Articles

More fuel for the fire in the debate over biofuels

By David Nash, Researcher, ippr
Left Foot Forward - 08 February 2010

The environmental community is particularly concerned by carbon emissions caused by “indirect land-use change” – where farmers are forced to clear carbon-rich rainforests and drain peatlands for agricultural harvest because existing land has been swallowed up for energy crop cultivation.

A climate of opportunities: Domestic actions now

By Uloma Onuma, Global Climate Network
Daily Trust - 03 February 2010
Now is the time for Nigeria to act on climate change. In the light of the outcomes of the climate change conference held in December 2009, governments at all levels must plan for and implement mitigation actions. Mitigation actions are steps that are needed to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases that result in changes in the global climate. The 'Copenhagen Accord', reached by over one hundred world leaders in Denmark did not lead to legally binding emission reduction targets. Therefore, domestic actions in Nigeria must be prioritized, now more than ever.

U.S. Wind Industry takes big stride forward in 2009

By David Nash, Researcher, Global Climate Network
Global Climate Network - 29 January 2010
Despite dire predictions at the start of 2009, the U.S. wind industry battled the odds to make record gains last year. According to the American Wind Energy Association's end-of-year report, the industry installed nearly 10,000 megawatts of new capacity in 2009, which represents an annual increase of 39% compared to 2008 figures.

Excerpts of an Interview with Professor Jiahua Pan

By Global Climate Network
People's Daily Online - 20 January 2010
Excerpts of an Interview with Professor Jiahua Pan, Executive Director of the Research Centre for Sustainable Development at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and member of the Global Climate Network.

Who Are The Key Players At Copenhagen?

By Erwin Jackson and Will McGoldrick, The Climate Institute
newmatilda.com - 11 November 2009
There will be a lot of wheeling and a lot of dealing at Copenhagen - and in the end it may be better if history is made behind closed doors, write Will McGoldrick and Erwin Jackson of The Climate Institute.

Miners digging their own graves to preserve profits

By John Connor, CEO of the Climate Institute, a member of the Global Climate Network.
The Courier Mail - 10 November 2009
Queenslanders, particularly in the regions, have been pounded with ads from the mining industry talking about job losses and closures should coal mines and other industries shoulder their share of efforts to reduce Australia's carbon pollution. But you don't need to scratch much below the surface to show the slipperiness and shortsightedness of such claims.

China expects leadership from rich nations

By Jiahua Pan, Research Centre for Urban and Environmental Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Science, a member of the Global Climate Network.
Nature - 22 October 2009
Greater emissions cuts by developed nations are the starting point for a successful climate deal at Copenhagen in December says Jiahua Pan of the Global Climate Network.

Development as China's environmental solution

By Jiahua Pan, Research Centre for Urban and Environmental Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Science, a member of the Global Climate Network.
Telegraph - 02 October 2009
China is determined to follow a low carbon development path - but only through development can China have the capacity to reduce emissions without negative impacts on living standars. Development here is multi-dimensional, involving economic, social, technological, institutional and human activities.

A Pittsburgh Protocol

By Rajendra Pachauri and John Podesta
globalclimatenetwork.info exclusive - 25 September 2009
The G20 Needs to Advance the Global Agenda on Climate Change. While current impacts of climate change may not have reached alarming proportions,  according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that will happen soon enough if we do not take early action. What is causing increasing concern, as the December UN climate summit in Copenhagen draws ever nearer, is the continuing deadlock in political action to deal with this challenge.

Addressing Climate Change through Sustainable Development

By Jiahua Pan, Research Centre for Urban and Environmental Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Science, a member of the Global Climate Network.
US Department of State e-journal USA - Climate Change Perspectives - 01 September 2009
China has long suffered from climatic disasters throughout its history and will be more vulnerable to climate change. The key reason lies in the fact that the physical environment is highly fragile. Ever-increasing human population, physical resources, and infrastructure are exposed to climate risks, along with effects from China's development process. Sustainable development has been taken as the key approach to addressing climate change challenges, both adaptation and mitigation. China's experiences and challenges are of global significance, and international cooperation is needed for effective mitigation of and adaptation to climate change.

Counting the Real Progress on Climate Action

By Andrew Light, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress, Washington D.C.; Erwin Jackson, Director, Policy and Research, The Climate Institute, Melbourne; Andrew Pendleton, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Public Policy Research, London
Crikey - 16 July 2009
Last week saw some progress at the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate Change (MEF). For the first time, countries representing 80 percent of the world's emissions agreed to work towards ensuring that global temperatures do not exceed 2oC above preindustrial levels. Given the physics of the atmosphere this means that only very significant short-term action by all major emitters can make this possible and the MEF has set an important benchmark for a Copenhagen agreement in December. However the holy grail of global emissions target with ambitious carbon budgets for 2020 in industrialised countries remains elusive.

Governments must lead climate action

By Members of the Glboal Climate Network
The Guardian - 08 July 2009
The meeting in Italy in July of leaders of the world's major economies, chaired by President Obama, concluded with a statement of intent to scale-up clean-energy funding for developing countries and called for the establishment of a new 'global partnership' to drive transformational low-carbon technologies.

Australia’s Real Climate on Climate Change

By Erwin Jackson and Andrew Light, Global Climate Network
Center for American Progress - 07 July 2009
The U.S. House of Representatives has joined the Obama administration in its resolve to finally move forward and address the problem of global warming by recently passing the American Clean Energy and Security Act, or ACESA. With this legislation the United States will begin the process of achieving energy independence and transforming to a clean-energy economy. Just as important, however, passage of ACESA signals that the United States has rejoined the community of nations on addressing the critical issue of global climate change.

The global politics of climate-change: after the G8

By Andrew Pendleton, Climate Change
OpenDemocracy - 07 August 2008
The benign post-summit headlines conceal the G8's retreat from leadership on climate change. It's time for a global civil-society initiative.