Greenland’s glaciers and Climate Change, Danish Broadcasting Corporation – Denmark

World Meteorological Organization (WMO)

Published on Nov 29, 2015

Greenland’s glaciers and Climate Change, Danish Broadcasting Corporation – Denmark

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What to expect from the COP21 climate talks in Paris

PBS NewsHour

Streamed live on Nov 29, 2015

Even as world leaders, in a “very hopeful moment,” descend upon the city in hopes of reaching an agreement to halt climate change, the main variable setting apart the 2015 Paris Climate Conference are the realities of global security. Watch the full Google Hangout with the NewsHour’s Hari Sreenivasan and the GroundTruth Project’s Charles Sennott, Manon Verchot and Justin Calma.

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COP21: Why do two degrees matter? – BBC News

25 November 2015 Last updated at 11:50 GMT

Global average temperatures in 2015 are likely to be the warmest on record, according to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).

A combination of a strong El Nino and human-induced global warming made the five-year period from 2011 to 2015 the warmest on record, researchers say.

The new findings are likely to feature prominently at the UN Climate Change Convention in Paris, when global political leaders and negotiators will aim to secure a new global deal that would limit emissions of carbon dioxide.

Climate negotiators agreed in Cancun in 2010 to commit their governments to “hold the increase in global average temperatures below 2C above pre-industrial levels”.

BBC environment correspondent Matt McGrath assesses the significance of that figure, and why it is seen as the gateway to dangerous warming – all in less than the time it takes to make a coffee.

Produced by Marcus Thompson and Jean-Li Lee

Read more

Paris climate summit: Major oil producers back ‘effective’ deal

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COP21: Eco activists Brandalism launch Paris ad takeover – BBC News

• 29 November 2015

Image copyright Brandalism Image caption The artworks were placed in advertising spaces owned by JC Decaux, one of the talks’ sponsors

More than 600 artworks critiquing corporate sponsors of the UN summit on climate change have been installed in advertising spaces across Paris.

The Brandalism campaign said it was behind the unauthorised artworks.

It said in a statement the aim was to “highlight the links between advertising, consumerism, fossil fuel dependency and climate change”.

The action comes as demonstrations take place around the world to demand action to stop climate change.

Prominent corporate sponsors of the talks have been targeted by the posters, which say that they are “part of the problem”.

This poster mocks Volkswagen, who recently admitted manipulating emissions tests results

Several others feature world leaders, nearly 150 of whom are due to attend the Paris talks.

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Warning even two degrees of global warming ‘very risky’ for farm production, will increase food prices – ABC Rural (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Photo: Tropical Cyclone Olwyn decimated banana plantations in Carnarvon, WA in 2015. Previous cyclones in Far North Queensland sent prices sky high. Scientists predict global warming could lead to more intense cyclones. (Doriana Mangili) Related Story: Report’s dire warning for food production as climate becomes warmer
Related Story: Trial tests climate conditions on wine grapes

As world leaders meet in Paris to set a target to reduce carbon emissions, scientists and farmers fear even the ambitious aim of limiting global warming to two degrees would have huge impacts on Australian farm production, leading to more expensive food prices.

Lesley Hughes, a professor of biology at Macquarie University and a councillor on the independent Climate Council, has examined the impact of global warming on Australian farming and says two degrees of warming creates real risks.

There will come a time when in many regions, many of the climatic extremes will be simply too great to adapt to.

Lesley Hughes, Climate Council

“(It’s) very dangerous for agricultural production, 2.7 degrees is even more dangerous, though, on the bright side it’s still considerably safer than the four to six degrees that is what we are heading for currently on our emissions trajectory,” Professor Hughes said.

She said more extreme weather conditions linked to global warming, including longer droughts and more intense cyclones, were already affecting food production, and increasing the price consumers pay.

…(read more).

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Food-Matters

Climate change: Banks face threat from global warming, report says

Financial institutions are threatened with climate-related losses on several fronts

• Tom Bawden Environment Editor

The risks posed to banks’ solvency would remain high even if a robust deal was reached at the UN climate change summit in Paris over the next fortnight, said Joss Garman, a co-author of the IPPR think-tank report.

Financial institutions are threatened with climate-related losses on several fronts. Banks and pension funds stand to lose billions of pounds of loans and investments in fossil fuel companies if, as seems increasingly likely, they have to leave huge amounts of their coal, oil and gas assets in the ground.

Local-authority pension funds alone are understood to hold £14bn of fossil fuel assets, while 19 of the FTSE 100 list of the biggest companies are in the natural resource and extraction business, according to the report, co-written by the IPPR’s director of strategy and engagement, Diana Fox Carney, the wife of Bank of England Governor Mark Carney.

