SciDevNet: Scientists and policymakers need to shed outdated concepts about how they should interact and communicate with each other and other stakeholders, to make any dent in global progress in sustainable development, an international conference heard yesterday. The science-policy interface needs to abandon habits that are rooted in the post-World War theories on economic and [...]

CORDIS: When permafrost thaws, it releases greenhouse gases into parts of the Arctic, exacerbating the effects of climate change. And now, detailed satellite images have picked up on changes in land surfaces at northern latitudes, indicating that there are worrying levels of thawing permafrost. The findings were made by European Space Agency (ESA) scientists using [...]

AlertNet, BANGKOK, Mar 27 (IPS) – India, like other Asian countries, has focused its climate change adaptation strategies on rural and urban areas while neglecting the urban fringes, say experts.Peri-urban areas are characterised by haphazard, accelerated expansion and are farthest from basic urban services and infrastructure, according to United Nations-Habitat’s ‘The State of Asian Cities [...]

Antonio M. Claparols , Journal on line: AS I write this, the weather seems to be bringing its worse to Europe early, inasmuch as drought has hit some of the European countries such as Spain and Italy. So early in the spring — and already severe drought is threatening that part of the world. This [...]

Afrique en ligne: Africa has been urged to play an enhanced role in further negotiations on climate change to aid quick consensus building on a number of issues that still needs to be resolved following the Durban Climate Conference last December. Of important concern to Africa is the review of the long-term temperature goal agreed [...]

The Economic Times, Mukul Sanwal, Former Civil Servant :The Brics summit, to be held in Delhi at the end of March, is an opportunity to begin a discussion on the global governance deficit. Looking ahead to 2050, the major challenges for growth stem from the availability of global ecosystem services, or sustainability , with climate [...]

The world’s poorest countries can jump directly from the pre-electricity era into a new industrial revolution through an “energy Internet” — the uptake of renewable energy shared through communication technologies, argues economist Jeremy Rifkin. “The great economic revolutions in history occur when new communication technologies converge with new energy systems”, writes Rifkin. And now — [...]

Many of the world’s rarest and richest forests, located in high-altitudes, could be all but wiped out by the combined impact of man-made climate change and habitat destruction. An international scientific team has warned of the near-total loss of one of the world’s most delicate ecosystems, the Mexican cloud forest, along with 70 percent of [...]

The Himalayan ecosystem is fragile and diverse. It includes over 51 million people who practice hill agriculture and remains vulnerable The Himalayan ecosystem is vital to the ecological security of the Indian landmass, through providing forest cover, feeding perennial rivers that are the source of drinking water, irrigation, and hydropower, conserving biodiversity, providing a rich [...]

The big question after the COP17 climate change conference was how adaptation could work with ongoing development, experts said at a recent feedback session held at the University of Cape Town. Adapting to the effects of climate change was imperative for poor people in developing countries, whose lives would be most affected. It was important [...]

Low-tech experiment produces accurate data on threat to plant biodiversity and may also help with carbon capture. The fresh snow covers the Aubonne valley overlooking Lake Geneva. Clumps of beech, maple and juniper trees cling to the slopes of the Jura highlands. Scientists from Lausanne Polytechnic (EPFL) and Switzerland‘s Forest, Snow and Landscape Research Institute [...]

As I approach my 90th birthday next week I thought I would provide a more personal newsletter which summarized the state of play on Global Warming/Climate Change or whatever is the current euphemism to cover up the failure of the theory that the climate is exclusively controlled by human emissions of “greenhouse gases” The pressure [...]

Like 2011 before it, 2012 is shaping up to be another year of economic volatility, political instability and environmental challenges for Australia. It is easy to be distracted by short-term issues but against this backdrop, climate change mega-trends are continuing. Evidence of climate change driven by our economic dependence on polluting technologies continues to grow. [...]

With climate change posing one of the biggest challenges, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Friday announced Rs.200 crore for research to develop plant and seed varieties that yield more and can resist climate change. “Food security and agricultural development in the coming decades would depend upon scientific and technological breakthroughs in raising productivity. We have to [...]

