MARCH 2019 CLIMATE CHANGE AND CLIMATE/GREEN ECONOMY CHRONICLE OF NEWS AND DEVELOPMENTS JD.

IPCC

PRESS RELEASE

Authors of IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere meet in RussiaKAZAN, Russian Federation, Feb 28 – Experts nominated by the Intergovernmental Panel on

Climate Change (IPCC) will meet in Russia …

February 2019EXPLORE

PRESS RELEASE

IPCC launches fifth round of Scholarship AwardsGENEVA, 25 Feb- The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has launched a call

for a  applications for the 5th …

February 2019EXPLORE

ANNOUNCEMENT

Former IPCC author Michael Mann named 2019 Tyler Prize LaureateFormer IPCC author Michael Mann has been awarded the 2019 Tyler Prize for Environmental

Achievement together with Warren Washington from …

February 2019EXPLORE

STATEMENT

Media reports on the draft IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing ClimateGENEVA, Feb 5 – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) notes that news

articles have appeared citing a draft …

February 2019EXPLORE

MEDIA ADVISORY

IPCC authors meet in Colombia for final stages of Climate Change and Land reportGENEVA, Feb 5 –Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) authors will meet in

Cali, Colombia, on 11-15 February 2019 to …

February 2019EXPLORE

VACANCIES

Call for Volunteer Chapter ScientistsWorking Group III contribution to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report The Intergovernmental

Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is in the …

February 2019EXPLORE

Pacific Climate Change Portal

https://www.pacificclimatechange.net/news

Fiji Focuses On Land And Maritme Sector

Fiji Sun Online, 10th November 2018

Transport is one of the fastest growing carbon emitting sectors in Fiji. Speciafically in the land and

maritime sectors. | 14-Nov-2018

Pacific Islands delegates talk green economy

Samoa Observer, 7th November 2018

Representatives from 11 Pacific Island countries are gathering at the Orator Hotel in Aleisa for a three-day

International Labour Organisation workshop.  | 14-Nov-2018

Climate Summary

Issued on 05 October 2018 | 12-Nov-2018

Earth Observations for Pacific Island Nation Environmental, Climate, and Livelihood Needs

Nearly 100 delegates from Pacific Island Countries, CROP agencies, the world’s leading providers in

satellite Earth Observation (EO) data, CSIRO, and the governments of Australia, the | 12-Nov-2018

National Climate Change Portal work begins for Tuvalu

In 2019, stakeholders and development partners will be able to access | 12-Nov-2018

Pacific iCLIM raises awareness of decision support tools for adaptation

The Pacific iCLIM project were invited to present at the | 12-Nov-2018

Kiribati, Tonga and Cook Islands to benefit from Green Climate Fund USD 1 billion investment

https://www.greenclimate.fund/-/green-climate-fund-invests-usd-1-billion-for-developing-country-

climate-action-launches-first-replenishment |12-Nov-2018

NASA

https://climate.nasa.gov/news/?page=0&per_page=40&order=publish_date+desc%2C+created_at+desc&search=&category=19

February 27, 2019

New Satellite-Based Maps of Mangrove Heights Mangroves are among the planet’s best carbon scrubbers, moving far more than their fair share of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into long-term storage.

February 7, 2019

Drought, deluge turned stable landslide into disaster For the first time, researchers have documented the transition of a stable, creeping landslide into catastrophic collapse.

February 6, 2019

2018 fourth warmest year in continued warming trend, according to NASA, NOAA Earth's global surface temperature in 2018 was the fourth warmest since 1880, according to independent analyses by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

February 4, 2019

NASA, NOAA to announce 2018 global temperatures, climate conditions Climate experts from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will provide the annual release of global temperatures data and discuss the most important climate trends of 2018 during a media teleconference at 11:30 a.m. EST Wednesday, Feb. 6.

January 31, 2019

NASA's AIRS captures polar vortex moving in over U.S. NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument captured the polar vortex as it moved southward from central Canada into the U.S. Midwest from January 20 to January 29.

January 30, 2019

Huge cavity in Antarctic glacier signals rapid decay A NASA-led study has found that a giant, growing cavern two-thirds the area of Manhattan is contributing to the rapid melting of Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier.

