As Malawi reels from devastating floods, UN food agency delivers vital supplies

 UN, 23 February 2015 – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has announced the delivery of a first round of emergency supplies to more than 288,000 people in flood-affected Malawi, providing much needed relief amid continuing rains.

The UN food agency explained in a press release that it had distributed more than 2,700 metric tons of food to 12 districts late last week and delivered more than 200 metric tons of relief items by air to thousands of people cut-off by flood waters.

Incessant rains have severely affected the African country as flood waters have destroyed roads and rendered some areas entirely inaccessible by land.

Malawi is regularly hit by floods and droughts, requiring emergency responses of varying size each year. This year, flooding has caused displacement of over 170,000 people, while an estimated 116,000 households have lost their crops and livestock. In Nsanje district alone, 79 people are confirmed dead with another 153 people still missing.

Moreover, this year’s rains have come ahead of their usual schedule, repeatedly bursting the banks along the Shire and Ruo rivers, and warnings of flash floods remain in place, with more rain forecast for the country's North. With 86 per cent of the population living in rural areas and engaged in farming and livestock rearing, long-term watershed management infrastructures are urgently needed so that even intense flooding is less damaging than this year.

In addition, the press release noted, WFP is currently participating in a joint rapid food security assessment “in order to understand the latest needs on the ground and the required duration of the emergency response” while also providing recommendations on the duration of the ongoing lean season food insecurity response which has already identified nearly 700,000 people in need of food assistance.

Despite the United Nations’ intensive efforts to reach those affected by the devastating flood waters, the WFP continues to face a funding gap of $3.3 million to cover the outstanding food requirements and logistics services to support the entire humanitarian community.
  [un.org]
23/2/15
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Related:

• Floods claim 158 lives in Mozambique (official)

• 60 morts dans des inondations au Malawi et au Mozambique ...

• Malawi floods kill 176 people ..

• Thousands of Malawian flood victims unable to receive aid (Doctors without Borders)

Climate pact blueprint adopted in Geneva

Negotiators in Geneva adopted a climate blueprint on Friday (Feb 13), a symbolic milestone in the fraught UN process that must culminate in a universal pact in Paris in December.
Assembled over the past six days, the 86-page draft plan for limiting man-made global warming was gavelled through at the close of six days of talks, prompting applause from delegates.

"The task of this session has been achieved," UN climate chief Christiana Figueres told reporters ahead of the closing. "We have a text today ..., the formal negotiating text that will be the basis for negotiations for the next few months until we get to Paris", where the final pact will be adopted.

Ever since the 2009 Copenhagen conference failed to deliver a world agreement, the 195 nations gathered under the UN Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) have been working on a new project for adoption by the end of this year.

Set to be signed at the November 30-December 11 UNFCCC Conference of Parties (COP) in Paris, the pact must enter into force by 2020 to further the UN goal of limiting warming to 2°C (3.6°F) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels.

Scientists warn that at current greenhouse gas emission trends, Earth is on track for double that, or more - a recipe for catastrophic droughts, storms, floods and rising sea levels.

Negotiators emerged from the last COP in Lima last December, with a hard-fought framework text that remained hotly contested.

The February 8-13 Geneva talks, one of three special sessions added to this year's official UN climate agenda, was tasked with "streamlining" the Lima document. Instead, the meeting's mandate was changed early on to seeking universal endorsement of the text, which more than doubled since Sunday until all countries were satisfied their views were included.

The process was widely hailed for creating a sense of common purpose and goodwill in a text with universal buy-in. But it also yielded a vast document listing a variety of alternative approaches on most issues - often reflecting country positions that diametrically oppose one another.

And that means hard choices will have to be made in the months to come, starting with the next negotiating round in Bonn in June. "We have now agreed on a negotiating text. It provides us with the basis for moving forward," Elina Bardram, head of the EU delegation, told AFP.

But she added: "We would have wished for more advancement. The introduction of missing elements in the text is an achievement, but it does mean that the tough negotiations lie ahead of us and we are running out of time. We need a step change between now and Paris."

OPTIONS FROM A TO Z

"All the crunch issues are still on the table," added to Climate Action Network spokeswoman Alix Mazounie. "We have options going from A to Z".

At the very core of the pact, countries remain deeply divided on the issue of "differentiation" - how to share responsibility for emissions cuts between rich and poor nations. Developing countries also want their developed counterparts to commit to long-term climate financing, and insist on compensation for climate-change induced losses and damage suffered.

