Tag Archives: Climate Change
26 September 2013
A man from the Pacific island of Kiribati was denied a claim for refugee status based on climate change grounds.
The New Zealand Tribunal said that ‘there is no evidence establishing that the environmental conditions that he faced or is likely to face on return are so parlous that his life will be placed in jeopardy’ and that ‘the appellant’s claim under the Refugee Convention must necessarily fail because the effects of environmental degradation on his standard of living were, by his own admission, faced by the population generally’.
Kiribati is a small island threatened by the rise of sea levels whose government has urged international efforts to support small countries in climate change issues.
Source: Australia Network News | Kiribati man's claim as a climate change refugee denied in New Zealand
20 September 2013
A report published in Climate Change reveals that developed states may not bear the overwhelming responsibility for climate change. Both developing and developed states ‘may be almost equally responsible for contributing to climate change.’
The report states that the question of which states have been contributing the most to climate change depends on the choices that are made in calculating both current and historic emissions. The authors conclude that: ‘The results presented in this paper show the importance of the choices that can be made when calculating historical contributions of countries. Such choices have to be made by the policy-makers when negotiating a future international climate agreement.’
The authors distinguish between contributions of states to climate change and their responsibility for it, which according to them may be balanced by emissions that are needed to fulfill their citizens’ ‘basic needs’ (e.g. heating and cooking).
Source: Climate News Network | Climate responsibility ’is shared by all’
Source: Michel G. J. den Elzen, Jos G. J. Olivier, Niklas Höhne, Greet Janssens-Maenhout, Countries’ contributions to climate change: effect of accounting for all greenhouse gases, recent trends, basic needs and technological progress, Climate Change, September 2013
23 August 2013
Ecuador announced its plans to re-start oil drilling in the Amazonian Yasuni National Park, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve with the highest biodiversity per square kilometer in the Amazons. The decision comes after the collapse of a pioneering conservation plan that was designed to compensate Ecuador for an oil moratorium in Yasuni through raising funds, corresponding to expected oil revenues, from international donors.
According to the Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa, the plan had sought co-responsibility in the face of climate change. An opinion posted on the Gulf Times’ website on 20 August argued that the protection of Yasuni is not just Ecuador’s responsibility as the rest of the world also benefits from the oxygen and fresh water generated from the park.
Source: The Guardian | Yasuni: Ecuador abandons plan to stave off Amazon drilling
Source: RFI | Correa anuncia explotación petrolera del Parque Yasuní, reserva mundial de la biósfera
Source: Gulf Times | Protection of Yasuni National Park is a Joint Responsibility
7 December 2012
The New York Times reported that global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2, the most significant heat-trapping gas in the atmosphere) were at a record level in 2011. Researchers believe the global emissions of carbon dioxide are likely to hit record again in 2012, because efforts to limit emissions seem to be failing.
Due to continued increase of global emissions, the objective of limiting global warming is difficult to achieve.
Source: The New York Times | With Carbon Dioxide Emissions at Record High, Worries on How to Slow Warming
6 December 2012
Rich countries are to blame for climate change and should take the lead in forging a global climate pact by 2015, a deadline that “must be met,” the head of the United Nations said on 5 December 2012. In addition, he said that it was “only fair and reasonable that the developed world should bear most of the responsibility” in fighting the gradual warming of the planet.
The comments were made as the Doha Climate Change Conference draws to a close on Friday 7 December 2012. It opened on Monday 26 November 2012 in Doha, Qatar to produce agreement on an extension of the Kyoto Protocol, which expires later this year.
Source: Guardian | Ban Ki-moon: rich countries are to blame for global warming