CLIMATE CHANGE NEWS

https://www.climatechangenews.com/

German climate law draft calls for net-zero emissions by 2050

News: The environment ministry is calling to hike the target to 95% and ensure that any remaining emissions are removed

Lessons from talking climate with Albertan oil workers

Comment: In Canada’s most oil-rich province, workers are more open to “diversification” than “transition” away from the industry they are proud to serve

Alberta’s oil production cut shows the Keystone XL protest worked

Comment: Widely dismissed as a symbolic victory in 2015, the blocking of a major pipeline project has forced Canada’s oil patch to limit its output, vindicating activists

South Africa set to introduce long-awaited carbon tax in June

News: The levy will make polluters report and pay for their emissions, but experts say the starting rate is too low to spur a rapid shift to clean energy

EU committee shelves climate concerns to open US trade talks

News: Amid US threats to slap import tariffs on European cars, the EU is wavering on its commitment to uphold the Paris Agreement through trade negotiations

BBC NEWS

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47427788

Climate change: Angela Merkel welcomes school strikes 2 March 2019

Students in Hamburg joined climate strikes on Friday

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she supports school students' protests about climate change.

It appears to contradict some education officials, who have criticised participants for skipping school and threatened them with exclusion. Mrs Merkel said students might be frustrated at the time taken to move away from coal-based energy but asked them to understand it was a challenge. Across the world, some students have been leaving school to demand action. On Friday thousands of high school students in the city of Hamburg marched against climate change, with Swedish activist Greta Thunberg - who started the series of school strikes - present. But the city's education official, Ties Rabe, wrote on Twitter: "No-one makes the world better by skipping school." Meanwhile the education minister in the state of North Rhine-

Westphalia has told schools that students face disciplinary action up to and including expulsion if they do not comply with their legal duty to go to school.

What did Merkel say?

In a video released on her official website, Angela Merkel said protecting the climate was a "challenge that people can only tackle together" (in German). Asked about the Friday school strikes, which in Germany have been dubbed "Fridays for Future", Ms Merkel said the country's climate goals could only be reached with the support of wider society. "So I very much welcome that young people, school students, demonstrate and tell us to do something fast about climate change," she said.

"I think it is a very good initiative," she added, without making reference to the fact that they were protesting during school hours.

Greta Thunberg, 15, told the BBC in September about her climate strike outside the Swedish parliament But, she said, in her role she had to let them know that there were many steps to take before the full switch-off of coal, planned for Germany by 2038.

"From the students' point of view," Ms Merkel continued, "that may seem like a very long way away, but it will challenge us very much so I ask them to understand that too."

Two years ago a small survey suggested that Germans worried more about climate change than they did about terrorism.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/mar/01/youth-climate-strikers-we-are-going-to-change-the-fate-of-humanity

Youth climate strikers: 'We are going to change the fate of humanity'Exclusive: Students issue an open letter ahead of global day of action on 15 March, when young people are expected to strike across 50 nations

• Read the climate strikers’ letter

Damian CarringtonEnvironment editor

  @dpcarrington

Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg speaks at four school strikes in a week – video

The students striking from schools around the world to demand action on climate change have issued an uncompromising open letter stating: “We are going to change the fate of humanity, whether you like it or not.”

The letter, published by the Guardian, says: “United we will rise on 15 March and many times after until we see climate justice. We demand the world’s decision makers take responsibility and solve this crisis. You have failed us in the past. [But] the youth of this world has started to move and we will not rest again.”

The Youth Strikes for Climate movement is not centrally organised, so keeping track of the fast growing number of strikes is difficult, but many are registering on FridaysForFuture.org. So far, there are almost 500 events listed to take place on 15 March across 51 countries, making it the biggest strike day so far. Students plan to skip school across Western Europe, from the US to Brazil and Chile, and from Australia to Iran, India and Japan.

“For people under 18 in most countries, the only democratic right we have is to demonstrate. We don’t have representation,” said Jonas Kampus, a 17 year old student activist, from near Zurich, Switzerland. “To study for a future that will not exist, that does not make sense.”

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 Young environmental activist Jonas Kampus, from Zurich Switzerland Photograph: Dominik Waser

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The letter says: “We are the voiceless future of humanity ... We will not accept a life in fear and devastation. We have the right to live our dreams and hopes.” Kampus helped initiate the letter, which was created collectively via a global coordination group numbering about 150 students, including the first youth climate striker, Sweden’s Greta Thunberg.

The strikes have attracted some criticism and Kampus said: “We wanted to define for ourselves why we are striking.” Another member of the coordination group, Anna Taylor, 17, from north London, UK, said: “The importance of the letter is it shows this is now an international movement.

Taylor said: “The rapid growth of the movement is showing how important it is and how much young people care. It is vital for our future.” Janine

O’Keefe, from FridaysForFuture.org, said: “I’ll be very happy with over 100,000 students striking on 15 March. But I think we might reach even beyond 500,000 students.”

Thunberg, now 16 years old and who began the strikes with a solo protest beginning last August, is currently on holiday from school. She was one of about 3,000 student demonstrators in Antwerp, Belgium on Thursday, and joined protesters in Hamburg on Friday morning.

