Environmental News Network

Climate change rises on World Bank agenda
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Climate change is now one of the World Bank's top concerns because of its expected impact on health and economic growth in developing countries, the bank's lead environmental economist said. Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia are where global warming's damage will disproportionately be felt, and that makes it a key issue for the World Bank and other financial institutions aiming to foster development, said Kirk Hamilton, co-author of the Global Monitoring Report. >> Read the Full Article
Climate assumptions 'optimistic at best'
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has seriously underestimated the technological advances needed to stem carbon dioxide emissions, say Roger Pielke Jr, Tom Wigley and Christopher Green in Nature. They describe the IPCC's assumption that the majority of future emission reductions will occur spontaneously, in the absence of climate policies, as "optimistic at best and unachievable at worst". >> Read the Full Article
Expert foresees 10 more years of R&D to make solar energy competitive
NEW ORLEANS, April 7, 2008 â€” Despite oil prices that hover around $100 a barrel, it may take at least 10 or more years of intensive research and development to reduce the cost of solar energy to levels competitive with petroleum, according to an authority on the topic. â€œSolar can potentially provide all the electricity and fuel we need to power the planet,â€ Harry Gray, Ph.D., scheduled to speak here today at the 235th national meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). His presentation, â€œPowering the Planet with Solar Energy,â€ is part of a special symposium arranged by Bruce Bursten, Ph.D., president of the ACS, the worldâ€™s largest scientific society celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Beckman Scholars Program. >> Read the Full Article
Climate change a factor in deaths from disease: WHO
Climate change is one of the factors causing an increase in the incidence of diseases like malaria and dengue fever, the World Health Organization said on Monday. At least 150,000 more people are dying each year of malaria, diarrhea, malnutrition and floods, all of which can be traced to climate change, said Shigeru Omi, the head of the WHO's Western Pacific office. >> Read the Full Article
Iceland: life on global warming's front line
If any country can claim to be pitched on the global warming front line, it may be the North Atlantic island nation of Iceland. On a purely physical level, this land of icecaps and volcanoes and home to 300,000 people is undergoing a rapid transformation as its glaciers melt and weather patterns change dramatically. >> Read the Full Article
Nobel scientist warns on climate change
The Nobel Prize-winning scientist who rang the first alarm bells over the ozone hole issued a warming about climate change on Saturday, saying there could be "almost irreversible consequences" if the Earth warmed 2.5 degrees Celsius (4.5 degrees F) above what it ought to be. "Things are changing and there's no doubt that it's as a result of human activities," said Mario Molina, a Mexican who shared a Nobel prize in chemistry in 1995 for groundbreaking work on chlorofluorocarbon gases and their threat to the Earth's ozone layer. >> Read the Full Article
Involve indigenous people in climate policy, says report
The ingenuity of indigenous peoples is too often overlooked by policymakers making decisions related to climate change â€” even though they are among the most vulnerable to its impacts, according to a new report. The report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), released last month (March), points out that indigenous people usually occupy marginal and remote areas, such as small islands, coastal plains, mountain areas and drylands, where they are exposed to adverse environmental effects. >> Read the Full Article
Spanish region may ship water to relieve drought
MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's northeast Catalonia region will need to import water by ship and train from May to ensure domestic supplies if the current drought persists, the regional government said in a report. The report, sent to Reuters on Friday, said rainfall in all but one of Catalonia's 15 river basins was below emergency levels for the year so far. >> Read the Full Article
Good policies can contain climate change costs: IMF
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Economic costs of damages caused by climate change can be contained by implementing well designed policies that are adopted by a large group of countries, the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday. In new analysis, the IMF said those costs can be reduced through long-term, flexible policies that can avert further climate changes, including a carbon pricing system that is credible to both people and businesses. >> Read the Full Article
World Bank accused of climate change "hijack"
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Developing countries and environmental groups accused the World Bank on Friday of trying to seize control of the billions of dollars of aid that will be used to tackle climate change in the next four decades. "The World Bank's foray into climate change has gone down like a lead balloon," Friends of the Earth campaigner Tom Picken said at the end of a major climate change conference in the Thai capital. >> Read the Full Article