What should be in the focus of international climate deal?

There are many people who are still convinced in the positive outcome of Cancun climate talks that are just behind the corner. Whether we'll actually see something positive or not it is difficult to tell because even top political analysts have so far been sending us mixed signals about the possible success of international climate deal.

There are four major areas which should be in the focus of new international climate deal: first of all is how to adapt to climate change, second how to curb carbon emissions in order not to make climate change worse than it already is, third transfer of clean technologies from rich to poor countries, and fourth to create international fund for long-term climate financing.

Adapting to climate change would be crucial in years to come, and this is only possible if rich countries help poor countries, after all this should be the moral duty of rich countries since they are the ones that are mostly responsible for climate change issue because of their excessive carbon dioxide emissions.

World will have to significantly curb carbon emissions in years to come. Whether this will be achieved by renewable energy or clean coal technologies doesn't really matter, the most important thing is to get it done, because if we continue with our current levels of carbon emissions climate change impact will continue to grow.

Transfer of clean technologies (renewable energy and some alternative solutions like clean coal technologies) is also something that needs to be done because developing countries are mostly using coal to boost their economies, and coal is the dirtiest fuel of them all. The developing world should focus more on renewable energy technologies, and this is where rich countries should step in and provide adequate knowledge and funds.

World also needs to create international fund for long-term climate financing, because climate change is long-term phenomenon, and world will no doubt need lot of money to adapt to changes that climate change will no doubt bring in years to come. International fund for long-term climate financing is therefore also a necessity.

Cancun climate talks will soon start, and world leaders have once again the chance to do something for our planet, and protect our future generations from the worst that climate change has to offer. Have they learned something from their past mistakes? We'll soon see.

UK not doing enough to decrease carbon emissions

UK will have to seriously increase its efforts in order to ensure low-carbon economy in years to come because based on the last report UK will need to triple its current efforts towards cutting emissions in order to transform to a low-carbon economy by 2050.

According to the latest report by wildlife charity WWF and innovation company Ecofys UK is well behind Germany, Denmark, Ireland and Sweden on the overall efforts to cut carbon emissions and transform to a low-carbon economy.

Carbon emissions can be decreased on several different ways, for instance by adding more renewable power to energy grid or improving energy efficiency. At this moment UK is well behind Denmark and Germany on renewables, behind Ireland on energy efficiency and behind France and the Czech Republic on cutting emissions associated with buildings.

Overall speaking, UK belongs to the average category when describing EU countries efforts to cut carbon emissions by between 80% and 95% by mid-century. Average is definitely not enough for UK because UK certainly wants to become one of clean energy leaders in years to come.

Though UK was the first country in the world that set the legally binding long-term targets for cutting emissions in form of Climate Change Act, this is far from being enough, and UK will have to look its current policies regarding renewable energy and efficiency in order to get on the right track.

Renewable energy sector in UK is currently experiencing positive trend in UK, which cannot be said about the issues connected with energy efficiency, transport and industry.

Climate change again becoming hot topic

Climate change is currently one of the hottest topics, which is of course the result of Cancun climate talks, where world leaders will try to clean the mess that was left by Copenhagen, or what is more likely create even bigger mess and lead this world to the brink of total environmental disaster.

It is difficult to be optimist about it, especially after so many disappointments, and the current political climate looks anything but ready to find the way to significantly lower emissions on global level. US is not ready to lead the world, China isn't giving up on coal, renewable energy sector is still not developed, and the differences between countries are still pretty much the same as they were last year in Copenhagen.

New, legally binding climate deal therefore looks more like a nice dream after which it's time to get back in the harsh reality. And this reality will likely become even harsher in years to come because climate change will likely very soon pass the point of no return, namely the 2C temperature increase.

The two largest CO2 emitters in the world are China and United States, and so any success of climate deal will primarily depend upon the will of these two countries to significantly curb their own emissions.

The difference in opinions between developed and developing world is still the biggest obstacle that will likely undermine all current climate efforts, and yet again postpone the decisive political action.

What to expect from Cancun climate talks? A lot of expectations resulting in one huge disappointment is the most likely scenario.

What must world do to stop climate change?

These are the most important things world needs to do in order to stop climate change from strengthening its impact:

1. Significantly reduce the global level of greenhouse gas emissions, not only carbon dioxide (CO2) but also other greenhouse gases such as methane.

