POZNAN, Poland, December 8, 2008 (ENS) – Energy use in buildings accounts for one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions, but the potential of the construction sector to combat climate change has not been tapped, according to a new report issued by the United Nations Environment Programme.

The report was released Saturday to governments meeting in Poznan for the latest round of UN climate change talks. The negotiations are aimed at reaching agreement on a successor pact to the Kyoto Protocol, whose first commitment period ends in 2012.

Today’s commercially available technologies make it possible to halve energy consumption in both new and old buildings without significant investment, the report finds.

Yet only 10 out of some 4,000 projects in the pipeline of the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism, which finances initiatives that help reduce emissions, are designed to curb the use of energy in buildings.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, co-recipient of last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, has warned that building-related emissions could nearly double from almost nine billion tons in 2004 to nearly 16 billion in 2030.

The surge will be driven by construction booms in the next two decades in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.

Sustainable refit of the Department of Conservation
office building in Wellington, New Zealand
(Photo by Tom Walter)

“Report after report is now underlining the huge, cost-effective savings possible from addressing emissions from existing buildings alongside designing new ones that include passive and active solar up to low-energy heating and cooling systems and energy-efficient systems,” said UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.

Dozens of surveys conducted worldwide show that up to 30 percent reduction in emissions from residential and commercial buildings can be achieved by 2030 at a net negative cost.

Effective measures include improved ventilation and insulation, stepped up use of natural lighting and the use of solar and other natural heat sources.

The sector remains virtually untapped because six years after the start of the Clean Development Mechanism, very few building projects have managed to enter its pipeline. Nearly half of all proposals were rejected during the registration phase.

High administrative costs and weak financial incentives as being among the barriers for approval by the CDM, according to the report entitled “The Kyoto Protocol, the Clean Development Mechanism, and the Building and Construction Sector.”

Eight projects proposed by a Brazilian supermarket chain, for instance, were rejected because of difficulties in accounting for the projected 20,000 tons of annual carbon savings. Only $3,000 of carbon revenue would be generated by the store, which is less than the basic operating costs for the projects and would not cover the energy-efficient equipment necessary.

Resident of a Kuyasa demonstration house points
to an energy-efficient lightbulb. (Photo
courtesy UN Chronicle)

Kuyasa retrofit project in Cape Town, South Africa is the first CDM-registered project to improve the thermal efficiency of low-income housing. The project aims to install solar water heaters, insulated ceilings and compact fluorescent lights in over 2,000 residential homes for low-income families, resulting in cuts of 6,580 tonnes of CO2 equivalent every year.

Yet despite successful registration in 2005, the project has yet to take off except for 10 demonstration homes, illustrating the challenge of using the CDM to finance such projects.

In a related development, UNEP announced Saturday in Poznan that the Pacific Island nation of Niue, the United Kingdom city of Slough and the New Zealand city of Waitakere are among the latest to sign on to its Climate Neutral Network.

That initiative brings together countries, cities, businesses and organizations which pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“For many small island developing states like Niue climate neutrality is more than just a concept – it is a matter of survival,” Steiner said. The tiny nation, with a population of some 1,700, releases jsut 0.003 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually but is at risk from rising sea levels as polar ice caps and glaciers melt.

Slough, home to nearly 120,000 people and situated between London and Bath, is seeking to have all public transport and council vehicle run on cleaner fuel and slash its emissions by one-fifth in the next two decades.

Waitakere, the fifth largest city in New Zealand, is aiming to stabilize per capita emissions by 2010 and reduce them 80 percent by 2051.

In addition, 11 companies and organizations have signed on to the Climate Neutral Network in Poznan, joining the four countries, four cities and dozens of other participants in the initiative.

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LAWRENCE, Kansas, November 14, 2008 (ENS) – Over the next century, climate change will bring more hot, dry weather, more insects and more storms to Kansas – and eastern and western Kansas will be affected in different ways, according to research published at the University of Kansas on Tuesday.

University of Kansas scientists Nathaniel Brunsell and Johannes Feddema show that if emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases continue to increase as projected in the middle of the road scenario outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, then by 2100 temperatures in Kansas will rise in all seasons, in all parts of the state.

