By Matthew Moore Published: 11:00AM GMT 11 Dec 2009
1) Carbon dioxide (CO2) While composing just 0.04 per cent of the atmosphere, carbon dioxide is the focus of efforts to counter global warming because levels have increased significantly since industrialisation, through the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation.
2) Methane (CH4) Tonne for tonne, methane is around 30 times more damaging to the atmosphere than CO2. Produced mainly through agriculture – from burping cows to rotting... Read Full Story
Political, costly, and likely to choke off growth. That's how the energy industry and companies that use a lot of energy describe the Environmental Protection Agency's announcement that greenhouse gas emissions are a danger and must be regulated. The Supreme Court declared that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are pollutants and could be regulated under the Clean Air Act in 2007, but oil companies, utilities and large manufacturers had anticipated new federal laws long before that... Read Full Story
1750 — Before Industrial Revolution, atmosphere holds 280 parts per million of heat-trapping carbon dioxide (CO2). 1898 — Swedish scientist Svante Ahrrenius calculates that CO2 from coal and oil burning will warm the planet. 1955 — U.S. scientist Charles Keeling finds atmospheric CO2 has risen to 315 parts per million. 1971 — First international conference on climate change is held in Sweden. 1986 — Atmospheric CO2 reaches 350 ppm. 1988 — NASA scientist James Hansen tells U.S. Congress... Read Full Story
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - More than half of the 32 countries qualified for the soccer World Cup have committed to or support offsetting emissions from teams' flights to and within South Africa, the United Nations said on Tuesday. "We have worked on this in the past few weeks," U.N. Environment Programme chief Achim Steiner told a news conference on the sidelines of the Copenhagen climate conference on Monday. "We hope we will have a 100 percent record." Travel by teams and fans will account for... Read Full Story
President Barack Obama strode into office backed by a Democratic majority in Congress and pledged to do something his predecessor had not: set mandatory limits on global warming gases and show that the U.S. was ready to tackle a problem it played a lead role in creating. Nearly a year into his presidency, Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress have fallen short of their own expectations on climate change as they prepare to attend international negotiations that begin this week. There's no... Read Full Story
(Reuters) - Business groups reacted with alarm and environmentalists with applause to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's formal declaration Monday that greenhouse gas emissions endanger human health, clearing the way for federal regulation. BUSINESS: KEITH MCCOY, VICE PRESIDENT OF ENERGY AND RESOURCES POLICY, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MANUFACTURERS "The NAM supports cost-effective efforts to address climate change but believes the appropriate authority to address this is through... Read Full Story
The US government was expected Monday to pave the way to regulate carbon dioxide as a dangerous pollutant, offering a boost to the global climate summit as it got underway in Copenhagen. A decision by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would let US authorities impose regulations to reduce carbon emissions, even if the divided Congress does not approve legislation to do so. The EPA said that its chief, Lisa Jackson, would make a "significant climate announcement" at 1:15 pm (1815 GMT... Read Full Story
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan will stick to its 2020 target at upcoming talks to fight global warming while considering to reduce a cost burden on local CO2 emitting industries, State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Tetsuro Fukuyama, said on Sunday. The comments came in the face of growing concerns among companies here that if Japan, the world's No.5 greenhouse gas emitter, promises a tough 2020 target in a deal to which other major emitting countries are not bound, that would hurt profits, in... Read Full Story
1750 — Before Industrial Revolution, atmosphere holds 280 parts per million of heat-trapping carbon dioxide (CO2). 1898 — Swedish scientist Svante Ahrrenius calculates that CO2 from coal and oil burning will warm the planet. 1955 — U.S. scientist Charles Keeling finds atmospheric CO2 has risen to 315 parts per million. 1971 — First international conference on climate change is held in Sweden. 1986 — Atmospheric CO2 reaches 350 ppm. 1988 — NASA scientist James Hansen tells U.S. Congress... Read Full Story
By John Paul Morgan The words carbon credits and carbon trading usually come up in conferences and events on the dangers of global warming, but these concepts are still unfamiliar to most people. Carbon trading is a system under which greenhouse gas emissions are capped under the Kyoto Protocol, and these caps are then allotted throughout the world market in such a way as to promote lower emissions or decrease release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Governments and industrial... Read Full Story