Global funding is vital for countries like India to address concerns related to climate change as mitigation efforts ultimately involve costs, says the Economic Survey 2011-12, which for the first time has made a pointed reference to the challenge posed by climate change. Global funding through the multilateral mechanism of the Convention will enhance domestic [...]

Australian climate scientists are concerned over the fact that the nation’s cool and wet summer could lead to confusion about whether climate change is real, according to a media report. The last few months have seen floods in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria, with river systems overflowing and dams filled to the brim, and [...]

I have just returned from attending the second Asia-Pacific Climate Change Adaptation Forum in Bangkok on March 12-13. It was supposed to have been held in October 2011 but had to be cancelled at the last minute due to the floods that devastated Bangkok at that time. It was jointly organised by the United Nations [...]

In a series of articles over the last several decades, I have reported on the major first-order role of land use change as a regional and global climate forcing. A sample of the papers we have authored on this subject include: Pielke, R.A. and R. Avissar, 1990: Influence of landscape structure on  local and regional [...]

Extreme weather-related disasters displaced some 42 million people in Asia Pacific in the past two years and such events will only become more frequent with climate change, said a new report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Tuesday. Climate change will cause a surge in migration in this century and governments in the region [...]

The Asia-Pacific region needs to spend about $40 billion a year to “climate proof” its economies against the impact of global warming, Asian Development Bank vice president Bindu Lohani said on Monday. Countries need to undergo “transformational change” to build resilience to climate change disasters, Lohani told the Asia-Pacific Climate Change Adaptation Forum in Bangkok. [...]

If you started seeing robins on your lawn in mid-February, you’re not alone. Reports of early red-winged blackbird flocks are also coming in. I’m being asked if birds down south sensed our milder winter and decided to pack their bags and come back ahead of schedule. For these birds, probably not – they simply didn’t [...]

Placing a greater emphasis on agriculture in negotiations on climate change, as in the development of national policies, will ensure that agriculture fully contributes to efforts to adapt and mitigate without undermining food production and the fight against poverty.” Global warming will change the face of farming, and is already doing so in some parts [...]

Economic Times: Noting that economies of developing countries are impacted by climate change, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today pitched for greater cooperation between Asian and African countries to address short and long term challenges in this regard. “I believe that in the future we will need to tackle the short term and long term [...]

BBC: Up to 900 species of tropical land birds around the world could become extinct by 2100, researchers say. The finding is modelled on the effects of a 3.5C Earth surface temperature rise, a Biological Conservation Journal paper shows. Species may struggle to adapt to habitat loss and extreme weather events, author Cagan Sekercioglu says. [...]

Green Growth and Climate Technology Innovation Economies around the world are reorienting towards low-carbon, green growth paths. Technology, and its deployment and diffusion, is acknowledged as a key factor in efforts to mitigate and adapt to the current and future impacts of climate change. Therefore, accelerating innovation and technology transfer is in global focus. India, [...]

In January, the U.S. Agency for International Development released its long-awaited climate change strategy. Climate Change & Development: Clean Resilient Growth provides a blueprint for addressing climate change through development assistance programs and operations. In addition to objectives around mitigation and adaptation, the strategy also outlines a third objective: improving overall operational integration. The five-year [...]

A consultation meeting bringing together Pacific Island climate change focal points and experts opened this morning in Apia, Samoa. The meeting is a collaboration between the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and the Asia Pacific Adaptation Network (APAN) and aims to discuss the role of SPREP as a sub-regional node for APAN. [...]

There are two main policy responses to climate change: mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation addresses the root causes, by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, while adaptation seeks to lower the risks posed by the consequences of climatic changes. Both approaches will be necessary, because even if emissions are dramatically decreased in the next decade, adaptation will still [...]

Sometimes people question whether or not Climate Change is real. After viewing the feature documentary, Chasing Ice, I can assure you that the debate is over. On Monday, January 23, 2012 — Chasing Ice, had its world premiere at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival featuring documentary director Jeff Orlowski and his Academy Awarding winning production [...]

Researchers have uncovered a direct link between global temperatures and body size, leading them to conclude that future climate change could mean species getting smaller. A team led by scientists from the University of Florida and the University of Nebraska followed the evolution of the earliest horses about 56 million years ago, and found that [...]

