There should be international scrutiny of greenhouse gas emissions.

One of the major sticking points at the Copenhagen conference was the need for scrutiny of greenhouse gas emissions. It helped kill any potential deal that might have had binding targets or deeper reductions in CO2 emissions. While the USA and other developed countries insist on as much scrutiny ...more...

Climate change = War?

Climate change is likely to have many negative consequences. These are often quite obvious, for example sea levels rise and there is likely to be coastal flooding, have more droughts and there is likely to be more famine. However one less obvious consequence may well be war. War has been a consta...more...

Will Yvo de Boer’s resignation reduce the chance of getting a good climate deal this year?

Yvo de Boer the head of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change announced last Friday that he is resigning. His last day will be July 1st. This will be five months before the next big climate change conference in Mexico so giving a successor time to settle in to the role. Whether you believ...more...

The developed world should stop its drive to use biofuels.

Biofuels are often seen as a possible short term miracle cure for all sorts of ills, most obvious is climate change, they are zero carbon as burning them is simply putting the CO2 that has already been taken out of the atmosphere by the plants in order to grow. But biofuels also have other uses, ...more...

Is the West hypocritical to criticise the refusal of developing countries to commit to combating ...

The politicians, and at their prompting the media, in the west blamed China in the wake of the Copenhagen climate conference. China scuttled all possibilities for a good deal, even attempting to stop the west’s own commitments. Since then developing countries, especially the BASIC (China, India, ...more...

There should be international scrutiny of greenhouse gas emissions.

One of the major sticking points at the Copenhagen conference was the need for scrutiny of greenhouse gas emissions. It helped kill any potential deal that might have had binding targets or deeper reductions in CO2 emissions. While the USA and other developed countries insist on as much scrutiny ...more...

Can public trust in climate change science can be restored?

Since the climategate scandal that started at the beginning of December 2009 there has been a continuous stream of reports that climate scientists may have been exaggerating their findings or else the evidence those findings are based on may not be rock solid. This has not surprisingly damaged pu...more...

Governments merely pay lip service to protecting the environment.

Governments are almost always behind the curve when it comes to environmental issues, they are pressured by environmental campaigners for years and then when they do something they just as quickly break their promises. The Environment is not a core issue for governments, their main concerns are t...more...

Use geoengineering to shield the earth from sunlight.

Efforts at reducing fighting climate change by reducing CO2 emissions seem to be slowly floundering or going nowhere very fast. Even if they do get going they are not likely to create the necessary change fast enough to avert the consequences of climate change causing immense damage across the wo...more...

If we were made to pay for environmental services, we'd look after them more. People should pay m...

Cap and trading carbon dioxide emissions, or a carbon tax, ways of increasing the price of our carbon emissions are often suggested as a way of reducing our environmental impact. However there are many other areas where we are ruining the environment with the demands we are placing on it. We dema...more...

The 'Danish text' shows that the Danish Government is failing in their duty to be an unbiased host

The hosts of conferences are supposed to be unbiased facilitators who encourage agreement bringing the various sides together. Instead there has been a draft text of a treaty written by the quite possibly misnamed 'circle of commitment' - including Denmark, as well as the U.S. and U.K. that it is...more...

The Environmental Protection Agency's ruling allows the U.S to be more ambitious at copenhagen

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced that greenhouse gases threaten the public health and welfare of the American people. EPA also finds that GHG emissions from on-road vehicles contribute to that threat. EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. said “These long-overdue findings cement 20...more...

Spend billions to allow investors to protect rainforests?

The U.S. is proposing to spend 25billion on protecting rainforests. However the proposal is based upon carbon credits, investors could earn carbon-emission credits in return for saving trees. While the rainforests need protecting is this really the way to do it? more...

Agreeing mutually acceptable emissions targets will be more effective than tough, legally binding...

Countries like to talk about being green and trumpet their climate change policies to show how progressive they are. However this does not mean they actually do anything. Legally binding targets are one way to make sure that countries act on policies to prevent climate change, but are they the...more...

Delegates and leaders show their disregard for the issue of limiting emissions by arriving by plane

Most of the 11,000 delegates, 3,000 journalists and 22,000 observers attending the conference arrived by plane, and the leaders and ministers arriving over the next few days for the end of the conference are almost certain to arrive by plane as well, many of them will be on private planes rather ...more...

Agreeing mutually acceptable emissions targets will be more effective than tough, legally binding...

Countries like to talk about being green and trumpet their climate change policies to show how progressive they are. However this does not mean they actually do anything. Legally binding targets are one way to make sure that countries act on policies to prevent climate change, but are they the...more...

Copenhagen conference; success or failure?

The developing world has not killed off the Copenhagen accord. The conference 'took note' of the agreement, rather than fully adopting it as not everyone wants it or believes it is good enough. This means that we have an agreement out of copenhagen, even if it is not the agreement everyone was lo...more...

This house sees reason to be hopeful after the Copenhagen summit.

Although the Copenhagen summit did not live up to expectations it was not a complete failure. It was never likely to get everything that campaigners wanted done, as such there was always going to have to be a next stage to the process. But while Copenhagen did not result in everything that was ho...more...

Might makes right.

The Copenhagen discussions keep pitting the smallest states against the richest, and against the most populous. These small and poor states should not be able to hold up a deal that is in the interests of the vast majority of the people in the world. The people in China, India, Brazil and other i...more...

Will Yvo de Boer’s resignation reduce the chance of getting a good climate deal this year?

Yvo de Boer the head of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change announced last Friday that he is resigning. His last day will be July 1st. This will be five months before the next big climate change conference in Mexico so giving a successor time to settle in to the role. Whether you believ...more...