www.csua.org/u/z0a -> news.yahoo.com/cost-combating-climate-change-surges-world-delays-study-103541590.html
Print OSLO (Reuters) - An agreement by almost 200 nations to curb rising greenhouse gas emissions from 2020 will be far more costly than taking action now to tackle climate change, according to research published on Wednesday. "If you delay action by 10, 20 years you significantly reduce the chances of meeting the 2 degree target," said Keywan Riahi, one of the authors of the report at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria. "It was generally known that costs increase when you delay action. It was not clear how quickly they change," he told Reuters of the findings in the science journal Nature based on 500 computer-generated scenarios. It said the timing of cuts in greenhouse gases was more important than other uncertainties - about things like how the climate system works, future energy demand, carbon prices or new energy technologies. The study indicated that an immediate global price of $30 a tonne on emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas, would give a roughly 60 percent chance of limiting warming to below 2C. Wait until 2020 and the carbon price would have to be around $100 a tonne to retain that 60 percent chance, Riahi told Reuters of the study made with other experts in Switzerland, New Zealand, Australia and Germany. And a delay of action until 2030 might put the 2C limit - which some of the more pessimistic scientists say is already unattainable - completely out of reach, whatever the carbon price. "The window for effective action on climate change is closing quickly," wrote Steve Hatfield-Dodds of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Australia in a separate commentary in Nature. Governments agreed to the 2C limit in 2010, viewing it as a threshold to avert dangerous climate change. ECONOMIC SLOWDOWN After the failure of a 2009 summit in Copenhagen to agree a worldwide accord, almost 200 nations have given themselves until 2015 to work out a global deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions that will enter into force in 2020. Amid an economic slowdown, many countries at the last UN meeting on climate change in Qatar in December expressed reluctance to make quick shifts away from fossil fuels towards cleaner energies such as wind or solar power. Each US citizen, for instance, emits about 20 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. There is no global price on carbon, only regional markets - in a European Union trading system, for instance, where industrial emitters must pay of they exceed their CO2 quotas, 2013 prices are about 67 euros a tonne. The report also showed that greener policies, such as more efficient public transport or better-insulated buildings, would raise the chances of meeting the 2C goal. And fighting climate change would be easier with certain new technologies, such as capturing and burying carbon emissions from power plants and factories. In some scenarios, the 2C goal could not be met unless carbon capture was adopted.
The White House says tackling climate change and enhancing energy security will be among President Barack Obama's top priorities in his second term. Obama will have to do that work with new heads of the agencies responsible for the environment. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Environmental Protection chief Lisa Jackson and Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, all have announced they are leaving. Energy Secretary Steven Chu is expected to follow his colleagues out the door in coming weeks.
The White House says tackling climate change and enhancing energy security will be among President Barack Obama's top priorities in his second term. Obama will have to do that work with new heads of the agencies responsible for the environment. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Environmental Protection chief Lisa Jackson and Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, all have announced they are leaving. Energy Secretary Steven Chu is expected to follow his colleagues out the door in coming weeks.
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Climate Change: Obama Pledges Action in Inaugural ABC News President Obama's inauguration speech was broad, as such addresses tend to be, but he got specific ...
US-Europe fight over airline emissions could help talks on climate change Christian Science Monitor With a limited outlook for international climate negotiations, some hope can be found in a battle ...
Secret Santa Whistleblower Files End Climate Change Catastrophe Cult, Says Friends of Science PRWeb Laframboise releases "Secret Santa" Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) internal files ...
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samuel o 9 days ago This proves the ignorance of those who believe in this hoax. Less than two years ago the makers of the hoax had to agree that if every manufactor shut down every machine in the world, they couldn't change earths tempreture. But this article is suggesting anyone on earth has the power to control earths changes by 2 degrees. THIS IS A HOAX TO REDISTRIBUTE WEALTH, AND NOTHING MORE. IT A LIE AND YOUR IGNORANCE IS COSTING MILLIONS, BILLIONS!
scott o 16 days ago Some parts of the planet will warm by less, and might even become cooler. The poles with their surrounding ice sheets are particularly prone to greater-than-average warming - not a good sign for your beachfront property. The range for the most pessimistic scenario with the 4C average is 2 to 6C. So really, we are in for "likely" warming somewhere between 1 and 6C. Martin Weitzman, a Harvard economist has taken a close look at the numbers. Once we take them seriously, we are looking at a 5 percent chance of warming greater than 10C and a 1 percent chance of warming greater than 20C.
Juan Tutri o 16 days ago The good news is we can be certain that this climate change will not destroy all the life on this planet. The bad news is we do not know if the next dominate species on this planet will have four, six or eight legs.
d_/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1358813706/L=W1B95 0PDlDlyQ8vCkMDc2ABFRTfow1D9veoAA4Eu/B=b1As4kPDn3A-/J=1358806506441804/K =blH1eepOX6odhWbSS4Dg4Q/A=6647742010261549829/R=0/X=6/* Yahoo!
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