'Our leaders are like children,' school strike founder tells climate summit 

Read more

In recent days, she has sharply rejected criticism of the strikes from educational authorities, telling the Hong Kong Education Bureau: “We fight for our future. It doesn’t help if we have to fight the adults too.” She also told a critical Australian state education education minister his words “belong in a museum”.

The strikes have been supported by Christiana Figueres, the UN’s climate chief when the Paris deal to fight global warming was signed in 2015. She said: “It’s time to heed the deeply moving voice of youth. The Paris Agreement was a step in the right direction, but it’s timely implementation is key.” Michael Liebreich, a clean energy expert, said: “Anyone who thinks [the strikes] will fizzle out any time soon has forgotten what it is to be young.”

In the UK, about Taylor said more than 10,000 students went on strike on 15 February: “I’m anticipating at least double that on 15 March.”

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1:20

 Thousands of UK students strike over climate change – video

The strikes would not end, Taylor said, until “environmental protection is put as politicians’ top priority, over everything else. Young people are cooperating now, but governments are not cooperating anywhere near as much as they should”. She said students were contacting her from new countries every day, including Estonia, Iceland and Uganda in recent days.

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Kampus, who was invited to meet the Swiss environment minister, Simonetta Sommaruga, on Wednesday, said: “The strikes will stop when there is a clear outline from politicians on how to solve this crisis and a pathway to get there. I could be doing so many other things. But I don’t have time as we have to solve this crisis. My dream is to have a life in peace.”

https://mg.co.za/article/2019-03-01-00-climate-change-claims-its-first-mammal-extinction

Climate change claims its first mammal extinctionSipho Kings 01 Mar 2019 00:00

(John McCann/M&G)

  COMMENTS

The Bramble Cay mosaic-tailed rat’s first recorded encounter with humans was violent. Sailors on the HMS Bramble, on discovering the

volcanic outcrop between Australia and Papua New Guinea where the rodent lived, took to shooting at it. The ship’s log noted hundreds of these “large rats”.

They also named the outcrop after their vessel — a cay is a piece of coral, rock or sand that sticks out of the ocean. 

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Bramble Cay is, at its highest point, only 3m above sea level.

Weighing in at a maximum of 160g and shorter than a 30cm ruler, the reddish-brown Bramble Cay rat was unique for two things: it was the only mammal native to the Great Barrier Reef, and its tail was covered in rough scales.

Now it’s unique because it is the first mammal thought to have been driven to extinction by climate change.

Thanks to human carbon emissions trapping heat in the atmosphere, thereby driving global warming, the seas around the Bramble Cay have started to rise and become more violent. This has eaten away at the only known habitat where the rodent had evolved to live.

Late last month, the Australian government’s department of environment and energy announced that it had moved the rodent from the endangered list to the extinct list. In doing so, they said it is the first known instance of a mammal going extinct because of climate change.

The state of Queensland, where Bramble Cay island is located, started the process with a similar announcement in 2016, after a survey of rodent numbers on the island in 2014.

Bramble Cay, also known as Maizab Kaur, is just 340m wide and 150m long. Most of it is made up of sand and compacted guano, with just one end rocky enough to support vegetation — and a lighthouse. The mosaic-tailed rats made this their niche. Eating succulents and turtle eggs, they were Australia’s most isolated mammal species.

Camera traps and on-site inspections were used for the 2014 survey of their numbers. None was found. A local fisherman said he hadn’t seen one since 2009.

In recommending that the species be declared extinct, the researchers placed the blame squarely on climate change. Extinction happened as a result of “ocean inundation of the low-

lying cay [rocky outcrop], very likely on multiple occasions during the last decade”. This had caused “dramatic habitat loss and perhaps also direct mortality of individuals”.

The researchers concluded: “Significantly, this probably represents the first recorded mammalian extinction due to anthropogenic [resulting from human action] climate change.”

That change is being driven by excessive carbon emissions trapping heat in the atmosphere. This has already warmed the world by 1°C since the Industrial Revolution started two centuries ago, and is going to warm the world by an additional 2°C in this century alone

— despite countries agreeing in Paris in 2015 to keep warming below a total of 2°C.

Groups such as the United Nations’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have long warned that much of this warming goes into the oceans. It melts massive chunks of ice, which results in more water in the oceans.

It also heats the oceans so they expand. That means rising sea levels and more violent storm surges, which eat away at the thousands of islands and outcrops, including Bramble Cay, that are scattered around the world.

