Explore Our Planet

G20 is officially referred to as “The 4th Ministerial Meeting of G8 Gleneagles Dialogue on Climate Change, Clean Energy and Sustainable Development”, and was set up as a result of an agreement at the Gleneagles G8 Summit held in the United Kingdom in 2005.

At G20, issues such as global warming and climate change will be discussed by environment and energy ministers of the world’s 20 major greenhouse gas emitting nations as well as representatives from relevant international organizations, industries, NGOs and NPOs.

Chart Credit: Ministry of the Environment based on the Handbook of Energy & Economic Statistics in Japan (partially supplemented by UNFCCC data)

… If Germany halted construction of coal-fired power plants that do not capture and sequester the CO2, it could be a tipping point for the world.

Leaders in Great Britain are advocating a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants; U.S. citizens are blocking one coal plant after another and a potentially course-changing election is nearing.

But time to find the tipping point is running out. I hope that you will give these considerations the urgent attention they deserve in setting your national policies. You have the potential to influence the future of the planet. …

Jim Hanson, Perspective of a Younger Generation

Finally in a dramatic session the participating countries agreed on the ‘Bali Action Plan’. What do you expect when representatives from over 180 countries come to a conclusion? Would searching the least common denominator lead to a powerless settlement? Will single states block all reasonable steps pretending imbalanced economic consequences?

However, finally the US left their isolated position and US Under Secretary of State Paula Dobriansky took the floor again, said the US wanted a roadmap and wanted to be part of the roadmap.

“We are very committed to long-term greenhouse gas emission reductions,” and she said the US would work with other large emitters to halve global emissions by 2050. And then she said the US “will go forward and join the consensus,” which was followed by a thunderous ovation.

Two results are remarkable: the implemenation of a ‘Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention’ with the mission to collect the input from all parties and present the result at the fourteenth session of the conference of the Parties (Dec. 2008) and last but not least the conference accepted the stabilization scenarios developed by the Working Group III.

You may bring up that’s only a footnote, well it is, but it is written down, it is agreed and is states that an emission reduction of 50 up to 85% is indispensable to stabilize global mean temperature at 2 - 2.4°C above pre-industrial levels.

More:
AR4: Technical Summary of Working Group III / Mitigation of Climate Change
AR4: Chapter 13: Policies, instruments, and co-operative arrangements
Videos: germanwatch@youtube

Australia’s new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd used the opportunity to target Australia’s ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. In opposite to former PM Howard - he claimed the emissions intensive economy will suffer from tackling Climate Change - the Labor Party sets up a strong billion dollar plan to boost renewable energy, clean business, energy innovation and clean coal.

This impressive change now isolates the United States as the only developed nation not having Kyoto signed.

More: Labor’s Clean Energy Plan

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Madam Ban Soon-taek visited Chile and Antarctica last week (8-11 November). As first Secretary-General he walked on the frozen continent and inspected Collins Glacier on King George’s Island.

I am here today to observe the impact of global warming. To see for myself and learn all I can. We joke among ourselves that we are on an ‘Eco-tour’, but I am not here as a tourist but as a messenger of early warning.

What we saw today was extraordinarily beautiful. These dramatic landscapes are rare and wonderful, but it is deeply disturbing as well. We can clearly see this world changing. The ice is melting far faster than we think.

All this may be gone, and not in the distant future, unless we act, together, now

Look about us. We have seen it with our own eyes. Antarctica is on the verge of a catastrophe - for the world. The glaciers here on King George Island have shrunk by 10 per cent. Some in Admiralty Bay have retreated by 25 kilometres. You know how the Larsen B ice sheet collapsed several years ago and disappeared within weeks - the size of Rhode Island, 87 kilometres.

What alarms me is not the melting snow and glaciers, alone. It is that the Larsen phenomenon could repeat itself on a vastly greater scale. Scientists here have told me that the entire Western Antarctic Ice Shelf - the WAIS - is at risk. It is all floating ice, one fifth of the entire continent. If it broke up, sea levels could rise by 6 metres or 18 feet. Think of that. And it could happen quickly, almost overnight in geological terms.

This is not scare-mongering. I am not trying to frighten you. According to recent studies, 138 tons of ice are now being lost every year, mostly from the Western Ice Shelf.

You know, also that deep blue water absorbs more heat than sea covered with ice. The sea ice around Antarctica is vanishing too.

There are other deeply worrying signs. The penguin population of Chabrier Rock, a main breeding ground, has declined by 57 per cent in the last 25 years. It is the same elsewhere. What will happen to the annual march of the penguins in the future? Will there even be one?

Grass is growing for the first time ever here on King George Island - including a grass used on American golf courses. It rains, increasingly often in the summer rather than snows.

These things should alarm us all. Antarctica is a natural lab that helps us understand what is happening to our world. We must save this precious earth, including all that is here. It is a natural wonder, but above all, it is our common home.

