Tiempo Climate Newswatch

China is proposing to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 846 millions tons annually through the installation of energy-saving technologies in new buildings. "If all of the national energy-saving standards have been fully implemented by 2020, China will be greatly contributing towards curbing global warming," said Minister of Construction Wang Guangtao. Vice-Minister of Construction Qiu Baoxing said the proposal could bring business opportunities for Chinese real estate developers, who may trade emission quotas with developed countries. The announcement was made at an international exhibition and forum on green and smart buildings in Beijing.

Targets have already been set for saving energy in real estate development. By 2010, all new buildings should be 50 per cent more energy-efficient then in 2005. One real estate developer called for economic incentives to promote the campaign. "The extra cost is the major reason why the market is slow to react," said Zhang Jun. Vice-Premier Zeng Peiyan regards the nation-wide energy-saving campaign as crucial because of resource shortages. "If we don't take action now the situation will become worse," he said.

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Background

• People's Daily Online

• Satisfying China's demand for energy, BBC
• China: Environmental issues, EIA

Climate change is increasing the number of the most severe tropical storms, according to a recent study. The research includes processes, such as wind shear, neglected in previous work. "We were criticized by the seasonal forecasters for not including the other environmental factors," said Kerry Emanuel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Analysing the number of category four and five hurricanes alongside a range of environmental factors, sea surface temperature emerged as the only factor that could explain the observed rising trend.

Review of over 100 studies of trends in the global water cycle reveals that, although the global water cycle has intensified overall, there has been no consistent increase in the total number of storms or of floods. "We are talking about two possible overall responses to global climate warming: first an intensification of the water cycle being manifested by more moisture in the air, more precipitation, more runoff, more evapotranspiration, which we do see in this study; and second, the potential effects of the intensification that would include more flooding and more tropical storms which we don't see in this study," said Thomas Huntington of the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences.

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• Guardian
• Press release, IFP

• Science Daily

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, speaking in New Zealand, has called for urgent action on a post-Kyoto climate agreement. "I don't believe that we can wait five years to conclude a new agreement. I think we've got to do it much more quickly than that," he told a climate change conference in Wellington. He argued that "such an agreement, if it's going to be successful, has got to include all the major countries of the world and that includes the major developing economies."

He believes that new technology will be a critical factor in limiting climate change. "It's almost as if we've got to produce the type of technological revolution that gripped us with information technology," he said. While in Australia, Blair gave a broad endorsement to the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate. "I think the fact that you've got these initiatives at the moment, all tending in the same direction, is actually a positive sign, it's not a negative one," he said, arguing that such initiatives could eventually be brought together. Back home, the Blair government has been accused of a "pitiful" failure to meet its target for greenhouse gas emissions reductions.

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• Reuters
• Stuff

• New Zealand Herald
• Guardian
• Leader, Guardian