For animals that have evolved to live on these precarious pieces of Earth, like the mosaic-tailed rat, this will mean increasing extinctions.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190228154846.htm

Climate change is shifting productivity of fisheries worldwideFebruary 28, 2019 Source: University of California - Santa Barbara

Fish provide a vital source of protein for over half the world's population, with over 56 million people employed by or subsisting on fisheries. But climate change is beginning to disrupt the complex, interconnected systems that underpin this major source of food. A team of scientists led by Christopher Free, a postdoctoral scholar at UC Santa Barbara's Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, has published an investigation of how warming waters may affect the productivity of fisheries. The results appear in the journal Science. The study looked at historical abundance data for 124 species in 38 regions, which represents roughly one-third of the reported global catch. The researchers compared this data to records of ocean temperature and found that 8 percent of populations were significantly negatively impacted by warming,

while 4 percent saw positive impacts. Overall, though, the losses outweigh the gains.

"We were surprised how strongly fish populations around the world have already been affected by warming," said Free, "and that, among the populations we studied, the climate 'losers' outweigh the climate 'winners.'" Region had the greatest influence on how fish responded to rising temperatures, according to the study. Species in the same region tended to respond in similar ways. Fishes in the same families also showed similarities in how they responded to changes. The researchers reasoned that related species would have similar traits and lifecycles, giving them similar strengths and vulnerabilities. When examining how the availability of fish for food has changed from 1930 to 2010, the researchers saw the greatest losses in productivity in the Sea of Japan, North Sea, Iberian Coastal, Kuroshio Current and Celtic-Biscay Shelf ecoregions. On the other hand, the greatest gains occurred in the Labrador-Newfoundland region, Baltic Sea, Indian Ocean and Northeastern United States.

Although the changes in fisheries productivity have so far been small, there are vast regional discrepancies. For instance, East Asia has seen some of the largest warming-driven declines, with 15 to 35 percent reductions in fisheries productivity. "This means 15 to 35 percent less fish available for food and employment in a region with some of the fastest growing human populations in the world," said Free. Mitigating the impacts of regional disparities will be a major challenge in the future. These findings highlight the importance of accounting for the effects of climate change in fisheries management. This means coming up with new tools for assessing the size of fish populations, new strategies for setting catch limits that consider changing productivity, and new agreements for sharing catch between winning and losing regions, Free explained.

"Knowing exactly how fisheries will change under future warming is challenging, but we do know that failing to adapt to changing fisheries productivity will result in less food and fewer profits relative to today," Free explained. Preventing overfishing will be a critical part of addressing the threat that climate change poses to the world's fisheries. "Overfishing presents a one-two punch," said Free. It makes fish populations more vulnerable to warming, while warming hinders the recovery of overfished populations. Free also

stressed that ocean warming is just one of many processes affecting marine life and the industries that rely on it. Ocean acidification, falling oxygen levels and habitat loss will also impact marine life. More research is necessary to fully understand how climate change will affect fish populations and the livelihoods of people that depend on them.

Story Source: Materials provided by University of California - Santa Barbara.

https://www.radionz.co.nz/international/programmes/datelinepacific/audio/2018684379/new-eu-deal-with-pacific-to-include-climate-change-assistance

The European Union says a new development deal struck with the Pacific will see more cooperation on fighting climate change.

The EU has led discussions in Samoa this week on the Cotonou Partnership Agreement with African, Carribean and Pacific countries. The Post-Cotonou agreement will replace the current arrangement when it expires in 2020. The head of the EU's international cooperation and development unit, Domenico Rosa, says it will represent the basis for EU assistance with climate change. Mr Rosa told Mackenzie Smith the agreement will also prioritise ocean governance, resource management and human security.

https://www.scidev.net/asia-pacific/climate-change/news/bulk-of-himalayan-glaciers-could-vanish-by-2100.html

08/02/19 Bulk of Himalayan glaciers could vanish by 2100

Speed read

Warming will cause a third of the ice on the Himalayas to vanish by 2100 Uncontrolled carbon emissions can cause two-thirds of the glaciers to disappear Lives of two billion people in the region depend on water in 10 glacier-fed rivers

By: Saleem Shaikh

[ISLAMABAD] Rising temperatures will cause at least a third of the ice in the Himalayas to vanish by the end of the century, endangering the lives and livelihoods of nearly two billion people who are dependent on glacier-fed rivers for their water resources, says a new study. The extended Himalayas, also known as the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) area, includes several of the world’s highest mountains that are strung out over 3,600 kilometres across Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan. Sometimes referred to as the ‘third pole’ after the Antarctic and Arctic circles, its glaciers feed 10 of the world’s most important rivers.“This is the climate crisis you haven’t heard of. In the best of possible worlds, even though we get really ambitious [in tackling climate change], even then we will lose one-third of the glaciers and be in trouble.”

