The Hindu: Today the solar industry is just how IT was in the early 1980s. It is peak hour traffic in Mumbai and your car stops at a signal. A bunch of kids run to your window. Guess what they are selling? Not selling newspapers or toys. They are selling solar panels. This picture, envisioned [...]

Green Conduct: The last COP in Durban ended in a success for the UNFCCC process, but has more nebulous implications for the climate itself, with Kyoto put on artificial respirator and a more comprehensive agreement being pushed back to a later date. The most significant progress at Durban for climate change adaptation came in the [...]

Dawn: There is now near consensus in the international climate community that Asia will be the most severely affected continent because of the changes associated with global warming. And Bangladesh, the Maldives, parts of India and almost all of Pakistan are likely to suffer the most. Bangladesh and the Maldives will be hurt because of [...]

The Glob and Mail: So what that Canada withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol. Kyoto died long ago. Most of the countries that ratified Kyoto, starting with Canada, failed to meet their greenhouse-gas reduction targets. Big polluters – the U.S., China and India – didn’t accept targets. At the Durban climate-change conference, Canada got paddled by [...]

National Geographic: Wind is a form of solar energy created by interactions between atmospheric heating, irregularities in the earth’s surface and the earth’s rotation. Wind is a clean energy source that is endlessly renewable and remarkably reliable. It does not pollute the air or cause acid rain like fossil fuels. (See References 1) Advances in [...]

The Friday Times: As Pakistan and its citizens reel under the impact of two devastating floods within two consecutive years, the realization that climate change is upon us has begun to sink in – what with over 20 million people displaced from the northern tip of the country to the southernmost in 2010, and another [...]

ABC Science: New research beneath farmland in Australia’s Otway Basin suggests carbon capture and storage is a safe and effective option, say researchers, but not all are convinced. Professor Peter Cook of the CO2CRC, and colleagues, report their findings this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “We were able to show very [...]

IISD Reporting: The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa, was held from 28 November – 11 December 2011. The conference involved a series of events, including the seventeenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 17) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the seventh meeting of the [...]

Business Green: Support for $100bn Green Climate Fund will help overhaul the UN’s carbon market and financing for forestry projects While reactions have been mixed as to the overall success of the Durban climate summit, some progress has been made in terms of agreeing a fund to help poor countries combat climate change, reform of [...]

SciDevNet: The UN Climate Change Conference (COP 17) in Durban, South Africa, ended yesterday (11 December) with an agreement that all major polluting countries would work towards legally binding targets for reducing carbon emissions. But the bitter showdowns and high drama which preceded the last-minute agreement sidelined two key issues for developing countries — the [...]

New York Times: Canada said on Monday that it would withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Under that accord, major industrialized nations agreed to meet targets for reducing emissions, but mandates were not imposed on developing countries like Brazil, China, India and South Africa. The United States never [...]

Washington Post: Even as representatives from nearly 200 countries celebrated the last-minute compromise they fashioned at U.N. climate talks Sunday in Durban, South Africa, it became clear that its real-world outcome will be largely determined in Asia, rather than in Africa or the West. Broad in scope but short on details, the Durban Platform aims [...]

The Economic Times: The UN climate change talks in Durban Sunday arrived at a four-pronged Durban Package to save the planet by controlling emission of greenhouse gases. The main outcome of the Durban talks: To extend the Kyoto Protocol: To extend for another five years the Kyoto Protocol – the only regime to combat climate [...]

Himalayan Times: In the main plenary meet of the UN climate talks in Durban, South Africa, Nepal has urged countries to let go of narrow short term interests to work towards a broader vision to save the planet from the perils of climate change by agreeing on second period commitments of the Kyoto Protocol. Nepal’s [...]

The Economist: Despite governments’ failure to put a price on carbon, more businesses see profits in greenery. Shortly before the 2009 UN climate summit in Copenhagen, many companies got into green. The summit was expected to lead to new regulations restricting greenhouse-gas emissions. Dozens of chief executives came to see history being made and to [...]

