Author Archives: hmcadmin

PLEA Network
 2 June 2015, Renew Economy, Big Oil turns on Big Coal, but not to save the planet: In a stunning reversal on years of opposition to a global carbon price, the CEOs of six European oil and gas giants have said they are now ready for a price on carbon. But not so they can save the planet. Big Oil has broken ranks with Big Coal in a bid to save its own business model, hoping that an international carbon price will phase out coal and cause more gas to be consumed.

The CEOs of the European oil giants Shell, BP, Total, Statoil, Eni and BG Group, with a combined revenue of $US1.4 trillion – although notably not the US giants Chevron and Exxon – sent letters last Friday to the head of the UN climate negotiations, Christiana Figueres, and Laurent Fabius, France’s Foreign Affairs and International Development Minister who will also lead the Paris climate talks later this year. Read More here

PLEA Network

2 June 2015, Inside Climate News, Bonn Climate Talks Aim to Build a Springboard to Paris, Not a Sinkhole: Six months before what may be the last chance for a global climate agreement in Paris, negotiators get to work on the draft text. As climate talks begin this week in Bonn to work on the draft text of a global agreement, the task of delegates expands to include the twin UN objectives of alleviating poverty and combating global warming. Delegates were also met with a new warning that the widely accepted target of limiting warming to 2 degrees Celsius may not be enough. Six months from the start of a Paris conference where the United Nations hopes to complete a far-reaching deal on the climate crisis, negotiators meeting in Bonn, Germany this week and next are back to working on their unwieldy draft text even as the treaty’s goals slide over distant horizons. Read More here

PLEA Network

1 June 2015, The Diplomat, The world water crisis is both severe and entirely avoidable: With the approach of World Environment Day, on June 5, it is worthwhile to reflect on a major crisis that is now confronting the world but receiving inadequate attention. If current trends continue, the world will face a water crisis that will be unprecedented in human history. During the past decade, there has been extensive discussion on the adequacy of physical availability of water to meet escalating needs for various uses for an expanding global population and accelerating economic activities. However, inadequate attention has been paid to the rapid deterioration of water quality, which is further reducing a significant stock of water that can no longer be used without expensive and sophisticated treatment. Water, unlike oil or minerals, is a renewable resource. This means it can be used, treated properly, and then reused. This cycle with good management can continue indefinitely. It has been estimated that each drop of the Colorado River water is used seven times. With good management, there is no reason why this could not be increased to 20 or 30 times. The current overwhelming concern is that the world is going to run out of physical availability of water in the foreseeable future. We differ. Read More here

PLEA Network

1 June 2015, Climate News Network, Overheating Earth staggers into Last Chance Saloon: Hard bargaining in Bonn this week will probably decide whether the crucial climate talks in Paris in December can save human civilisation from ultimate collapse. The text of the agreement on how the world will tackle climate change and set targets that will keep global temperatures from rising more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels is being negotiated in Bonn this week. The 2°C limit has been set by politicians to prevent the planet overheating dangerously − but the cuts in carbon emissions required to achieve it have so far not been agreed.

It is this gap between the policy goals agreed  by world leaders and their lack of action to achieve them that the Bonn conference seeks to address. The meeting, which opened today, will last for 10 days as working groups grapple with action to reduce carbon emissions, how to finance technology transfer, and how to adapt to sea level rise and other unavoidable consequences of present warming − such as the current heatwave affecting India, where temperatures in some southern states have topped 47°C. Read More here