“If we continue on as we’re going, these are the conditions we’re likely to face,” said Brunsel. “We need to decide as a society how we want to meet these conditions.”

Western Kansas will become warmer and drier, say Brunsell and Feddema. Soil moisture will decrease, putting more pressure on irrigation. During the summer, water need will increase as much as eight inches.

Eastern Kansas will become warmer and wetter. But the higher temperatures will offset any increases in precipitation, due to the increase in evaporation rates. The result could actually be an overall drying effect. Less water will be available for rivers and reservoirs in winter, and plant stress will increase in summer.

“What’s important to remember – these are projections. They are not predictions. If we change how we use energy and if we reduce our emisions, then we stil have the power to alter these outcomes,” said Feddema at the K-State Extension Conference in October.

Low water levels at Clinton Lake near Lawrence,
Kansas (Photo by Patrick Emerson)

Right now drought patterns are already intensifying across the state, the scientists said, with the greatest decrease in winter moisture is taking place in western Kansas.

The greatest increase in spring moisture is occurring in eastern Kansas.

As the century progresses, Southwest Kansas could see increases as high as eight degrees Fahrenheit, and higher summer temperatures will create more heat waves, the scientists predict.

The number of days that people run their air conditioning will increase by about 50 percent. Higher summer nighttime temperatures will stress livestock and crops.

Freezing days will decrease during the winter. By 2060, winter temperatures will mostly stay above freezing. The number of days that people run their heaters will decrease by about 25 percent.

The lack of hard freezes means that insects will thrive and diseases will increase among plants, animals, and humans, they said.

The weather will become more variable. Yearly precipitation totals will stay about the same, but precipitation patterns will shift, becoming less predictable and less frequent, broken up by longer periods of dry weather.

There will be fewer snow events. Individual rainstorms will become more intense when they occur, likely leading to more flooding.

Temperatures will rise and evaporation rates will increase, but yearly precipitation will not increase to meet the need for additional water.

Brunsell and Feddema conducted the report for the Climate Change and Energy Project, which was established in 2007 by the Land Institute based in Salina, Kansas.

Nancy Jackson, executive director of the Climate and Energy Project, said, “When people talk about climate change, too often they ignore the costs of not dealing with it. They also ignore the economic opportunities for Kansas in shifting to a clean energy economy.”

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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pennsylvania, September 2, 2008 (ENS) – Surface temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere were warmer over the last 10 years than any time during the last 1300 years, according to researchers at Penn State’s Earth System Science Center and three other U.S. universities.

And, if the climate scientists include the somewhat controversial data derived from tree-ring records, they say that warming is greater from 1998 to the present than at any time for at least 1700 years.

Icebreaking ship easily navigates the
melting Northwest Passage across the
Arctic. (Photo courtesy Maritime Connector)

“Some have argued that tree-ring data is unacceptable for this type of study,” says Michael Mann, associate professor of meteorology and geosciences and director of the Earth System Science Center. “Now we can eliminate tree rings and still have enough data from other so-called proxies to derive a long-term Northern Hemisphere temperature record.”

The proxies used by the researchers included information from marine and lake sediment cores, ice cores, coral cores and tree rings.

“We looked at a much expanded database and our methods are more sophisticated than those used previously,” says Mann, who served as lead author of the 2001 Third Assessment Report for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and an expert reviewer for the Fourth Assessment report issued in 2007.

Mann also is the co-author of “Dire Predictions, Understanding Global Warming: The Illustrated Guide to the Findings of the IPCC.”

The research reported today responds to a suggestion from the National Research Council that Mann and his colleagues revisit the surface temperatures in their “Surface Temperature Reconstructions for the Last 2,000 Years,” to include newer data and techniques and confirm results presented in a 1990s paper.

Dr. Michael Mann is director of the Earth System
Science Center at Penn State University.
(Photo courtesy Penn State)

Results of this study without tree-ring data show that for the Northern Hemisphere, the last 10 years are likely unusually warm for not just the past 1,000 as reported in the 1990s paper and others, but for at least another 300 years going back to about A.D. 700 without using tree-ring data.

The same conclusion holds back to A.D. 300 if the researchers include tree-ring data.

