View previous stories
	The development of solar geoengineering technologies must be stopped by Institute of Development Studies, agencies   Jan. 2022   A global coalition of over 60 senior climate scientists and governance scholars have launched a global initiative calling for an International Non-Use Agreement on Solar Geoengineering.   They argue that deployment of solar geoengineering – speculative technologies that aim to lower global temperatures by artificially intervening in our climate systems – cannot be fairly governed globally and poses an unacceptable risk if implemented as a future climate policy option.   The group, including IDS Director Prof Melissa Leach, is calling on fellow academics, civil society organizations and concerned individuals to sign an open letter to governments, the United Nations and other actors to stop development and potential use of planetary-scale solar geoengineering technologies. The initiative draws on an academic journal article co-authored by 16 scientists leading the initiative.   Dangerous planetary-scale interventions   The call for a non-use agreement particularly warns against the most widely debated speculative solar geoengineering technology – the massive spraying of aerosols in the stratosphere to block a part of incoming sunlight to cool the planet. Such dangerous planetary-scale interventions cannot be governed in a globally inclusive, fair and effective manner and must therefore be banned, argue the group of scientists and governance experts.   Professor Frank Biermann from Utrecht University, a leader of the call for a Non-Use Agreement on Solar Geoengineering, comments:   “Solar geoengineering deployment is ungovernable in a fair, democratic and effective manner. For the last few decades, solar geoengineering has been a research topic for just a small group of scientists based largely at elite universities in the US and the UK. Now other science communities and civil society must step in and raise their voice. Governments must take control. The development of solar geoengineering technologies must be stopped.”   The open letter highlights that betting on solar geoengineering as a potential future solution threatens “commitments to mitigation and can disincentivize governments, businesses, and societies to do their utmost to achieve decarbonization or carbon neutrality as soon as possible.   The speculative possibility of future solar geoengineering risks becoming a powerful argument for industry lobbyists, climate denialists, and some governments to delay decarbonisation policies”.   A threat that requires immediate action   In early 2021, this was one of the reasons presented by the indigenous Saami Council and environmental NGOs to stop a balloon test for a Harvard University solar geoengineering research programme. Planned for June 2021 above indigenous territory in Sweden, the test was halted after strong civil society opposition. Such tests should be banned world-wide, the group of 60 experts now argue.   The 60 leading climate scientists and governance experts also fear that without an inter-national ban or restrictions, a few powerful countries with support from major corporations and philanthropists could engage in solar geoengineering unilaterally or in small coalitions, even when the rest of the world opposes such deployment or has not yet had the time to assess it and its potential dangers.   This threat, the group argues, therefore requires immediate action by governments and the United Nations for an International Non-Use Agreement on Solar Geoengineering.   The open letter calls upon governments to support five core prohibitions and measures to:   Prohibit their national funding agencies from supporting the development of technologies for solar geoengineering, domestically and through international institutions.   Ban outdoor experiments of solar geoengineering technologies in areas under their jurisdiction.   Refuse patent rights for technologies for solar geoengineering, including supporting technologies such as for the retrofitting of airplanes for aerosol injections.   Not deploy technologies for solar geoengineering if developed by third parties.   Object to future institutionalization of planetary solar geoengineering as a policy option in relevant international institutions, including within assessments by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.   http://www.ids.ac.uk/news/scientists-call-for-international-non-use-agreement-on-solar-geoengineering/ http://www.solargeoeng.org/non-use-agreement/open-letter/ Visit the related web page
