Germany, followed by the UK and France, are the best performers, according to the new G8 Climate Scorecards report. Italy and Japan are in a lower medium ranked group, while Canada, the US and Russia are lagging behind, despite the US moving up one rank.
The report carried out by Ecofys for WWF and Allianz SE ranks the top eight industrialized countries and five major developing countries according to their climate change policies.
With just five months to go before crucial climate talks begin in Copenhagen, the 2009 edition of the annual WWF-Allianz G8 climate scorecards shows that, while some efforts had been made, action remains insufficient to set the world on a low-carbon economy course.
The report states the lack of a clear leader among the ranked nations and while Germany has slightly improved, countries such as Canada and Russia have completely failed to pass the test.
“While there might be a bailout possibility for the financial system, no amounts of money will save the planet once climate change crosses the danger threshold,” write WWF head James Leape and Allianz board member Joachim Faber in the foreword to the report. “It is therefore crucial to limit the rise of global temperature to below two degrees compared to pre-industrial levels.”
The G8 Climate Scorecards 2009 measure countries’ performance and trends in areas such as development of greenhouse gas emissions since 1990, the distance to their Kyoto targets, their share of renewable energies and the efficiency of their climate policies.
The evaluation is based on their progress and improvement made since 1990, is looking at the current status of emissions and the intended policies for the future.
According to the report, Germany, the United Kingdom and France have already achieved their Kyoto targets — but their long-term climate performance is not adequate to limit the global temperature rise below two degrees Celsius.
Climate initiatives so far planned or announced by the Obama administration have helped the US climb from the last rank to seventh place.
Canada and Russia, which are at the bottom of the rank, either do not have political plans to change this development or do not implement them.
A warming climate could reverse the flow of tourists and encourage more Southern Europeans to head north, instead of the other way around. That’s the subject of a new European research project at the University of Gothenburg.
The tourist industry is heavily affected by weather and climate. Researchers find that warmer climate extends the tourist season in Northern Europe, while southern parts of the Continent suffer heat waves and water shortages, which are extremely costly. Combined with changes in rainfall patterns and rising sea levels, future climate changes will have a considerable impact on the economies and social development in Europe’s cities.
According to the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth, the tourist industry employs more people than several major companies — Ericsson, Volvo, Saab, Scania, Skanska, Telia Sonera, Sandvik, Astra Zeneca, ABB and SCA — combined. If changes in climate do end up reversing the flow of tourists, then tourism will have an even greater strategic and economic significance, since there will be demands to be met both in terms of the expectations of tourists and the well-being of the local population. The question is whether Europe and Sweden are prepared for this.
The heat buffering effect of cities makes them particularly sensitive to climate change, where global warming could intensify cities’ heat-island effect. Temperatures in built-up areas are between 0.5 and 1 degree C higher than in the surrounding, open landscape, because building materials absorb sun energy, and cars and buildings radiate heat.
The phenomenon is also apparent within the city: In Gothenburg, researchers measured a temperature difference of six degrees between the Slottskogen park area and the adjacent, densely built-up Linnéstaden. In Canada’s second city, Montreal, researchers have measured temperature differences of up to 12 degrees between city and park areas.
A European collaborative project, which will be coordinated from the University of Gothenburg, is now being initiated with the support of Formas, aimed at studying awareness of climate change and its impact on city tourism in several European cities. The project will include research groups in Sweden, Portugal and Turkey, under the leadership of professor Ingegärd Eliasson at the department of conservation at the University of Gothenburg.
“Sustainable city development requires increased awareness of the effects of climate change,” said Eliasson. “The goal is to establish a database for analyses of the relationship between city tourism and climate change in the three countries in question.”
Is it just us, or is every new report on energy or climate starting to sound a lot like dialogue from Monty Python’s “Life of Brian”?
Judith: “They’ve arrested Brian!!”
People’s Front of Judea: “What?”
Judith: “They’ve dragged him off. They’re going to crucify him.”
Reg: “Right. This calls for immediate discussion!”
Yes, the consensus lately seems to be that, we’ve talked enough already — time to start actually doing something.
“Progress on sustainable development, at the national level, has been slow,” says Jonathon Porritt, chair of the Sustainable Development Commission. “We’ve been talking about it for long enough. What we’ve got to do now is make it happen.”
“For the sake of future generations we cannot afford to wait until our climate is changed dramatically or the oil runs out before we end our dependency on fossil fuels,” said John Shepherd, lead author of a new energy report from the Royal Society. “If the UK wants to provide global leadership it has to convert talk into action.”
It seems we’ve all set lots of well-intended, ambitious goals to improve the UK’s energy and climate situation, but will the necessary actions ever really follow? Or is this story set to end much like “The Life of Brian,” with the doomed singing and tapping away as they wait for the end?