Meanwhile insurance companies face huge payouts as global warming increases the frequency and severity of floods and storms. And the rise in extreme weather will hit the economy well beyond the financial services sector as uninsured losses hits businesses and households – for example ruined crops and damaged buildings.

...(read more).

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2 Degrees In Paris: The Global Warming Set To Dominate Climate Conversation : NPR

Updated November 29, 20157:41 PM ET

All Things Considered 3:55

As world leaders gather in Paris to talk about climate change, one phrase that will dominate conversations is “two degrees.” Global leaders will discuss how to prevent global temperatures from warming by more than two degrees since the industrial revolution.

* * *

MICHEL MARTIN: Climate change is being addressed this week in Paris. World leaders will meet at the U.N. Climate Change Conference and work on policies aimed at slowing the Earth’s rising temperature. And that brings us to our weekly feature Words You’ll Hear. That’s where we try to understand stories we’ll be hearing more about in the coming days by parsing some of the words associated with those stories. This week, it’s a phrase expected to dominate climate change talks – two degrees. Joining us to tell us more about this is NPR’s science correspondent Christopher Joyce. Hi, Chris.

CHRISTOPHER JOYCE, BYLINE: Hi, Michel.

MARTIN: So what do you mean by two degrees when it comes to climate change?

JOYCE: It’s two degrees – and that’s Celsius, by the way, which is about three and a half degrees Fahrenheit. Two degrees is a target. The climate negotiators in Paris are using that target as a basis, frankly, for trying to change the way that the world makes energy – the whole energy economy. They’re saying that the planet can only take so much warming. And it’s already warmed about one degree since about 1900, when the Industrial Revolution really got rolling. And scientists say that this warming is caused primarily by burning oil, coal, natural gas, fossil fuels and cutting down and burning forests. And they say, OK, one degree’s bad, but two degrees is really bad, and that’s when you’re going to serious consequences.

…(read more).

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COP21: Rallies call for Paris climate change action – BBC News

Image copyright EPA Image caption The protest in Rio de Janeiro involved plenty of mud

Hundreds of thousands of people have marched worldwide to demand action to stop climate change, the day before a UN summit starts in Paris.

One campaign group says more than 570,000 protesters took part in marches on all the main continents.

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

In Paris itself, more than 200 demonstrators were arrested after clashes.

The day’s events

In pictures: How eco-activists are mocking brands and leaders

Why do two degrees matter?

Earlier, a human chain was formed by hundreds linking arms in the French capital along the route of a march that was called off after the 13 November attacks that killed 130 people.

A gap in the chain was left in front of the Bataclan concert hall, where 89 people were killed.

…(read more).

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Global climate march 2015: hundreds of thousands march around the world – l ive

Policemen fight with activists during a protest ahead of the 2015 Paris climate conference at the Place de la Republique. Photograph: Laurent Cipriani/AP

• Thousands take to streets ahead of Paris climate summit
• Sydney to Seattle, via Hong Kong, Berlin, London and Sao Paulo, march on Sunday
• Climate change protests take place across Australia
• Keep it in the ground: the Guardian’s climate change campaign
• Interactive: why we are joining the global climate march

Claire Phipps in Sydney, Adam Vaughan in London and Oliver Milman in New York Sunday 29 November 2015 16.44 EST

The day in climate change rallies

As the last of the day’s climate marches get underway in the western reaches of North America, we will wrap up our live coverage of what has been a record-breaking day in global activism ahead of the COP21 talks in Paris tomorrow.

• More than 600,000 people have taken to the streets in 175 countries around the world to call for a strong deal in Paris that will see a swift transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
• Melbourne and London led the way, with 60,000 people and 50,000 people, respectively, joining marches. Figures including Thom Yorke, Emma Thompson, Charlotte Church and Jeremy Corbyn attended the London gathering.
• Pope Francis and Ban Ki-moon were among the people to donate 10,000 pairs of shoes to an installation in Paris to represent people who could not march because of orders imposed by authorities after the 13 November attacks.
• Protests in Paris turned violent, with police arresting around 200 people after clashes with anti-capitalists and anarchists. Some activists allegedly hurled candles and bouquets from memorials to victims of the 13 November attacks. Organisers of the climate marches have condemned the violence.
• Barack Obama boarded a flight to Paris, where he said he will reaffirm the US’s support for France in the face of “barbaric attacks” as well as forge a deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and avert the worst ravages of climate change.

Climate talks will go on until 11 December, amid optimism among negotiators that an effective agreement can be reached. Let’s hope Paris can finish the year on a positive note.

…(read more).

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《第三次气候变化国家评估报告》发布 – 中国气候变化信息网

See:

• Chinese Report on Climate Change Depicts Somber Scenarios – The New York Times November 29, 2015

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