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UN climate chief tempers expectations on Paris deal
Posted by Associated Press: Karl Ritter on February 6th, 2015
Associated Press: Tempering expectations on a global climate deal in Paris this year, the U.N.'s top climate diplomat on Thursday warned against assuming the pact will suffice to prevent dangerous levels of warming.
As negotiators prepare for a new round of talks in Geneva next week, U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres said the role of the deal is not to fix the problem, but to chart the course for countermeasures that can be scaled up over time.
"It is a fundamental misinterpretation or misunderstanding...
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UN climate report offers stark warnings, hope
Posted by Associated Press: Karl Ritter on November 2nd, 2014
Associated Press: Climate change is happening, it's almost entirely man's fault and limiting its impacts may require reducing greenhouse gas emissions to zero this century, the U.N.'s panel on climate science said Sunday.
The fourth and final volume of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's giant climate assessment offered no surprises, nor was it expected to since it combined the findings of three reports released in the past 13 months.
But it underlined the scope of the climate challenge in stark...
UN Climate Boss: No Support for Tough Climate Deal
Posted by Associated Press: Karl Ritter on November 30th, 2012
Associated Press: he United Nations climate chief is urging people not to look solely to their governments to make tough decisions to slow global warming, and instead to consider their own role in solving the problem.
Approaching the half-way point of two-week climate talks in Doha, Christiana Figueres, the head of the U.N.'s climate change secretariat, said Friday that she didn't see "much public interest, support, for governments to take on more ambitious and more courageous decisions."
"Each one of us needs...
UN climate scientist: Sandy no coincidence
Posted by Associated Press: Karl Ritter on November 27th, 2012
Associated Press: Though it's tricky to link a single weather event to climate change, Hurricane Sandy was ''probably not a coincidence'' but an example of the extreme weather events that are likely to strike the U.S. more often as the world gets warmer, the U.N. climate panel's No. 2 scientist said Tuesday.
Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, the vice chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, predicted that as stronger and more frequent heat waves and storms become part of life, people will stop asking...
Flooded Brisbane ‘like a war zone’
Posted by Associated Press: Karl Ritter on January 13th, 2011
Associated Press: The devastating floods that have killed at least 19 people in Queensland have left parts of Brisbane looking "like a war zone" that will require years of expensive reconstruction, the state premier has said.
Although the waters that have pummelled Australia's third-largest city this week peaked below the disastrous levels predicted, the torrent has flooded 12,000 homes in the city and left 118,000 buildings without power.
Officials have warned there could be further severe flooding in the coming...