Climatico

Mexico’s social protection policies: can they tackle climate risks?

Krishna Krishnamurthy — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:54:31 +0000

PROGRESA/Oportunidades: Social protection in Mexico (Image by: Peter Bate, IDB, 2004)

Global environmental change, particularly in the form of global warming, exacerbates the risks faced by vulnerable rural communities whose livelihoods depend on climate-sensitive activities. The occurrence of immediate climate shocks, such as unseasonal droughts or floods, negatively affects food systems, thereby reducing the economic welfare of rural populations. Climate change is essentially a developmental challenge.

Within the context of climate change, the frequency and impact ... Read More...

France Pushes for Carbon Tax by July 2010

jennhelgeson — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 09:29:41 +0000

The French government is working towards implementation of a direct carbon tax by July 2010. France’s Constitutional Council struck down the first version of the carbon tax bill last 29 December. On 21 January 2010, the government proposed a number of amendments to the original legislation, which is aimed at encouraging French consumers to be more energy efficient and conscious of their energy decisions.

The first version of the bill was ... Read More...

Canada and Oil Sands contest future energy markets

Chris Fellingham — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 19:22:19 +0000

In January 2010, California passed regulation over Green House gases by determining the pollution of fuels coming into California: LA times has coverage here:

“The Air Resources Board voted 9 to 1 in favor of the complex new rule, which is expected to slash the state’s gasoline consumption by a quarter in the next decade”

The move was historic with California, evidently not unnerved enough by the state’s precarious financial position to press ... Read More...

Canada changes targets to match US pledges: will convergence lead to more action?

Derek Pieper — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 02:39:26 +0000

Canada has slightly adjusted its mid-term climate mitigation targets to match US pledges. Canada’s Environment Minister, Jim Prentice, recently announced that Canada has changed its mitigation goals in an effort to harmonize with the Obama administration.

Canada’s new emissions reduction target for 2020 is a cut of 17% on 2005 levels. Heading into the Copenhagen meeting this past December Canada’s mid-term target was a 20% reduction on 2006 levels by 2020. This adjustment ... Read More...

African Bound – Unchartered Territory for CDM

Roddy Boyd — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:41:32 +0000

Wind farm in Africa (Image by: lollie pop)

The United Nations’ Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) adopted a novel project approach to countering or offsetting developed countries’ emissions. The most visible and controversial component of the Kyoto Protocol has made large political and regional advances since its inception.

However, when it comes to global distribution of the projects that are actually generating carbon offsets, it falls short. Nowhere has this been felt more, than on the African ... Read More...

China’s Copenhagen Pledges

Alexander Kirykowicz — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 03:14:02 +0000

Mystery in China (Image by: **Maurice**)

China’s Copenhagen pledges, along with fifty four other nations, have recently been announced. China has pledged to reduce its carbon dioxide emission per unit of GDP by 40-45% by 2020 compared to 2005 levels, raise the level of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to 15% and increase forest coverage by 40 million hectares with a rise in forest stock volume of 1.3 billion cubic metres by 2020 from ... Read More...

Australia’s climate policy backlash

Adeline Dontenville — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 23:26:31 +0000

Australia’s cap and trade system, the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS), is being reintroduced into Parliament this week, after two rejections in 2009 (see here and here). However, it is almost certain that it will fail again, following decreasing public support for the policy after the Copenhagen conference and Tony Abbott’s ascension to the opposition leadership.

To start with, public support for Prime minister Kevin Rudd’s flagship policy has dived 10 points from 66 ... Read More...

Mexico’s vulnerability to hurricane risk

Krishna Krishnamurthy — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:33:31 +0000

The extremely high hurricane season of 2005 highlighted the vulnerability of coastal communities to extreme weather events. The costliest (Katrina) and the most intense (Wilma) hurricanes were recorded in this season.

Hurricane formation is closely linked to sea surface temperature. Climate models agree that the intensity and frequency of hurricanes will increase over the next few decades as a result of anthropogenic climate change.

This poses important developmental and policy challenges to Mexico.

Developmental challenges

The economic losses associated ... Read More...

China & Green GDP

Alexander Kirykowicz — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:08:30 +0000

Environmentally friendly in Chengdu, China (image by: preetamrai)

Back in the mid-2000s China began to experiment with the notion of Green GDP as a new way of accounting for its growth in an environmental context. This was touched on in a previous blog post, but I thought a more in depth look into exactly what Green GDP showed and why it failed would provide some insight.

The Green GDP for 2004 was published in ... Read More...

Obama’s first State of the Union - a disappointment from the climate perspective

Ruth Brandt — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 22:19:54 +0000

The past week has marked Barack Obama’s first State of the Union address, where the president traditionally outlines his agenda and priorities for the coming year, as well as reporting on the condition of the United States. As far as climate change is concerned, Obama seems to be continuing the approach we have seen him taking in the past months – while it is probably important to him, there are apparently many other issues ... Read More...