Climate Change
Energy
Private Sector
North America

On Monday, President Obama launched his Clean Power Plan designed to cut emissions from the power sector by 32% in 2030, against a 2005 baseline.

It's more ambitious than a  draft, published for comment last year, which targeted a 30% reduction. Obama says it is the "single most important step" the US has taken to tackle climate change.

It has attracted a  huge quantity of  news coverage, comment and analysis. However, the final rule is 1,560 pages long, making it hard to unpick the impact of the plan from the spin. It also has international significance in advance of the impending UN climate talks in Paris.

Carbon Brief's Q&A aims to help cut through the noise, explaining the why, how and what next of the Clean Power Plan.


For the complete analysis, please visit the Carbon Brief Blog.

Source:
Carbon Brief

Conflict Transformation
Security
Water
Global Issues
Adrien Detges, adelphi and Tobias Ide, Georg Eckert Institute

Although water is an essential input for agriculture and industrial production, it is also scarce in many regions. When it crosses international borders via shared rivers, lakes and aquifers, it can become a source of conflict and contention. Yet while water can be a source of instability, especially in the face of climate change, it can also be a source or catalyst for cooperation and even peace.

Development
Energy
Middle East & North Africa
Megan Darby, Climate Home

The Gulf Cooperation Council’s grid operator is studying the feasibility of a cable to Ethiopia, which would run through currently war-torn Yemen.

Climate Change
Early Warning & Risk Analysis
Sub-Saharan Africa
Central America & Caribbean
Oceania & Pacific
Asia
Thoriq Ibrahim, Former Environment and Energy Minister of the Maldives

Small Island States will be facing dramatically higher adaptation costs to build resilience against the kind of impacts the IPCC projects in its most recent Special Report. Thoriq Imbrahim, former Environment and Energy Minister of the Maldives, urges the international community to attend to the political demands of countries particularly exposed to the impacts of climate change and also confront loss and damage with renewed urgency.

Climate Change
Climate Diplomacy
Global Issues
Lou del Bello

Three years after the talks that delivered the Paris Agreement, the world is gathering in Poland to take stock of the progress that has been made and to raise its ambitions. But as new nationalist leaders take power, has the world lost its appetite for climate action?