Interview: Dieter Helm
Oxford economist Dieter Helm co-edits an upcoming book, The Economics and Politics of Climate Change, that he says takes “a colder and harder look at the challenge”. In a Q&A on Nature Reports Climate Change this week, Helm gives his take on a long-term strategy for reducing emissions. Here’s an excerpt: … Read more
What the G8 target means
The G8 meeting last week – the last get-together of the leaders of the world’s major industrialized nations before the United Nations climate summit in December – was loaded with expectations as to what Obama & Co might give climate negotiators to take with them to Copenhagen. Read more
Time to shift gears on climate policy? Maybe not.
Cross-posted from Jeff Tollefson on The Great Beyond An international crew of academics this week boldly declared that the world is headed down the wrong track in trying to put a lid on global greenhouse gas emissions. But with global leaders pressing the issue in Italy this week, it’s not clear that anybody is listening. The team includes Gwyn Prins of the London School of Economics and Steve Rayner of Oxford University, who made a splash with their 2007 indictment of the Kyoto Protocol, dubbed The Wrong Trousers (Nature also published a summary of the article). Their latest paper, which … Read more
Lindau09: The making of a climate movie
It’s Wednesday in Lindau and I’ve spent a chunk of the past 24 hours recording sections of the film about climate change that we’re making here. Read more
Africa’s challenging climate game-plan
Although billions of dollars have been set aside for climate change projects to benefit developing countries, they have “not taken off in Africa in any significant way”, says Yvo de Boer, head of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Read more
Bonn: Text welcomed, but targets still contested
The latest round of UN talks on climate change kicked off Monday in Bonn, where delegates will spend the next two weeks pouring over a draft negotiating text that contains various proposals for a new global climate deal. Read more
AGU 2009 Joint Assembly: Solutions, and sayonara
The concept of active human efforts to artificially limit or reverse climate change has been around for some years. Collectively called geoengineering, many such plans, some more fanciful than others, have been proposed by the scientific community, and several were discussed during the final days of the AGU Joint Assembly in Toronto. Read more