Tiempo Climate Newswatch

The industrialized nations have shown "significant progress" in working out new policies and rules and the 2012 Kyoto targets remain within reach, according to the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The announcement, based on information filed early this year, marked the first anniversary of the date the Kyoto Protocol came into force. Overall emissions from the industrialized nations fell from 18.4 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide in 1990 to 17.3 billion tonnes in 2003.

The Kyoto nations were "on their way to lower their emission levels by at least 3.5 per cent below 1990 levels" by the 2008-12 target period, according to Richard Kinley, acting head of the UNFCCC. With extra measures, Kinley considers that the Kyoto nations could reach the overall target of at least a 5 per cent cut below 1990 levels. But they would have to "sustain or even intensify their efforts," he continued. "More is needed." The UNFCCC Secretariat reckons that the Clean Development Mechanism could cut 800 million tonnes of emissions by 2012, according to Christine Zumkeller, coordinator of the UNFCCC Project-based Mechanisms.

More information

• Reuters
• Financial Times

• Press release, UNFCCC

Plants are losing less water as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rise, and this means that more moisture is left in the soil, according to a recent investigation. The finding may explain why river flow around the world is increasing, although there has been little overall change in rainfall amounts. Nicola Gedney, from the Joint Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Research in the United Kingdom, led the team that conducted the study. She says that the research "answers a key question about what is driving the changes in the global water cycle." "Carbon dioxide is not only a greenhouse gas, it can also affect the world's water directly through plant life."

The effect occurs as high levels of carbon dioxide in the air mean that the plant functions more efficiently. As a result, the stomata, the tiny openings through which plants take in the carbon that supports growth, remain open for less time and less water is "breathed" out. Modelling the process world-wide, the first time this has been attempted, Gedney concludes that "climate change on its own would have slightly reduced run-off, whereas the carbon dioxide effect on plants would have increased global run-off by about 5 per cent." The combined effect matches the change in flow that has been observed in reality.

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Comment

• Guardian
• IOL
• New Scientist

• Press release, Met Office and Centre for Ecology and Hydrology

Scientists meeting in Winnipeg, Canada, to discuss the Canadian Arctic Shelf Exchange Study have warned that climate change is seriously affecting the physical environment of the Arctic and the lives of the Inuit communities. David Barber, of the University of Manitoba, warns that the polar sea ice is melting at a rate of about 74,000 square kilometres a year and this has been the case for the past 30 years. "This is a very significant result, and it's not some sort of trend that's going to shift back the other way," he said. Louis Fortier, from the Université Laval in Quebec City, says that the Inuit are already experiencing the negative effects of climate change and sea-level rise as ice is lost, shorelines erode and food sources disappear.

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service has announced that it is opening the formal process to list polar bears as "threatened" due to the impact of global warming. The move occurs in response to a lawsuit filed by three conservation groups. "These animals need protection now," warned Andrew Wetzler of the Natural Resources Defense Council. "Everything in their lives depends on the ice sheet, and that ice sheet is disappearing at an unprecedented rate. If current pollution levels continue we simply will not recognize the Arctic anymore."

More information

• CTV.ca
• CBC.ca

• E/The Environmental Magazine
• Nunatsiaq News
• Press release, CBD, NRDC, Greenpeace