One of the reasons that including tree-ring data in these studies raises possible concerns is something called the “segment length curse.”

This “curse” occurs because trees put on rings every year, but older trees put on narrower rings. When tree ring researchers piece together tree-ring series from two trees, they must account for this factor in how they combine the later rings on one tree with the earlier rings on a younger tree. In the process, some information regarding long-term trends can be lost.

“Ten years ago, we could not simply eliminate all the tree-ring data from our network because we did not have enough other proxy climate records to piece together a reliable global record,” says Mann. “With the considerably expanded networks of data now available, we can indeed obtain a reliable long-term record without using tree rings.”

The new study shows that even without including tree ring data, it is clear that the unusual nature of recent warmth, which most scientists believe to be a result of human impacts on climate, is a reality.

In today’s online edition of the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,” the researchers note, “Conclusions are less definitive for the Southern Hemisphere and globe, which we attribute to larger uncertainties arising from the sparser available proxy data in the Southern Hemisphere.”

Dr. Mann says he is hopeful about the future despite the past 10 years of rapid warming. He believes that the world will rally behind the cause of global warming and start to mitigate the effects of climate change.

The research team included Ray Bradley, professor of geosciences and director of the Climate System Research Center, University of Massachusetts; Malcolm Hughes, regents’ professor with the Laboratory of Tree Ring Research, University of Arizona; and Scott Rutherford, assistant professor, environmental sciences, Roger Williams University in Rhode Island.

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NEW YORK, New York, August 6, 2008 (ENS) – With eight of the world’s 10 largest cities located near rivers or seas and exposed to such climate hazards as flooding, sea level rise, and hurricanes, a United Nations-World Bank report released today offers advice on how to make these population centers more resistant to the effects of global warming.

“Climate Resilient Cities” [web.worldbank.org] is intended as a primer for East Asia and the Pacific to curb vulnerability to climate change and strengthen disaster risk management in the face of the frequent and extreme weather events expected as the planet’s temperature climbs.

“Ultimately, the cities hardest hit by climate change will be the ones least prepared,” said Neeraj Prasad, the World Bank’s lead environmental specialist for the region.

Jointly produced by the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, the World Bank and its Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, the report urges managers to protect their cities sooner rather than later.

Downtown Mumbai fronts onto the Arabian
Sea. (Photo by Jasvipul Chawla)

With an estimated population of 13.6 million, India’s financial capital Mumbai, formerly Bombay, is the world’s largest city.

Located at the mouth of Ulhas River on India’s Arabian Sea coast, Mumbai is among the cities most vulnerable to global warming and rising sea levels, says a 2007 study published by the Institute for Environment and Development.

Mumbai was listed along with Tokyo, New York, Shanghai, Jakarta and Dhaka as cities where millions are at risk of heavy storms and flooding.

“Ninety percent of disasters are already weather-related, and more intense and frequent hurricanes and floods are predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, says Salvano Briceño, director of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. “We cannot wait. We already have the tools to reduce the impact of climate-related hazards and we need to use them now.”

Briceño points to the Hyogo Framework for Action adopted by 168 governments in Hyogo, Japan in 2005 as a tool that offers practical and efficient measures to reduce the impact of disasters, including extreme climate events.

These measures include not building houses in floodplains or close to coastal areas and instead building on higher ground with resilient materials able to sustain the force of winds and water pressure.

Protecting critical infrastructures such as schools, hospitals and roads; and building early warning systems and shelters for people who must evacuate are some of the common sense measures included in the Hyogo Framework.

Briceño urged governments to start sourcing adequate funds for adaptation to climate change, as many vulnerable countries will be unable to pay for adaptation out of their own budgets.

Shanghai, China, the world’s fourth largest
city, lies at the mouth of the Yangtze
River, which empties into the East
China Sea. (Photo by Nat Meyr)

]

The UN points to estimates predicting that for every one meter (39 inch) rise in sea levels, there will be a corresponding two percent drop in a country’s Gross Domestic Product due to the decrease in fresh water, damage to agriculture and fisheries, disrupted tourism and reduced energy security, among other consequences.

The concentration of people in cities increases their susceptibility to damage from the warming climate. The study finds that East Asia is one of the world’s most vulnerable areas.

