World Energy Outlook Special Report 2015: Energy and Climate Change

https://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/WEO2015SpecialReportonEnergyandClimateChange.pdf

The world is moving towards a crucial climate change meeting in Paris in December 2015 (COP21). The negotiations there will be based on national pledges, formally known as Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, with the goal of setting the world on a sustainable path.

The International Energy Agency has long emphasised to its members and the world at large that energy production and use which is not compatible with international environmental requirements is not sustainable: it fails the test of energy security. The IEA, therefore, feels an obligation to make a contribution to COP21 – a contribution which reconciles climate and energy needs. That is the purpose of this special report in the World Energy Outlook series.

The report:

• Presents a detailed first assessment of the energy sector impact of known and signalled national climate pledges for COP21.

• Proposes a bridging strategy to deliver a near-term peak in global energy-related greenhouse-gas emissions, based on five pragmatic measures that can advance climate goals through the energy sector without blunting economic growth.

• Highlights the urgent need to accelerate the development of emerging technologies that are, ultimately, essential to transforming the global energy system into one that is consistent with the world’s climate goals.

• Recommends four key pillars on which COP21 can build success, from an energy sector perspective.

See:

• IEA’s World Energy Outlook 2015 Special Report on Energy and Climate Change

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New report exposes how industry front groups are spending millions to shape the story of food

http://www.foe.org/news/archives/2015-06-new-report-exposes-how-front-groups-shape-story-of-food

Truth or deception? New report exposes how industry front groups are spending millions to shape the story of food

Posted Jun. 30, 2015 / Posted by: Kari Hamerschlag, Anna Lappé and Stacy Malkan

Organic and non-GMO food sales are skyrocketing as more and more people are choosing healthier, more sustainable food produced without synthetic pesticides, GMOs or the routine use of antibiotics and added hormones. Rather than respond to changing market demands by shifting the way they do business, many large food and agrochemical companies are using tobacco-style PR tactics to mislead the public and attack the organic food industry to try to win back skeptical consumers.

Our new report, “Spinning food,” investigates how Big Food and agrochemical corporations are deliberately misleading the public — and reporters — on facts about industrial agriculture and organic and sustainable food production.

Taking their cues from the tobacco industry, these companies have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in the past few years on stealth PR tactics, deploying over a dozen front groups to push coordinated messages attacking organic food production, defending pesticides and the routine use of antibiotics and promoting GMOs — messages that are making their way into the pages of our largest media outlets. In the last four years alone, these companies have set up six new front groups that often appear as independent experts in the media, but are in fact made up of industry or PR professionals that are promoting messages designed to defend industry profits and win critical national policy battles on these issues.

The report shows how these companies are trying to preserve their markets by deploying front groups; targeting moms, attacking journalists and scientists; grooming third party allies that pose as independent sources; producing advertising disguised as editorial content and using other covert tactics to influence public opinion and sway policymakers — without most people realizing the story is being shaped behind the scenes to promote corporate interests. With the future of our food at stake, it is critical to raise awareness about these coordinated messages and covert communication tactics.

…(read more).

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UNHCR – Global Report 2014

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The Latest on the Keystone Pipeline

thomhartmann

Published on Nov 18, 2014

Thom Hartmann discusses the Keystone pipleline with Tyson Slocum, Director-Public Citizen’s Energy Program Website: http://www.citizen.org

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BBC News – African soil crisis threatens food security, says study

3 December 2014 Last updated at 20:25 ET
By Mark Kinver Environment reporter, BBC News

Failure to tackle land degradation will exacerbate Africa’s food security worries, the report warns
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Neglecting the health of Africa’s soil will lock the continent into a cycle of food insecurity for generations to come, a report has warned.

The publication by the Montpellier Panel said the problem needed to be given a higher priority by aid donors.

It added that soil degradation was also hampering economic development, costing the continent’s farmers billions of dollars in lost income.

The study has been published ahead of the 2015 international year of soils.

The Montpellier Panel – made up of agricultural, trade and ecology experts from Europe and Africa – warned that land degradation reduced soil fertility, leading to lower crop yields and increased greenhouse gas emissions.

“In Africa, the impacts are substantial where 65% of arable land, 30% of grazing land and 20% of forests are already damaged,” it observed.

Panel chairman Sir Prof Gordon Conway, from Imperial College London, told BBC News: “We spend a lot of time talking about crops and we spend a lot of time talking about livestock. We have big debates about all kinds of agriculture, yet we tend to ignore that it all depends on soils.”

He added that recent measurements had shown that soil degradation levels across the continent were very high.

“Serious land degradation [accounts for] about a quarter of land area of sub-Saharan Africa – it is a vast area,” he said.

“There are about 180 million people who are living on land that is in some way or another degraded. It is really very severe.”

…(read more).

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BBC News – ‘Future Earth’ platform outlines global change strategy

4 December 2014 Last updated at 10:50 ET
By Mark Kinver Environment reporter, BBC News
Future Earth plans to focus on what are considered to be the most pressing issues facing the planet
Related Stories

• ‘Agreement reached’ at Rio summit
• Farming ‘vital for global growth’

A global initiative bringing together scientists across different disciplines has launched its strategy to identify key priorities for sustainability.

The document outlines what Future Earth, launched at the 2012 Rio +20 Summit, hopes to contribute towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

It has identified eight global challenges, including “water, energy and food for all” and decarbonisation.

The strategy also focuses on the roles of policymakers and funding bodies.

“Future Earth is a global research platform aimed at connecting the world’s scientists across the regions and across disciplines to work on the problems of sustainable development and the solutions to move us towards sustainable development,” explained Future Earth science committee vice-chairwoman Belinda Reyers.

“It really is an unprecedented attempt to consult with scientists across the world as well as with important stakeholders and policymakers,” she told BBC News.

“It will consider what kind of science is needed in the medium-term to really move us towards more desirable futures.”

Dr Reyers – chief scientist at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Stellenbosch, South Africa – said the strategy had been distilled down to eight “sustainability challenges”:

See PDF of Report

http://www.futureearth.org/sites/default/files/future-earth_10-year-vision_web.pdf

…(read more).

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Report

The geography of poverty, disasters and climate extremes in 2030

This report examines the relationship between disasters and poverty. The report’s key messages are:

• Extreme weather linked to climate change is increasing and will likely cause more disasters. Such disasters, especially those linked to drought, can be the most important cause of impoverishment, cancelling progress on poverty reduction.
• Up to 325 million extremely poor people will be living in the 49 most hazard-prone countries in 2030, the majority in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
• The 11 countries most at risk of disaster-induced poverty are Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda.
• Disaster risk management should be a key component of poverty reduction efforts, focusing on protecting livelihoods as well as saving lives. There is a need to identify and then act where the poor and disaster risks are most concentrated.
• The post-2015 development goals must include targets on disasters and climate change, recognising the threat they pose to the headline goal of eradicating extreme poverty by 2030.

…(read more).

See also:

• Resilience to extreme weather | Royal Society November 29, 2014

 

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