The conversation: One of the topics under discussion at Durban is the role carbon farming and other forestry measures could have in reducing emissions. With the possibility that negotiations will not bring about an agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol, delegates are working on measures that could take place outside a climate agreement. The Conversation [...]

Science Daily: Global carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels have increased by 49 per cent in the last two decades, according to the latest figures by an international team, including researchers at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of East Anglia. Published December 4 in the journal Nature Climate Change, the new [...]

Durban Post by Dr.C. S. Silori*: This note is on the major happening during COP 17 at Durban in South Africa during UN Climate Change Conference on December 4-5, and how the ‘equity’ issues has emerged as major challenge for the world leaders in context to future development and climate change.  December 4, Sunday, was [...]

IPS News: DURBAN- The United States has become the major stumbling block to progress at the mid point of negotiations over a new international climate regime say civil society and many of the 193 nations attending the United Nations climate change conference here in Durban.“The U.S. position leads us to three or four degrees Celsius [...]

NDTV: Durban- India today kicks off its high-level political negotiations as Environment Minister, Jayanthi Natrajan, takes control of the talks with other nations at the high level United Nations talks at Durban, South Africa on climate change. India has criticised the Developed Nations, especially the United States of America, for not making firm commitments to [...]

Aljazeera: Carbon trading is supposed to cap the amount of emissions made by companies, but is it a waste of money? As environment experts meet at a UN summit on climate change in Durban to come up with the elusive ‘binding agreement’ on reducing carbon emissions, Counting the Cost looks at the real costs of climate change: How much [...]

WRI Reporting: Three years ago, I attended a performance of Athol Fugard’s powerful play “My Children! My Africa!” Set in South Africa at the end of apartheid, the play deals with a conflict over the most effective means to address a great injustice. Throughout the play, there are signs of progress but it’s slow and [...]

Guardian: UN climate talks back on track after China and Brazil say they will consider the ‘right’ legally-binding treaty on emission cuts. EU plans for a global treaty to legally bind all countries to slash greenhouse emissions by 2020 appear to be – just – on track after China and Brazil, two of the biggest [...]

December 4, 2011 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal — “Bolivia came out swinging at its first press conference of the climate change conference” on December 1, reported the Durban Mercury’s Yusuf Omar on December 2. Head of the Bolivian delegation Rene Orellana criticised the Green Climate Fund “– which is meant to help [...]

Himalayan Times: Thousands of protesters descended near the venue of climate change negotiations in the South African city of Durban demanding Prompt action from the developed countries to save the Earth from the perils of climate change. The International Convention Centre environs bustled with demonstrators as they moved around the tightly-guarded negotiation venue carrying placards [...]

Tribune Pak: Pakistan won the ‘Robin Hood’ award at the UN climate talks for proposing financial transaction tax (FTT) as an innovative source of financing the Green Climate Fund (GCF), on Saturday. The award was given to Pakistan by the youth constituency of the UNFCCC, known as YOUNGO. “The Green Climate Fund is very important [...]

BBC News: As ministers begin arriving at the UN climate talks in South Africa, new science is showing the challenges they face in trying to curb global warming. Using a new methodology, a Swiss team has calculated that about three-quarters of the warming seen since 1950 is down to human influences. A second report says [...]

IPS: Just a few days into the United Nations climate change negotiations, deep divides on the conference’s key issues have arisen. Serious doubts about the adoption of the Green Climate Fund have cropped up, while a second period of the Kyoto- Protocol looks more and more unlikely. A number of South American countries, the United [...]

IPS News-DURBAN: Global climate change can now be observed from space. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) launched a new technology that can survey the world’s forests via satellites and provide a more accurate, global picture of common threats to the environment, such as deforestation, degradation or illegal logging. Using a remote sensing surveying [...]

Hindustan Times: The union cabinet on Thursday approved India’s tough stance on climate change issues despite rural development minister Jairam Ramesh cautioning against the country being seen as a “deal breaker” at the Durban climate talks. Environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan had proposed at the cabinet headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that India should not [...]

OutReach: A new paper published by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), with the support of the Government of Ireland, offers options to scale up climate action globally in Durban, Rio and beyond. The paper shows that there are far more options to counter climate change than acknowledged or [...]

