Tiempo Climate Newswatch

Global carbon dioxide emissions increased by 29 per cent over the nine years to 2008, reports the Global Carbon Project, an international team of scientists, in the latest assessment of the global carbon budget. "The current growth in carbon dioxide emissions is closely linked to growth in Gross Domestic Product," commented contributor Mike Raupach of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Australia. "Carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion have increased 41 per cent above 1990 levels [the baseline for the Kyoto Protocol] with emissions continuing to track close to the worst-case scenario of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change," he continued. "There will be a small downturn in emissions because of the global financial crisis, but emissions growth will resume when the economy recovers unless the global effort to reduce emissions is accelerated."

The latest estimate of the global carbon budget shows that emissions from land-use change have remained almost constant since 2000. They now account for a much smaller proportion of total anthropogenic emissions, dropping from 20 per cent in 2000 to 12 per cent in 2008. The budget also indicates that natural carbon sinks have not been able to keep pace with rising carbon dioxide levels. "On average only 45 per cent of each year’s emissions remain in the atmosphere," said Global Carbon Project member Shobhakar Dhakal from the National Institute for Environmental Studies in Japan. "The remaining 55 per cent is absorbed by land and ocean sinks. However, the carbon dioxide sinks have not kept pace with rapidly increasing emissions, as the fraction of emissions remaining in the atmosphere has increased over the past 50 years. This is of concern as it indicates the vulnerability of the sinks to increasing emissions and climate change, making natural sinks less efficient ‘cleaners’ of human carbon pollution."

Barack Obama, United States president, wants the Copenhagen climate talks in December to result in a global accord that has an immediate practical impact. Speaking after meeting with Chinese president Hu Jintao, he said that "our aim there is... not a partial accord or a political declaration, but rather an accord that covers all the issues in the negotiations and one that has immediate operational effect." "We agreed that each of us would take significant mitigation actions and stand behind these commitments," he continued. "As the two largest consumers and producers of energy, there can be no solution to this challenge without the efforts of both China and the United States."

In Copenhagen, ministers from 42 countries met to discuss proposals to resolve deadlocks hampering progress towards agreement at the forthcoming climate change talks. Denmark has proposed that funds to help developing nations should be pledged for immediate release at the time of the December talks even if a legally-binding global agreement has to be delayed to 2010. Russia is prepared to increase its greenhouse gas emissions target from a 15 per cent reduction below 1990 levels to 20 to 25 per cent, according to the European Union (EU). "With the Copenhagen conference starting in just over two weeks, we have made very important progress today and I very much welcome the signal from President Medvedev today of their proposed emissions reduction target of 20 to 25 per cent," said José Manuel Barroso, European Commission president, after a EU-Russia summit. The new target brings Russia into line with the EU commitment.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has called on policy makers to heed the role of women - who make up the majority of the poor - in combating climate change. The international community’s fight against climate change would be more successful, State of World Population 2009 concludes, if policies, programmes and treaties consider the needs, rights and potential of women. "Poor women in poor countries are among the hardest hit by climate change, even though they contributed the least to it," said UNFPA head Thoraya Ahmed Obaid. "With the possibility of a climate catastrophe on the horizon, we cannot afford to relegate the world's 3.4 billion women and girls to the role of victim," she added. "Wouldn't it make more sense to have 3.4 billion agents for change?"

"There can be no food security without climate security," warned United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon as he opened the United Nations World Summit on Food Security in Rome. The conference ended, though, with no measurable targets nor specific deadlines for aid, leaving only, in Oxfam's words, "crumbs" for commitments. Expressing his regret, summit host Jacques Diouf, head of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, said that "we must move from words to actions. Let us do it for a more prosperous, more just, more equitable and more peaceful world. But above all, let us do it quickly because the poor and the hungry cannot wait." As Diouf noted, the summit did commit to renewed efforts to achieve the first Millennium Development Goal of halving hunger by 2015 as well as improved international coordination through broadened participation by the public and private sector, international funding for agriculture in developing countries and new investments in agricultural production there.