Tag: climate

Norway okays giant North Sea carbon storage project

OSLO, Norway (AFP) — Norway gave approval Tuesday to a giant project to capture and store CO2 below the North Sea, a technology that could help efforts to reduce carbon emissions. The Northern Lights project aims to inject CO2 captured from Norwegian industrial firms into geological formations 2,600 metres (8,530 feet) below the seabed where it should be trapped permanently. Initially the project aims to capture and store 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 per year […]

Fiji tourism hit with climate, pandemic double whammy

by Leon LORD Agence France-Presse CORAL COAST, Fiji (AFP) — Fiji dive operator Ashwin Pal was living his dream until the global pandemic hit, guiding tourists around an underwater wonderland of dazzling Pacific coral reefs. Now the 35-year-old hunts the neon-hued fish he once proudly showed off to international visitors, forced to kill the creatures he loves to feed his wife and four children. And the coronavirus-induced shutdown of Fiji’s tourism industry is not the […]

ExxonMobil pledges emissions cut as investor campaign targets board

NEW YORK, New York (AFP) — ExxonMobil announced Monday it will reduce its emissions over the next five years bowing to growing public pressure from activists, including the Church of England, to make changes. The US oil giant said in a statement that by 2025 it will cut emissions from upstream activities, which includes oil drilling and extraction, by between 15 and 20 percent compared to the 2016 levels. It also will cut its flaring […]

Storms help Australia contain UNESCO heritage island fire

BRISBANE, Australia (AFP) — Australian firefighters have managed to control a bushfire that burned more than half of the UNESCO world heritage-listed Fraser Island, around two months after a suspected illegal campfire sparked the blaze. The fire on the world’s largest sand island, off Australia’s east coast, destroyed large swathes of the isle’s forests before heavy downpours arrived over the weekend. “With the help of welcome rainfall and a massive response from crews, the fire […]

World urged to move on ‘climate emergency’ after pandemic

by Jitendra JOSHI and Patrick GALEY in Paris Agence France-Presse LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — The United Nations on Saturday urged leaders to declare a global climate emergency and shape greener growth after the coronavirus pandemic, as nations took gloomy stock five years since the landmark Paris Agreement. Fast-growing China, the world’s biggest emitter, outlined limited new ambitions in green energy at a virtual “Climate Ambition Summit” addressed by more than 70 leaders. In the […]

Emissions fell record 7 percent in 2020: study

by Patrick GALEY PARIS, France (AFP) — Carbon emissions fell a record seven percent in 2020 as countries imposed lockdowns and restrictions on movement during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Global Carbon Project said Friday in its annual assessment. The fall of an estimated 2.4 billion tonnes is considerably larger than previous annual record declines, such as 0.9 billion tonnes at the end of World War II or 0.5 billion tonnes in 2009 at the height […]

Climate change biggest threat to natural World Heritage sites

by Nina LARSON Agence France-Presse GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — Climate change has become the biggest threat to UN-listed natural world heritage sites like glaciers and wetlands, and has pushed Australia’s Great Barrier Reef into “critical” condition, conservationists said Wednesday. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) revealed in a new report that shifts due to the changing climate now imperil a full third of the 252 UNESCO-listed natural sites around the globe. Overall, 94 […]

2020 one of three hottest years ever recorded: UN

by Robin MILLARD Agence France-Presse GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — This year is on course to be one of the three warmest ever recorded, the United Nations said Wednesday, as the UN chief warned the world was on the brink of “climate catastrophe”. The past six years, 2015 to 2020, are set to make up all six of the hottest years since modern records began in 1850, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in its provisional […]

Greenland’s largest glaciers likely to melt faster than feared: study

by Patrick GALEY PARIS, France (AFP) — The three largest glaciers in Greenland — which hold enough frozen water to lift global sea levels some 1.3 metres — could melt faster than even the worst-case warming predictions, research published Tuesday showed. Until 2000, the main driver of sea level rise was melting glaciers and the expansion of ocean water as it warms. But over the last two decades, the world’s ice sheets atop Greenland and […]

Arsenal a winner with UN in signing Climate Action Framework

LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Arsenal reinforced their commitment to tackling climate change by becoming the first Premier League club to sign up to the UN Sports for Climate Action Framework on Monday. Arsenal join among others the International Olympic Committee, FIFA and English football’s governing body the Football Association in signing up to the initiative. It aims to bring together the global sports community with a commitment to align with the goals of the […]

Global warming to continue no matter what we do: study

by Marlowe HOOD Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Even if humanity stopped emitting greenhouse gases tomorrow, Earth will warm for centuries to come and oceans will rise by metres, according to a controversial modelling study published Thursday. Natural drivers of global warming — more heat-trapping clouds, thawing permafrost, and shrinking sea ice — already set in motion by carbon pollution will take on their own momentum, researchers from Norway reported in the Nature journal […]

Warmer seas keep hurricanes stronger for longer, study says

by Sara HUSSEIN Agence France-Presse TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Warmer seas caused by climate change are making hurricanes stronger for longer after landfall, increasing the destruction they can wreak on impact, a new study has found. Researchers warn the finding suggests inland communities — which may be less prepared than coastal regions to face hurricanes — are increasingly at risk. The effects of climate change on tropical storms including hurricanes are still being studied, although […]