K N Vajpai: Writes on the expected outcomes from Durban Climate Change Conference (CoP 17)in terms of growing momentum of action and alarm bells from new researches. His discourse is about the meager role played by the leaders from most vulnerable regions like Himalayas and Andes during this important global conference.   With the representation [...]

Earth Times: COP17/CMP7 Logo; Credit: The 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 7th Session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties (CMP7) to the Kyoto Protocol Date-Talk-Structure-Paper Action 1977:World Meteorological Organisation decides on a conference in 1977, [...]

Suman K A: The UNFCCC Secretariat in partnership with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will create a series of platforms to encourage adaptation and mitigation projects that have promise to deliver high resilience and low carbon growth. This will be done through the Momentum for Change Initiative to be launched in Durban at CoP17. The [...]

ClimaticoAnalysis: Heading into Durban and the United Nations Climate Change Conference, otherwise known as the Seventeenth Conference of Parties (COP-17), the G77 remains committed to its long-standing position of achieving a legally binding agreement. Given the ongoing stalemate between developed and developing countries, however, many media accounts say they are unlikely to achieve it anytime [...]

UNFCCC COP17 Side Event 1 December 2011, 20:15-21:45 at Room “Blyde River” Jointly Organised by IGES and Tsinghua University, China The side event will show Institute of Energy, Environment and Economy and Institute for Global Environmental Strategies recent research findings on the low carbon development in China and Japan, tracking domestic activities, policies and performance towards [...]

From the Atkins to the Dukan, protein-based diets are big news in the celebrity world. But what effect is our love affair with meat, fish and cheese having on the environment? Barely a week goes by without news of another ‘wonder diet’ hitting the headlines. Along with the bedroom antics of the Premier League’s finest [...]

CDKN: There is muted hope and frustration in equal measure in the lead-up to CoP-17/CMP-7 in Durban. Hope that the Durban conference will resolve the vexed question of ‘legal form’ of the Bali ‘agreed outcome’ and provide Kyoto with a new lease of life, and frustration that the politics as they are emerging may make [...]

International Business Times: Polar ice sheets have accelerated their retreat while global temperatures added up 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit since the onset of frenetic industrial activities, prompting scientists to suggest that time may be running out to arrest the ill-effects of climate change. This according to the latest report issued on Monday by the U.N. World [...]

The EU-UNDP Low Emission Capacity Building Programme (LECBP) was launched in January 2011 as part of a joint collaboration between the European Union (European Commission and Member States) and the United National Development Programme. This collaborative, country driven programme aims to strengthen technical and institutional capacities at the country level, while at the same time [...]

MND: Rajendra Pachauri, chairman, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2008: we carry out an assessment of climate change based on peer-reviewed literature, so everything that we look at and take into account in our assessments has to carry [the] credibility of peer-reviewed publications, we don’t settle for anything less than that. [source - see bottom [...]

Times of India: Isolating the human imprint on global warming amid natural climate fluctuations requires long-term analysis and not short term studies, satellite data reveals. The data indicates that the lower troposphere (up to eight km above the earth’s surface) has warmed roughly by 17 degrees Celsius since the beginning of satellite temperature records in [...]

IPS: Chungda Sherpa, a former herder from eastern Nepal, has a warning tale ahead of the United Nations climate change conference in Durban. At World Wildlife Fund-Japan’s ‘Climate Witness’ programme in Osaka and Tokyo this month, to apprise communities around the world how climate change is threatening lives and livelihoods, the 48-year-old described how the [...]

Kuenselonline: While world over livestock population is experiencing an alarming increase to cater to as alarming an increase in demand for meat and diary products, Bhutan is headed the other way. That is quite befitting of the country’s emphasis and priority for environmental protection that draws its essence from its guiding philosophy of Gross National [...]

The Global Warming Policy Foundation: For the mechanism of global warming, the IPCC report emphasizes the impact of human activities and the correlation between the CO2 concentration and temperature increase. However, the Earth is a complex dynamic system with various factors affecting each other; great uncertainties exist regarding causes and effects of the climate changes. [...]

