Despite intense climate worries, electorates have been unwilling to spend the trillions needed to cut emissions dramatically. That is why climate campaigners have increasingly pursued a new strategy: forcing climate policy through courts. Across the (...)
After two weeks, huge amounts of political rhetoric, and much activity behind closed doors, we have a treaty. While there will be celebrations among activists, the Paris Treaty will do very little to rein in temperature reductions.
The Paris Treaty (...)
In the build-up to Paris, activists and celebrities have been banging the drum for action. Part of this has involved talking up the effects of global warming.
US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders' warns that "climate change is directly related (...)
The suburb of Alajo is about as far from the posh hotels of Paris as you could get. But the bureaucrats and politicians here in France are negotiating a climate treaty to "help the world's poorest", including billions of dollars of guarantees of (...)
The UN climate chief, Christiana Figueres, would like the world to know that climate change is considered the most urgent issue around the world.
Her agency produced a report, Surprising Citizens' Views on Climate Change, in partnership with (...)
When you go shopping – whether at the corner store, or at the ritzy Galeries Lafayette or Printemps here in Paris – you expect to know what you are spending on and what you are getting.
Strangely, when it comes to global climate treaties, our (...)
In this blog written from the Paris climate summit, I have criticised activists and participants for a fixation on "climate aid". I have argued that this is not what the world's poor want or need.
It is interesting to look at a real-life example. (...)
There is not one single climate activist in sight here at the climate summit venue in Le Bourget on the outskirts of Paris. Understandably, the area is effectively sealed off, so there is not much of an audience.
While many planned marches have been (...)
One of the things we are hearing more and more about here in Paris is so-called "climate aid". There has been a huge push from climate NGOs to convince rich countries to spend a fortune to help poor countries adjust to global warming. This term is a (...)
There's a lot of focus now on the politics of Paris. Will poor countries get the "climate aid" they want? Will China agree to reduce its growth, leaving millions more in poverty, by committing to far-reaching carbon cuts? What will be the wording of (...)
If you do not learn from history, you are bound to repeat it. Here in Saint-Denis, northern Paris, a history lesson is sorely needed.
Thousands are gathering here for the 21st international global warming meeting. Hotels are already near-full, (...)
COPENHAGEN: Discussions about global warming are marked by an increasing desire to stamp out "impure thinking, to the point of questioning the value of democratic debate. But shutting down discussion simply means the disappearance of reason from (...)
When it comes to global warming, extreme scare stories abound. Al Gore, for example, famously claimed that a whopping six meters of sea-level rise would flood major cities around the world.
Gore's scientific advisor, Jim Hansen from NASA, has (...)
Whatever the outcome of the United States' presidential election, climate change policy will be transformed. Both candidates have placed great importance on global warming. Republican John McCain believes that it presents "a test of foresight, of (...)
Since time immemorial, people have worried about the earth's future. We once believed that the sky would fall. More recently we worried that the planet might freeze, and then that technology would grind to a halt because of a computer bug that was (...)
It's possible to see, right now, what global warming will eventually do to the planet. To peek into the future, all we have to do is go to Beijing, Athens, Tokyo, or, in fact, just about any city on Earth.
Most of the world's urban areas have (...)
This year's Nobel Peace Prize justly rewards the thousands of scientists of the United Nations Climate Change Panel (the IPCC). These scientists are engaged in excellent, painstaking work that establishes exactly what the world should expect from (...)
The organizers of today's Live Earth concerts hope that the entire world will hear a crystal clear message: climate change is the most critical threat facing the planet. Planned by former US Vice President Al Gore, Live Earth will be the biggest, (...)
Almost two weeks ago, the European Union declared that it had practically saved the planet. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso claimed that Europe would lead the way on climate change, and the EU promised to cut carbon-dioxide (...)
Almost two weeks ago, the European Union declared that it had practically saved the planet. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso claimed that Europe would lead the way on climate change, and the EU promised to cut carbon-dioxide (...)
You would have had to be stuck in deepest Mongolia to avoid hearing that the United Nations climate panel, the IPCC, issued a new report last week. Perhaps even in the depths of Mongolia, you would have heard the dire warnings emitted by (...)