Archive by category | Road to Copenhagen

Copenhagen round up

Copenhagen round up

Yesterday ‘Copenhagen’ overtook ‘Tiger Woods’ as the number one subject mentioned in news stories and social networking sites. Today though Obama’s Peace Prize speech has jumped ahead of Copenhagen.

But if that has dampened the atmosphere at the climate talks it’s not showing. Diplomats from across the world are still wrangling about just about everything. At the serious end of the spectrum there has been another ‘huge fight that has the potential to derail the talks’.

Copenhagen In Quotes

Copenhagen In Quotes

Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are now meeting in Copenhagen to wrangle over the details of a new global climate deal — a potential successor to the Kyoto Protocol. See Nature’s Road to Copenhagen special and the Climate Feedback blog for more coverage.  Read more

Copenhagen: leaks and peaks

Copenhagen: leaks and peaks

As world leaders sweat in Copenhagen and climate sceptics continue to crow over stolen emails, the World Meteorological Organization has announced that 2009 is likely to be one of the 10 warmest years since records began in 1850.

Although the temperatures for November and December are not in yet, the WMO says the combined sea surface and land surface air temperature for 2009 is currently estimated at 0.44 degrees C above the 1961-1999 average of 14.00 degrees.

Climate scientists stand behind their work, again

Three prominent US climate scientists addressed the controversy over climate emails leaked from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit on Friday, suggesting that the episode might provide a peak at the messy reality behind the curtain of science but does not change the results that have been presented to the public.  Read more

Road to Copenhagen: In Quotes

Road to Copenhagen: In Quotes

Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are all set to descend on Copenhagen to wrangle over the details of a new global climate deal — a potential successor to the Kyoto Protocol. See Nature’s Road to Copenhagen special for more coverage.  Read more

Climate tax heat burns Australia’s opposition

The leader of Australia’s opposition party has been voted out in favour of a replacement who will backtrack on the party’s support for government climate change policies.

Former Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull had made a deal with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to get cap and trade legislation passed in Australia’s Senate (see: Climate change induces meltdown in Australian opposition party). However the deal has backfired badly, with Turnbull ousted and the legislation stalled.

Tony Abbott, who ousted Turnbull by 42 votes to 41, said today, “Now this Emissions Trading Scheme legislation, which is really an energy taxation scheme, does deserve the most rigorous scrutiny by this Parliament. This is a $120b tax on the Australian public and that is just for starters.”

Climate change induces meltdown in Australian opposition party

Climate change induces meltdown in Australian opposition party

Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd has been dealt a blow in his attempts to push through a cap and trade bill to limit carbon emissions before the Copenhagen meeting, but he may profit in the longer term.

The opposition Liberal Party, which had already partially disembowelled itself debating whether or not to support the bill, has now gone into meltdown. Its leader Malcolm Turnbull had made a deal with Rudd to get the legislation passed in Australia’s Senate, where Rudd’s ruling Labor Party does not have a majority.