Tiempo Climate Newswatch

The draft declaration before the July 8-10th summit of the Group of Eight (G8) leading industrialized nations in Italy calls on the major developing nations to take on actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions "in an indicative range below business as usual," according to Japanese media reports. It is proposed that a public-private green technology fund will be launched to assist developing nations.

The draft document urges all major economies to share the goal of halving greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050, a wording accepted at last year's G8 summit. There is, however, no reference to a target for the year 2020. It is also reported that the United States will endorse the goal of limiting global warming to no more than two degrees Celsius at the G8 meeting. The summit will be chaired by Barack Obama, United States president. Europeans "want to seize this moment to push as hard as they can on the Americans to get significant... targeted commitments," according to Heather Conley from the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC. "They know that this is going to be a very careful walk along the road to Copenhagen in December and they're going to publicly praise and privately push hard," she said.

The World Bank has launched a new programme, Eco² Cities: Ecological Cities as Economic Cities, to help cities in developing countries achieve greater ecological and economic sustainability. "Global urban expansion sets forth before us a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to plan, develop, build and manage cities that are simultaneously more ecologically and economically sustainable," said Katherine Sierra, World Bank vice president for sustainable development. "We have a short time horizon before us. The decisions we make together today, can lock in systemic benefits for current and future generations."

A three-part report presents the programme’s analytical and operational framework, alongside effective methods and tools. The guidance derives from the experiences, challenges and lessons learnt from cities around the world. Best-practice cities such as Curitiba, Singapore, Stockholm and Yokohama provide strong examples of what can be achieved. By increasing resource efficiency while decreasing pollution and unnecessary waste, these cities "have improved the quality of life of their citizens, enhanced their economic competitiveness and resilience, strengthened their fiscal capacity, and created an enduring 'culture' of sustainability," according to Hiroaki Suzuki, the programme's team leader.

An El Niño weather pattern seems almost certain this year, according to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. "El Niño is a little bit like recession, you are in it before you can say you have one. If it continues as it is now, the historians will say the El Niño started in May," said David Jones from the Bureau.

"Typically, an El Niño has the potential to disrupt the rainy seasons and cause lower rainfall in India, Australia, Southeast Asia - Philippines and Indonesia - southern Africa and Central America," commented Robert Stefanski of the World Meteorological Organization. "In past El Niño events, droughts have occurred and lowered food production in many of these regions." The prospect of El Niño developing has led to a lowering of the long-range monsoon rainfall forecast, reports India's Ministry of Science and Technology.