Water For Life™ Concerts

Instead of looking at timescales of days and sometimes weeks ahead, a proposed ”Global Framework for Climate Services” aims to produce forecasts that look seasons and even decades ahead.

Khosla Ventures said on Tuesday it had raised more than $1 billion for renewable energy and clean technology funds, a sign that skittish investors are hot for climate-change-related projects.

Sci-fi proposals to cool the planet are laden with risk but may be Earth's only hope if politicians fail to tackle global warming, scientists said on Tuesday in their biggest evaluation to date of "geo-engineering" concepts.

Unanimously supported by 2,500 participants, the Stockholm Statement calls for inclusion of adaptive measures with broad development goals, and increased funding to support adaptive measures.

Prices for European Union carbon emissions edged up on Tuesday, temporarily lifted by the return of investors to the market after a UK bank holiday, but traders anticipated further falls in the coming week.

In what might be a world first, the California Public Utilities Commission proposed last week to let developers bid on contracts to install green energy projects.

China is reducing its quota for the tonnage of certain minerals that can be exported, requiring manufacturers of products with high-strength magnets for wind turbines and hybrid cars, to move production to China.

DAKAR Monday, August 31, 2009 (IRIN) - Current UN cost estimates for climate change adaptation are too low and this could thwart climate treaty negotiations set for December in Copenhagen, according to the former co-chair of a UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change working group and lead author of a recent independent study on adaptation costs.

BANDARAGAMA Monday, August 31, 2009 (IRIN) - Years ago, the loft above Kulasena Perera's bedroom was a storeroom for rice. Now, huge wicker baskets that once held the harvests are abandoned, testament to the years the fields have not been farmed.

A favorable committee report puts an end to uncertainty over the fate of an emissions trading scheme originally launched by the previous government.

Experts have warned of violent conflicts as climate change alters living conditions. Lack of water is making this a reality in Yemen.

The ambitious climate policy of the winning Democratic Party will increase pressure on USA and other developed nations to raise their commitments. COP15 host welcomes the Japanese pledge.

As an agreement that will keep global warming below two degrees C can probably not be found in Copenhagen, instead the EU should see December’s UN conference as a starting point, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt says.

NAIROBI Friday, August 28, 2009 (IRIN) - Countries tackling food insecurity and climate change adaptation can greatly benefit from agroforestry - integrating fleshy plants and trees into their farming systems, environmental specialists say.

SANAA Sunday, August 30, 2009 (IRIN) - Severe drought in Khawlan District, 70km east of the capital Sanaa, since mid-2007 has forced local herders to sell some of their sheep to buy fodder for the rest.

BAGHDAD Monday, August 31, 2009 (IRIN) - Jabir Mohan Abdullah used to hire hundreds of workers during the rice harvest season. This year, however, with more than three-quarters of his land affected by drought, only 10 workers will be hired.

Delegates to this week's World Climate Conference hope to set up a Global Framework for Climate Services to ensure that early warnings for tsunamis and hurricanes reach everybody and that farmers in remote African regions know about upcoming droughts and floods.

Global climate change has disrupted weather patterns and slashed crop yields in the Himalayan nation, an international aid agency warned Friday.

Greenhouse gas emissions in the EU declined for the fourth year running last year, according to preliminary data released by the European Environment Agency (EEA) on Monday. Emissions were down by 1.5% across the bloc and 1.3% in the old EU-15.