Tagged: COP21

Fixing the NZ Emissions Trading Scheme is just flogging the dead horse - Hot Topic

Mr February • Mar 01, 2016 •

• carbon emissions,
• climate change,
• COP21,
• emissions trading scheme,
• Paris Agreement

Simon Johnson looks at ‘fix the ETS’ metaphors and argues that trying to incrementally ‘save’ or ‘fix’ the NZ Emissions Trading Scheme will ensure it remains ineffective in reducing domestic emissions for decades. Politically, its just flogging the dead horse. We don’t have time for a unending institutionalised cultural conflict over ‘fixing the NZETS’ like the one we have had … Read More

We just had the hottest year on record – where does that leave climate denial? - Guest Work

Guest Author • Jan 26, 2016 •

• climate change,
• climate denial,
• COP21,
• hottest year,
• Paris Agreement

Stephan Lewandowsky, University of Bristol At a news conference announcing that 2015 broke all previous heat records by a wide margin, one journalist started a question with “If this trend continues…” The response by the Director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Gavin Schmidt, summed up the physics of climate change succinctly: “It’s not a question … Read More

Book review: Towards a Warmer World - Scibooks

Sarah-Jane O'Connor • Jan 22, 2016 •

• BWB Texts,
• climate change,
• COP21,
• New Zealand,
• Paris Agreement,
• Towards a warmer world,
• Veronika Meduna

Anyone who was paying attention to global temperatures in 2015 probably knew what was coming on Thursday morning. Yep, 2015 was the hottest year since modern records began in 1880. Though the latter part of the year was boosted by El Niño, 2015 continued a trend of record-breaking temperatures, with 15 of the 16 hottest years occurring since … Read More

2015 hottest year on record - News

Sarah-Jane O'Connor • Jan 21, 2016 •

• climate change,
• climate records,
• COP21,
• El Niño,
• hottest year,
• NASA,
• NIWA,
• NOAA,
• Paris Agreement

It was signposted all year, but North American agencies have confirmed: 2015 was the hottest year since records began in 1880. NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) analysis showed that global surface air temperatures continued a long trend upward: 15 of the 16 warmest years on record have occurred since 2001. Globally-averaged temperatures in 2015 surpassed … Read More

The ‘necessity defence’– should climate activists be allowed to break the law? - Guest Work

Guest Author • Jan 20, 2016 •

• climate activists,
• climate change,
• COP21,
• delta 5,
• Paris Agreement

Tara Smith, Bangor University Can you break the law to stop climate change … and get away with it? That’s exactly what five climate change activists wanted to argue at a recent criminal trial in Seattle, Washington. In September 2014, the group tied themselves to a 25ft (8 metre) high “tripod” over a railway line in Washington State, … Read More

How to play a part in tackling climate change – long after the Paris hype - Guest Work

Guest Author • Jan 11, 2016 •

• climate change,
• COP21,
• Paris Agreement,
• paris climate summit

Stuart Capstick, Cardiff University and Adam Corner, Cardiff University There’s a curious paradox at the heart of climate change. Despite scientists asserting the need for urgent action and the widespread acceptance of the reality of climate change by people worldwide, it is a subject that we tend not to talk about with … Read More

New minister for Climate Change Paula Bennett confirms NZ uses ‘Hot Air’ creative accounting to meet emissions targets - Hot Topic

Mr February • Dec 22, 2015 •

• climate change,
• coal,
• COP21,
• Environment and Ecology,
• fossil fuel emissions,
• New Zealand,
• Paris Agreement,
• paris climate summit,
• paula bennett

New Zealand’s new Minister for Climate Change, Paula Bennett, has just confirmed New Zealand will be “carrying forward” 127 million “Hot Air” emissions units (or offsets) under Kyoto Protocol rules. These units mostly do not represent a tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent reduced somewhere else and yet the Government intends to use them to allow New Zealand’s greenhouse … Read More

Paris: winners and losers - Hot Topic

Cindy Baxter • Dec 21, 2015 •

• climate change,
• COP21,
• Environment and Ecology,
• global warming,
• Paris

What can I add to the millions of words in dozens of languages that have already been written by the thousands of journalists and commentators around the Paris Agreement? We now have a globally binding agreement that really looks like it could curtail the use of a fuel that has been central to our way of life for more than … Read More

Does it matter that Greenpeace journalists lied in order to expose academics-for-hire? - Guest Work

Guest Author • Dec 17, 2015 •

• climate change,
• COP21,
• Greenpeace,
• journalism,
• media,
• paris climate summit,
• Science

Matthew Powers, University of Washington Earlier this fall, Greenpeace announced it was hiring a team of journalists and making investigations a pillar of its advocacy work. Now the public is beginning to see the fruits of that investment, as well as some of the questions that get raised when advocacy groups utilise some of journalism’s more controversial … Read More

Why art has a part to play in tackling climate change - Guest Work

Guest Author • Dec 16, 2015 •

• art,
• artcop21,
• bird yarns,
• christina della giustina,
• climate change,
• COP21,
• deirdre nelson,
• paris climate summit,
• Science,
• thames estuary,
• you are variations

Harriet Hawkins, Royal Holloway Something needs to be done about climate change, that much at least 196 countries agree on. But as the next weeks, months and years see politicians, scientists and industry thrashing out what the “first comprehensive global treaty to combat climate change” means in practice, we collectively face some tough questions. The wrangling … Read More