8 December 2015, BBC News, UK ‘scores well’ on climate, for now. Denmark, the UK and Sweden have topped the international rankings in an index of countries combating climate change. The annual table is compiled by green groups Germanwatch and Climate Action Network. They analysed progress in the 58 countries producing more than 90% of energy-related CO2 missions. The organisers congratulated the UK for its performance to date, but say the government lacks a coherent vision for the future. The index takes into account emission levels, trends in emissions, energy efficiency, progress towards renewable energy and climate policy. It ranked the UK fifth in the world, after Denmark. The first three places were left empty because the organisers say no major nation is doing enough to cut emissions. Wendel Trio, one of the principal authors, told BBC News the UK had earned its slot because of overall low emissions, climate policy over several years, a fast-growing renewables sector from a low base, and a commitment to phase out coal. But he said the UK was in danger of losing its grade. …..Kit Vaughan from the charity Care International pointed out that the review had been done two months ago – before the government’s recent “reset” which downgraded renewable energy. He said: “It is clearly out of date. Both Denmark and the UK have recently gone backwards at high speed, slipping from climate champions to carbon culprits. “It shows how quickly this government is able to take a wrecking ball to previously progressive climate action and just how quickly enlightened climate policy can be ripped up and systematically dismantled.” Read More here
Category Archives: Global Action Inaction
8 December 2015, Renew Economy, Paris, COP21: Ministers move in, as do the climate deniers. Nearly 200 ministers have arrived in Paris to bargain and negotiate over the final 20 pages of text, and the 290 or so brackets that remain – the outcome of which will decide whether this agreement will fulfil its ambitions, or be full of empty rhetoric. Australia foreign minister Julie Bishop arrived, delivered her speech to the plenary, and promised …. $625,000 on promoting the interests of women in climate-related decision-making processes. If that seemed a little underwhelming, so did the rest of the speech. Typically of the Australian government at these talks, it was fine on rhetoric – particularly about prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s innovation plan (this government has edited its slogans down from three words to a single word, innovation) but short on action, particularly on climate and clean energy, using the technologies already available. Bishop told the plenary that Australia is “transforming the way we produce electricity”, but the data shows coal-fired generation is rising, thanks to the repeal of the carbon price and the halt in renewable energy investment thanks to the Coalition fiddling with previously agreed policies. RenewEconomy asked the minister later if the government was worried that the government’s policies were having the opposite effect of their stated intention. There was more talk of the renewable energy target, and the doubling of the rate of emissions reductions under its 2030 target. Read More here
8 December 2015, Renew Economy, How Australia can lead on climate in the final week at Paris. Australia has a final chance to shake its reputation as a global climate laggard and position our economy for a boom in growth with Foreign Minister Julie Bishop taking the reins for the final week of climate negotiations in Paris. The agreements set this week will give smart nations an opportunity to test cutting edge ideas, and could potentially enable Australia to start attracting more of the world’s leading companies and brightest thinkers to our shores. Unfortunately, the first week of negotiations suggests that Australia is on track to miss this unique opportunity to seize the lead and position Australian business to capture a share of the trillions now being invested in the shift to a low carbon economy. Given there is virtually no chance of Australia meaningfully changing it’s 26-28% reduction target at this late stage, the Future Business Council has compiled three simple yet significant actions Australia could announce instead. These actions would boost our credibility, play to our economy’s natural advantages and prepare our business community for future growth. Read More here
7 December 2015, Washington Post, Economists: Climate change is going to cost a lot more than previously thought. When it comes to climate change, there’s broad consensus among economists that the potential economic impacts will be serious, widespread and more severe than previous estimates have indicated. At least, this is the conclusion of a new survey, published Monday by the New York University School of Law’s Institute for Policy Integrity — and experts say we should be listening to their warnings. The report, which was authored by the Institute’s Derek Sylvan and Peter Howard, compiled answers from more than 300 experts on the economics of climate change in response to a set of 15 questions regarding climate change risks, policies and potential damages. “We figured if you want to understand how climate change will affect our daily lives, it makes sense to ask the economists who study issues like food production, climate adaptation, energy economics,” said Sylvan, strategy director at the Institute for Policy Integrity. “And so essentially our survey helps clarify the wisdom of the crowd among this group of experts.” Sylvan and Howard compiled their pool of experts by creating a list of all the people who had published a climate change-related article in a leading economics or environmental economics journal since 1994. The survey questioned the economists on how serious a problem they felt climate change will be in the future, what economic sectors are likely to be negatively affected, how soon they expect the effects to begin manifesting and how seriously these impacts will affect global output. Read more here