Tiempo Climate Newswatch

The latest draft negotiating text on long-term cooperative action under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was reviewed by a contact group at the Bonn Climate Change Talks and then circulated to delegates to facilitate discussion before the text is considered formally at the next negotiating session in August. While environmental groups welcomed the manner in which the negotiating text was developing, it was clear that a number of issues remained to be resolved.

During the final plenary session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA), the United States noted "unacceptable" elements in the draft text, saying that it moved away from the agreement in Copenhagen, and observed that there is no presumption that the text can be used as a draft going forward. Yemen, for the G-77/China grouping, described the draft text as "unbalanced" due to the removal of the G-77/China's proposals and insisted that it be revised to better reflect developing country concerns before it is discussed formally. Grenada, speaking for the Alliance of Small Island States, lamented deletion of references to Least Developed Countries, Small Island Developing States and Africa. Despite this criticism, many developing countries stressed their support for the AWG-LCA Chair, Margaret Mukahanana-Sangarwe, acknowledging that she had prepared the advance draft in good faith.

Saving the sperm whale may have an unexpected benefit in terms of offsetting carbon emissions. Researchers at the Flinders University in Australia have estimated that these whales remove 400,000 tonnes of carbon each year as iron released in their faeces stimulates removal of carbon by boosting phytoplankton growth.

According to Trish Lavery, the lead researcher, sperm whales "have certainly gone past the carbon-neutral status that we all aspire to, and they're actually sinking more carbon from the atmosphere each year into the deep ocean... than what they add to the atmosphere." Were it not for commercial whaling, they would be disposing of ten times as much carbon. "If we hadn't decreased sperm whale populations from their historical levels," Lavery said, "we'd have an extra about two million tonnes of carbon being pulled out of our atmosphere every year."

Global warming could increase hazard risk in alpine areas, according to European researchers. Studying the impact of the 2003 heatwave and the 2005 floods in the European Alps as an analogue for the consequences of climate change, the researchers concluded that global warming would "have a significant impact on hazard type, location and frequency and a potentially negative effect on the region's economic engine – tourism," according to Jasper Knight of the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom.

The 2003 heatwave caused record glacier loss, three times above the 1980-2000 average, and melting permafrost resulted in increased rockfalls. In Switzerland, it is estimated that the 2005 floods caused one quarter of all damage by floods, debris flows, landslides and rock falls recorded since 1972. In Austria, the floods were responsible for an estimated €555 million worth of damage to buildings, railways, roads and industrial areas. The greatest hazards tend to be concentrated in mountaineering and skiing areas.