“We have seen events like the 2004 tsunami, and recently Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar and a typhoon in the Philippines,” said Jitendra Shah, who coordinates the World Bank’s environmental program in Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia and Thailand.

The report advises cities to strategize now to adapt to future climate change and to slash greenhouse gas emissions.

Some of the recommended measures are simple, such as raising awareness of global warming’s impact, promoting the use of bicycles and increasing the use of energy-efficient public transport vehicles.

Other measures entail legislation and increased investment, such as providing alternatives to fossil fuels and improving public infrastructure.

“Every city is different,” said Prasad. “There is no cookie-cutter solution to climate change impacts. It’s important that you are able to anticipate the likely impacts on your city and make the decision to deal with that.”

Seeking to lead by example in addressing climate change, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has initiated a “Cool UN” policy to reduce energy consumption and the shrink the carbon footprint of United Nations Headquarters building in New York City.

Lauched on July 30, the campaign will reduce the use of air conditioning, cut greenhouse gas emissions and save money by raising the temperature of the headquarters building by 5° F.

During a month-long trial period in August, the thermostats would be turned up from 72° F (22.2° C) to 77° F (25° C) in most parts of the Secretariat building and from 70° F (21.1° C) to 75° F (23.9° C) in the conference rooms, UN officials said.

Accompanied by a relaxed business casual dress code, the UN will shut down the buildings’ heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems on weekends.

The initiative is expected to save about 4.4 billion pounds of steam during the month of August, or the equivalent of 300 tons of carbon dioxide in terms of greenhouse gas emissions – equal to a 10 percent reduction in energy consumption.

It is expected to produce cash savings of $100,000.

In winter, the process could be reversed, with a 5° F reduction in thermostat settings.

The campaign is expected to reduce emissions by 2,800 tons of carbon dioxide annually.

Secretary-General Ban hopes the initiative will encourage staff to explore other innovative ideas for making the United Nations a model in the global fight against climate change.

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TALLAHASSEE, Florida, August 3, 2008 (ENS) – Florida’s wildlife will face unprecedented consequences associated with climate change, warns the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, FWC, a government agency that is organizing a conference in Orlando this month to find ways of protecting Florida species in a warming world.

Florida is inhabited by endangered and threatened land mammals such as bears, panthers, Key deer, mink and otters, rats and mice, voles and bats. Florida waters host manatees, and endangered humpback, fin, sperm, sei whales, and Atlantic right whales.

On August 20 through 22, experts from the FWC and other state and federal agencies will meet to discuss the predicted impacts of climate change on these and other species of Florida wildlife.

A single wild population in south Florida
of 80-100 adult panthers is all that
remains of a species that once
ranged across the southeastern
United States. (Photo courtesy
USFWS)

The conference, entitled Florida’s Wildlife: On the Frontline of Climate Change, will highlight the climate challenges facing wildlife managers, governments, industry leaders and the public in the next 50 years.

“This summit has global significance, because the effects of climate change on places like Florida and Alaska will be a prelude to what’s going to happen elsewhere in the world,” said FWC Chairman Rodney Barreto.

One of the keynote speakers, Dr. Jean Brennan, a climate change scientist with Defenders of Wildlife, was a member of the U.S. delegation at international negotiations under the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. She also served on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and shares the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 for her contribution to the IPCC.

Brennan says that Florida’s wildlife and habitats are in a sensitive position when it comes to the effects of climate change.

“Florida is extremely vulnerable with its low elevation,” Brennan said. “And it’s the hardest hit with extreme weather such as hurricanes. The Arctic is seeing greater temperature changes, but the biological diversity of plants and animals in Florida forces the question: What are you losing?”

The summit will feature presentations and workshops to stimulate discussion and offer solutions to the complexities of a state growing rapidly in an environment changing just as quickly.

The Audubon Society of Florida, which is represented on the conference Program Committee, has issued a report on how climate change is affecting the state.

Sea level rise poses a serious threat to south Florida’s water supply through salt water incursion. As sea levels rise, coastal and wetlands habitats are seriously altered and flooding risks increase, the Audubon report points out.

