International Climate Conferences

After two weeks of largely fruitless climate negotiations at the UNFCCC meeting in Bonn/Germany, the world is one step closer to miss the overarching target of international climate policy: limiting the mean temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.[read more]

EU climate policy/shutterstock

The world is clearly not on a 2°C pathway, but does that mean our primary focus should be on seeking greater national ambition to correct the trend? A more pragmatic strategy may be a real focus on the necessary tools and practices related to mitigation.[read more]

climate change and water

Experts from around the world have gathered in Bonn, Germany to “synthesize major global water research achievements in the last decade and help assemble the scientific foundations to articulate a common vision of Earth’s water future."[read more]

atmospheric CO2

Our goal to be avoided, 450 ppm, is now feeling a bit close for comfort, given we are already at 400 ppm and 300 ppm was only passed under the previous British monarch.[read more]

RGGI's new cap rules

RGGI’s new cap not only falls short of creating real price pressures due to its closeness to baseline emissions, its excessive compensatory measures, and its failure to deal with leakage, but also runs the risk of locking in emissions.[read more]

Bonn climate conference

The latest round of climate negotiations wound down with most delegates expressing guarded optimism that progress has been made toward laying the groundwork for an international agreement to be signed in 2015.[read more]

G20 ministers/IMF

Will countries take climate change action in 2015? While there is reason for cynicism, there are at least five reasons that countries CAN agree to more global action in 2015.[read more]

UNFCCC meeting in Bonn

As countries meet in Germany this week for the next round of climate negotiations it is important to remember that securing a new international legal agreement in 2015 is critical for five reasons.[read more]

carbon market/shutterstock

To date, the Kyoto Protocol under the UNFCCC is the only route we have had to creating something of a global carbon market. Two new cornerstones of the international discussion, could effectively work together.[read more]

Climate change, sea level rise, ocean acidification, air, water and marine pollution, deforestation and loss of biodiversity all transcend geopolitical boundaries and pose serious threats,[read more]

Washington/shutterstock

President Obama’s inaugural address placed climate change and clean energy where they truly belong – among the most profound challenges of our time. Our progress in addressing them over the next four years depends on how vigorously the president works to translate words into action.[read more]

In a year which saw extreme weather rise up the political agenda and the consequences of a changing climate starting to sink into our collective psyche, action to actually address the issue of rising levels of CO2 in the atmosphere remained limited. The principal policy instrument to trigger action, a price on CO2 emissions, did gain political traction and coverage, but its impact remained mute. That in turn led to a real setback for CCS.[read more]

As indicated by the subtitle of his book, Helm believes that the world, especially Europe, has achieved very little in the twenty years since the Kyoto treaty was signed. He believes that there is little hope that the process set in motion by that treaty will result in anything more than the continued annual consumption of a lot of aviation fuel to move people to ineffective conferences that are primarily climate theater.[read more]

One seemingly minor and unreported component of the recent UN climate talks in Doha highlights the drawbacks of old-school scientific assessments and the need to modernize the IPCC process. It is especially relevant given last week's leak of draft IPCC reports and the ensuing discussion about changing the arduous and close IPCC...[read more]

The claim by the Watts up with that blog that statements in a leaked draft of the upcoming IPCC assessment report is "game-changing" is not wrong scientifically, it makes no logical sense. The supposedly game-changing evidence - that there may have been a great change in the sun's impact on the climate than previously thought - is just...[read more]