Media coverage

The two largest emitters of greenhouse gases, China and the US, are among the countries that have unveiled climate change plans in recent days. The growing number of commitments to tackle the issue suggests that a global climate change agreement can be reached at a UN summit later this year. South Korea also announced its intention to cut emissions by 37% by 2030, a stronger target than was expected. The Climate Action Tracker, previously labelled South Korea’s four options for climate change as “inadequate”. It argued that all the proposed options were less ambitious than South Korea’s 2020 pledge and would allow emissions to increases after the end of the decade.

South Korea has announced it aims to slash greenhouse gas emissions 37% from business as usual by 2030, a tightening of previously discussed targets. These were all rated as inadequate by the Climate Action Tracker, which said they were equal to 98–146% above 1990 levels, not counting land-use change.

China, the world’s biggest greenhouse gas polluter, pledged on Tuesday to wean its economy away from reliance on fossil fuels as it grows, and to try to bring the rise in its carbon emissions to an earlier end. The proposals “may reflect a desire by the Chinese government to have a ‘safe’ international goal,” said Bill Hare, a senior scientist with Climate Analytics.

Climate Analytics is ranked 36th out of 100 climate and environmental think tanks. The Think Tank Map, a project of the International Center for Climate Governance, ranks organisations on the basis of a series of indicators such as scientific output, verified through the number and quality of articles it has published in peer-reviewed journals, proceedings and books and participation in the 5th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

In the face of mounting pressure from the public, the Australian government is expected to announce new carbon reduction targets in advance of December’s World Climate Summit 2015 in Paris. On June 23, 2015, as part of its “Climate for Change” series of articles, Australia’s Fairfax Media reported that the government was looking at American and Canadian carbon targets as possible templates. [...] International organizations that have slammed Canada for its weak target include the Natural Resources Defense Council, the World Resources Institute, Climate Action Tracker, and the 2015 Africa Progress Panel, led by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

Three Dutch judges sent a shock wave around the world on Wednesday when they ordered the government of the Netherlands to act on climate change by making deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. With oil, gas, and coal companies still among the world’s most richly valued assets, that may seem hard to imagine. But the Dutch court case is a clear signal “to people who are investing in the 20th century instead of the 21st that the legal risks of investing in fossil fuels are only going to increase,” Moffett said.His words echoed another expert’s statement; Bill Hare of Climate Analytics told The New York Times that the ruling “has the potential to become a precedent whose effect will ultimately flow through to undermining the markets for coal, oil, and gas.”

A Dutch court ordered the government Wednesday to slash greenhouse gas emissions to help fight global warming, a landmark ruling in a case brought by hundreds of concerned citizens that could pave the way for similar legal battles around the world. Greenpeace called the Dutch ruling "a game-changer in the fight against climate change." Bill Hare, senior scientist at Climate Analytics, a nonprofit organization based in Berlin, said the Dutch ruling's impact could be massive.

In a sweeping victory for Dutch environmental activists that could have global repercussions, a court ordered the government Wednesday to cut the country's greenhouse gas emissions by at least 25 percent by 2020.Bill Hare, senior scientist at Climate Analytics, a nonprofit organization based in Berlin, said the Dutch ruling's impact could be massive."(This) has the potential to become a precedent whose effect will ultimately flow through to undermining the markets for coal, oil and gas," he said.

[...] the news today is the success of a class-action suit aimed at making the Dutch government cut global warming emissions faster than previously planned.“This historic ruling will have far reaching consequences in the Netherlands, Europe and the rest of the world,” said Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy, a Dutch member of the European Parliament in the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.“This could be the first judicial warning shot to governments around the world,” said Bill Hare of Climate Analytics.

A district court ordered the Dutch government on Wednesday to cut greenhouse gas emissions faster than currently planned in a rare use of the legal system to curb global warming. "The parties agree that the severity and scope of the climate problem make it necessary to take measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions," the summary said. Some saw the ruling as a landmark, if it ends up being binding. "This could be the first judicial warning shot to governments around the world," said Bill Hare, of independent research group Climate Analytics.