Increased hurricane and tropical storm intensity and storm surges are expected. Audubon cites a 2007 scientific and economic study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that ranked the city of Miami among the top 10 most vulnerable metropolitan areas worldwide in terms of assets exposed in a 100 year storm-related flooding event.

Floridians can expect more extreme weather patterns, including droughts and heat waves as well as algae blooms and associated impacts, including seagrass and fish die-offs.

Florida has the largest reef system in America and the third largest barrier reef in the world, which is already stressed by human pressures. “This system, rich in biological diversity, is already ongoing severe coral bleaching events, which weaken corals ability to ward off disease and cause serious mortality,” the Audubon report states.

Development pressures and human water supply demands have already seriously degraded the Everglades and other wetlands systems, and the impacts of climate change add additional stress for wetland species, warns the report.

In May, the Florida Coastal and Ocean Coalition, also on the conference Program Committee, released a report recommending a series of steps to combat the effects of rising sea levels, extreme weather and declining ocean health.

“We need more than just planning, we need action today,” said National Wildlife Federation senior global warming specialist Patty Glick, a co-author of the report.

The report, “Preparing for a Sea Change in Florida,” is the “beginning of a long dialogue” in Florida about how to deal with global warming, said Gerald Karnas, Florida climate project director for the Environmental Defense Fund.

Conference participants will consider habitat and species management, human needs, hunting, fishing, boating, and outdoor recreation; invasive species; linking climate change initiatives with the conservation community; congressional climate change and cap and trade legislation; increasing awareness of climate change impacts and human capacity to respond; education and outreach.

Presenters and workshop participants will identify key research needs, improve awareness of impacts on wildlife, and develop ideas to optimize species conservation for integration into Florida Fish and Wildlife’s comprehensive climate change strategy.

Using The Conservation Fund’s Go Zero Program, the Center for Environmental Studies will calculate carbon dioxide emissions that will result from the energy use at the summit, as well as from travel and donate funds for The Conservation Fund to plant native trees in protected parks and wildlife refuges across the nation to offset those carbon emissions.

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WASHINGTON, DC, July 1, 2008 (ENS) – Atlanta is thirsty, New York is sizzling, Des Moines is flooded – all these situations have happened this year, and a new federal government report predicts an increasing frequency of the same kinds of extremes across North America as the planet warms.

Droughts, heavy downpours, excessive heat, and intense hurricanes are likely to become more common as humans continue to increase concentrations of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, according to first comprehensive analysis of observed and projected changes in weather and climate extremes in North America.

The federal government’s U.S. Climate Change Science Program and its Subcommittee on Global Change Research released the scientific assessment late last month.

“This report addresses one of the most frequently asked questions about global warming – what will happen to weather and climate extremes? This synthesis and assessment product examines this question across North America and concludes that we are now witnessing and will increasingly experience more extreme weather and climate events,” said report co-chair Tom Karl, PhD, who directs the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, North Carolina.

A Des Moines city worker checks
debris caught in the arches of
the Grand Avenue bridge over
the swollen Des Moines River.
June 11, 2008. (Photo by Greg
Henshall courtesy FEMA)

The report is based on scientific evidence that a warming world will be accompanied by changes in the intensity, duration, frequency, and geographic extent of weather and climate extremes.

The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change previously evaluated extreme weather and climate events on a global basis in this same context but this is the first specific assessment across North America.

“We will continue to see some of the biggest impacts of global warming coming from changes in weather and climate extremes,” said report co-chair Gerry Meehl, PhD, of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. “This report focuses for the first time on changes of extremes specifically over North America.”

Global warming of the past 50 years is due primarily to human-induced increases in heat-trapping gases, according to the Climate Change Science Program report.

For the future, the report forecasts more abnormally hot days and nights, along with heat waves, while cold nights are very likely to become less common.

Sea ice extent is expected to continue to decrease and may disappear in the Arctic Ocean in summer in coming decades.

Precipitation, on average, is likely to be less frequent but more intense, the report finds, and at the same time droughts are likely to become more frequent and severe in some regions.

Hurricanes will likely have increased precipitation and wind.

The strongest cold season storms in the Atlantic and Pacific are likely to produce stronger winds and higher extreme wave heights, according to the report.

