Scientists and environmental groups warn about an underestimated threat to the global climate and the ozone layer. Emissions of various chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) from unknown sources have been discovered worldwide, reported the latest Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion 2022, published by the World Meteorological Organization WMO and the UN Environment Programme UNEP, among others. The substances […]
A sharp contrast emerges at the Sharm el Sheikh climate conference: Official negotiations on cutting carbon emissions of fossil fuels – and unofficial discussions on expanding gas production, especially in Africa.On the one hand, rapid and drastic reductions of coal, oil and gas usage are necessary worldwide, Simon Stiell, Executive Director of the UN Climate […]
The global climate is not democratically decided. National interests and structures determine how many emissions we put into the atmosphere. The UN is not a world government. And rarely is its lack of power more apparent than at climate conferences. This will be no different in two weeks at COP27 in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt.This […]
Developments on global energy markets and the climate plans of UN nations put the world on a path toward warming of about 2.5 degrees Celsius by 2100, according to a common takeaway from the latest NDC Synthesis Report by the UN Climate Change Secretariat UNFCCC and the International Energy Agency annual World Energy Outlook (WEO), […]
Never before have the G20 countries paid more subsidies to producers of oil, gas and coal than in 2021: $64 billion. In total, the 20 largest countries, which are responsible for about 75 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, supported the production and consumption of fossil raw materials with $190 billion this year. That was […]
The date will hardly matter at the UN General Assembly: But on September 23, the UN countries will once again take stock of their performance on climate protection. By then, the countries should submit their new and hopefully improved climate plans NDC and their long-term projections to the Climate Secretariat UNFCCC. This will then produce […]
the global climate scene is looking to New York these days. At the 77th UN General Assembly, the overheating of the earth is pushing its way up the agenda alongside the Ukraine war. No one denies anymore: the global climate crisis is acute: heat and drought in the northern hemisphere, temperature records in India and […]
He’ll get used to these puns on his name: “This is the new head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, Simon Stiell,” the moderator introduced him in English at a U.N. discussion Monday, “and boy do we need a lot of steel in this game.”The new UN Executive Secretary, who is making his first public […]
For the decarbonization of an economy in a “just transition,” there is now, for the first time, a price tag for coal phase-out in a major emerging economy. Rapidly reducing coal power in South Africa, building new grids and renewables, and providing social cushioning for the affected population would cost the equivalent of $61.8 billion […]