"I don't think there's any doubt that the negotiations are going to get more difficult," said veteran observer Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists. "The first step before you can get to addressing those is to have a common picture of what the agreement is going to look like in terms of what the outline is, what the elements are in it. They have it now."
- AFP/ec
channelnewsasia.com
13/2/15

Sunken Brazilian town revealed amid 80-year drought

A buried Brazil city has miraculously re-emerged from the depths of the Jaguari River.

The city of Igarata was submerged by the river's rising waters in 1969 after the Brazilian government built a dam on the Jaguari river.
For almost 46 years the old city has been hidden from human sight. However, a long period of drought that has struck the country resulted in much lower water levels in the river.

The Jaguari river has reportedly dried up to 100 feet below its previous levels. So far, old buildings of the "lost" city together with benches and trees have started reappearing on its surface.

Local media sources report that the city's structure has remained unchanged and its school and a church as well as the main street are still recognizable, although they have been submerged for nearly half a century.

Some of its former residents returned to the site to take a look at the city they have not seen nearly half a century. Many of them said they had mixed feelings regarding the event. Happiness caused by the reappearance of the city was overshadowed by concerns over the severe drought that has hit the state: the lack of rainfall has resulted in water shortages across the country and prompted local officials to consider imposing water rationing measures.

San Paolo, South America's most populous city, is among those most badly affected by the natural disaster.
[sputniknews.com]
8/2/15
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Related:

• Brazilian Ministers End Emergency Meeting on Worst Drought in 80 Years

• En medio de la peor sequía que se recuerda Brasil desperdicia el 37% del agua potable...

• Brazil's Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira has said the country's three most populous states are experiencing their worst drought since 1930... 

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EU launches work on bloc energy union

The European Union (EU) has drew a plan for reorganizing European energy policies and kicked off work for European Energy Union, said the European Commission (EC) on Wednesday.

The EC considered it "a fundamental step towards the completion of single energy market", and hoped this helps reform how Europe produces, transports and consumes energy.

The Energy Union with a Forward-looking Climate Change Policy is one of the key political priorities of the Juncker Commission, said the EC.

It also pointed out that the work for Energy Union is timely in that the EU imports 55 percent of its energy and 90 percent of the housing stock in Europe is energy inefficient.

"The Energy Union will be an ambitious project that will set a new direction and a clear long term vision for European energy and climate policy.... Effective implementation will be crucial, as will full and proper enforcement of existing legislation," said Miguel Arias Canete, EU Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy.

The Energy Union framework strategy is scheduled for adoption on February 25.
Xinhua - china.org.cn
5/2/15
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21st century ‘hottest’ on record as global warming continues, UN agency warns

UN, 2 February 2015 – Devastating weather patterns and increasing temperatures will last into the foreseeable future as global warming is expected to continue, the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed today as it explained that 2014’s ranking as the “hottest year on record” is part of a larger climate trend.

“The overall warming trend is more important than the ranking of an individual year,” WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud clarified today in a press release. “Analysis of the datasets indicates that 2014 was nominally the warmest on record, although there is very little difference between the three hottest years.”

High sea temperatures, the UN agency has said, have contributed to exceptionally heavy rainfall and floods in many countries and extreme drought in others. Twelve major Atlantic storms battered the United Kingdom in early months of 2014, while floods devastated much of the Balkans throughout May. The monthly precipitation over the Pacific side of western Japan for August 2014, meanwhile, was 301 per cent above normal – the highest since area-averaged statistics began in 1946.

At the same time, crippling droughts have struck large swathes of the continental United States while Northeast China and parts of the Yellow River basin did not reach half of the summer average, causing severe drought.

The diverse climate impact which afflicted nations around the planet throughout 2014 were, in fact, consistent with the expectation of a changing climate, Mr. Jarraud continued.
In addition, he warned that 14 of the 15 hottest years recorded have all been in the 21st century, adding the UN agency’s expectation that global warming would continue “given that rising levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the increasing heat content of the oceans are committing us to a warmer future.”

Around 93 per cent of the excess energy trapped in the atmosphere by greenhouse gases from fossil fuels and other human activities ends up in the oceans, the WMO press release noted, as it pointed out that global sea-surface temperatures had reached “record levels” in 2014, even in the absence of a “fully developed El Niño” weather pattern. 

High temperatures in 1998 – the hottest year before the 21st century – occurred during a strong El Niño year.

