Climate Plan

A closely-watched international climate case that could yield guidance for governments around the world wrapped its first week of arguments before the top court of the United Nations in The Hague Friday. The case, though not binding, is expected to spell out what countries are legally required to do to combat climate change and help vulnerable nations fight its devastating impact. The push for the International Court of Justice to hear this case comes like much of the call to address climate change from island nations that are losing territory and fear they could disappear under rising seas. The UN General Assembly asked the court last year for an opinion on the obligations of States in respect of climate change. The stakes could not be higher. The survival of my people and so many others is on the line, Arnold Kiel Loughman, attorney general of the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, told The Hague-based court. For years his country has spearheaded calls for reductions of the ...

Britain's Minister for the Indo-Pacific Catherine West, who just visited New Delhi, which has been struggling with poor air quality in recent weeks, has highlighted the scope of sharing best practices between the two countries to move towards a cleaner climate. West, who was in India last week for a visit covering aspects such as climate, technology, health, education and development, welcomed the announcement by Prime Ministers Keir Starmer and Narendra Modi of the relaunch of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations in the new year. "We have consistently said that we see an FTA as the floor and not the ceiling of our ambitions," West said in her keynote address at the second annual Indo-Pacific Conference in London on Monday. The minister noted that as the world's most populous country, India has a unique opportunity to help shift the dial and lead progress on climate and sustainable development. "When I visited India last week, everyone shared this enthusiasm for mutual ...

UN climate chief Simon Stiell on Thursday issued a strong call for global unity and ambition to secure a groundbreaking finance goal to support climate action in the developing world, saying, "Failure is not an option." As negotiators raced against time to resolve outstanding issues related to the critical objective of COP29, Stiell said a major push was needed to bring discussions to the finishing line. "It might jeopardise both near-term action, and ambition in the preparation of the new national climate action plans, with potential devastating impacts as irreversible tipping points are getting closer, he said. On draft climate finance text released earlier in the morning, the UN climate chief said that despite areas of convergence, significant differences remain. A surge in finance is essential: To ensure all parties can deliver new national plans aligned with 1.5 degrees as they must, he said. Stiell warned that delays at COP29 could complicate the road to COP30 in Brazil nex

After an all-nighter, a draft text on the new climate finance package for the developing world finally dropped Thursday morning -- shrunk from 25 pages to 10, but the major sticking points remain. With less than two days left for the UN climate conference to close, negotiators face a gargantuan task to hammer it out. A quick glance at the text shows developed countries are still dodging a key question: How much climate finance are they ready to give developing countries every year starting in 2025? This has led to significant frustration among developing countries, who have repeatedly said they need at least USD 1.3 trillion to tackle the escalating challenges. "The revised draft text, while more streamlined, presents a spectrum of options -- some good, some bad, and some outright ugly," said Harjeet Singh, a climate activist and Global Engagement Director for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative. He said it acknowledges the need for public funds from developed ...

Developing countries are asking for up to USD 900 billion in public funding from a total of USD 1.3 trillion they seek from developed nations in the new climate finance package for reducing emissions and adapting to the growing impacts of climate change. Negotiators told PTI that the Like-Minded Developing Countries (LMDC) group has called for USD 600 billion in public funding, supplemented by private finance at concessional rates to meet the USD 1.3 trillion goal. Meanwhile, the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) is pushing for USD 900 billion in government funding, while the Arab Group has proposed USD 440 billion. Although developed countries have yet to officially propose a figure, their negotiators indicated that European Union nations are discussing a global climate finance target of USD 200 billion to USD 300 billion per year. EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra told reporters that developed countries want to ascertain the package's components before committing to a

India emphasised that this ambitious, action-oriented approach depends on bold commitments from parties responsible for leading economy-wide emission reductions

Joe Biden witnessed the devastation of drought up close as the first sitting American president to visit the Amazon rainforest on Sunday, declaring that nobody can reverse "the clean energy revolution that's underway in America" even as the incoming Trump administration is poised to scale back efforts to combat climate change. The massive Amazon region, which is about the size of Australia, stores huge amounts of the world's carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas driving climate change. But development is rapidly depleting the world's largest tropical rainforest, and rivers are drying up. Biden said the fight against climate change has been a defining cause of his presidency -- he's pushed for cleaner air, water and energy, including legislation that marked the most substantial federal investment in history to fight global warming. But he's about to hand the nation over to Republican President-elect Donald Trump, who is highly unlikely to prioritise the Amazon or anything related to clima

As world leaders and climate negotiators converge on Baku for COP29, beginning Monday, India is set to bring renewed focus to the urgent need for climate finance, accountability, and protection for vulnerable communities. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not attend the conference, and Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav may also be absent, with Union Minister of State for Environment, Forest, and Climate Change Kirti Vardhan Singh leading the 19-member delegation instead. India's national statement is scheduled for November 18-19. India's key priorities at the conference are likely to focus on ensuring accountability of developed nations on climate finance, strengthening resilience for vulnerable communities, and achieving an equitable energy transition, experts anticipate. Dr. Arunabha Ghosh, CEO of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), emphasised that COP29 must go beyond promises, pushing developed nations to accelerate their paths to net zero and meet their ...

