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by Mariette le Roux and Marlowe Hood Agence France Presse BONN, Germany (AFP) — Negotiations to bolster the climate-saving Paris Agreement, crafted over two decades, closed in Bonn Saturday, deflated but not derailed by Donald Trump’s rejection of the treaty and defense of fossil fuels. The US President’s decision to yank the United States from the hard-fought global pact cast a long shadow over the talks, which ran deep into overtime. Negotiations were marked by […]
by Mariette le Roux and Marlowe Hood Agence France Presse BONN, Germany — World leaders shared the spotlight with a 12-year-old Pacific islander on Wednesday to drive home a plea for urgent climate action despite the Trump administration’s rejection of a planet rescue plan. UN chief Antonio Guterres, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel led the diplomatic push in Bonn, but it was a small boy with a big smile who got the message […]
by Marlowe Hood Agence France-Presse BONN, Germany (AFP) — Injecting billions of reflective particles into the stratosphere could help cool an overheating planet, but would also alter the intensity of tropical storms, researchers said Tuesday. Depending on the hemisphere in which such aerosols are released, hurricanes in the North Atlantic would become weaker or stronger, they reported in Nature Communications. Moreover, efforts to engineer lower global temperatures could induce severe drought in northern Africa’s Sahel, a region […]
by Marlowe Hood Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — The failure of wealthy nations to deliver on short-term climate commitments could hinder the rollout of a landmark treaty, a bloc of 134 developing countries, including India and China, warned Thursday at UN negotiations in Bonn. The diplomatic spat has underscored the difficulty of reaching a consensus at the 196-nation talks. “If we do not respect decisions that we have made, then how can we build trust among the […]
MIAMI, United States (AFP) — With sheet metal roofs, concrete floors, poor ventilation and spotty electricity, crowded urban slums in Africa can expect to get even hotter and deadlier due to global warming, US researchers said Monday. Scientists at Johns Hopkins University analyzed three informal settlements in Nairobi, including the largest, Kibera, home to nearly a million people. Along the settlements’ narrow alleyways, mud-walled homes and metal roofs, they found stifling temperatures, “between five and […]
by Marlowe Hood Agence France Presse BONN, Germany (AFP) — 2017 is on track to be the hottest year on record except for two warmed by El Nino phenomena, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization said Monday. Even if the cyclical weather events — which bump up global temperatures every three to seven years — are included, this year will still be one of the three warmest ever, the WMO said as it issued its […]
by Ben Simon Agence France Presse GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere has hit a new high, the UN said Monday, warning that drastic action is needed to achieve targets set by the Paris climate agreement. “Concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere surged at a record-breaking speed in 2016 to the highest level in 800,000 years,” the World Meteorological Organization said. “Globally averaged concentrations of CO2 reached […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – A sharp increase in forest fires stoked record losses in global forest cover equivalent to the area of New Zealand in 2016, a Global Forest Watch report said Monday. The alarming pace of destruction — 51 percent higher than the prior year with a loss of 73.4 million acres (29.7 million hectares), according to data from the University of Maryland — was partially due to climate change that has increased […]
MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AFP) — Nicaragua signed the Paris climate agreement Monday, leaving the United States and Syria as the only two holdouts on the global climate pact. The government of President Daniel Ortega said the global 2015 pact represented “the only international instrument that offers the conditions to face global warming and its effects,” according to a statement read out by Vice President Rosario Murillo. Monday’s announcement leaves the United States and Syria as the only countries holding […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — France and China’s space agencies unveiled their first joint satellite in Beijing Friday, which will be used to improve forecasting of ocean storms and cyclones. The satellite, named CFOSAT (China-France Oceanography Satellite), is due to be launched next year by China and will primarily be used to study wind and ocean wave patterns. “In practical terms, it will be used to improve forecasts of strong storms, cyclones or waves for all […]
MIAMI, United States (AFP) — By century’s end, climate change will likely shift the peak demand for electricity in Europe from the winters to the summers, as more people use air conditioning to stay cool, researchers said Monday. Understanding how demand for power will change in the coming decades as the planet warms is crucial in the 35 countries of Europe, which makes up the world’s third largest electricity market. “We find significant increases in […]
MIAMI, United States (AFP) — Climate change will have a negative effect on key crops such as wheat, rice, and maize, according to a major scientific report out Tuesday that reviewed 70 prior studies on global warming and agriculture. Experts analyzed previous research that used a variety of methods, from simulating how crops will react to temperature changes at the global and local scale, to statistical models based on historical weather and yield data, to […]