Philippus Wester, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development

Launched this month (4 February) by scientists at the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), the study said that a third of the glaciers will melt by 2100 even if the targets set by the 2015 Paris climate agreement to limit global warming are achieved.According to the study, even if the world succeeds in limiting increase in global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, 36 per cent of the glaciers will completely melt by 2100. In a business-as-usual scenario where heat-trapping carbon emissions are left uncontrolled, the glacier loss could extend to two-thirds, exposing the black rock of the ice-covered mountains.

“This is the climate crisis you haven’t heard of,” says ICIMOD climate scientist Philippus Wester, who led the study. “In the best of possible worlds, even though we get really ambitious [in tackling climate change], even then we will lose one-third of the glaciers and be in trouble. That, for us, was the shocking finding.”

The five-year study involving over 350 experts assesses impacts on Himalayan glaciers and potential consequences on river flows, rainfall patterns and human well-being. It provides policy-oriented solutions for decision-makers in taking adaptation and mitigation actions.“Consequences for the people living in one of the world’s most fragile and disaster-prone mountain regions will range from worsened air pollution to an increase in extreme weather events,” says ICIMOD’s Eklabya Sharma, an author of the study and deputy director-general of ICIMOD. “But it’s the projected reductions in pre-monsoon river flows and changes in the monsoon that will hit hardest, throwing urban water systems and food and energy production off kilter.” According to Sharma, the pace of warming in the Himalayas is significantly higher than the global average and the glacial melt happening faster than in the Arctic and Antarctic regions. “Our findings are that most of the Himalayan glaciers could disappear faster than those elsewhere in the world,” Sharma tells SciDev.Net.

The study’s projections say warming-induced glacial melts will spike dangerously, increasing river flows, between 2050 and 2060, exacerbating the risk of high-altitude glacial lakes overflowing and, consequently, flooding communities. But after the 2060s, river flows will substantially plunge.Sharma says that hydropower generation — that meets much of the region’s electricity needs — will significantly go down after 2060. Declining flows will adversely affect farming communities across the region as well as the food needs of 1.5 billion people living downstream of 10 major rivers, including the Ganges, Yangtze, Tsang Po and the Indus.

https://news.un.org/en/news/topic/climate-change

UNDP Thailand

Ocean life faces ‘onslaught of threats’ from human activity, but tools exist to save it1 March 2019

Global

 

Underwater life is severely impacted by an “onslaught of threats,” but we already have the tools to positively influence ocean conservation, the UN said in a statement marking 2019 World Wildlife Day which, this year, is celebrated under the theme “Life Below Water: for people and planet.”

UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferre

Youth, indigenous peoples, migrants and refugees boost hope for human rights: Guterres25 February 2019

 

People’s rights are under fire “in many parts of the globe,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres told the Human Rights Council on Monday, before insisting that he was not “losing hope”, thanks to the progress made by powerful grassroots movements for social justice.

© FAO/Zinyange Auntony

Shrinking biodiversity poses major risk to the future of global food and agriculture, landmark UN report shows22 February 2019

Global

 

With the biodiversity of plants cultivated for food shrinking, the global population’s health, livelihoods and environment are under severe threat. This warning from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) comes as the UN agency releases a new report – the first of its kind – on the state of the world’s biodiversity in food and agriculture.

UN Photo/Loey Felipe

UN announces roadmap to Climate Summit in 2019, a ‘critical year’ for climate action14 February 2019

Global

 

2019 is a critical year, the “last chance” for the international community to take effective action on climate change, General Assembly President Maria Espinosa said on Thursday, during a briefing to announce the UN’s roadmap to the Climate Summit in September.

UN Environment

Boat made of recycled plastic and flip-flops inspires fight for cleaner seas along African coast12 February 2019

Africa

 

After completing a historic 500km journey from the Kenyan island of Lamu to the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar, the world’s first ever traditional “dhow” sailing boat made entirely from recycled plastic, known as the Flipflopi, has successfully raised awareness of the need to overcome one of the world’s biggest environmental challenges: plastic pollution.

UNICEF/Adrak

Guterres underlines climate action urgency, as UN weather agency confirms record global warming6 February 2019

Global

 

In the wake of data released by the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO), showing the past four years were officially the ‘four warmest on record,’ UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for urgent climate action and increased ambition, ahead of his climate summit in September.

 

 Audio - 13'42"  Playlist 

 Audio - 14'17"  Playlist 

Daniel Johnson/UNOG

World in grip of ‘high impact weather’ as US freezes, Australia sizzles, parts of South America deluged1 February 2019

 

“High impact weather” has gripped much of the world so far this year, the UN weather agency, WMO, reported on Friday, with “dangerous and extreme cold in North America, record high heat and wildfires in Australia, heavy rains in parts of South America, and heavy snow on the Alps and Himalayas.