Guardian: Time is almost up. It is critical we secure a legally binding approach on climate change in Durban. The lesson the world is learning the hard way from the financial crisis is that there is only one boat and we are all in it. To stay afloat, we need rules tough enough to stop [...]

The Canadian: Since the NATO invasion and the subsequent terror wars in Islamic world the there have been drastic climatic horrors affecting the routine patterns of life on earth. Fast changing climatic behaviour could affect regions, human activities, and global progress, irreversibly unsettling the masses. However, the scientists who work to earn money from colonial [...]

Deccan Herald: A team of US and Korean scientists blame high levels of air pollution in South Asia for a sharp rise in the intensity of tropical cyclones over the Arabian Sea during and before the monsoon, writes Kalyan Ray . Increased air pollution in South Asia including India is pushing up cyclone intensity in [...]

Environmental News Network: The soils and sediments at the bottom of rivers are rich in organic material. They can store carbon for thousands of years according to a study from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). Despite often high rates of erosion and sediment transport, the riverbed can hold organic carbon for 500 to 17,000 [...]

Commodity Online: The implementation of climate smart agricultural practices will go a long in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The theme has now become the main agenda of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) scheduled to start later in November at Durban, according to carbon-investments.co.uk. The importance of the reduction of greenhouse gas [...]

World Climate Report: There is word circulating that a paper soon to appear in Science magazine concludes that the climate sensitivity—how much the earth’s average temperature will rise as a result of a doubling of the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide—likely (that is, with a 66% probability) lies in the range 1.7°C to 2.6°C, with [...]

This videos shows that whether the Agriculture practices are carbon emitter, remover, or protector of soil carbon store? Agriculture emits greenhouse gases, but also sequesters carbon in soil, and can protect carbon already in the soil. This short film outlines these issues for farms in the English Peak District National Park from UK. DeliciousShare

Times Science: There’s one absolutely foolproof way to cut carbon emissions: economic collapse. After the fall of communism in the early 1990s led to economic depression in much of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, carbon output in those countries fell like a stone. In fact, greenhouse-gas emissions in Russia didn’t return to 1990 [...]

Sunday Morning Herald: Amid the bullishness about Asia’s economic future, and the potential for Australia to benefit, there’s a nasty downside risk that can’t be ignored – climate change. With more than half the world’s population, Asia has more at stake than any other region. It has become the largest contributor to the global increase [...]

Earth Times: Flecks of soot from a smoky open stove in India blacken more than just the roofs of the hut it is smoldering in. Fine particles of such smoke lodge deep in the lungs of women preparing meals, gifting them a dark scourge of ill-health and premature death. That same black soot floats higher [...]

Zee News: The global output of heat-trapping carbon dioxide jumped by the biggest amount on record, the U.S. Department of Energy calculated, a sign of how feeble the world’s efforts are at slowing man-made global warming. The new figures for 2010 mean that levels of greenhouse gases are higher than the worst case scenario outlined [...]

CSDi is presenting a compilation of Community Based Adaptation Field Activities—complete with links to source materials and technical information. The content of field activities is given broadly in following heads: 1. Agriculture a. Soil and water conservation for agriculture. b. Developing water for agriculture. c. Agriculture in flood-prone or waterlogged areas. d. CBA techniques for agriculture. [...]

Guardian: Action cannot be put off until the economic storm has passed. The poor countries most vulnerable to the extreme weather associated with climate change need help now. Critics often accuse world leaders of being able to focus on no more than one problem at once. So with the economic crisis, and the eurozone’s problems [...]

The Ecologist: Beyond climategate-can we keep the politics and science of climate forecasting separate? The pressure is on climate forecasters to give us more accurate predictions of impacts, such as rising sea levels, but ahead of the Durban climate summit scientists say we still have much to learn When it comes to the environment, how [...]

The UNFCCC Compendium on methods and tools to evaluate impacts of, and vulnerability and adaptation to, climate change is designed to assist Parties and other potential users in selecting the most appropriate methodology for assessments of impacts and vulnerability, and preparing for adaptation to climate change. The Compendium was developed in 1999 and updated in [...]