This week, WRI released a new report summarizing assessments of institutional readiness for adapting to climate change. The report, Ready or Not, focuses on pilot applications of the National Adaptive Capacity (NAC) framework in three countries: Bolivia, Ireland, and Nepal. Co-authors Heather McGray and Aarjan Dixit respond to questions about the NAC framework, which provided [...]

The distribution of wildlife on Earth is changing with the climate, making conditions more favorable to odd species such as trumpeter swans, beetles, marmots, albatross, killer whales and white-tailed deer. Imagine a planet where jellyfish rule the seas, giant rodents roam the mountains and swarms of insects blur everything in sight. It may sound far-fetched, [...]

Sciencedaily; Global warming has forced alpine chipmunks in Yosemite to higher ground, prompting a startling decline in the species’ genetic diversity, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. The study, appearing Feb. 19, in the advance online publication of the journal Nature Climate Change, is one of the first [...]

Skeptical Science has done what it does so well this week and taken an opportunity to look into a scientific matter related to a current hot topic, the Heartland Institute leak. Dana Nuccitelli, in the piece reposted in full below, discusses the “climate-skeptic” NIPCC report and how it differs from the Nobel-prize-winning IPCC’s widely cited [...]

Understanding real-world complexity and anticipating change are the key to global and local governance in the 21st century: Shyam Sharan, India The issue of global governance has acquired increasing salience in recent years. With the process of globalisation and the increasing interconnectedness of economies, issues that transcend national and regional boundaries have become progressively more [...]

AN expert from the Food and Agriculture Office (FAO) is pitching calls for the adoption of “climate-smart agriculture” to address the twin challenges of achieving food security and climate change. Hideki Kanamaru of the Climate, Energy and Tenure Division (NRC) of the FAO told participants of the APEC Symposium on Climate Change held at the [...]

Discovery: What to do when adults persist in believing that the burning of fossil fuels is causing climate change? You know, on account of that pesky overwhelming scientific evidence and stuff? Simple. Target kids instead, and try to convince them, as early as possible, that it’s all a crock – or at least that it’s [...]

Michael Mann reveals his account of attacks by entrenched interests seeking to undermine his ‘hockey stick’ graph. It is almost possible to dismiss Michael Mann’s account of a vast conspiracy by the fossil fuel industry to harrass scientists and befuddle the public. His story of that campaign, and his own journey from naive computer geek [...]

This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June 1992, where a number of seminal agreements were signed by heads of state from all the countries of the world. These included the Rio Declaration, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) [...]

It is no secret that developing countries like India are finding it difficult to balance economic growth and its development and environment agendas. But at the same time, they have also begun to realise that the impact of unsustainable growth will be a costly affair. For example, to tackle the impact of climate change on [...]

MIT: With climate change, today’s ’100-year floods’ may happen every three to 20 years, according to new research. Last August, Hurricane Irene spun through the Caribbean and parts of the eastern United States, leaving widespread wreckage in its wake. The Category 3 storm whipped up water levels, generating storm surges that swept over seawalls and [...]

The Durban climate deal reached in December 2011 marked an important milestone in the design of a system to measure, report, and verify (MRV) countries’ greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and their actions to reduce them. The deal succeeded in making the MRV system operational. However, the text still falls short on several important issues that [...]

Climate Policy in India: What Shapes International, National and State Policy? :At the international level, India is emerging as a key actor in climate negotiations, while at the national and sub-national levels, the climate policy landscape is becoming more active and more ambitious. It is essential to unravel this complex landscape if we are to [...]

In the first comprehensive satellite study of its kind, a University of Colorado at Boulder-led team used NASA data to calculate how much Earth’s melting land ice is adding to global sea level rise. Using satellite measurements from the NASA/German Aerospace Center Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), the researchers measured ice loss in all [...]

Research showing that the Himalayas and nearby peaks have lost no ice in past 10 years has been met with relief and surprise – but scientists warn against jumping to simplistic conclusions. The rivers and glaciers that descend from the steep slopes of the Himalaya mountain range help to provide water for the 1.4 billion [...]