Hot, dry weather means more wildfires.
Here, Lanny Thomise of the Juniper
Valley Fire Department cuts into a
burning tree in Colorado’s Nash
Ranch Fire as it reaches 1,100 acres
in size. June 27, 2008. (Photo by
Bryan Dahlberg courtesy FEMA)

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, plays a key role in the Climate Change Science Program, which is responsible for coordinating and integrating climate research, observations, decision support, and communications of 13 federal departments and agencies.

The report warns that these more extreme weather patterns will be tough on the U.S. economy.

“During the period 1980-2006, the U.S. experienced 70 weather-related disasters in which overall damages exceeded $1 billion at the time of the event,” the report states. “Clearly, the direct impact of extreme weather and climate events on the U.S. economy is substantial.”

Many changes in the North American climate have already occurred, the report explains.

Most of North America is experiencing more unusually hot days and nights and fewer unusually cold days. The last 10 years have seen fewer severe cold waves than any other 10 year period in the historical record, which dates back to 1895. The number of heat waves has been increasing since 1950.

There has been a decrease in frost days and a lengthening of the frost-free season over the past century.

Heavy downpours have become more frequent and intense and now account for a larger percentage of total precipitation.

Droughts are becoming more severe in some regions.

Atlantic tropical storm and hurricane destructive potential has increased substantially since about 1970.

Storm tracks have shifted northward in both the North Atlantic and North Pacific over the past 50 years. The strongest cold season storms are becoming even stronger in the North Pacific.

To read the report, “Weather and Climate Extremes in a Changing Climate,” click here [www.climatescience.gov].

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KYOTO, Japan, June 30, 2008 (ENS) – The world must galvanize its will and reach a new agreement on measures to fight climate change by the end of 2009, said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Sunday in the Japanese city where the Kyoto Protocol was finalized.

The secretary-general arrived in Japan on Saturday, kicking off a two-week, three-nation official visit to East Asia which will culminate with his participation at the annual summit of the Group of Eight, G8, industrialized countries in Hokkaido early next month.

Ban said he chose Kyoto as his first stop because he wants to “send out a very symbolic political message from the place where the Kyoto Protocol was adopted more than 10 years ago.”

“We have resources; we have technologies. I think what is missing is largely political will. If we have united political will, I am sure we will be able to overcome these crises,” the secretary-general said.

Ban said the 1997 protocol was a historic and crucial first step by the international community to curb greenhouse gas emissions. With the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol ending in 2012, the secretary-general stressed that a new agreement must be adopted by December 2009, a target date already agreed by governments at the UN climate summit in Bali, Indonesia last December.

“Last year, we witnessed how working together can help us forge a path to collective action in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges,” Ban told an audience of students, scholars and representatives of the private sector and civil society at Kyoto University.

He said climate change is too big and complex a challenge for any country or sector of society to address alone; each country and each sector can and must contribute.

“The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, known as IPCC, provided the science; the Stern Report, the economics; the UN High-Level Event on Climate Change, the political leadership; Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth, the public awareness. Taken together, all these contributed to rising momentum and achieving a significant breakthrough in the global response,” he said.

“This came in the Bali Roadmap agreed last December, which launched a new negotiations process to design a comprehensive post-2012 framework,” said Ban.

The secretary-general called on all major emitters to set ambitious targets which he said were essential to conclude the deal in 2009.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, left,
meets Yasuo Fukuda, Prime Minister
of Japan, in Kyoto. June 30, 2008.
(Photo by Eskinder Debebe
courtesy UN)

He commended Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda of Japan “for the impressive vision he recently announced for moving Japan to a low-carbon society – including Japan’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60 to 80 percent by 2050.”

On June 9, Prime Minister Fukuda said in a speech at the Japan Press Club, “We must greatly shift the country’s helm towards a low-carbon society for the sake of future generations.”

“For this we must halve global CO2 emissions by the year 2050. This reduction target forms the crux of the ‘Cool Earth Programme’ which Japan has proposed to the world. I aim to have this goal shared by the G8 and other major economies,” the prime minister said.

Commenting on this announcement, Ban said, “This is the kind of leadership by example we need from developed countries to fulfil the larger share of responsibility they bear.”

