Environment

After negotiations throughout the night in Brussels, the second installment of the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is ready for publication. The Financial Times offers a good summary of the panel's findings:

Spring is occurring earlier all around the world, and glaciers are melting. The polar ice caps are also melting, sea levels are gradually rising, and wildlife are migrating. Mr Pachauri [the Panel's Chair] said one of the most important aspects of the report was the "equity dimension" – that poor countries, which are least able to cope with climate change and which are least responsible for past emissions, are likely to be most affected by it.

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A new report released by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) says that the right mix of government regulation, energy saving technologies and behavioral change can reduce global-warming carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the building sector. The building sector, the report notes, accounts for 30 to 40 per cent of total energy use.

"The savings that can be made right now are potentially huge and the costs to implement them relatively low if sufficient numbers of Governments, industries, businesses and consumers act," UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Achim Steiner said of the measures that range from revamping ventilation systems to replacing the traditional incandescent light bulb. "By some conservative estimates, the building sector worldwide could deliver emission reductions of 1.8 billion tonnes of C02. A more aggressive energy efficiency policy might deliver over 2 billion tonnes or close to three times the amount scheduled to be reduced under the Kyoto Protocol," he added, referring to the pact setting legally binding emission reduction targets for 35 industrialized countries in the 2008-2012 period.

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Today the world observes World Water Day, a moment dedicated to a widespread, but often-overlooked issue. The UN's 2007 World Water Day website delivers some sobering statistics:

In an industrialized city with plenty of water, flushing the toilet in an average household can send up to 50 litres of water down the drain every day. Yet more than one in six people worldwide -- 1.1 billion -- don't have access to 20-50 litres of safe freshwater daily, the minimum range suggested by the UN to ensure each person's basic needs for drinking, cooking and cleaning. Two people in five lack proper sanitation facilities, and every day, 3,800 children die from diseases associated with a lack of safe drinking water and proper sanitation.

Both water use and the world population are growing, which means that water will only grow more scarce. And, the implications of that scarcity are not limited to humanitarian concerns, though those concerns are great (guaranteeing water security is central to achieving the Millennium Development Goals).

For those of you who are interested, our sister site, The People Speak, is hosting a video contest, asking for submissions focusing on water conservation.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed the European Union decision to establish targets for energy efficiency in the battle against global warming. "In the face of rising greenhouse gas emissions, committing to a substantial decrease for the next decade is ambitious...but ambition and leadership are just what is needed to respond to climate change, one of the greatest challenges facing humankind." The EU agreement, made on Friday, that would make Europe the world's leader in the fight against climate change.

Issuing a challenge to the United States, China and India to match European ambitions in the battle against global warming, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany called on the world to follow the European Union's commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent from 1990 levels by the year 2020. She said the bloc's 27 members would commit to a 30 percent reduction if other nations followed suit. The plan goes beyond the 35-nation Kyoto Protocol, which requires industrial nations to reduce the emission of global-warming gases by an average of 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. Major European Union economies had already committed to do better than that, promising to decrease greenhouse gases by 8 percent in that time.

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At the United Nations on Friday, Brazil, China, India, South Africa, the United States and the European Commission launched a new project to promote the sustained use and production of Biofuels. According to news reports, the International Biofuels Forum will meet regularly to help set industry standards and, eventually, work toward the commoditization of biofuels so one day they may be traded, like oil, on the open market. This seems to be a step in the right direction. So far, biofuels account for only 2% of the world's energy stock. Coordinating the development of these new fuel sources is a worthy endeavor for the world's largest energy consumers. For his part, President Bush traveled to Brazil to promote cooperation on the production of ethanol, one of the more promising sources of Biofuel.

The United Nations Foundation (UN Foundation) and Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society, released today "Confronting Climate Change: Avoiding the Unmanageable and Managing the Unavoidable," the final report of the Scientific Expert Group on Climate Change and Sustainable Development. The report, prepared as input for the upcoming meeting of the UN's Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), outlines a roadmap for preventing unmanageable climate changes and adapting to the degree of change that can no longer be avoided.

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Watch this BBC coverage of the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report. (And of course, don't forget to check out the IPCC Facts website.)

Since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its report concluding (with 90% certainty) that human activity causes global warming, skeptics have come out in droves to undermine this conclusion. Some of these empirically-challenged pundits come from the Exxon-Mobilfunded American Enterprise Institute. Still others can be found in the pages of rightwing magazines like the National Review and similar refuges of fantasy. For those of us in the reality-based community, the United Nations Foundation has set up a new website, IPCC Facts, that helps distill the IPCC report in language accessible to non-scientists like myself. With its "myths" page, the site is a particularly useful resource for those with the unfortunate task of having to debate climate change with the flat-earth people. Check it out.