Oil and gas industry associations also pushed back against the cap, arguing it will kill jobs and cut tax revenue

Demand targets, however, are only just over a quarter of the production projects, and progress made so far in the hydrogen sector is not sufficient to meet climate goals, the IEA added

Altogether, these reports help countries coordinate their climate policies action with one another

A change in the pattern and intensity of rainfall like the lack of long periods of widespread rainfall in Uttarakhand has emerged as an important reason for the increase in landslide incidents in the hill state this monsoon. Dr Sunil Nautiyal, Director of Almora-based GB Pant National Himalayan Environment Institute, said that due to the change in the pattern of rainfall linked to climate change factors and the decreasing capacity of the fragile Himalayan region to withstand it, more landslides have occurred this monsoon. "This year widespread rain has occurred only between September 13 and 15, otherwise it remained at local levels throughout the monsoon," he said. Meteorological Department sources in Uttarakhand said that this year an average of 102 mm of rain was recorded in three days between September 13 and 15 and it had occurred widely. Nautiyal said, "Apart from this, there has been a change in the pattern of rainfall in the Himalayan region. Now it starts raining suddenly

Nearly four out of five Indians support criminalising actions by government officials or leaders of large businesses that cause serious damage to nature and the climate, according to a new global survey. The Global Commons Survey 2024, conducted by Ipsos UK and commissioned by Earth4All and the Global Commons Alliance (GCA), also revealed that nearly three out of five (61 per cent) Indians believe that the government is doing enough to tackle climate change and environmental damage. Ninety per cent of them are worried about the state of nature today. Seventy-three per cent of the respondents feel that the Earth is approaching critical environmental "tipping points", where climate or natural systems, such as rainforests or glaciers, may change suddenly or be more difficult to stabilise in the future. Fifty-seven per cent believe that new technologies can resolve environmental issues without requiring significant changes in individual lifestyles, while 54 per cent think that many cla

India usually exports 2 million to 4 million metric tons of corn, but in 2024, exports are expected to drop to 450,000 tons

Climate change is stressing rainforests where the highly sensitive cocoa bean grows, but chocolate lovers need not despair, say companies that are researching other ways to grow cocoa or develop cocoa substitutes. Scientists and entrepreneurs are working on ways to make more cocoa that stretch well beyond the tropics, from Northern California to Israel. California Cultured, a plant cell culture company, is growing cocoa from cell cultures at a facility in West Sacramento, California, with plans to start selling its products next year. It puts cocoa bean cells in a vat with sugar water so they reproduce quickly and reach maturity in a week rather than the six to eight months a traditional harvest takes, said Alan Perlstein, the company's chief executive. The process also no longer requires as much water or arduous labour. We see just the demand of chocolate monstrously outstripping what is going to be available, Perlstein said. There's really no other way that we see that the world .

India on Saturday said the Global South should collectively raise its voice for an ambitious new climate finance goal at the UN climate change conference in Azerbaijan's Baku. Addressing a session of the third Voice of Global South Summit, Union environment ministry secretary Leela Nandan said COP29 must deliver concrete commitments to halt global warming and ensure climate justice. "We must collectively raise our voices in Baku for a transparent, grant-based, concessional and ambitious new collective quantified goal," she said. Financial support to help middle-income and poor countries fight climate change will be at the centre of the UN climate conference in Baku, where world leaders will reach the deadline to agree on the New Collective Quantified Goal -- the new amount developed nations must mobilise every year from 2025 to support climate action in developing countries. Achieving a consensus will not be easy, given the disappointing progress made on the issue at the mid-year U

Developed by Planet Labs PBC with technology from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Tanager-1 will be able to help pinpoint methane and carbon dioxide emissions from individual facilities

As wildfires scorched swaths of land in the wine country of Sonoma County in 2020, sending ash flying and choking the air with smoke, Maria Salinas harvested grapes. Her saliva turned black from inhaling the toxins, until one day she had so much trouble breathing she was rushed to the emergency room. When she felt better, she went right back to work as the fires raged on. What forces us to work is necessity, Salinas said. We always expose ourselves to danger out of necessity, whether by fire or disaster, when the weather changes, when it's hot or cold. As climate change increases the frequency and intensity of wildfires around the world, a new study shows that farmworkers are paying a heavy price by being exposed to high levels of air pollution. And in Sonoma County, the focus of the work, researchers found that a program aimed at determining when it was safe to work during wildfires did not adequately protect farmworkers. They recommended a series of steps to safeguard the worker

The COP29 climate talks in Azerbaijan's Baku is the world's only chance to bridge the gaps in climate action and finance which is crucial to "rebuild trust" among countries and protect lives and livelihoods, Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland has said. In an interview with PTI via Zoom, Scotland said it is important to have the fossil-fuel producers as allies in the fight against climate change. Azerbaijan, the host of this year's UN climate talks, is a small petrostate on the Caspian Sea. Nearly all of its exports are oil and gas. "We are nearing the cliff, the critical 1.5 degrees Celsius limit. In fact, some of our scientists say that we are there now. Our home, our planet, is literally on fire. Instead of action, we see the gaps in emissions, finance, and justice widening. It is our duty to bridge those gaps, and COP is our only chance. It comes at a moment of immeasurable urgency," Scotland said. She said rich countries promised to provide USD 100 billion (one ..

India is not historically responsible for the climate crisis but it should not emulate polluting practices of the West from the 19th century during its development, Commonwealth Secretary General Patricia Scotland has said. In an interview with PTI, Scotland said India has the opportunity to lead a just and equitable energy transition by sharing expertise and technology within the 56-nation club called Commonwealth, which represents 2.7 billion people. She also said that India can exemplify a new, clean and safe development model that can serve as a beacon of hope for the Global South. "India is a developing country, which was not historically responsible for creating this (climate) crisis. So, India is in a similar position to many of the Global South countries. And that is absolutely true," the Commonwealth secretary general said. Despite not causing the crisis, she said, India is suffering from severe climate consequences, including extreme heat, floods and intense monsoons, and