PLANET EARTH – Page 7 – IDN-InDepthNews

PLANET EARTH2014-01-142023-07-10

Austerity Generates Gigantic Costs

By Jutta Wolf | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

BERLIN (IDN) – Austerity policies in several countries around the world are denying work to millions of people and leaving vast production opportunities unused, says a new study by the German-based World Future Council (WFC), which places the value of lost production at 2.3 trillion U.S. dollars annually. This corresponds to Britain’s gross domestic product. Losses in the 18-nation Eurozone triggered by public austerity alone are estimated at a minimum of 580 billion Euros each year.

PLANET EARTH2013-12-062023-07-10

South Korea Hosts The Green Climate Fund

By Jutta Wolf | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

BONN (IDN) – A huge amount of some 5.7 trillion US dollar – 5,700,000,000,000 – is required yearly to build a green infrastructure by 2020 in order to limit global temperature rise to 2 degrees C, a new report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) estimates.

Developing countries in particular are in pressing need of adequate funds to limit or reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. The Green Climate Fund (GCF) plays an important role in providing the necessary funding. Continued warming from the release of greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere is projected to have substantial adverse impacts on the environment, human health and the economy.

Climate Change2013-11-262023-07-10

Warsaw UN Climate Meet Bears Promising Fruit

By Martin Khor* | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

GENEVA (IDN | South Centre) – The UN Climate Conference held in Warsaw has set up a new international mechanism to help developing countries affected by loss and damage from climate change, such as the Philippines typhoon.

The setting up of a loss and damage international mechanism was the major achievement of the 19th Conference of Parties of the UNFCCC (COP19) that ended on November 23, a full day after its scheduled conclusion.

Climate Change2013-11-192023-07-10

Beware Of Persistent Coal Use

By Jaya Ramachandran & Anna Rutkowski
IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

BERLIN | WARSAW (IDN) – Coal currently provides 40 percent of the world’s electricity and has been the fastest-growing global energy source since the year 2000, reports the International Energy Agency (IEA). Its most recent World Energy Outlook finds that while renewables and natural gas generation will grow rapidly, coal is still projected to be the dominant source of electricity through 2035.

As the UN climate change conference COP 19 entered second week on November 18, Greenpeace unfurled a banner on the front of Poland’s Ministry of Economy, protesting against the World Coal Association’s International Coal and Climate Summit taking place inside. The banner read: “Who Rules Poland? Coal Industry or the People?”

Climate Change2013-11-182023-07-10

Health Issues On The Margins Of UN Conference

By Richard Johnson | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

WARSAW (IDN) – They are not in the limelight. But experts are drawing attention to the human health dimension of climate change at the global climate change talks in Poland’s capital Warsaw scheduled to conclude on November 22.

Dr Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum of the World Health Organization (WHO) has delivered “five health messages” for COP 19, the 19th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). A scientist and team leader in WHO’s Climate Change and Health Unit, Dr Campbell-Lendrum says:

Climate Change2013-11-072023-07-10

Warsaw Meet Crucial To Combat Climate Change

By Jutta Wolf | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

BERLIN (IDN) – Dangers are lurking all around but appropriate action can help avoid perilous levels of climate change. Much hope is therefore pinned on the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) from November 11 to 22 in Warsaw.

Climate Change2013-08-242023-07-10

Poland Braces For UN Climate Conference

By Anna Rutkowski | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

WARSAW (IDN) – “We need to be prepared for nine billion people on this planet, as we all deserve a decent and secure life. By being creative, the world can reduce greenhouse gas emissions while creating jobs, promoting economic growth and ensuring better living standards. Where there is a will, there is a way!” says Marcin Korolec, the Polish Minister of the Environment, who will chair a landmark UN climate change conference from November 11 to 22, 2013 in Warsaw.

A lawyer, career civil servant and negotiator, Korolec wants the global conference to agree on a balance between the needs of the environment and the economy, “in order to seamlessly unite environmental protection and economic growth”. Environmental protection, he says, is an interdisciplinary field that directly influences many other policy areas and is strongly influenced by international arrangements and standards.

Climate Change2013-08-222023-07-10

Uncertainty Looms Over Terrestrial Ecosystems

By Jutta Wolf | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

BERLIN (IDN) – The doomsday clock has not yet struck zero hour but it is now beyond scientific doubt that atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), one of the greenhouses gases responsible for climate change, have reached levels that are higher than any time during the past one million years.

As Markus Reichstein, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry (MPI-BGC) in Jena points out, increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases do not only lead to gradual ‘global warming’, but also to changed patterns of rain and snowfall (precipitation), more weather extremes such as heat waves, longer dry spells, variability of growing season length, recurrent heavy rainfall, and storms. And, there is general concern that climate change will have fundamental impacts on our natural environment, our economic activities and life.

PLANET EARTH2013-08-142023-07-10

Another Step Towards Halting Desertification

By Ramesh Jaura | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

BERLIN (IDN) – When representatives of 194 States and the European Union, which are parties to one of the landmark global conventions, meet in the Namibian capital Windhoek from September 16 to 27, they will focus on intensifying efforts for ushering in a world free of poverty generating DLLD – desertification, land degradation and drought.

The significance of this herculean task lies in the fact that unlike flood disasters and tsunamis, whose catastrophic impact is easily brought into drawing rooms around the world, land degradation befalls soil like creeping cancer and its appalling dimensions often elude the eye of a camera.

PLANET EARTH2013-07-162023-07-10

No Accord Yet on Marine Protected Areas

By Jutta Wolf | IDN-InDepth NewsReport

BREMERHAVEN, GERMANY (IDN) – A special meeting of the 25 Members of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) concluded in Bremerhaven, Germany, on July 16, 2013 without achieving any agreement.

The reason, according to the Antarctic Ocean Alliance (AOA), was the Russian delegation’s blocking of proposals for the two largest ocean sanctuaries in the world in pristine Antarctic waters. Subsequently, “an extraordinary opportunity to protect the global marine environment for future generations” had been lost, AOA’s Steve Campbell said.