Our COP23 briefings

Thursday 16 November 2017

The dangers of Blue Carbon offsets: from hot air to hot water?

The use of blue carbon to offset and hence effectively avoid required emission reductions in other sectors such as fossil fuel combustion, industry, agriculture, international aviation and marine activities would undermine our ability to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C.

Why using 20-year Global Warming Potentials (GWPs) for emission targets are a very bad idea for climate policy

There have been proposals for the UNFCCC to adopt a dual-term greenhouse gas accounting standard: 20-year GWPs alongside the presently accepted 100-year GWPs. It is argued that the advantage of such a change would be to more rapidly reduce short term warming and buy time for CO2 reductions. This briefing shows why these changes would be counterproductive and the benefits overstated.

Wednesday 15 November 2017

Improvement in warming outlook as India and China move ahead, but Paris Agreement gap still looms large

This briefing is the annual Climate Action Tracker estimate of global progress towards the Paris Agreement goals, with some positive and negative findings. While there is a significant improvement on climate action globally, despite US rollbacks, President Trump’s announced intention to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, has led to a significant deterioration in the effect of Paris Agreement commitments (NDCs)—by about 0.3°C. (press conference webcast, and additional resources)

About 80% of EU and German, virtually all Polish coal plants non-compliant with new EU 2021 air pollution regulations

Pollution from coal plants is responsible for about 23,000 premature death in the EU every year. New EU air pollution standards that come into force in 2021 are aimed reducing pollution from this power source substantially. About 82% of EU, 80% German and virtually all Polish coal power plants do not comply with a new EU regulation on industry air pollution emissions standards that they need to meet by 2021.

Thursday 9 November 2017

“Because the Ocean” – achieving the Paris Agreement 1.5°C temperature limit

Ocean systems are particularly vulnerable to climate change, and there is already clear evidence for loss and damage inflicted by climate change on ocean systems. This briefing provides an overview of the latest science on key risks for ocean systems including from sea-level rise, ocean acidification and impacts on coral reefs and other marine and coastal ecosystems.

Monday 6 November 2017

Tropical Cyclones: Impacts, the link to Climate Change and Adaptation

Following the string of high intensity tropical cyclones in the Atlantic basin in 2017 and the devastating impacts on Small Island Developing States (SIDS), a number of questions have been raised about linkages between these cyclones and climate change. This briefing provides clarity on scientifically-supported connections between existing tropical cyclones and climate change. The briefing also summarises how climate change may affect tropical cyclones at increased global mean temperatures in the future and provides a summary of the observed socio-economic impacts of these extreme events on SIDS.