UNDP Somalia/Said Isse

Climate change recognized as ‘threat multiplier’, UN Security Council debates its impact on peace25 January 2019

Global

 

As climate change is increasingly recognized as a “threat multiplier” by scientists, political representatives, and civil society across the world, the United Nations Security Council held an open debate on Friday to discuss its concrete impact on peace and security, and focus on tangible ways to diminish the effects of global warming.

 Audio - 15'57"  Playlist 

 Audio - 13'42"  Playlist 

Source: ITU

Environment and health at increasing risk from growing weight of ‘e-waste’24 January 2019

 

Around 50 million tonnes of electronic waste, or e-waste, is being thrown away each year, according to a new joint United Nations report – which exceeds the combined weight of all the commercial airliners ever made, or alternatively, enough Eiffel Towers to fill the whole of Manhattan.

© UNICEF/UN0250967/Watson

Extreme weather hit 60 million people in 2018, no part of the world spared24 January 2019

Global

 

With some 60 million people affected by extreme weather in 2018, according to a new study, the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) called for better management of the issue worldwide, in a statement published on Thursday.

https://www.npr.org/2019/03/01/698073442/heres-the-white-houses-top-climate-change-skeptic

Meet The White House's New Chief Climate Change Skeptic

William Happer, a Princeton scientist who is doubtful of the dangers of climate change, appears to be leading a White House challenge to the government's conclusion that global warming is a threat.

Gage Skidmore/Flickr

Twenty five years ago, William Happer had an encounter with the White House that ended badly. At the time, in 1993, the Princeton professor was taking a break from academia to direct scientific research at the U.S. Department of Energy. He turned a skeptical eye toward one of then-Vice President Al Gore's favorite issues: the risks posed by chemicals eating away at ozone in the stratosphere and letting in dangerous ultraviolet radiation. As the story goes, Happer went to the White House and told Gore's staff he saw no evidence that the ozone hole actually was hurting anyone. Gore was annoyed, and Happer lost his job. Today, Happer is back in the White House, still fighting against what he considers unfounded claims that our globe is in danger. But this time, his cause is backed by the man in the Oval Office.

Happer, 79, joined the staff of President Trump's National Security Council last fall. And according to documents first leaked to The Washington Post, he appears to be pushing the White House to mount a challenge to the government's official assessment of climate change, which calls climate change a serious national security threat. On Thursday, the chairs of four different committees in the House of Representatives sent a letter to President Trump expressing concern about "recent reports that the National Security Council (NSC) is planning to assemble a secret panel, led by a discredited climate change denier, to undermine the overwhelming scientific consensus on the nature and threats of climate

change." The four Democrats called it "deeply concerning that Dr. Happer appears to be spearheading" that effort.

Happer is an intriguing and controversial figure. He was born in India when it was a British colony, the son of a Scottish military officer and an American medical missionary. His mother, with young Will in tow, spent part of World War II working as a physician at the secret Manhattan Project site in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The family later settled in North Carolina. Happer became a physicist. He taught at Columbia University and joined the faculty at Princeton University in 1980. "He is a damn good scientist," says Steven Koonin, a prominent physicist who is now a professor at New York University and who has known Happer for 30 years. "There are two really significant contributions associated with him." One of them made it possible to capture much better images of people's lungs; the other allows astronomers to see the stars more clearly.

At the same time, Happer acquired a reputation as a contrarian, quick to challenge conclusions that struck him as unproven — especially when it came to environmental science. That reputation was cemented by Happer's confrontation with Gore's staff over risks posed by the ozone hole. The incident was widely covered in scientific publications — Physics Today ran an article headlined "Happer Leaves DOE Under Ozone Cloud For Violating Political Correctness." Koonin thinks Happer was doing what a scientist should, demanding better evidence. "I think it sensitized him to the squishiness, if you will, of a lot of the environmental science," he says. Some of Happer's scientific critics, though, see it as something more: a visceral distrust of scientists who study environmental risks. Over the past decade, Happer has waged a fierce campaign aimed at debunking fears of global warming caused by emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. In a speech to a 2015 conference organized by the Heartland Institute, which has railed against restrictions on emissions from fossil fuels, Happer scoffed at these fears, calling them an Alice-in-Wonderland fantasy. "When I got into this area and started learning about it, I learned that when I looked at CO2, I should assume that it caused harmful warming, extreme weather, Noah's flood, you know. I remember thinking, 'Are they mad?' " Carbon dioxide is actually good for the planet, Happer claims; it's like fertilizer and makes crops more productive.

