action?

By Ed King19 February 2016 (Climate Change News) – “After Paris, what now?” is a comment increasingly heard in conversations with civil society activists, diplomats and government officials. A senior figure involved at the Paris talks asked me recently if I’d heard what plans NGOs had to keep the pressure up on leaders through 2016. […]

Effects of human carbon emissions could last 10,000 years – ‘Our greenhouse gas emissions today produce climate-change commitments for many centuries to millennia’

CORVALLIS, Oregon, 8 February 2016 (OSU) – At the rate humans are emitting carbon into the atmosphere, the Earth may suffer irreparable damage that could last tens of thousands of years, according to a new analysis published this week. Too much of the climate change policy debate has focused on observations of the past 150 […]

Study: Will we ever stop using fossil fuels? ‘The world will likely be awash in fossil fuels for decades and perhaps even centuries to come’

3 February 2016 (EPIC) – On the heels of a historic climate agreement in Paris, a new study [pdf] in the Journal of Economic Perspectives sheds light on the world’s ability to stop using fossil fuels. Its conclusion: fossil fuel consumption is likely to continue to grow without clear and decisive global actions to put […]

Canada on track to miss carbon reduction targets by wide margin – ‘The data are clear and confirm that more needs to be done’

[Canada must shut down the Athabasca oil sand mines to have any hope of meeting its commitment. “Emissions from oil and gas are projected to increase by 28% (from 159 Mt to 204 Mt) over the 2005 to 2020 time frame. This is due mainly to increases in oil sands production.” See Projected Emissions Trends […]

Australia’s carbon emissions jump in 2015 – ‘There can be no new coal mines anywhere in the world’

By Latika Bourke28 December 2015 (Stock & Land) – Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions increased by nearly 1 per cent in 2015, a federal government report quietly released in the lead-up to Christmas showed. The Climate Council said the increase showed Australia urgently needed to transition to renewables and justified calls for a worldwide moratorium on […]

Lord Stern’s warning on climate change – ‘I don’t think the criticalness of these 20 years is sufficiently understood’

By Juliette Jowit8 November 2015 (The Guardian) – Europe has to step up its effort to combat climate change and wake up to the urgency of the situation, the climate change expert Lord Stern has said before crunch UN talks in Paris. Europeans need to end subsidies for fossil fuels, multiply energy efficiency efforts, improve […]

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