Page 2 - Un Climate Change Report

EU Commission plan may exempt long-haul flights from new emissions rules

The EU is developing plans to require airlines to track and report their contribution to climate change from January 2025

Global temperature may briefly cross 1.5 degree C threshold by 2028: UN

The 1.5 degree Celsius threshold refers to a key goal of the Paris Agreement adopted in 2015. The agreement aims to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels

World hits streak of record temperatures as UN warns of 'climate hell'

The average global temperature for the 12-month period to the end of May was 1.63 degrees Celsius (2.9 degrees Fahrenheit) above the pre-industrial average

India sizzles at 50 degrees Celsius: A look at world record temperatures

Multiple cities in India recorded their highest maximum temperatures of the season on Tuesday, the weather body said, naming Rajasthan's Churu as the warmest district so far

China plans to cut CO2 emission in key sectors by 1% of 2023 level

The plan said China would 'strictly' control coal consumption, 'reasonably' control petroleum consumption and promote use of biofuel and sustainable aviation fuel

Over 50% of world's mangroves at risk due to climate change: IUCN

More than half of the world's mangrove ecosystems are at risk of collapse, with nearly one in five facing severe risk, according to the findings of the first global mangrove assessment. Climate change threatens one-third (33 per cent) of the mangrove ecosystems, according to the study done using the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List of Ecosystems -- a global standard for measuring the health of ecosystems. Deforestation, development, pollution and dam construction pose a serious threat to mangroves, but the risk to these ecosystems is increasing due to sea-level rise and the increased frequency of severe storms due to climate change. "IUCN's Red List of Ecosystems is key to tracking progress towards the goal of halting and reversing biodiversity loss, in line with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The first global assessment of mangrove ecosystems gives key guidance that highlights the urgent need for coordinated conservation of ...

Weather reports from satellites help India's farming innovation drive

The Indian government, which just relaxed foreign investment rules for the space sector, is leaning heavily into the use of satellite data to solve problems on the ground, with agriculture a key focus

Current carbon removal plans inadequate to meet Paris Agreement goals

The current carbon removal plans of countries around the world will fall short in limiting the warming of the planet to 1.5 degrees Celsius, set out under the Paris Agreement, new research has suggested. The researchers pointed out that climate policy regarding removal of carbon dioxide (CO2), the most important greenhouse gas, from the atmosphere "needs more ambition". However, if the global energy demand could "significantly" reduce, the current carbon removal plans might be closer to achieving net-zero emissions, they found. "Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) methods have a small but vital role to play in achieving net zero (target) and limiting the impacts of climate change," said Naomi Vaughan of the University of East Anglia, UK, and co-author of the study published in the journal Nature Climate Change. "Our analysis shows that countries need more awareness, ambition and action on scaling up CDR methods together with deep emissions reductions to achieve the aspirations of the Pari

ADB's numbers on climate adaptation finance in Asia 'overstated': Oxfam

The Asian Development Bank's actual finance numbers for its largest climate adaptation projects in countries in Asia, including India, are "overstated" and could be off by 44 per cent, USD 0.9 billion instead of the reported USD 1.7 billion, Oxfam claimed in a report. The ADB, however, reaffirmed its figures, standing by its methodology and commitment to deliver USD 100 billion in climate financing by 2030, with USD 34 billion earmarked for adaptation and resilience. "We stand by our climate adaptation finance numbers" and the bank's determination is to fulfil its climate financing goals and its recent increase in climate finance commitments in 2023, a spokesperson of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said, responding to the report released by Oxfam, a non-profit. The report "Unaccountable Adaptation: The Asian Development Bank's overstated claims on climate adaptation finance" focused on ADB's largest climate adaptation projects in Asia and the Pacific, examining 15 major initiative

Climate change could become main driver of biodiversity decline: Study

Climate change could become the main driver of biodiversity decline by the mid-century, a new research has found. Studying changes in land-use patterns and their impacts on biodiversity, an international team of researchers found that biodiversity around the world could have declined by 2-11 per cent. "By including all world regions in our model, we were able to fill many blind spots and address criticism of other approaches working with fragmented and potentially biased data," said Henrique Pereira, research group head at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), and the first author of the study published in the journal 'Science'. Examining how biodiversity and ecosystems might evolve in the future, the researchers found that the combined effects of land-use change and climate change lead to biodiversity loss across all global regions, regardless of emissions scenario. "We found that climate change poses an imminent threat to biodiversity and ecosystem ...