2. Agree on new international climate deal that would legally oblige countries to curb their emissions. Kyoto protocol definitely needs much stronger successor to make the difference.

3. Listen to science, and ensure better funding for science researches that study the climate change phenomenon. Climate change is extremely complex and multidimensional issue which is why science needs all the help it can get in form of adequate funding.

4. Stop deforestation in Amazon rainforests, and other large rainforests and forests on our planet because these forests absorb huge quantities of CO2.

5. Stop the ocean acidification because this could disrupt the ability of oceans to sink CO2, and they are currently, together with rainforests, the largest CO2 absorbers on our planet.

6. Develop renewable energy sector to get more energy from renewable energy, and decrease the fossil fuels consumption because burning fossil fuels creates harmful carbon emissions.

7. Significantly improve energy efficiency. By improving energy efficiency world would also decrease its need for energy coming from fossil fuels which would result in less CO2 emissions.

Cancun climate talks success or not?

It is very difficult to characterize Cancun climate talks as successful. True, there were some small steps forward like the decision to give more money to poor countries in a form of a Green Climate Fund that would give $100 billion a year in aid to poor nations by 2020 (though the mechanism for raising this amount of money each year is still unclear). Other positive notes include certain measures to protect tropical forests and ways to share clean energy technologies.

But despite these positive things world leaders still failed on the most important thing of them all, namely there was no progress at all in extending the Kyoto protocol and oblige countries to curb their carbon emissions.

Most of world leaders will likely describe Cancun climate talks like U.S. president Obama did by saying that "the Cancun meeting was a success and advances the world's response to climate change". Of course, most environmentalists will not agree with such statements.

Niklas Hoehne, director of energy and climate policy at consultancy Ecofys, believes that this isn't enough to halt temperature rise, and that existing government policies will lead to a rise in world temperatures of about 3.6 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial times.

The best way to describe this year's climate talks in Cancun would be "not a total failure like Copenhagen last year but still not a step forward many of us were expecting".

The next climate talks will be held at the end of 2011 in South Africa.

Arctic ice could even recover?

Many scientists support the thesis that once temperatures reach "tipping point" then the climate change will eventually push the Arctic's ice towards the total melting, meaning that Arctic summer ice would completely disappear.

Among scientists who do not agree with this opinion is Steven Amstrup, a professor at the University of Washington. Professor Amstrup in his recent study concluded that "There is no 'tipping point' that would result in unstoppable loss of summer sea ice when greenhouse gas-driven warming rose above a certain threshold".

The most recent reports claim that Arctic ice has shrank by close to 20 percent in the last few decades, and many scientists are worried that if the current warming trend (regional temperature at Arctic has in the same period increased twice or triple the global average) at Arctic continues in years to come Arctic will become totally free of ice during summer months.

Professor Amstrup has based his study on computer models, and his study showed that if annual emissions of greenhouse gases are significantly reduced over the next twenty years, an initial phase of rapid ice loss would afterward be replaced by a period of stability and, eventually, partial recovery.

This would in the best possible scenario mean that polar bears might actually get a decent chance to survive because after some time Arctic could recover enough ice, which would give polar bears more habitat needed to stop the further population decline.

Many polar bears are dying of hunger because the ice has started melting much sooner in the spring which has significantly shortened their hunting season. World needs to do something fast or Arctic' largest predator will soon come to the very brink of the extinction.

Cancun climate talks have showed certain positive outlook but world needs to transform this into legally obliging international climate deal. This shouldn't be done only to protect polar bears from extinction but also to ensure our future generations healthy planet, free of environmental disasters such as droughts, floods, sea level rise, etc.

The most mentioned climate change threats

Here are some of the most mentioned climate change threats:

More frequent extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, hurricanes which will not only create huge environmental but also huge economic damage.

Arctic totally free of summer ice, and rapid melting of Antarctica's ice. This could cause serious sea level rise, and threaten many coastal areas around the globe.

More hunger in the world, because of new pests and new diseases that will have the negative impact on crop health. More hunger in the world could lead to new wars.

Severe water shortages in some parts of the world. This, just like hunger issue, could lead to new wars.

More refugees. Climate change has the potential to make living impossible in certain areas of our planet which could turn lot of people into refugees.