The WMO has released its latest findings regarding its global temperature analysis in advance of climate change negotiations scheduled to be held in Geneva from 8 to 13 February. 

These talks are expected to help pave the way towards the December 2015 conference scheduled in Paris, France, where a new universal UN-backed treaty on climate change will be adopted.
  [un.org]
2/2/15

Evacuations as floods hit Greece, Albania, Turkey

 Thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes after flash floods caused by heavy rains hit northwestern Greece, southern Albania and northwest of Turkey...

About 1,500 people had to be evacuated from their villages to safer zones after torrential rains hit the northwest Turkish province of Edirne on the border with Greece, causing the Tunca and Meric riverbeds to overflow, officials said Monday.

Four villages and several isolated farmhouses close to the city of Arta in Greece were also evacuated after heavy rains swept across the northwestern province of Epirus.

The historic Plaka Bridge near Arta also collapsed after at least four rivers in the region burst their banks, three of them near Arta and another closer to Greece's border with Albania.
[www.aa.com.tr]
2/2/15
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• Flash floods hit Greece and Albania

Flash floods hit Greece and Albania

A winter storm has brought flooding to parts of Greece and southern Albania.

No fatalities have been reported in either country, but considerable disruption has been caused by a combination of torrential rain and strong winds.

Rain began falling in Greece’s northwestern province of Epirus on Saturday, prompting the authorities to evacuate people from four villages near the city of Arta.

By Sunday, four rivers in the area had overflowed.

One high-profile casualty of the flooding was the Plaka Bridge, the largest arch bridge in the Balkans. The bridge, which spans the Arachthos River, was built by Konstantinos Bekas in 1866. It is reported that the whole of the central section of the bridge was washed away.

In southern Albania, scores of families and their livestock were moved from homes and farms in Vlore, Fier, Berat and Gjirokaster, south of the capital, Tirana.

In Gjirokaster, 220mm of rain fell between Saturday and Monday, more than would normally be expected in the whole of February.

In coming days, further troughs of low pressure moving through the Mediterranean could bring another 100mm to 150mm of rain to coastal areas of southern Albania and northwestern Greece.
Source: Al Jazeera
2/2/15
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• Το υπουργείο Πολιτισμού θα αποκαταστήσει της ζημιές στο γεφύρι της Πλάκας

  

   

• Σε κατάστασης έκτακτης ανάγκης έχει κηρυχθεί η Ήπειρος και η Ευρυτανία έπειτα από τις τεράστιες καταστροφές που προκλήθηκαν από τις βροχοπτώσεις, τις πλημμύρες και τις κατολισθήσεις που ακολούθησαν...

• "Πλημμύρισε" η Εγνατία Οδός στην Κοζάνη-Προβλήματα και σε Κιλκίς, Καστοριά, Πέλλα, Ημαθία και Φλώρινα...

Brazilian Ministers End Emergency Meeting on Worst Drought in 80 Years

Brazilian ministers end an emergency meeting at the capital’s presidential palace, following a water crisis that began in the most populous state of Sao Paulo, causing the worst drought seen in the south east region, in the last 80 years, the BBC reported Saturday.

“Since records for Brazil's south-eastern region began 84 years ago we have never seen such a delicate and worrying situation,” the country's Environment Minister, Izabella Teixeira, was quoted as saying by the news outlet, following the emergency meeting in Brasilia.

Teixeira warned that the state of Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais, the second most populous state, and the city of Rio de Janeiro, must save water.

Rising temperatures and inadequate waterfall have led to power cuts and water rationing affecting millions of people in Sao Paulo. Agriculture has also been negatively impacted by the drought. Growers of Arabica coffee, a key export commodity for Brazil, said rain in 2014 was half the usual levels, which saw production fall by 16.1 percent in that year, according to Brazil’s official Conab crop bureau.

Meanwhile, Sao Paulo's Governor Geraldo Alckmin, has began imposing charges on high levels on water consumption and offering discounts to those who reduced water use, as well as limiting the amount of water consumed by industries and farmers from rivers, as reported by the BBC.
[sputniknews.com]
24/1/15
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• En medio de la peor sequía que se recuerda Brasil desperdicia el 37% del agua potable...

US sets goal to cut methane emissions by oil, gas industry

The US government on Wednesday announced a new goal to cut methane emissions from the oil and gas sector by 40 to 45 percent from 2012 levels by 2025, as part of its efforts to fight climate change.