Your thoughts? We’d love to know!
Judith: “Reg, for God’s sake. It’s perfectly simple. All you’ve got to do is to go out of that door now, and try to stop the Romans nailing him up. It’s happening, Reg! Something’s actually HAPPENING, Reg! Can’t you understand? Yaaargh! [Rushes out in a rage.]“
Jointly organised by the British Computer Society’s (BCS) interaction specialist group and the human-computer interaction specialist group of the Ergonomics Society, the two-day conference — “Boom and Bust” — will explore how creative technology can be used in designs, interactions or in digital consumer products to make a difference in people’s lives.
The conference is scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, 1 and 2 July, at the BCS’ offices, Southampton Street, London.
A number of speakers from both the academic and practioner fields will give presentations, including Josephine Reid from the Pervasive Computing Lab, Steve Benford from the Mixed Reality Laboratory at the University of Nottingham and Andrew McGrath, director of design and usability at Orange Global. Crispin Jones, an industrial and interaction designer will also speak to delegates.
The conference will include demonstrations of artefacts and prototypes, as well as an interactive session hosted by Edinburgh Napier University.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said today that the world should create a £60 billion-per-year global fund to help developing countries reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change.
Speaking before a group of ambassadors, green groups and business organisations gathered in London, Brown said, “The UK is determined to secure an international agreement at Copenhagen that puts the world on a path to avoiding dangerous climate change. All countries have to take action, but to help developing countries move to low-carbon and climate-resilient growth we will need a new system of financial support for greener technology, deforestation and adaptation. I hope the proposals I set out today can help move the talks in that direction.”
Brown’s announcement forms part of the Government’s 5-Point Plan to tackle climate change. That plans aims to:
Protect the public from immediate risk
Prepare for the future through adaptation
Push for an international agreement
Build a low-carbon Britain
Help everyone play their part
The plan comes on the heels of the recent UK Climate Projections, which warns that — if the world continues on a high-emissions path — Britain could be up to 12 degrees C warmer on the hottest summer days by 2080, and sea levels could rise by 36 centimetres.
“This is a make or break time for our climate and our future,” said Climate and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband.
With less than six months left before crucial climate negotiations take place in the Danish capital Copenhagen, UK officials say the next global deal on climate change must be:
Ambitious enough to limit climate change to 2 degrees C, by making sure global greenhouse gas emissions peak and start to reduce by 2020, and keep on shrinking to reach at most half of their 1990 levels by 2050;
Effective enough to keep all countries to their word with strong monitoring, reporting and verification; and to allow money to flow to where it will make most difference by developing carbon markets; and
Fair, by supporting the poorest countries to cut their emissions and adapt to climate change.
Success in Copenhagen is also vital for Britain’s economic future and national security, officials say. Building a low-carbon Britain and securing a Copenhagen deal will be in the nation’s business and economic interests: over 800,000 people are now employed in the low-carbon sector in the UK and well over a million jobs are predicted by the middle of the next decade.
The Scottish Parliament has approved an ambitious climate-change plan that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.
That target includes emissions from international aviation and shipping.
The Government’s bill also sets an interim goal of cutting emissions by 42 per cent by 2020.
“Scotland can be proud of this bill, the most ambitious and comprehensive piece of climate change legislation anywhere in the world,” said Climate Change Minister Stewart Stevenson. “As a country, we are leading global action and expect others to follow our lead as we look to the international summit in Copenhagen this December.”
He added, “Setting targets is not an end in itself, it is delivery that matters. In our delivery plan published last week we set out a vision of how we will achieve our targets, demanding action now and in the future.”
Stevenson noted that, while climate change is a threat, it also poses an opportunity.
“Harnessing the energy-related opportunities presented by Scotland’s natural capital can create tens of thousands of jobs and help us emerge from the current global economic downturn on the back of a strong green economic revival,” he said. “Achieving these targets will be challenging. But I am confident that Government, business and the people of Scotland are ready to rise to the challenge.”
Even California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger added his support to the bill.
“Climate change is a global problem that requires a global solution,” he said. “Scotland’s ambitious and comprehensive targets encourage other nations to step up to the plate as we look toward an international agreement in Copenhagen, and it sends a message to the world that we must act now and we must act swiftly.”
More than 21,000 responses were received to the Scottish Government’s consultation on a draft Climate Change Bill.
After years of issuing academically dry, if increasingly dire, warnings about the accelerating pace of climate change, it seems leading scientists have now been pushed over the edge into new and more emotionally charged territory.
Here in the UK, for example, the director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research has taken to calling the Government’s top environment agencies “small yapping dogs” whose policies on global warming are “dangerously optimistic.”
Meanwhile, over on the other side of the pond, top US climate scientist James Hansen has gone from vocal criticism to chain-yourself-to-the-fence activism, getting himself arrested at a West Virginia protest against mountaintop removal coal mining.