	WMO recognizes new Arctic temperature record of 38⁰C by WMO, IFRC, Red Cross Climate Centre   Dec. 2021 (WMO News)   A temperature of 38°C (100.4°F) in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk on 20 June 2020 has been recognized as a new Arctic temperature record by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).   The temperature, more befitting the Mediterranean than the Arctic, was measured at a meteorological observing station during an exceptional and prolonged Siberian heatwave. Average temperatures over Arctic Siberia reached as high as 10 °C above normal for much of summer last year, fuelling devastating fires, driving massive sea ice loss and playing a major role in 2020 being one of the three warmest years on record.   “This new Arctic record is one of a series of observations reported to the WMO Archive of Weather and Climate Extremes that sound the alarm bells about our changing climate. In 2020, there was also a new temperature record (18.3°C) for the Antarctic continent,” said WMO Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas.   “WMO investigators are currently seeking to verify temperature readings of 54.4°C recorded in both 2020 and 2021 in the world’s hottest place, Death Valley in California, and to validate a new reported European temperature record of 48.8°C in the Italian island of Sicily this summer. The WMO Archive of Weather and Climate Extremes has never had so many ongoing simultaneous investigations,” said Prof. Taalas.   The Arctic is among the fastest warming regions in the world and is heating more than twice the global average. The extreme temperature and ongoing climate change prompted a WMO panel of experts to add a new climate category “highest recorded temperature at or north of 66.5⁰, the Arctic Circle” to its international Archive of Weather and Climate Extremes.   Verkhoyansk is about 115 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle and the meteorological station has been observing temperatures since 1885. It is located in the northern part of Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), is in a region of Eastern Siberia which has an extreme very harsh dry continental climate (very cold winter and hot summer).   “Fundamentally, this investigation highlights the increasing temperatures occurring for a climatically important region of the world. Through continued monitoring and assessment of temperature extremes, we can remain knowledgeable about the changes occurring in this critical region of the world, the polar Arctic,” said Professor Randall Cerveny, Rapporteur of Climate and Weather Extremes for WMO.   “The record is clearly indicative of warming across Siberia,” said the noted UK climatologist and committee member Dr Phil Jones. Historical research established from the national records of Arctic countries that there were no known temperatures of 38 °C or above at any Arctic locations.   Dec. 2021   Over 57 million affected by climate disasters across Asia Pacific in 2021. (IFRC)   Asia and the Pacific have experienced relentless and unpredictable climate-related disasters in 2021, severely affecting more than 57 million people during the peak of the global pandemic.   In 2021, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has launched 26 new operations, 15 of which are climate-related disaster responses. The IFRC is still responding to a further 21 disasters across Asia and the Pacific, from previous years.   South Asia has been the worst hit this year, with millions of people affected by multiple disasters and little time to recover from one to the next.   In India, more than 18 million people have been severely impacted by floods and cyclones this year, according to data from the Indian Government, Disaster Management Division. In Bangladesh, more than half a million people have been swamped by floods, with hundreds of villages marooned for weeks at a time. Around one third of Nepal suffered floods or landslides with many occurring outsides of the traditional monsoon season.   Jessica Letch, IFRC Emergency Operations Manager said:   “For much of this year, millions of families across Asia have been reeling after multiple blows from successive disasters and the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.   “From India to Indonesia, in Nepal and Bangladesh, our health and emergency teams are reporting livelihoods shattered by frequent and unpredictable climate disasters.”   In China’s Henan Province, 13.9 million people were affected by severe flooding in July. In Southeast Asia, Indonesia has been worst affected by disasters, with more than one million people swamped by floods in the past month alone, according to the Indonesian Government Regional Disaster Authority.   Drought, combined with associated economic collapse – which unfolds slowly but with devastating consequences – is affecting more than 22.8 million people in Afghanistan, according to the latest Integrated Food Security data.   Other countries across Asia have also been hit by multiple disasters. Nearly one million people were swamped by flooding in Thailand, more than half a million people affected by floods and typhoons in the Philippines and over 125,000 people hit by floods in Myanmar. Pacific Island countries also faced significant flooding due to storms and rising sea tides.   “Responding to disasters at the height of the COVID pandemic has involved some of the most complex operations and the changing climate is throwing unpredictable floods and storms at millions of people, making life even tougher,” said Jessica Letch.   “As risks mount with climate change, the IFRC is investing in anticipatory early warning systems to better prepare communities to act before disasters strike, to reduce the loss of lives and livelihoods.”   http://www.ifrc.org/press-release/over-57-million-affected-climate-disasters-across-asia-pacific-2021 http://www.climatecentre.org/7246/cop-26-climate-change-risks-runaway-humanitarian-crisis-and-the-collapse-of-the-aid-system/ Visit the related web page
	View more stories