"Today's actions on methane emissions are an important step to take on climate change, putting us on track to achieve President ( Barack) Obama's goal of cutting net greenhouse gas emissions 26-28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025," the White House said in a statement. "Achieving this goal would save up to 180 billion cubic feet of wasted natural gas in 2025 -- enough to heat more than 2 million homes for an entire year."

To meet that goal, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will issue a proposal to set standards for methane emissions from new and modified oil and gas production sources this summer, while the Interior Department will update its standards to reduce methane leaks from wells on public lands, the White House said.

In addition, the Department of Energy will get 25 million US dollars in funding to develop and demonstrate technologies to identify and reduce natural gas leaks.

Methane, a major component of natural gas, accounted for nearly 10 percent of US greenhouse gas emissions in 2012, of which nearly 30 percent came from oil production and the production, processing, transmission and distribution of natural gas, said a statement from the EPA.

While methane emissions from the oil and gas industry have declined 16 percent since 1990, they are projected to increase by about 25 percent over the next decade if no additional steps are taken, the EPA said.

The United States is now the largest natural gas producer in the world, and its oil production is at the highest level in nearly 30 years, according to the EPA.
   Source: Xinhua - globaltimes.cn
15/1/15
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Sea level rise quickens more than thought in threat to coasts

Sea level rise in the past two decades has accelerated faster than previously thought in a sign of climate change threatening coasts from Florida to Bangladesh, a study said today.
The report, reassessing records from more than 600 tidal gauges, found that readings from 1901-90 had over-estimated the rise in sea levels. Based on revised figures for those years, the acceleration since then was greater than so far assumed.

The report said the earlier readings were incomplete or skewed by local factors such as subsidence.

The new analysis "suggests that the acceleration in the past two decades is 25 percent higher than previously thought," Carling Hay, a Canadian scientist at Harvard University and lead author of the study in the journal Nature, told Reuters.

The study said sea level rise, caused by factors including a thaw of glaciers, averaged about 1.2 millimetres (0.05 inch) a year from 1901-90 - less than past estimates - and leapt to 3 mm a year in the past two decades, apparently linked to a quickening thaw of ice.

Last year, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimated the 1901-90 rate at 1.5 mm a year, meaning less of a leap to the recent rate around 3 mm.

The Harvard-led study said the new findings might affect projections of the future pace of sea level rise, especially those based on historical trends.

John Church, a top IPCC author at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Australia, told Reuters he did not expect any impact on the IPCC's core sea level projections, which are not based on past trends.

IPCC scenarios, which range from a sea level rise of 28 to 98 cms this century, are based on the processes driving sea level change, for instance how ice in Greenland reacts to rising temperatures or the expansion of water as it warms, he said.

Stefan Rahmstorf, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and a world expert in past sea levels, said further analysis was needed to pin down 20th century sea level rise.

The new findings confirm that "sea level is rising and ... the rise has accelerated, with the most recent rates being the highest on record," he told Reuters.

Sea level rise is gnawing away at shores from Miami to Shanghai. In cities such as Jakarta, the rise is aggravated by big local subsidence.  [buenosairesherald.com]
14/1/15
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Related:

• Scientists: Rising Sea Levels Threaten NASA Space Centers 

• Scientists Discover World’s Oceans Warming Faster Than Predicted

• "Raise your voice, not the sea level," urges UN on World Environment Day

• Ice Loss from Antarctic Glacier Unstoppable

Leave coal, oil in ground for climate's sake (study)

The Middle East must leave 40 percent of its oil reserves in the ground, and China, the US and Russia most of their coal if global warming is to be curbed, researchers said Jan. 7.
    
Globally, a third of oil, half of gas and over 80 percent of coal reserves must be left untouched until 2050, according to a novel breakdown of "unburnable" fossil-fuel stocks published in the journal Nature.
     
This is the sole way to meet the UN target of limiting warming to 2.0 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels, said co-author Christophe McGlade of University College London.
     
"Policymakers must realise that their instincts to completely use the fossil fuels within their countries are wholly incompatible with their commitments to the 2 C goal," he warned.
     
The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that for a good chance of meeting the target, further emissions of Earth-warming greenhouse gases must be limited to about 1,000 billion tonnes (gigatonnes).
     
But global fossil fuel reserves, on current estimates, would emit three times this total if used, said the study.
     
