UN carbon budget talks are ‘urgent’, warns Lord Stern

A summary of today’s top climate and clean energy stories.
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UK: Talks must start urgently on the world’s “carbon budget” – the amount of greenhouse gas that can be poured into the atmosphere without triggering dangerous climate change – as without radical policies to cut emissions humanity will exceed the limit within 15 to 25 years, warns Lord Stern, the world’s leading climate economist. (Guardian)

IPCC: Scientists sent a clear warning across the globe on Friday: without a powerful effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the planet will likely exceed 2C by the end of the century. Launching the long awaited IPCC report in Stockholm, scientists warned that the world would see temperature rises of at least 1.5C by 2100, and would likely tip over into 2C unless there is a concentrated effort to bring down emissions. (RTCC)

UK: IKEA, the world’s biggest furniture retailer, is to sell solar panels at its British stores, the first time it has offered the devices and marking an attempt to tap growth in the heavily subsidised green energy market. (IOL)

Nigeria: Lagos and Ekiti state governments have embarked on sustainable climate change initiatives with the aim of mitigating its devastating effect on the environment. (This Day Live)

Business: One of the lead authors of a key UN climate report launched on Friday has told EurActiv that Europe’s business competitiveness would be badly hit by global warming of the sort most scientists now believe is likely to arise this century. (EurActiv)

Aviation: Discussions over how to curb the pollution from the aviation industry ended on Thursday without any resolution being passed, and the Assembly has put off attempting to reach a consensus until next week, when negotiations on the topic will be reopened. (RTCC)

Russia: A Russian court has ordered eight remaining Greenpeace activists be held in custody for two months over a protest against Arctic offshore drilling, the environment advocacy group said on Sunday, dashing any hope some might be released quickly. Authorities detained all 30 members of the pressure group who were aboard icebreaker the Arctic Sunrise when they broke up attempts to scale state-run Gazprom’s Prirazlomnaya offshore oil platform on September 18. (Reuters)

Palau: The President of Palau has made an impassionate plea to the UN General Assembly for international support in the fight against climate change. Tommy Remengesau told the assembly his country faces a certain demise if nothing’s done to curb rises in temperatures. (Radio Australia)

 

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