Extinction of many animal and plant species. We are not talking only about polar bears but many other animals which will find it hard to adapt to rapid changes in climate. Biodiversity loss is already a huge problem, and in years to come it could reach catastrophic proportions.

Climate change and glacier melting - Latest data

There have been many studies conducted with the purpose of determining the level of glacier melting and shrinkage in years to come, and the latest comes from the the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Here are some of the most interesting conclusions of this study:

1. Mountain glaciers and ice caps are projected to lose 15-27% of their volume by 2100, though this will significantly vary by region. It is expected that European Alps and New Zealand will shrink the most (by more than 70%) while on the other hand shrinkage is predicted to reach about 10% in Greenland and high-mountain Asia.

2. Melting of the glaciers will threaten the water supplies of cities such as Kathmandu in Nepal and La Paz in Bolivia, which depend substantially on glacial meltwater for drinking and farming.

3. Melting glaciers and ice caps will be responsible for increases in sea levels of 8.7-16.1cm by 2100 (this doesn't include ice loss from calving).

4. Total sea level rise is likely to be considerably higher but glacier melting has made a growing contribution to sea level rise over past decades.

5. Mountain glaciers and ice caps include less than one percent of all water on Earth bound in glacier ice but despite this their retreat has caused half of sea level rises from melting ice over the past 50 years.

Climate change in 2011 - What needs to change?

The year 2010 was the year of big expectations, and there were many environmentalists who believed that world would be finally able to stop the further increase in CO2 emissions by agreeing on new climate deal. Sadly, Cancun climate talks, despite providing some glimpses of optimism, still weren't successful in uniting the world to tackle the climate change, well at least not in the form of new international climate deal which would oblige countries to significantly reduce their CO2 emissions.

Will we see a change for better in 2011, and will this be a year when the world will finally act as one in order to agree the so much needed successor to Kyoto protocol, or will once again the differences in opinion between developed and developing countries prove to be too much of the stumbling block for world leaders to unite?

World leaders still prefer talk instead of the real action so don't be surprised if the 2011 ends up in similar tone like the 2010, namely plenty of expectations, with not much positive in the end. I would really like to think otherwise but the way things have been going lately it is very difficult to remain optimistic about it.

World leaders still do not realize that there is no time to delay on climate change. Time is running out, and climate change is becoming stronger and stronger, after all the year 2010 was the joint warmest year on record.

The thing that needs to change the most about the climate change in 2011 is the way world leaders look at it, or to be more precise world leaders should add the factor of urgency when discussing climate change, and they should stop talking about this issue like they have all the time in the world to tackle it.

Inactivity means stronger climate change impact, and the more stronger climate change gets the more closer this world is to a state of total environmental and economic disaster where large parts of the world will be inhabitable, with millions people as refugees.

More commitment and more urgency in tackling the climate change issue are two main things that need to change in 2011. Without these two, yet another year will end up in disappointing tone.

Greenland ice melting in 2010 facts

The year 2010 was the warmest year on record, and Greenland being one of the most sensitive areas to increased temperatures, certainly felt the effects of that by having 50 days longer melting period in many areas, from the end of April till the mid September.

2010 summer temperatures in Greenland were 3C above the average, and this is the main reason why Greenland experienced this prolonged period of melting.

This year, the largest city in Greenland, Nuuk, experienced the warmest spring and summer in history since the measurements began in 1873.

Greenland ice melting is one of the main contributing factors to global sea level rise, and there is large number of scientists such as WWF climate specialist Dr. Martin Sommerkorn who believe that sea levels will rise by more than 1 meter till the end of this century. Scientists have calculated that Greenland ice melt currently contributes to global sea level rise at about .02 inches a year, but the potential impact is enormous.

According to the Marco Tedesco, director of the Cryospheric Processes Laboratory at The City College of New York, in 2010 an area of the size of France melted in Greenland.

Greenland has about one-twentieth of the world's total ice, and if all of this ice were to melt this would cause 21 feet of global sea rise.

Despite the record ice melting in 2010, it is estimated that the scenario in which Greenland would lose all its ice would take at least few centuries to be completed. However, once rapid melting starts (and it certainly looks like this process has already started) it is extremely difficult to reverse it, and this is one of the main reasons why world leaders should finally agree new climate deal which would limit greenhouse gas production. This is really world's only chance to stop further ice melting at Greenland.