UN members are negotiating a global carbon-cutting climate pact to be signed in Paris in December.       
At current rates, emissions are steering the world towards potentially catastrophic warming of 4 C or more, scientists say.
     
"Companies spent over $670 billion (565 billion euros) last year searching for and developing new fossil fuel resources," said McGlade's colleague and co-author Paul Ekins.
     
"They will need to rethink such substantial budgets if policies are implemented to support the 2 C limit, especially as new discoveries cannot lead to increased aggregate production."      

For their project, McGlade and Ekins made a best estimate of quantities and locations of oil, gas and coal resources, and then assessed how much could be safely used, per region, up to 2050.
     
They used two scenarios -- one with "widespread deployment" of carbon capture and storage (CCS) facilities, a technology in its infancy, and one with no CCS.
     
Even if CCS is widely implemented, over 430 billion barrels of oil must be left unburned, the pair said.       
Under this scenario, the Middle East has over half the world's "unburnable" oil -- more than 260 billion barrels or 38 percent of its stock -- equal to about eight years of global production calculated at 2013 levels of 87 million barrels per day.
     
Central and South America must leave 58 billion barrels alone, Canada 39 billion and the former Soviet states 27 billion.
     
About 95 trillion cubic metres (3,354 trillion cubic feet) of gas should remain unburned, the study found -- again the bulk (46 trillion cubic metres) is held in the Middle East and 31 trillion by former Soviet states.
                     
Countries with large stocks of coal, including developing nations that rely heavily on the resource to fuel their fast growth, also face challenges.
     
China and India would have to leave nearly 70 percent of their reserves under a scenario with CCS, and Africa almost 90 percent, according to the findings.
     
Among developed nations, Europe would have to leave 78 percent of its coal and the United States 92 percent.
     
"These results demonstrate that a stark transformation in our understanding of fossil-fuel availability is necessary," said the study.
     
"Although there have previously been fears over the scarcity of fossil fuels, in a climate-constrained world this is no longer a relevant concern: large portions of the reserve base... should not be produced if the temperature rise is to remain below 2 C."      

Experts Michael Jakob and Jerome Hilaire, in an analysis published with the study, said the uneven distribution of "unburnable" reserves highlighted challenges to finding a carbon-cutting pact.
     
"Only a global climate agreement that compensates losers and is perceived as equitable by all participants can impose strict limits on the use of fossil fuels in the long term," they wrote.
 AFP - hurriyetdailynews.com
8/1/15
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Related:

• Τελευταία Ελπίδα για το CCS από την Κομισιόν

• Chris Davies: "Η αποθήκευση διοξειδίου του άνθρακα κλειδί για το περιβάλλον"

• Η δέσμευση και αποθήκευση άνθρακα προκαλεί σεισμούς

Eco Geoplasm and Ydrodrom World News (January 2015 - B)

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Les catastrophes naturelles en 2014 ont coûté nettement moins de vies humaines et causé moins de dégâts matériels que celles de 2013, selon une étude publiée mercredi par Munich Re .

Le géant allemand de la réassurance, dont l’étude annuelle fait référence en la matière, estime à 110 milliards de dollars (93 milliards d’euros) les coûts cumulés des catastrophes de l’an dernier, moins que l’année précédente (140 milliards de dollars) et que la moyenne des dix et même des 30 dernières années....................Le coût des catastrophes naturelles a reculé en 2014

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January 2015 a

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Eco Isotop and Geo Introspect Flash News (January 2015 - A)

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Les pertes économiques liées aux désastres et catastrophes naturelles sont évaluées à 113 milliards de dollars (90,7 milliards d’euros) en 2014, en recul de 16% par rapport à 2013 - où ce montant atteignait 135 milliards de dollars - selon une première estimation du groupe suisse de réassurance Swiss Re publiée mercredi......................Dans l’ordre, les pertes les plus importantes ont été causées par les tempêtes de neige au Japon en février dernier

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(December 2014 -b) 
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(December 2014 -a)

China confirms its southern glaciers are disappearing

By Christina Larson, Science Insider
BEIJING—Glaciers in China that are a critical source of water for drinking and irrigation in India are receding fast, according to a new comprehensive inventory. In the short term, retreating glaciers may release greater meltwater, “but it will be exhausted when glaciers disappear under a continuous warming,” says Liu Shiyin, who led the survey for the Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute in Lanzhou.
In 2002, Chinese scientists released the first full inventory of the country’s glaciers, the largest glacial area outside of Antarctica and Greenland. The data came from topographical maps and aerial photographs of western China’s Tibet and Xinjiang regions taken from the 1950s through the 1980s. That record showed a total glacial area of 59,425 square kilometers. The Second Glacier Inventory of China, unveiled here last week, is derived from high-resolution satellite images taken between 2006 and 2010. The data set is freely available online.