"We've got to push back vigorously on the demonization of fossil fuels," he said in his speech. "They're not demons at all. They're enormous servants to us." Some of Happer's colleagues at Princeton are reluctant to talk publicly about him; it's like discussing a relationship that got messy."I mean, I liked him. We went off for coffee after our committee meetings a couple of times," says Michael Bender, an emeritus professor of geoscience and climate researcher. Bender says he wouldn't do it now, though. It's partly because of the scientific dispute, because he thinks Happer is misreading the evidence. But it's also because of Happer's style — he's labeled climate science a cult and accused other scientists of whipping up climate fears to boost their own careers. Most offensive for Bender: Happer once said the "demonization of carbon dioxide is just like the demonization of the Jews under Hitler." "You know, there came a point where he attacked my colleagues' integrity," Bender says, "and I felt like I couldn't have a cordial relationship with him after that."

Happer, who last fall went to work in the White House as a senior aide to the National Security Council, wasn't authorized to comment for this story. Robert Socolow, another Princeton colleague, has mixed feelings about Happer's post. Socolow's own biography — first a physicist, then a specialist on the

environment — makes him a kind of bridge between Happer and the environmental scientists on Princeton's campus. He doesn't doubt Happer's technical grasp of climate science but says that "everybody has areas of irrationality." "I think the environment in general, and climate change in particular, is an area of Will's irrationality. But nonetheless, I think he can accomplish something" in his current job, Socolow says.Socolow hopes that while in the White House, Happer will behave less like an argumentative physicist and more like the kind of person who has to prepare for every possibility — including those that strike him as unlikely. "A military person doesn't underestimate the enemy. A business person doesn't underestimate the competition," Socolow says. And even if, as Happer insists, there's uncertainty about the course of climate change, the U.S. can't afford to underestimate those risks.

https://www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-2019-02-22-boosting-sas-climate-change-readiness

http://sdg.iisd.org/news/why-adaptation-finance-matters-hundreds-of-millions-of-people-exposed-to-climate-change-risks/

https://www.bcie.org/en/news/latest-news/article/innovative-financing-solution-aimed-at-climate-change-adaptation/

ASIA CLIMATE CHANGE NEWS

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/climate-change-affecting-jobs-in-south-asia-46292

AUSTRALIA CLIMATE CHANGE NEWS

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/mar/01/out-on-its-own-australia-the-only-country-to-use-climate-funding-to-upgrade-coal-fired-plants

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/mar/02/nsw-election-roundup-independents-join-forces-on-climate

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-02/the-future-of-farming-in-the-era-of-climate-change/10852926

MIDDLE EAST CLIMATE CHANGE NEWS

https://www.holmesreport.com/latest/article/middle-east-pr-industry-to-tackle-climate-change-challenge-at-in2summit

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-doha-climatechange-city/can-qatars-low-carbon-city-show-a-greener-middle-east-future-idUSKCN1QI477

Predicting climate change impact on Afro-Arabian biodiversity

Published online 7 February 2019

Biodiversity in the Afro-Arabian region is highly vulnerable to climate change, according to recent research.

Louise Sarant

https://www.natureasia.com/en/nmiddleeast/article/10.1038/nmiddleeast.2019.18

EUROPE CLIMATE CHANGE NEWS

https://www.euronews.com/tag/global-warming-and-climate-change

World Government Summit: Leaders prioritize climate change solutions

The 7th edition of World Government Summit was held in Dubai, gathering world leaders alongside experts in the sectors of technology, economy, environment and wellbeing.

CLIMATE UPDATE15/02/2019

January 2019 fourth warmest on record

January 2019 witnesses extreme cold and rising temperatures across the planet.

BRUSSELS BUREAU14/02/2019

BRUSSELS BUREAU14/02/2019

Police estimate 11,000 joined today's climate protest in Brussels

Student-led protests in Brussels demanding advanced climate protection plan to continue pressuring authorities as the EU elections approach.

WORLD11/02/2019

Insect Apocalypse: 40% of world species threatened with extinction, report finds

Insect Apocalypse: 40% of world species threatened with extinction, report finds

NO COMMENT31/01/2019

Turnout low for fourth consecutive week of Brussels students' climate march

12,500 students skipped school on Thursday for the fourth week running to march against climate change.

https://ec.europa.eu/clima/news_en

News

Towards a climate-neutral Europe: EU invests over €10bn in innovative clean technologies.26/02/2019

The Commission is today announcing an investment programme worth over €10 billion for low-carbon technologies in several sectors to boost their global competitiveness. Innovative climate action has a range of benefits for the health and prosperity of Europeans with an immediate, tangible impact on people’s lives – from the creation of local green jobs and growth, to energy-efficient homes with a reduced energy bill, cleaner air, more efficient public transport systems in cities, and secure supplies of energy and other resources.

