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PARIS, Jan 11, 2024 (AFP) – The world added 50 percent more renewable energy capacity in 2023 over the year before, the International Energy Agency said Thursday, predicting booming growth in the next five years. The United Nations-led COP28 summit concluded in Dubai last month with nearly 200 nations agreeing to a first-ever call for the world to transition away from fossil fuels. “The amount of renewable energy capacity added to energy systems around the […]
By Rochelle GLUZMAN PARIS, Jan 9, 2024 (AFP) – The year of 2023 was the hottest on record, with the increase in Earth’s surface temperature nearly crossing the critical threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius, EU climate monitors said Tuesday. Climate change intensified heatwaves, droughts and wildfires across the planet, and pushed the global thermometer 1.48 C above the preindustrial benchmark, the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) reported. “It is also the first year with all […]
STOCKHOLM, Jan 3, 2024 (AFP) – Sweden on Wednesday recorded its coldest January night in 25 years, with a reading of minus 43.6 degrees Celsius in the far north as a cold snap hit the Nordics. “To put that into perspective, that is the lowest January temperature in Sweden since 1999,” Mattias Lind, meteorologist at Sweden’s national weather agency SMHI, told AFP. In January 1999, a temperature of minus 49 degrees Celsius (minus 56.2 Fahrenheit) […]
SHANGHAI, Jan 2, 2024 (AFP) – China’s average temperature in 2023 was its hottest since records began, state media said citing officials Tuesday, capping a year of extreme weather events for the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases. The record-setting temperatures were part of an unprecedented series of extreme events last year around the world — including heatwaves, droughts and wildfires that scientists say are being exacerbated by climate change. China’s national average temperature last […]
By Laurence COUSTAL PARIS, Dec 27, 2023 (AFP) – As the deadliest year this century for forest fires comes to a close, attention is turning to how to prevent such infernos happening again. In 2023 forest fires destroyed nearly 400 million hectares (988 million acres) of land around the world, killed more than 250 people and emitted 6.5 billion tonnes of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Pauline Vilain-Carlotti, a researcher in geography and wildfires, told […]
SYDNEY, Dec 27, 2023 (AFP) – Nine people have died after Christmas storms pounded Australia’s eastern seaboard, authorities said Wednesday, including two women who were washed through a stormwater drain. Thunderstorms and destructive winds have in recent days battered the Australian states of Victoria and Queensland — capsizing boats, sparking flash floods, and tearing down concrete powerlines. The government weather bureau has warned that coastal regions in Queensland were still at risk of “dangerous” storms, […]
CAPE TOWN, Dec 22, 2023 (AFP) – South African firefighters on Friday battled two major wildfires on mountains near Cape Town that have forced the evacuation of scores of families, authorities said. Authorities closed access to the Cape of Good Hope, one of the country’s most visited tourist attractions, because of the fires. Fierce summer winds have fanned flames toward resorts around Cape Town as it braces to receive tens of thousands of visitors for […]
By Simon Sturdee and Harumi Ozawa KARUIZAWA, Japan, Dec 21, 2023 (AFP) – Thousands of bears are being shot in Japan each year as they become more and more of a problem. Junpei Tanaka and his dog Rela, straining at her leash in the woods, have a kinder, smarter way. People moving from rural areas and Japan’s ageing society — plus climate change affecting bears’ food and hibernation time — are prompting ever more of […]
BEIJING, Dec 21, 2023 (AFP) – More low temperature records tumbled across China on Thursday, as the country endures a persistent cold snap that has crowned a year of extreme weather. The national weather office said in a social media post that more than 20 stations posted all-time December lows in the early hours of Thursday. They included Hohhot, capital of the northern Inner Mongolia region, where a reading of -29.1 degrees Celsius (-20.4 Fahrenheit) […]
COPENHAGEN, Dec 20, 2023 (AFP) – A record amount of precipitation fell in Denmark in 2023, meteorologists said Wednesday, noting that more increases could be expected as a result of climate change. The annual tally of snow and rainfall as of Wednesday was over 907 millimeters (35.7 inches), national meteorological institute DMI said with over a week left in the year. The previous record since measurements started in 1874 was 905 mm, a level reached […]
By Mathilde DUMAZET PARIS, Dec 15, 2023 (AFP) – Two weeks of relentless negotiating at COP28 failed to produce an agreement on carbon credit sales, relieving non-profits that had opposed the proposals on the table while stoking fears the regulatory void could escalate greenwashing. Just after COP28 president Sultan Al Jaber announced on Wednesday the historic deal to transition away from fossil fuels, he revealed the talks had failed to agree on a regulatory framework […]
SYDNEY, Dec 13, 2023 (AFP) – A tropical cyclone was building strength as it rolled towards northeastern Australia Wednesday, with authorities warning “life-threatening” floods could swamp coastal regions for days. Tropical Cyclone Jasper was expected to make landfall around 6:00 pm local time on Wednesday (0800 GMT), but forecasters said gale-force winds were already pummelling some towns. Some 8,000 homes are already without power, the Queensland state government said, while police have started closing major […]
