Climate Action Archives - IDN-InDepthNews

Affordable Clean Energy2016-03-182023-07-10

Doubling Renewables by 2030 Can Save Trillions

BERLIN (IDN | INPS) – Doubling renewables in the global energy mix by 2030 is not only feasible, but cheaper than not doing so. It can save up to USD 4.2 trillion annually by 2030 – 15 times more than the costs, says a new report. Under existing national plans, the global renewables share would only reach 21 per cent by 2030. The report recommends options to boost the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix from just over 18 per cent today, to as much as 36 per cent by 2030.

Achieving this would increase the cost of the global energy system by roughly USD 290 billion per year in 2030, but the savings achieved through this doubling – thanks to avoided expenditures on air pollution and climate change – are up to 15 times higher than this cost, says the report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) REmap: Roadmap for a Renewable Energy Future, released on March 17 at the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue.

UN INSIDER2016-03-182023-07-10

High-level Talks in Brussels to Adopt ACP Climate Action Plan

By Reinhardt Jacobsen

BRUSSELS (IDN) – In an unprecedented move, representatives from the 79 member states of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group are meeting with top officials from the United Nations agencies as well as other influential international and regional groupings to accelerate work towards implementing the historic Paris Agreement on climate change.

High level participants in the gathering in Brussels on March 22-23 include: the European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy, Miguel Cañete, who will deliver the keynote address; UN Environment Programme Director Achim Steiner; the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director General José Graziano Da Silva; and Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Petteri Taalas.

MULTIMEDIA2016-02-272023-07-10

Climate of Denial – Karaj & The Hard Reality

Karaj is a California Bay Area songwriter with a taste for spare arrangements and insightful lyrics. Many of his original compositions are inspired by open spaces and western states. He performs his original songs along the Pacific coast and beyond, plus more by great songwriters near and far.

DEVNET2016-02-032023-07-10

Geothermal Energy for the Future – “Geo-Max”

This advertorial is part of IDN’s media project jointly with Global Cooperation Council and DEVNET Japan.

TOKYO – The increased occurrence of severe hot weather and record heat waves is creating disastrous situations for many people, but in some areas they do not possess sufficient resources – such as air-conditioning facilities and electricity to run those facilities – for protecting themselves. Solving the lack of access to air-conditioning systems will help thousands of people cope with global warming.

UN INSIDER2016-01-272023-07-10

Addressing Climate Change & Realizing the SDGs an Uphill Task

COLOMBO (IDN) – In an unusually mild Paris in December 2015, over 195 countries agreed on a set of broad measures to address the gathering threat to human existence of global warming and climate change.

A beaming UN Secretary-General, for whom climate change has been “one of the defining priorities of his tenure”, described the Paris Accord as heralding a generation with climate hope and a “monumental triumph for people and the planet”.

UN INSIDER2016-01-182023-07-10

Greening the Blue Helmets a Key to Sustainable Development

NAIROBI | NEW YORK (IDN) – The idea of “greening the blue helmets” has become an accepted need and operational requirement for all UN peacekeeping missions, claims a new report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) based in Nairobi.

Peacekeeping operations, it says, account for over 56% of the UN system’s total climate footprint as demonstrated by the greenhouse gas emissions inventory undertaken by UN Department of Field Support (DFS) in 2008.

SUSTAINABILITY2015-12-172023-07-10

Trillions Needed to Help Countries Deliver on Climate Commitments

WASHINGTON (IDN) – Trillions, not billions, are required to transition to a low carbon and resilient economy and to prevent more than 100 million people, particularly in Africa and South Asia, being pushed back into poverty over the next 15 years, says the World Bank.

The World Bank Group has committed to increasing the share of its portfolio devoted to climate finance, from the current 21 percent, to 28 percent, over the next five years. “When including financing generated from other partners and associated private sector financing, such financing would amount to a potential $29 billion a year by 2020.”

OPINION2015-12-152023-07-10

Paris and A Tale of Democracy and Climate

ROME (IDN) – In the space of just a few days, two fundamental lessons have come from Paris for the world about democracy and climate. The media have been dealing with them as separate issues, but they are, in fact, linked by the same problem that can no longer be ignored: democracy is on the wane. READ IN JAPANESE

While all media have reported the defeat of the Front National in the French administrative elections, and while few have made the old observation that to win a battle is not to win a war, there is no doubt that the FN is becoming a mainstream party.

In these elections, the traditional political system – the centre-right under former French president Nicolas Sarkozy and the socialists under current president François Hollande – again joined forces to keep the FN under Marine Le Pen out.

Climate Action2015-12-032023-07-10

China’s Carbon Trading Pilot Programmes Flawed

BEIJING (IDN | UNDP) – As China prepares to launch a nationwide carbon cap-and-trade program to try to slow climate change, experts are warning of a long list of flaws in seven pilot programs that are already operating throughout the country.

Major issues ahead of the planned 2017 launch of a national carbon trading program include a lack of openness, transparency and fairness; a flawed system of allowance allocation which does not reflect real industry conditions; and an inadequate monitoring, verification and reporting system.

The Group of 772015-12-022023-07-10

Developing Nations Need Hundreds of Billions To Address Climate Change

PARIS (IDN) – Warming of the climate system is unequivocal. Concentrations of greenhouse gases have increased and as a result the atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, sea level has risen, and the impacts are being felt in particular by developing countries. According to the latest science, the emissions gap with respect to the 2 degree or 1.5 degree goal is not closing.