The Cycle of Conferences

Tough carbon cuts 'key' to climate funding

Tough carbon cuts 'key' to climate funding. Norway's Prime Mininster Jens Stoltenberg led a UN-commissioned task force that has explored ways to raise $100 billion per year, agreed by most nations at the Copenhagen summit as a target for 2020. Many developing countries maintain the $100bn figure is not large enough.

The group - chaired by Mr Stoltenberg and Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and called the High-level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing - was commissioned by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to find ways of raising the money, given that public funding on this scale was unlikely to materialise.

Their report was formally presented to the UN climate summit in Cancun this week.

Two thirds of states seen highly vulnerable to climate change by 2030

Two thirds of states seen highly vulnerable to climate change by 2030. The "Climate Vulnerability Monitor", backed by leading climate experts, assesses 184 countries according to the estimated effects of climate change in four key areas: health; weather disasters; human habitat loss from rising seas and desertification; and economic stresses on natural resources and other relevant sectors.

States are judged to have low, moderate, high, severe or acute vulnerability for each of these, and then given an overall rating.

By 2030, if no action is taken, 132 countries will register an overall factor of high vulnerability or above, the report says. Fifteen states, most of them in Africa, are already acutely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and that group will expand to 54 nations over the next two decades.

China on path to redemption in Cancún

China on path to redemption in Cancún. "There is more camaraderie here than I saw in Copenhagen. I see more dialogue and much more intense engagement between the US and China and less shadow boxing," said India's environment minister, Jairam Ramesh. "China has moved."

Climate change warning at UN Cancun summit

Climate change warning at UN Cancun summit. Ministers have begun talks at the UN climate summit in Cancun amid warnings that time is running out to curb climate change and save the UN process.

The top UN climate official, Christiana Figueres, said the fate of low-lying islands should be "a wake-up call".

Big differences remain between nations on issues such as cutting emissions, protecting from climate impacts, and inspections of others' emission curbs.

It is unclear whether those issues can be resolved in the three days left.

Cancun talks see mood of compromise emerge

Cancun talks see mood of compromise emerge. The second week of this year's UN climate summit opens in Mexico with signs that countries are keen to find compromise on key issues.

China and India have softened some hard lines that helped drive last year's Copenhagen summit to stalemate.

New draft agreements released over the weekend have so far been met with cautious approval.

However, fundamental divisions remain - not least over the future of the Kyoto Protocol.

Cancún climate talks: In search of the holy grail of climate change policy

Cancún climate talks: In search of the holy grail of climate change policy. A legally binding global treaty remains the holy grail of climate change policy. It was to help achieve such an agreement that the Copenhagen conference last December was hyped into mankind's last chance to save the planet; and, because it failed to do so, why a sense of doom has since descended on climate activists.

But a new global treaty to succeed the first phase of the Kyoto Protocolin 2012 is not even on the agenda for the conference in Cancún.  The most Cancún can achieve is to put in place some important building blocks for a new regime – on issues such as adaptation to global warming, stopping deforestation and paying for it all – which will help rebuild trust and show that the UN process is not actually dead.

But the good news is that this doesn't matter. Contrary to widespread assumption, action on climate change is not dependent on a new legally binding international agreement. Countries are already taking action to cut emissions without it – and they will continue to do so whatever the outcome in Cancún. 

UN climate change talks begin

UN climate change talks begin. The talks have been accompanied by little of the razzamatazz that followed the host of celebrities and world leaders that attended last year's event in Copenhagen. The US, UK and EU have all played down the chances of a deal and the Mexican authorities expect about 22,000 people, including 9,000 official delegates and journalists – fewer than half the number that attended the at-times chaotic conference in the Danish capital.

Should we be planning for the end of cheap coal?

Should we be planning for the end of cheap coal?.  The recent IEA report on global energy use trends contained a bit of a surprise. If oil prices remain high and governments make progress on their emissions goals, there's a possibility that the world has already hit peak oil, and that the next few years will see its use plateau for a while before dropping again. Using these same assumptions, the report also said that we could hit peak coal somewhere within the next 20 years. In today's edition of Nature, a commentary suggests that, even skipping those same assumptions, we may hit peak coal before too long, simply because the best and cheapest sources are vanishing fast.

G20 vows to "spare no effort" at Cancun climate talks

G20 vows to "spare no effort" at Cancun climate talks. The world's 20 largest economies have once again reiterated their commitment to phase out fossil fuel subsidies and deliver an international deal to tackle climate change at the upcoming Cancun climate change summit at the close of the latest G20 meeting in Seoul, South Korea.