Liu and his colleagues calculated China’s total glacial area to be 51,840 square kilometers—13% less than in 2002. That figure is somewhat uncertain because the previous inventory used coarser resolution images that may have mistaken extensive snow cover for permanent ice, says Raymond Bradley, director of the Climate System Research Center at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, who was not involved in the project.

Methodological quibbles aside, the latest inventory flags a marked retreat of glaciers in the southern and eastern fringes of the Tibetan Plateau. “We found the fastest shrinking glaciers are those in the central upper reach of the Brahmaputra River, between the central north Himalaya [and] the source region of the tributary of the Indus River,” Liu says.

Matthias Huss, a glaciologist at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, applauds the openness in sharing data, which hasn’t always been the norm in China. “It is highly useful that the colleagues from China have made their data set available to the community. It will feed directly into global efforts to compile a worldwide glacier inventory and is a major improvement,” he says. “It will, for example, greatly support the effort of global glacier modeling to improve our understanding of glaciers’ response to climate change.” [tibet.net]
23/12/14

UN chief hails deal on climate change in Lima

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon on Sunday hailed the outcome of the climate conference in Lima, Peru, praising delegates for setting the groundwork for a more conclusive agreement to be reached in 2015.

"The decisions adopted in Lima, including the Lima Call for Climate Action, pave the way for the adoption of a universal and meaningful agreement in 2015," said a statement issued here by Ban 's spokesperson.

The UN chief urged all parties, at their first meeting in February next year, to enter into substantive negotiations on the draft text of the 2015 agreement coming from the Conference.

He applauded delegates for having made "important advances" in clarifying their needs for preparing and presenting their so- called Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) to the new agreement and in "finalizing the institutional architecture for a mechanism on loss and damage."

INDCs are the commitments countries are expected to make in order to keep average global temperature rise below 2o C the internationally-agreed limit aimed at staving off irreversible climate change.

In the statement, the Secretary-General called on all parties, especially the world's major economies, to submit their "ambitious national commitments well in advance of Paris."

"He also looks forward to working with the governments of Peru and France on the new Lima-Paris Action Agenda catalyze action on climate change to further increase ambition before 2020 and to support the 2015 agreement," said the statement.

The annual UN climate talks wrapped up in Lima on Sunday, reaching acceptable but not satisfying result and leaving unresolved issues to climate conference in Paris, in December next year.

In the past two weeks, negotiators from over 190 countries and organizations gathered in the city hosting the 20th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP20) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to negotiate a new agreement addressing climate change, which was planned to be passed at the end of 2015 in Paris and come into force in 2020. 
 Xinhua - china.org.cn
15/12/14
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• With rich-poor split, climate talks run into overtime ...

L'Amérique Latine s'engage à reboiser près de 20 millions d'hectares

Sept pays d'Amérique latine se sont engagés dimanche à reboiser près de 20 millions d'hectares de terres dégradées d'ici 2020, dans le cadre de la conférence de l'ONU sur le climat qui se tient actuellement à Lima.En parallèle à la conférence, les ministres de l'Agriculture et de l'Environnement du Mexique, du Pérou, du Guatemala, de Colombie, d'Équateur, du Chili et du Costa Rica ont présenté un plan de remise en état des terres dans leurs pays respectifs.

Le Mexique a entrepris de restaurer 8,5 millions d'hectares, le Pérou 3,2 millions, le Guatemala 1,2 millions et la Colombie un million.

L'Equateur se propose de reboiser 500. 000 hectares, le Chili 100.000 et le Costa Rica 50.000.

En outre, un plan régional de conservation de la Patagonie permettrait de récupérer 4,1 millions d'hectares de forêts.

On estime qu'en Amérique latine il existe quelque 200 millions d'hectares de terres dégradées, selon le Centre international d'agriculture tropicale, basé en Colombie.

"Au Pérou, nous perdons les forêts à une vitesse impressionnante. Les activités qui accélèrent le plus la déforestation sont l'exploitation minière illégale, le surpaturage et la plantation de coca", a indiqué le ministre de l'Agriculture Juan Manuel Benites.