It is here where our work, together, comes into focus. We see Antarctica’s beauty - and the danger global warming represents, and the urgency that we do something about it. I am determined that we shall.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s statement on Antarctica on 9 November

Picture Credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

Earlier this year german chancellor Angela Merkel asked climate advisor Prof. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber to organise a symposium with Nobel laureates from various disciplines to focus Climate Change and discuss solutions. The Interdisciplinary Nobel Laureates Symposium profited from independent and open minded characters and was held 8-10 October, 2007 in Potsdam.

Humanity is standing at a moment in history when a Great Transformation is needed to respond to the immense threat to the Earth. Anthropogenic global warming through greenhouse gas emissions is the foremost of an entire set of emerging development, security and environmental crises. Nobel Laureates from all disciplines, high level representatives from politics and world-renowned experts have called for this transformation to begin immediately.

An integrated response will have to accommodate human welfare within the capacity of the planet to sustain economical growth. While drastic reduction in GHG emissions by rich countries is essential, the right for development in the poorer countries, accommodating the vast majority of humanity, will have to be an integral part. This requires, above all, equal access to affordable, sustainable and reliable energy services.

This Great Transformation can only be achieved with a new global contract between science and society which needs to tap all sources of ingenuity and cooperation to meet this challenge of the 21st century. The scientific community and the leaders, institutions and movements representing the worldwide civil society have to engage in a strategic alliance.

The need is to embrace a multi-national innovation program on the basic needs of human beings, requiring the scale of for instance the Apollo Program. In addition, it is essential to remove the persisting cognitive divides and to create a global initiative on the advancement of sustainability science to win over the best young minds for laying the cognitive foundations for the well-being of the generations further down the line.

More: Extensive Version
Papers: Scientific understanding of Climate Change, Robust Options for Decarbonisation, Making Progress Within and Beyond Borders
Picture Credit: Hannah Förster

7 min 38 sec, uploaded November 06, 2007, Transcript

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon invited California’s Governor Schwarzenegger to speak at the General Assembly Hall at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

This high level event “The Future in our Hands: Addressing the Leadership Challenge of Climate Change” on 24 September 2007 was supposed to galvanize political will for the Bali Conference.

More: Dissident Voice / Dan Bacher

The ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) sees its responsibility to address, limit or reduce the impact of aviation greenhouse gas emissions on the global climate.

During the latest session of the Assembly - held at ICAO Headquarters in Montréal from 18 to 28 September 2007 - some members (Egypt, Chile, LACAC) expressed their concerns regarding the EU initiative to include aviation into the European Emission Trading system (ETS). Though all members agree on market mechanisms - not taxes - as best solution.

To fly is most polluting means of transportation, by kilometer, hour and person. The emitted amount of CO2 is estimated to double by 2015, including better efficiency of engines. Emitting NOx and steam at high altitude, forming cirrus clouds and trails even multiplies the climate effects by 2-4.

Assuming a trading system for the european airspace only and an average cost of 10 EURO per ton of CO2 tickets for midrange flights (>1500km) will include an extra amount of about 9 EURO.

Until an international agreement is found it is up to the passengers to compensate their emissions for example with atmosfair. This company uses CDM and invests in e.g. hydropower projects in developing countries.

More:
ICAO: Assembly Resolutions in Force (2004)
IPCC: Aviation and the Global Atmosphere
EU/CE: Giving wings to emission trading
Reuters: Britons top table of carbon emissions from planes
International Blog Action Day

The new website works as a one stop to the summary for policy makers and full reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. You’ll find material for the youth and kids plus a calendar of upcoming events.

Opening paragraphs of the address by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the General Assembly thematic debate on climate change, in New York, 31 July:

Madam President, Excellencies, Dear Delegates,

Let me thank the President of the General Assembly, Her Excellency Haya Rashed Al Khalifa, for convening this timely and topical debate.

We meet at a time when climate change - long on the international agenda - is finally receiving the very highest attention that it merits. We have all heard a lot about the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. They have unequivocally affirmed the warming of our climate system, and linked it directly to human activity.

The effects of these changes are already grave, and they are growing. The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the global average. The resultant melting threatens the region’s people and ecosystems, but it also imperils low-lying islands and coastal cities half a world away. On the other hand, as glaciers retreat, water supplies are being put at risk. And for one-third of the world’s population living in dry lands, especially those in Africa, changing weather patterns threaten to exacerbate desertification, drought and food insecurity. (more…)

Stephen Harper, Canada’s 22nd Prime Minister, leader of the Conservative Party of Canada and payed once by the petroleum industry made the flip-flop:

And, more than anything else, Canadians want us to continue moving forward on practical, realistic and achievable strategies for protecting the environment.

Last week’s rollout of our ecoEnergy Initiatives demonstrated our unequivocal commitment to improving air quality, lowering greenhouse gas emissions and living better by consuming smarter.

Prime Minister marks the one-year anniversary of the election - 23 January 2007