Climate Change

Five out of the world’s six largest listed oil companies risk wasting over 30% of their spending – with a total value of $2.3 trillion – on projects that are not aligned with goals of the Paris Agreement. They therefore need to reconsider investments in order to protect the interests of investors. This is the main conclusion of a new ...

Parts of Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and the United States of America have seen extremely high May and June temperatures, with a number of records broken. The heatwaves are unusually early and are occurring as the Earth experiences another exceptionally warm year. Average global surface temperatures over land and sea were the second highest on record for the ...

The Republic of Moldova on Tuesday, June 20, 2017 deposited its instrument of ratification of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Consequent upon this development, Moldova has emerged the 149th country to endorse the global treaty. According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Moldova’s ratification of the pact will enter into force in a month’s time on Thursday, ...

Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Patricia Espinosa, said on Tuesday, June 29, 2017 at the Austrian World Summit themed: “From Sustainable Goals to Real Action”, organised by the group R20 Regions of Climate Action, that it is the collective responsibility of society to make every man, woman and child an action hero or champion. The ...

President Donald Trump’s stand notwithstanding, U.S. cities and states are increasingly seeking ways to play an active role in international climate change efforts. In an apparent move to complement this role, the Sabin Centre for Climate Change Law of Columbia Law School has released a new resource to help them engage in climate action. The report, entitled “Act Locally, Reflect ...

Sweden last week passed a legislation which legally binds the country to reach net-zero emissions by the year 2045, five years earlier than previously planned. The new Climate Act, passed in parliament with an overwhelming majority vote (254 against 41), is believed to be more ambitious than what Sweden pledged under the Paris Climate Change Agreement. The Paris Agreement commits ...

The announcement by the President of the United States in June 2017 that the US would withdraw from the Paris Climate Change Agreement appears to have sparked a lot of interest in how a Party can withdraw, should they decide to do so. In this piece, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), attempts to clarify the basic process, ...

Ahead of the writing of the Paris Rulebook and preparations for the 2018 Facilitative Dialogue, Major Groups attending this year’s Pre-AMCEN sessions have called on African governments to take stock of the current status of implementation of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and identify barriers that need to be addressed with a view to enhancing ambition beyond what currently exists as NDCs. ...

Gatwick Airport in the UK and Lyon-Saint Exupéry in France are the latest airports to go entirely carbon neutral with the help of the United Nations, bringing the total number of such airports in Europe up to 27. The airport’s carbon neutral status is certified by the independent carbon management programme Airport Carbon Accreditation under Airport Council International (ACI), which ...

Faith-based organisations have called on U.S. President Donald Trump to give a second thought to his decision to pull the country out of the Paris Agreement on climate change. Representatives of the faith groups, who are preparing for an inter-faith gathering, on Thursday, June 8, 2017 expressed deep concern about the US decision. “To care for creation, is a moral ...