The IPCC urges the world to act now on climate change…again, British PM Gordon Brown pledges to lead the way while imposing cuts on his environmental department and Al Gore announces plans to raise awareness with, yes, you’ve guessed it, another concert. In the first of our weekly editorial wrap-ups, we’ll tell you all you need to know when it comes to the biggest stories on the planet.
Delegates from more than 130 countries were in Valencia, Spain on Saturday for the unveiling of the latest IPCC report – a 26-page document that summarised the latest scientific knowledge on the causes and effects of climate change, and spelled out the need for governments to act now to cut human-induced greenhouse gas emissions.
The fourth and final part of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report Climate Change 2007 was presented in time for next month’s UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia, where the world’s environment leaders will meet to discuss a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which runs out in 2012.
The IPCC presented its findings just days after Bangladesh suffered its worst cyclone since 1991. With the panel reporting that sea-level rises will hit countries like Bangladesh the hardest, the country is currently facing food, water and medicine shortages and, at the time of going to press, the confirmed death toll stands at 3,000 people.
And UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, having only recently returned from his trip to witness first-hand the effects of climate change in Antarctica, the Torres del Paine in Chile and the Amazon rainforest, urged the world to wake up to the realities of global warming.
“I come to you humbled after seeing some of the most precious treasures of our planet – treasures that are being threatened by humanity’s own hand,” he said. “These scenes are as frightening as a science-fiction movie. But they are even more terrifying, because they are real.”
Earlier in the week and in anticipation of the report, British PM Gordon Brown referred to climate change as an “urgent challenge” threatening not only the environment but also “international peace and security, prosperity and development”.
Brown is set to deliver a keynote speech on climate change in the next few days – but earlier this week his government announced that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) will face £300 million in budget cuts.
The cuts are deemed necessary because of the costs of recent environmental disasters in the UK, including the foot and mouth outbreak and summer flooding.
But the news will add to the concerns held by some environmentalists that Brown will water down the government’s highly-publicised Climate Change Bill, which pledges to cut CO2 emissions in the UK by 60% compared to 1990 levels by 2050. Reports last month indicated Brown could retreat from an EU target to generate 20% of Europe’s energy from renewables by 2020, while plans set out in the recent Queen’s Speech suggest he will increasingly look to nuclear power as a way to cut CO2 emissions and secure energy supply for the UK.
After all that there’s just enough time to tell you that Uma Thurman and Tommy Lee Jones will co-host the 2007 Nobel Peace Concert, which honours Nobel Peace Prize winners Al Gore and the IPCC. Due to take part on 11th December, the day after the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo, Norway, the show will broadcast in more than 100 countries and include performances from Alicia Keys, Annie Lennox and KT Tunstall.
