At the very last minute, 200 nations agreed to extend the Kyoto Protocol to 2020 while a successor to the legally binding agreement on curbing greenhouse gas emissions is re-worded by 2015. While many attendants of the UN climate talks in Doha believed the meeting to be a colossal failure, the addition of a Loss and Damage clause calling for developed nations to stockpile up to $10 billion per year up to 2020 is seen by some as a watershed moment for climate talks.

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Post tags: Climate Change, COP18, Doha, emissions cuts, environmental news, global warming, greenhouse gases, hot air, kyoto protocol, loss and damage mechanism, qatar

The 18th Conference of the Parties or COP18 ends today in colossal failure. Not only have the negotiations failed to produce any meaningful emissions cuts, but ‘Hot Air’ permits that allow countries like Poland and Russia to maintain their heavy industries may even result in more emissions. Talks have stalled for a host of reasons, though most developing nations blame rich countries like the United States, Canada and Japan for refusing to sign an interim successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol that would bind them to emissions reductions.

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Post tags: Climate Change, COP18, Doha, emissions cuts, environmental news, global warming, greenhouse gases, hot air, kyoto protocol, loss and damage mechanism, qatar

There is a lot hanging on the 18th session of the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change currently being held in Doha, Qatar, but with many in the media predicting another Copenhagen, some in the Emirate have taken to the street to make their feelings heard.  On Saturday, over 800 people took part in a march for climate protection, believed to be the first demonstration of its kind to take place in Qatar.

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Post tags: climate change conference, climate change march, climate march, COP18, Doha, qatar, unfccc, UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

The conversation at the COP18 climate change talks in Doha have taken on an urgency unseen in previous meetings, and this time the buzz is most heard among developing nations most likely to get burned by the effects of climate change. As more evidence pours in showing that global temperatures could rise by more than double the two degrees Celsius recommended by scientists and sea levels are rising faster than previously thought, the emphasis has switched from preventing climate change to coping with it. This sentiment is strongest among developing nations that are poorly equipped to handle the loss and damages that they are already experiencing and they are looking to rich nations – the polluters – to take responsibility.

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Post tags: Climate Change, climate change negotiations, climate change talks, COP18, Doha, Doha agreement, global warming, Loss and Damage, qatar, Rich nations, sea level rise

From March to September this year a staggering 4.47 million square miles of Arctic ice melted – that’s an area bigger than the United States. The U.N. World Meteorological Organization said this Arctic ice melt is one of the most extreme and record-breaking weather events of 2012. Yet delegates from nearly 200 countries meeting at the Doha Climate Change Conference can’t come to an agreement to collectively cut emissions to slow global warming.

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Post tags: arctic ice melt bigger than the united states, china, Climate Change, climate change taking place before our eyes, COP18, developing countries, Doha, Doha Climate Change Conference, eradicating poverty before reducing emissions, global warming, greenhouse gas emissions, India, kyoto protocol extension to 2020, record-breaking weather events of 2012, UN climate change talks in Doha, un world meteorological organization, us refuses to sign binding emissions pact, wmo secretary general michael jarrud

A spokesperson for the United States at the 18th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC in Doha, Qatar cited the country’s investments in “fracking” as its contribution to the global goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Long vilified for failing to ratify the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which it initially signed, the U.S. was the biggest spewer of greenhouse gas emissions for many years until China took the lead. This is due in part to a widespread program to replace coal plants throughout the U.S. with shale gas, the extraction of which comes with its own environmental price.

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Post tags: china, climate talks, COP18, Doha, environmental news, fracking, global warming, greenhouse gas emissions, kyoto protocol, Middle East, qatar, UN, unfccc, usa