"Nous devons envisager un reboisement productif et accéder à une agriculture de carbone neutre," a-t-il ajouté.

Le ministre de l'Agriculture argentin Roberto Delgado a également exhorté à mettre un frein à la déforestation. "Outre la récupération des sols, il est très important de cesser de perdre de hectares," a-t-il dit.

Le compromis, nommé Initiative 20x20, bénéficiera d'un soutien de 365 millions de dollars de la part d'investisseurs privés. Il vise à réduire les émissions de gaz à effet de serre générées par la déforestation et les changements dans l'utilisation des terres.

Selon les experts, l'Amérique latine est l'une des régions du monde les plus vulnérables aux changements climatiques.

[ rtl.be]

8/12/14

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Sur le même sujet:

• Brésil : nouvelle accélération de la déforestation de l'Amazonie

• UN climate talks reach deal on cutting greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation.

• Indigenous community clashes with loggers in the Amazon

The annual UN global climate change talks started in the Peruvian capital of Lima

Thousands of representatives from nearly 200 nations gathered at the Peruvian Army Headquarters for the two-week-long negotiations formally known as the COP20, or the 20th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Polish Environment Minister Marcin Korolec, who was COP19/CMP9 President, hailed the 2030 framework agreed by the European Union and the China-U.S. joint announcement for emission cut as some of the major achievements of this year.

Peruvian Environment Minister Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, who was elected at the opening session as COP20/CMP10 president, urged participants to work in a creative way to reach global consensus in the following 12 days and stressed that an inclusive and transparent process was his top priority.

"This conference should lead to a framework on structuring and strengthening financial mechanisms, launch ambitious process to accelerate pre-2020 action, and make progress on intended determined contributions, or INDCS in short," said Pulgar-Vidal, calling for collective action from all parties.

UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres encouraged all actors to broaden scope of actions, and create political parity of adaptation and mitigation.

"This COP must make history," Figueres said, highlighting increased collective capacity of climate action worldwide and urging stronger global moves for a sustainable future.

Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), promised to bring everyone down "with the reality of science" after the theatrical show organized by the Peruvian presidency.

The IPCC, UN's science panel, recently presented its synthesis report, which is the fourth and final element of the fifth assessment report on the state of climate change.

Pachauri spelled out the influence of human emissions and their unequivocal impact on the planet, which is underway across all countries and affecting all peoples alike. "It is very likely Arctic sea ice will continue to shrink, sea level will continue to rise, and glacier volume will decrease," he said.

Pachauri expressed his hope that this COP will focus attention on the need to keep a global temperature rise under 2 degrees Celsius and reach a zero emissions world by the end of the century in order to reduce climate change risks.

The UNFCCC 12-day talks took place amid depressing scientific warnings and rising prospects in advancing a draft universal pact with the aim of adopting it at the COP21 in Paris, France at the end of next year. The recent joint announcement made by China and the United States to limit greenhouse gas emissions provided practical and political momentum towards the new global agreement.

About 10,000 delegates, activists, journalists and support crew have been accredited for the conference, with thousands of police providing security.
Xinhua - china.org.cn - http://english.cntv.cn
1-2/12/14

Obama: US Pledges $3 Billion to Developing Nations for Global Warming Fund

U.S. President Barack Obama has announced that the United States is contributing $3 billion to the Green Climate Fund to help developing nations deal with climate change.

Obama made his announcement Saturday at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia -- host city of this year's summit of the Group of 20 world economic powers.
The president said the fund will help pay for such necessities as early warning systems and stronger defenses against storm surges. It also will help farmers plant more durable crops and aid developing economies in cutting carbon emissions and investing in clean energy.

Obama said it is not just governments that can fight climate change. He called on citizens, especially young people, to raise their voices, saying they deserve to live in a cleaner and healthier world.

Without mentioning any specific country, the president said effective security in Asia must be based on alliances and international law -- not spheres of influence or big nations bullying the small.

He said the only real source of legitimacy is a democracy and the consent of the people.[voanews.com]
14/11/14
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Related:
 

• Going green: Beijing, Washington strike landmark climate change deal

• 'Leaders must act', urges Ban, as new UN report warns man's impact on climate may soon be 'irreversible' 

• Scientists Discover World’s Oceans Warming Faster Than Predicted

• WHO Warns of Climate Change Dangers, Calls for Stronger Actions

Going green: Beijing, Washington strike landmark climate change deal

The world’s top carbon polluters – China and the United States – have reached a landmark agreement on greenhouse gas emissions, with both countries pledging to curb them by about a third by 2030.

