The renowned NASA climate scientist Dr James Hansen today challenged Gordon Brown to end UK moves to build new coal-fired power stations.
Energy giant E.ON is currently seeking permission to build the country's first new coal-fired plant for more than thirty years at Kingsnorth in Kent. Now Hansen is writing to Brown explaining why he thinks it is crucial that Britain rules out the plan.
Speaking at the American Geophysical Union (AGU), the largest gathering of the year for Earth scientists, Dr Hansen said:
Responding to the news that the UK government is set to commit £15m to a World Bank scheme which aims to reduce tropical deforestation, John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK said:
"It would be unthinkable for the next phase of the Kyoto protocol not to address tropical deforestation, which is one of the biggest drivers of climate change. But world leaders can't use this as an excuse to avoid slashing emissions in their own countries - we urgently need to do both.
Posted by jamie — 4 December 2007 at 5:56pm
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At a side meeting of the Bali climate change conference today, Greenpeace launched
a new proposal that will encourage and reward countries for reducing emissions
from deforestation. It's long, complex and full of acronyms but with forest
destruction responsible for around one-fifth of our greenhouse gas emissions,
it could represent one of the best chances we have of slashing global emissions.
It tackles a
subject which is a big stumbling block in attempts to stop deforestation: money.
There's not enough of it, at least not in the right places. Most countries with
large tracts of forest, such as Indonesia,
Brazil
and the Democratic Republic of Congo, are still developing and see them as sources
of much-needed finance. Even though the link between deforestation and climate change is now being widely acknowledged, these governments
rarely have funds available to protect their forests.
Greenpeace today launched a landmark proposal for reducing, and ultimately stopping, tropical deforestation.
The initiative was launched at a side event of the Bali Climate Conference, featuring the Governors of Papua and Papua Barat, the provinces with the largest intact tropical forests in Indonesia.
Greenpeace believes that finding solutions to ending deforestation must be a key objective of the conference for the following reasons:
Tropical deforestation is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, threatens biological diversity, and has devastating impacts upon forest dependent peoples. Human induced climate change is projected to cause significant adverse effects on tropical forests where there is a decline in precipitation. As a consequence it is vital that means are found to incentivise and reward reduced deforestation in order to assist in the task of preventing dangerous climate change and thus achieve the ultimate objective of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The former chief economist to the Treasury, Sir Nicholas Stern, will today
deliver a keynote speech to the Royal Economic Society in London on the need for
urgent action to combat climate change.
His speech comes days before a major
climate summit in Bali which will be attended
by environment ministers from across the world. Meanwhile the Corporate Leaders
Group on Climate Change, overseen by the Prince of Wales, today unveiled a
Bali communiqué to which many of the world's
leading brands are signatories.
Posted by jamie — 19 November 2007 at 6:06pm
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The speech
Gordon Brown made to the Foreign Press Association earlier today was billed as
his first major proclamation on climate change and the environment since ascending to Number 10, but did it deliver? There was much reaffirming of previous statements and existing policies, but aside from a couple of big points there was nothing really new.
Posted by jamie — 1 August 2007 at 3:28pm
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After twenty years out of fashion, the term 'cold war' has become the hot favourite in Fleet Street once more. Not just because diplomatic relations between Russia and the UK distinctly frosty at the moment, but Russia's current Arctic adventures are lowering the temperature even further.
At a side meeting of the Bali climate change conference today, Greenpeace launched
a new proposal that will encourage and reward countries for reducing emissions
from deforestation. It's long, complex and full of acronyms but with forest
destruction responsible for around one-fifth of our greenhouse gas emissions,
it could represent one of the best chances we have of slashing global emissions.