GIZ: The Indo-German project Climate Change Adaptation in Rural Areas of India (CCA RAI, www.ccarai.org) is pleased to announce the launch of the book “Adaptation to Climate Change with a Focus on Rural Areas and India“. The publication provides an overview of the main issues in current adaptation discussions and suggests adaptation options in six [...]

The paradigm shift towards sustainable development envisaged in the historic Agenda 21 adopted at the first Rio conference in 1992 and confirmed in the 2002 Johannesburg Plan of Implementation is missing in the “zero draft outcome document” for June’s U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development, popularly known as the Rio+20 summit. In effect the document now [...]

The Chairman of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) R K Pachauri invited Himachal Pradesh government in India, to join the Global Union of Mountain States to form a ‘common voice’ on issues of sustainable development and fighting climate change. While advocating immediate need to formulate new strategies and take collective measures to [...]

Rio de Janeiro in Brazil will have a different kind of carnival this year. From June 20 to 22, the city will host the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, which is expected to bring together heads of states, ministers, senior officials, representatives from international organisations, civil society leaders and environmentalists. Since the conference is [...]

Climate Change Study Center in Islamabad: Pakistan is situated in one of the most vulnerable regions to the impacts of climate change. Better governance system with sufficient policy interventions coupled with support from the international community can help minimize the adverse impacts of climate change. In Pakistan the policy responses to climate change in some [...]

NRDC: Think fast. What’s the first thought that comes into your mind when you see “climate change”? What’s the first thought that comes into your mind when you see “car crash”? If you are like me, “climate change” conjures a vague image of melting ice and perhaps an image of a forlorn polar bear on [...]

Improved integrated water management practices could increase agricultural production, protect natural systems and improve regional food security A major new survey of the likely effects of climate change on India’s water resources identifies huge challenges to maintaining adequate supplies in the next few decades, but argues that these can be overcome with an integrated, multi-sectorial [...]

Climate change has impacts on forests, fields, rivers – and thereby on humans that breathe, eat and drink. To assess these impacts more accurately, a comprehensive comparison of computer-based simulations from all over the world will start this week. For the first time, sectors ranging from ecosystems to agriculture to water supplies and health will [...]

National Geographic: We have the knowledge that can contribute to finding solutions to the crisis of climate change. But if you’re not prepared to listen, how can we communicate this to you? — Marcos Terena, Xané leader, Brazil. The precipitous rise in the world’s human population and humankind’s ever-increasing dependence on fossil fuel-based ways of living [...]

  Adaptive Capacity The combination of the strengths, attributes, and resources available to an individual, community, society, or organization that can be used to prepare for and undertake actions to reduce adverse impacts, moderate harm, or exploit beneficial opportunities (IPCC, SREX, 2012) Climate Climate defined as the average weather, or as the statistical description in [...]

30,000-year-old bison bones help scientists unravel mystery of animals adaptations to environmental change. Thirty-thousand-year-old bison bones discovered in permafrost at a Canadian goldmine are helping scientists unravel the mystery about how animals adapt to rapid environmental change. The bones play a key role in a world-first study, led by University of Adelaide researchers, which analyses [...]

Deccan Chronical: Praful Bidwai’s book The Politics of Climate Change and the Global Crisis: Mortgaging Our Future is written at a time of deep diplomatic despondency. It is brutally honest about what is at risk if no action is taken at the national and international level. It exposes the false solution offered by India in [...]

IISD: The World Economic Forum (WEF) held its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, from 25-29 January 2012, gathering industry, business, government and other world leaders to discuss current issues. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon participated in two panels, on ending energy poverty and on the perspectives for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20), warning “we [...]

Improved integrated water management practices could increase agricultural production, protect natural systems and be a ‘game changer’ for national food security A major new survey of the likely effects of climate change on India’s water resources published today identifies huge challenges to maintaining adequate supplies in the next few decades, but argues that these can [...]

Natural disasters in Asia in 2011 could well prove to be the costliest ever, experts say. “Never before has this world suffered so much economic loss due to natural disaster, most of which has been in Asia and the Pacific,” Sanjay Srivastava, UN regional adviser for disaster risk reduction, told IRIN in Bangkok. Of the [...]