The new integrated Covenant of Mayors on Climate and Energy was officially launched yesterday (Oct. 15) at the European Parliament in Brussels, with hundreds of cities representatives in attendance.
The NATO Parliamentary Assembly on Monday (Oct. 12) adopted a resolution on climate change and international security, urging members of the North Atlantic Alliance to reach an “ambitious” climate agreement in Paris this year and to “fully recognize climate change-related risks as significant threat multipliers in their foreign and security policies”.
The global community places great hopes in the UN climate conference in Paris in December. Oliver Geden of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs told Katja Dombrowski in an interview what would make Paris a success and why he doubts that the two-degree target will be reached.
Amid tensions between the U.S. and China, one issue has emerged on which the two nations are finding common ground: climate change. Their recent commitments on controlling emissions have created momentum that could help international climate talks in Paris in December.
“With better information as a foundation, we can build a virtuous circle of better understanding of tomorrow’s risks, better pricing for investors, better decisions by policymakers, and a smoother transition to a lower-carbon economy.” Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England
Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, has become the latest person to deliver a blunt warning about the risks of climate change to global financial stability. Speaking at Lloyd’s of London, Carney warned that “the catastrophic impacts of climate change will be felt beyond the traditional horizons of most actors – imposing a cost on future generations” and that “climate change will threaten financial resilience and longer-term prosperity.”
The world has just received a new and more comprehensive development framework for 2030 that integrates the environmental dimension of development and at the same time makes the term “developed countries” obsolete, in a sense.
The delay in India’s declaration of its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) has raised many questions with regard to its long-term climate goals. For the time being, the government is focussed on fulfilling the INDC requirement without compromising too much on some of the traditionally held positions by the previous governments. The “red lines” that have long dominated India’s negotiating position on climate change are likely to shift slightly because of three reasons.
El Niño is one of the most important drivers of climate variability worldwide. Reliable early warning is critical for preventing the climate hazard from developing into a full-grown disaster.
Pope Francis urged “sustainable and integral development” to protect the world’s most vulnerable at the outset of a landmark visit to the United States on Wednesday.