Under the agreement, which was announced by President Obama and President Xi Jinping in Beijing, the United States pledges to reduce the level of its greenhouse gas emissions – based off 2005 levels – by 26 to 28 percent by the year 2025. Ultimately, the goal for American policy makers is to reduce emissions 80 percent by 2050.
For its part, China has pledged to stop its emissions from rising by 2030 – the first time the country has ever promised to reach such a goal. President Xi said that in order to successfully accomplish this, 20 percent of China's energy needs will come from alternative sources by 2030, such as solar power and wind energy. 

With world leaders preparing to meet in Paris in 2015 to discuss international plans to combat global warming, both the US and China hope their new deal will motivate other countries to follow suit and set ambitious goals for reducing greenhouse gases.
The White House said in a statement that China is embracing the “energy revolution,” which includes economic reforms and ways to deal with air pollution. 

China has signed onto providing an "additional 800-1,000 gigawatts of nuclear, wind, solar and other zero emission generation capacity by 2030, more than all the coal-fired power plants that exist in China today and close to total current electricity generation capacity in the United States,” according to the statement. 

While the deal was hailed by the White House, serious roadblocks remain, considering that Congress will be controlled by Republicans starting in 2015. Conservatives have generally criticized attempts to combat climate change, to the point that many do not acknowledge that it exists. An unnamed official told CNN, however, that President Obama was committed to the effort. 

"Congress may try to stop us, but we believe that with control of Congress changing hands we can proceed with the authority we already have,” the official said. "This is really the crusade of a narrow group of people who are politically motivated and have made this a cause celebre, but we believe we will be successful."
 
The announcement of the climate change deal follows several reports on agreements between the US and China around trade tariffs, military maneuvers, and easing travel visas.
As part of the trade deal, both sides agreed to get rid of $1 trillion worth of tariffs a year surrounding global sales of information and communications technology, such as GPS devices, medical equipment, and game consoles. 

The move was hailed as a “breakthrough” deal that could boost bilateral trade and create more jobs. However, before the deal goes forward, the agreement will have to be approved by the World Trade Organization (WTO).
http://rt.com/news/204615-china-us-climate-change-deal/
12/11/14
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Related:
 

• China and the US agreed on Wednesday to new greenhouse emissions targets with China setting a goal for its emissions to peak "around 2030."...

• China will destroy 5,000,000 cars this year to battle air pollution (Polluting vehicles to be scrapped)

• Air pollution champion: China burns more coal than rest of world combined

Researchers examine bottom of strange crater in N Siberia

Russian researchers for the first time have reached the bottom of the strange large crater on the Yamal Peninsula, northwest Siberia, the press service of the regional government told TASS.

Scientists went on the third expedition to the crater on November 10. They managed to take samples of the ground and ice.
It is located four kilometers away from a gas pipeline and at a considerable distance from gas fields. Human activities could not cause the cave-in, the press service said.
During the summer, scientists could not examine the bottom because ground continued to collapse in the crater.
On the last expedition, researchers reached the depth of 200 metres despite the strong wind with gusts of up to 20 m.sec.

Specialists will study the chemical composition of the samples.
Scientists say the crater may be filled with water in a few years and become a small lake, such as many others in Yamal. It is proved that some of them appeared in such cave-ins. But scientists still do not know definitely how the craters were formed, the press service said.
The next expedition is planned for April 2015.

• The chairman of the board of the Tyumen Scientific Society of the Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, academician Vladimir Melnikov, said the craters were formed in Yamal in 2012 and 2013 as a result of the climate warming.

Frozen ground began to melt. At some places, it became less thick, and shale gas came out through it. Shale gas is found along the entire sub-Arctic shelf. Supposedly, it caused the formation of the crater, Melnikov said.
 http://en.itar-tass.com/non-political/759237
12/11/14
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Related:

• Οι κρατήρες της Σιβηρίας λύνουν το μυστήριο του Τριγώνου των Βερμούδων;

• Ξεδιαλύνεται το μυστήριο που κρύβουν οι μυστηριώδεις κρατήρες της Σιβηρίας (Η νέα απειλή λέγεται μεθάνιο)

• Η νέα απειλή λέγεται μεθάνιο./ Ticking Arctic Carbon Bomb May Be Bigger Than Thought