The secretary-general said he would count on Japan’s leadership at the G-8 summit to come up with concrete measures to address three pressing, interrelated challenges – the global food crisis, climate change, and the race to reach global anti-poverty targets called the Millennium Development Goals by the deadline of 2015.

Climate change was the focus when Ban met Japanese business leaders in Tokyo later in the day. Speaking to about 30 senior executives of leading Japanese corporations, the secretary-general said support and cooperation of the private sector is vitally important to addressing pressing issues such as climate change.

“The race is under way to develop and provide needed solutions, such as clean technology, renewable energy, efficient products and processes, and sustainable goods and services,” he said. “I have no doubt that the Japanese companies will play a leadership role in this new era of responsible and sustainable business.”

Ban said he was excited by his first visit to Japan as secretary-general. “Japan’s leadership cannot be more important than today as it is assuming the presidency of the G8,” he said.

On Monday, he had an audience with the Emperor and Empress of Japan, and held meetings with Crown Prince Naruhito, Prime Minister Fukuda and Foreign Minister Masahiko Koumura.

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NEW YORK, New York, June 27, 2008 (ENS) – Government officials and policymakers from 30 cities meeting in New York City have spent the past two days considering urban public health issues related to global warming.

The “Public Health and Climate Change: The Urban Policy Connection” summit began Thursday at Columbia University, and continued today at City Hall.

The summit began with a keynote address by Mayor Bloomberg, exploring the connections linking efforts to control climate change to public health.

Mayor Bloomberg emphasized the responsibility of the world’s cities to address global warming even when national governments fail to act.

“The measures our cities take to shrink our carbon footprints have the additional, and in many cases immediate, benefit of dramatically improving the health of our citizens,” he said.

“A major new white paper based on research by our city’s Department of Health, Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability and Columbia University presents data on two of the most serious problems that are increasing in urban areas – air pollution and urban sprawl,” the mayor said.

Two panel discussions with public officials from Sao Paulo, New York, Toronto, Mexico City and Copenhagen focused on responses to urban public health challenges caused by climate change.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, right,
hosts Nobel Laureate Dr. Rajendra
Pachauri during the summit on
Public Health and Climate Change.
(Photo courtesy Office of the Mayor)

The luncheon speaker was Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, who focused on the public health consequences of global warming as defined by the World Health Organization.

WHO identifies five major health consequences of climate change – malnutrition, death and disease from extreme weather events, intestinal disease from both scarcities of water and excess water, heatwaves, and infectious diseases such as malaria and dengue fever. With rising temperatures and altered rainfall patterns, the geographical distribution of these diseases will change, spreading them to new countries while worsening the situation in existing countries.

In the afternoon, as well as on Friday morning, invited participants shared their expertise and experiences in developing and implementing plans for addressing these urban public health consequences of climate change.

The event was planned and hosted by the Mayor’s Office Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Columbia University, and New York City Global Partners.

Formerly known as the Sister City Program of the City of New York, Global Partners was created in 2006 with a more flexible structure to facilitate interaction with additional global cities. Its mission is to support the work of the Mayor’s Office in seeking creative solutions to municipal problems by sharing innovative programs and policies through conferences of high level policy makers and elected officials, site visits and Internet exchanges.

“The purpose of New York City Global Partners is to forge relationships among the world’s great cities and to promote cooperation by sharing best practices,” said Meyer Feldberg, the organization’s president, who also is a professor and dean emeritus at Columbia’s Business School.

“Through Global Partners the leadership of the world’s great cities has the opportunity to work together on their common agendas to ensure they will continue to be places that promote innovations in sustainability and improve public health,” Feldberg said.

Climate and public health experts at Columbia, many of whom are working with New York City agencies on climate change strategies as part of the Bloomberg administration’s PlaNYC, led several discussions during the summit.

Columbia Senior Executive Vice President Robert Kasdin said, “With events like these, and with the ongoing contributions by our faculty and researchers to policymaking for New York, we are fulfilling both our own mission to use our intellectual and scientific expertise in addressing the vital questions facing our society – and also Mayor Bloomberg’s vision of a sustainable future for our city and for the world.”

Climate change research is conducted at Columbia University’s Earth Institute and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, and the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy and the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation.