“(I)t is our responsibility to make sure our representatives feel the full force of citizens who speak for what is right, not what is politically expedient,” Hansen told the crowd of protesters.
The UK’s climate change goals fall far short of what’s needed to avert dangerous levels of warming, according to the director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.
The Guardian reported this week that Tydall director Kevin Anderson warns that the Government’s proposed carbon cuts, if enacted globally, would offer only a 50-50 chance of avoiding a temperature increase of 2 degrees C or more — regarded as the threshold for catastrophic climate change impacts.
Whilst addressing MPs on the Environmental Audit Committee, Anderson also noted that the two agencies most focussed on climate change — Decc and Defra — lacked the muscle needed to enact stronger legislation. Compared to departments such as business, he said, the climate-centred agencies were akin to small yapping dogs.
Environment Secretary Hilary Benn named the first six members of the sub-committee, to be chaired by Lord John Krebs:
Sam Fankhauser;
Martin Parry;
Jim Hall;
Andrew Dlugolecki;
Baroness Barbara Young; and
Graham Wynne.
“The recent publication of the UK Climate Projections shows how important it is for the country to prepare for the impacts of a changing climate,” Benn said. “The Adaptation Sub-Committee will play a significant role in helping to achieve this. The founding members of the Sub-Committee are leading experts in their fields, and their knowledge will make a vital contribution in our efforts to adapt to climate change.”
“I am very pleased that I will be working with such distinguished experts,” added Lord Krebs. “Their wide ranging experience will ensure that the Committee can provide the Government with the best possible advice on the risks to the UK from climate change and the Government’s plans to increase preparedness.”
Climate change and energy supplies are, of course, issues of importance around the globe. But there are some energy and eco-challenges likely to put the UK to the test more than some other countries.
Britain’s top 10 future challenges include:
Staying dry. Two new reports from the Environment Agency find that one in six homes in England are at risk of flooding and that investment in the building and maintaining of flood defences will need to almost double to £1 billion a year by 2035, as climate change increases the risk of coastal erosion and flooding from rivers and the sea.
Staying cool. The Government’s UK Climate Projections 2009 find that peak summer temperatures in London could regularly hit 40 degrees C or higher if carbon emissions continue rising. Under such a scenario, East Anglia’s farmland could shrivel — seeing 60 per cent less summer rainfall — while the South-West could become warm enough to support vineyards.
Avoiding killer fish. This one’s real, as Environmental Graffiti reports upon the recent discovery of the carnivorous giant snakehead in British waters. Protective mothers of this invasive species have attacked — sometimes even killed — humans who’ve come to close to their babies.
Keeping the nuclear power flowing. As Lord Mandelson notes this week, “In Britain, all but Sizewell B of the current fleet of reactors will be retired by 2023.” That means building at least eight new nuclear reactors in the country “in the near future,” he said.
Producing honey. Britain’s honeybee population dropped by 30 per cent in a single winter two years ago, and honeybees in many other parts of the globe are also dying or disappearing en masse. One possible solution: a return to the black bee, which provided honey for many a mead-lover in the Middle Ages.
Solving the carbon-capture-and-storage challenge. The UK might have ample supplies of coal, but the energy source carries a steep price-tag in terms of carbon dioxide emissions. If the country is to meet its carbon reduction goals, it needs to find ways to quickly, efficiently and cheaply begin capturing carbon dioxide from power plant emissions and burying them for good somewhere.
Becoming a leaner, meaner UK. Improving efficiency across the board presents a major challenge for Britain. For example, the nation currently produces enough waste heat to provide one-fourth of its heating needs. Homes across the UK are also in dire need of a “Great Refurb” in terms of efficiency.
Getting smart. The Government aims to improve its nationwide energy efficiency with the help of smart meters that can help homeowners better manage power use and even send energy from solar panels or wind turbines back into the grid. To meet that goal, it aims to install residential smart meters across the country by 2020 — no small task.
G8 countries as a whole aren’t doing enough to protect the world against climate change, but some nations are working harder than others, according to a ranking prepared by Allianz and WWF.
A warming climate could reverse the flow of tourists and encourage 
Is it just us, or is every new report on energy or climate starting to sound a lot like dialogue from Monty Python’s “Life of Brian”?
This week’s Create09 will examine the 
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said today that the world should create a 
The Scottish Parliament has approved an ambitious climate-change plan that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 
Is it time to start panicking yet?
The UK’s climate change goals fall far short of what’s needed to avert dangerous levels of warming, according to the director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.
Coming on the heels of a report with dire climate projections for the UK, the Government has created a new sub-committee focussed on 
Climate change and energy supplies are, of course, issues of importance around the globe. But there are some energy and eco-challenges likely to put the UK to the test more than some other countries.