News

Worldwide, environmentalists are facing serious challenges in the fight against climate change skepticism. In response, Australian scientists struck back today with a report (pdf) that states simply, "Climate change is real."
http://www.bom.gov.au/inside/eiab/State-of-climate-2010.pdf

Britain's demand for imported goods is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions abroad than any other European country, according to a new study published in March. The report shows that 253m tonnes of carbon dioxide are released overseas each year in the manufacture of products bound for UK shores, the equivalent of 4.3 tonnes per person.

There are a number of barriers that can make it challenging for people and organisations to choose the right adaptation strategy in the face of climate change: market failures; behavioural barriers; adaptive capacity; and, natural capacity. These issues are explored in more detail in the first Defra Economics and Analysis Working Paper series, 'Adapting to climate change: Analysing the role of government'. This sets out how these barriers may affect adaptation decisions, provides a framework for considering the Government's role and identifies implications for policy design.

Ways to cut public spending and reduce support for a high carbon economy
The government could slash £12 billion off the national debt through a package of public spending cuts and the abolition of tax allowances that promote growth in carbon emissions, according to a new report published today by the think tank Green Alliance .
http://www.greenalliance.org.uk/uploadedFiles/Our_Work/Cutting%20back%20...
The report highlights that:

A leaked paper has set out the idea that palm oil plantations can be considered 'forests' – and the EU seems to be buying it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/18/palm-oil-biofuels-eu...

The Forest Footprint Disclosure Project (FFD Project) is a new initiative, backed by 34 financial institutions with $3.5 trillion in collective assets under management, created to help investors identify how an organisation’s activities and supply chains contribute to deforestation, and link this 'forest footprint' to their value.

Virgin chief and fellow business leaders call for action and say energy crisis threatens to be more serious than credit crunch
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/oilprices/7203172/Brita...
http://peakoiltaskforce.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/final-report-uk-i...
The report issues a range of recommendations including:
General policies:
Government, local authorities and business must face up to the Peak Oil threat and put contingency plans in place

If you have not already seen in this BBC Horizon special, naturalist Sir David Attenborough investigates whether the world is heading for a population crisis.
In his lengthy career, Sir David has watched the human population more than double from 2.5 billion in 1950 to nearly seven billion. He reflects on the profound effects of this rapid growth, both on humans and the environment.

This guide, published by the Centre for Research on Environmental Decision (CRED) at Columbia University, details many of the biases and barriers to scientific communication and information processing relating to climate change. The ultimate solutions to climate change are workable, cost-effective technologies which permit society to improve living standards while limiting and adapting to changes in the climate. Yet scientific, engineering, and organizational solutions are not enough. Societies must be motivated and empowered to adopt the needed changes.

The food we eat accounts for 30% of the UK's carbon footprint, according to a new report published by WWF-UK and the Food Climate Research Network (FCRN). Land use change, primarily deforestation, is a major source of climate changing emissions. Each year, globally, an area of forest equivalent to half of England is lost, largely as a result of the expansion of the food system as land is cleared to grow crops and rear animals.