The university recently launched the Columbia Climate Center to provide a hub for researchers whose work spans hydrology, oceanography, geophysics, economics, engineering and public health.

On Thursday, Global Partners [www.nyc.gov] launched its Innovation Exchange website to showcase best practices in the governance of global cities on a wide range of issues.

“Learning from other cities and sharing our best practices is just the kind of activity that strengthens New York City,” said Marjorie Tiven, commissioner of the City Commission for the United Nations, Consular Corps and Protocol, and treasurer of Global Partners.

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WASHINGTON, DC, June 2, 2008 (ENS) – Hundreds of the nation’s most prominent scientists and economists have issued a first-ever joint statement calling on policymakers to require immediate, deep reductions in heat-trapping emissions that cause global warming.

“Failure to act now is the most risky and most expensive thing we could do,” warns statement co-author James McCarthy, president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The coal-fired Bruce Mansfield power
plant in Pennsylvania, like all
coal-burning power plants, releases
greenhouse gases into the
atmosphere. (Photo by Kiyo Komoda)

Issued just before the U.S. Senate begins debate on the Warner-Lieberman climate bill, the statement marks the first time U.S. scientists and economists have joined together to make such an appeal.

The more than 1,700 signatories, compiled by Union of Concerned Scientists, include six Nobel Prize winners in science or economics, 31 National Academy of Science members, and more than 100 authors and editors of the 2007 climate reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, who all shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore.

“Economists now join climate scientists in a unified call for action to address the causes of climate change,” said McCarthy, a professor of biological oceanography in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University.

Dr. James McCarthy (Photo courtesy AAAS)

McCarthy served as co-chair for the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and lead author of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment.

“There is a strong consensus that we must do something about reducing the emissions that cause global warming,” he said. “The debate right now is about how much we need to cut.”

The statement proposes that the United States should reduce global warming pollution “on the order of 80 percent below 2000 levels by 2050″ and that the first step should be reductions of 15 to 20 percent below 2000 levels by 2020. It calls on the United States to set an example and bring nations together to meet the climate challenge.

“The fact that so many scientists and economists have spoken out and signed this letter should give policymakers the confidence that we can avert serious adverse climate impacts,” McCarthy said.

The statement’s co-authors include Mario Molina, co-recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his role in discovering the threat to the Earth’s ozone layer of chlorofluorocarbon gases, or CFCs, becoming the first and only Mexican citizen to ever receive a Nobel Prize for science.

Dr. Mario Molina
(Photo courtesy Wikipedia)

“The United States worked with other nations to take on the ozone threat; so, too, must we lead the international effort to reduce heat-trapping emissions that cause climate change,” said Molina, who now serves as professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the Center for Atmospheric Sciences in the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California-San Diego.

One of the co-authors is Geoff Heal, an economist at Columbia University’s Business School. “Preventing dangerous climate change is a great investment. It will cost between one and two percent of GDP, and the benefits will be between 10 and 20 percent. That’s a return of 10 to 1 – attractive even to a venture capitalist,” said Heal.

The statement affirms the scientific evidence for global warming, saying, “the strength of the science on climate change” compelled the signers to warn policymakers of climate change’s growing risks, including “sea level rise, heat waves, droughts, wildfires, snowmelt, floods and disease, as well as increased plant and animal species extinctions.”

Acting quickly to cut global warming pollution would be the most cost-effective way to limit climate change, the scientists and economists state. If the United States delays taking action, they say, future cuts would have to more drastic and would be much more expensive.

And those costs would come in addition to the increased cost of adapting to more climate change.

On the other hand, the scientists and economists advise, smart reduction strategies would allow the economy to grow, generate new domestic jobs, protect public health, and strengthen energy security.

“The consequences of global climate change constitute one of the most serious threats facing humanity,” warned Jagadish Shukla, professor of earth sciences and global change and chair of the Climate Dynamics Program at George Mason University.

President of the Institute of Global Environment and Society, Shukla was a lead author of the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2007

“While the poor and the impoverished will suffer the most,” said Shukla, “the potential for catastrophic climate change that can adversely affect the habitability of the entire planet is quite real.”

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