Global warming of 3 degrees Celsius may result in 10% GDP loss: ETH study

Warming of the planet by 3 degrees Celsius may cost the world up to 10 per cent of its GDP, a new research has found. It also found that poorer, tropical countries could see the worst effects -- up to 17 per cent GDP loss. The study -- led by ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and published in the Nature Climate Change journal -- suggested that roughly half of the predicted global economic damage could be related to extreme heat, with heat waves being the most impactful among the extreme events analysed. "Impacts are more severe in the Global South and highest in Africa and the Middle East, where higher initial temperatures make countries particularly vulnerable to additional warming," the authors wrote. The researchers further found that the cost of climate change increased around the world after accounting for changes in rainfall and temperatures occurring within a short span at a location. "If we take into account that warmer years also come with changes in rainfall and temperature ...

Climate change threatens constitutional guarantee of right to equality: SC

Climate change impacts the constitutional guarantee of the right to equality, the Supreme court has said while constituting a committee to find a balance between conservation of critically-endangered Great Indian Bustard and renewable energy infrastructure in the states of Rajasthan and Gujarat. The top court recalled an earlier order of April 2021 that required undergrounding of overhead transmission lines across an area of over 80,000 sq km in the two states. A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said a blanket direction for undergrounding high voltage and low voltage power lines needs recalibration. "Climate change may impact the constitutional guarantee of the right to equality. Without a clean environment which is stable and unimpacted by the vagaries of climate change, the right to life is not fully realised. The right to health (which is a part of the right to life under Article 21) is impacted due to factors such as air pollutio

India better prepared than Pak to handle climate shocks: Scientists

Conducive weather conditions in both India and Pakistan are helping them to achieve record wheat output this year, but India is better prepared than the neighbour to handle climate change impact as it has developed many indigenous heat-resistant and short-duration seed varieties, according to agri-scientists. India is the second and Pakistan is the eighth largest wheat-producing country in the world. While India is self-sufficient in wheat output, the latter imports 2-3 million tonnes. One of the reasons behind Pakistan still being dependent on imports to meet domestic requirements is its failure to develop indigenous varieties of climate-resilient seeds. Presently, the harvesting of wheat crops is underway in both countries. India has projected wheat output to touch a new record of 114 million tonnes in the 2023-24 crop year (July-June), while Pakistan has set an ambitious target of 32.2 million tonnes from an area of 8.9 million hectares. While the two countries have been facing

Climate chaos, food crises could threaten global peace: UN chief Guterres

The United Nations chief warned Tuesday that climate chaos and food crises are increasing threats to global peace, telling a high-level U.N. meeting that climate disasters imperil food production and empty bellies fuel unrest. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the UN Security Council to address the impact of food shortages and rising temperatures on international peace and security a view echoed by many countries but not Russia. Climate and conflict are two leading drivers of (our) global food crisis, the secretary-general said. Where wars rage, hunger reigns whether due to displacement of people, destruction of agriculture, damage to infrastructure, or deliberate policies of denial. Meanwhile, climate chaos is imperiling food production the world over, he said. Guterres said the world is teeming with examples of the devastating relationship between hunger and conflict. In war-torn Gaza, he said, no one has enough to eat and the tiny strip accounts for 80% of the 700,000

Adaptation fails to get limelight at mitigation-focused COP28 summit

'A transition away from fossil fuels'. The decision was lauded, but what lies ahead?

Unexpected progress

COP28 agrees to 'transition away' from fossil fuels

COP28 summit: Draft climate deal stops short of fossil fuel 'phase-out'

First global stocktake on Paris Agreement recognizes current emissions reductions not enough

COP28 delegates urge greater action on climate-linked health risks

Climate-related impacts "have become one of the greatest threats to human health in the 21st century", COP28 President Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber said in a statement

India fulfilling commitments made in Paris: Sadhguru ahead of COP28 Summit

He further said that India is also fulfilling its promises at the Paris Agreement data fastpace and is moving in the right direction

UN climate meetings structured to benefits richer, larger countries: Study

The UN COP climate meetings are organised in a way that benefits richer and larger countries at the expense of smaller and poorer ones, according to a study. The research by a team from the University of Leeds in the UK and Lund University in Sweden also labels the participating countries as either Radicals, Opportunists, Hypocrites or Evaders. Every year, the UN organises its global climate change Conference of the Parties, "COP," with the aim to create action to halt climate change and support those vulnerable to the effects of climate change. "Our analysis clearly shows that some groups are not heard or represented. The very structure of the COPs makes it almost impossible for smaller countries to voice their interests since they are not able to be present in all the parallel negotiations," says Lina Lefstad, a PhD student at Lund University and lead author of the study. The study, published in the journal Critical Policy Studies, is based on an analysis of fifteen previous ...