UN climate talks in Doha are lurching to a close with key issues unresolved. There are outstanding disputes on finance, compensation for climate change damages and allocations of carbon permits – so-called hot air. Developing countries are furious at what they say is a lack of ambition among richer countries to tackle climate change. And…
A report sponsored by NASA has concluded that the agency is failing to inspire the world, the nation or even its own staff, and is unlikely to achieve long-term objectives such as a manned Mars landing. In a report commissioned by Congress last year, the National Research Council also says that NASA’s budget doesn’t match…
On January 1, 2013, the world can go back to emitting greenhouse gases with abandon. The pollution-reduction commitments that nations made as part of the Kyoto Protocol will expire, leaving the planet without any international climate regulation and uncertain prospects for a future treaty. Nature explores the options for limiting — and living with —…
Political leaders haven’t moved on global warming because they’re not feeling widespread public pressure to do so. And the public isn’t putting that pressure on their leaders in part because many people still don’t believe that climate change is a real, or all that dangerous. The vast, vast majority of climate scientists know that global…
Rich countries spend five times more on fossil-fuel subsidies than on aid to help developing nations cut their emissions and protect against the effects of climate change, the Oil Change International campaign group said. In 2011, 22 industrialized nations paid $58.7 billion in subsidies to the oil, coal and gas industries and to consumers of…
The reluctance of industrialized countries to accept binding emission targets will dry up demand for carbon credits and reduce their prices further, experts said at the climate talks in Doha, where 200 countries are trying to negotiate an agreement on climate issues. Russia, Japan, New Zealand have made it clear that they will not accept…
Two major organizations released climate change reports this month warning of doom and gloom if we stick to our current course and fail to take more aggressive measures. A World Bank report imagines a world 4 degrees warmer, the temperature predicted by century’s end barring changes, and says it aims to shock people into action…
A culture change is needed if the benefits of development, such as new jobs and hospitals, are not to be destroyed in future natural disasters. A new report, ‘Reducing Risks of Future Disasters: Priorities for Decision Makers’, published by the UK government, calls on all development stakeholders — including aid and development funders, governments and…
For a second time in as many months, U.S. House Republicans will try to win approval of legislation to issue up to 55,000 so-called STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) visas to students who earn advanced degrees at U.S. universities. A vote may come by the end of November. The STEM visa bill has a…
The EU’s debt crisis has sapped its ability to lead the way in ongoing global climate talks in Doha, and build on a fragile victory it clinched a year ago. The European Union is one of the few to have promised to sign up to a second emissions-cutting period under the Kyoto process, the only…