Clean mobility: Putting an end to polluting trucks. Commission welcomes first-ever EU standards to reduce pollution from trucks19/02/2019

The European Parliament and the Council today reached provisional agreement on a Regulation setting, for the first time in the EU, strict CO2 emission standards for trucks.

EU Foreign Ministers welcome vision for climate neutral Europe, call for strengthened global response to climate change18/02/2019

The EU's foreign affairs ministers today welcomed the Commission’s strategic long-term vision for a climate neutral Europe. Ministers also called for urgent and decisive action to strengthen the global response on climate change and restated the EU’s determination to lead the way on accelerated climate action on all fronts

EU invests € 116.1 million to improve the quality of life of Europeans15/02/2019

New LIFE programme funding will unlock more than € 3.2 billion of additional support to 12 large-scale environmental and climate projects in ten Member States to support Europe's transition to a low-carbon, circular economy.

Commission adopts a proposal to revise the EU system to monitor, report and verify CO2 emissions from ships04/02/2019

The European Commission today adopted a proposal to revise the EU system for monitoring, reporting and verification of CO2emissions from maritime transport (Regulation (EU) 2015/757) in order to take appropriate account of

the global data collection system for fuel oil consumption of ships established by the International Maritime Organisation.ETS Auctioning Regulation amendment: auctions on renewed opt-out platform for Germany to resume soon07/01/2019

The amendment to the ETS Auctioning Regulation re-listing Germany’s opt-out auction platform entered into force on 5 January.

Global HFC phasedown starts – the EU already below its first limit01/01/2019

Today (1 January 2019) the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol enters into force. Both developed and developing countries have taken on mandatory commitments to reduce the global production and consumption of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), harmful man-made greenhouses gases.

EU phasedown of HFCs fully on track19/12/2018

Companies have met the EU’s phasedown limit for hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) for the third year in a row, a new report by the European Environment Agency (EEA) shows.

Europe accelerates the transition to clean mobility: Co-legislators agree on strong rules for the modernisation of the mobility sector18/12/2018

The European Parliament and the Council yesterday reached a political agreement on strong rules to  decarbonise and modernise the mobility sector. They provisionally agreed on new CO2 emission standards for cars and light vans in the EU for the period after 2020, emissions from new cars will have to be 37.5% lower in 2030 compared to 2021 and emissions from new vans will have to be 31% lower.

EU and New Zealand to strengthen cooperation on emissions trading systems17/12/2018

At the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24) in Katowice, European Climate Action and Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete and New Zealand Climate Change Minister James Shaw met and agreed to strengthen their bilateral cooperation on emissions trading systems.

AFRICA CLIMATE CHANGE NEWS

https://www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-2019-02-26-pioneering-climate-change-curricula-in-southern-africa

https://www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-2019-02-28-mapping-future-climate-pathways-in-sub-saharan-africa

https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/africa-savannah-plants-co2-climate-change-greenhouse-gas-a8804646.html

https://fossilfreesa.org.za/2019/02/28/climate-change-must-be-a-central-pillar-of-sas-economic-growth/

http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/page/climate-change

CLIMATE CHANGE NEWS

Dubai scientists grow super crops that thrive in salty deserts BY: BLOOMBERG     28th February 2019 Scientists in Dubai are developing crops like quinoa that can thrive in the salty soils intruding into the world’s croplands. Winning over enough people to eat them is proving a greater challenge. At an experimental farm within sight of the world’s tallest skyscraper, researchers at the... →

Africa’s first solar-powered desalination plant passes 10 000 kℓ mark

BY: TASNEEM BULBULIA     27th February 2019 Africa’s first solar-powered seawater desalination plant, the OSMOSUN plant, designed by Mascara and located in Witsand, in the Hessequa municipality, in the Western Cape, has produced more than 10  000 k of drinkable water. The ℓplant has been fully operational since December 20, 2018, providing... →

The OSMOSUN plan

Unilever, L'Oreal, Danone deemed most ready for climate change BY: BLOOMBERG     25th February 2019 Among the world’s biggest consumer companies, Europe’s Unilever, L’Oreal SA and Danone are best prepared for the effects of climate change relative to their peers, according to a report from the nonprofit CDP. Formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project, CDP took a double-barreled approach in... →

City wants your comment on new strategy to drought-proof Cape Town BY: NEWS24WIRE        15th February 2019 After a drought almost left Capetonians queuing for a mere few litres of water per person per day, the City of Cape Town wants your comment on a proposed R5.4bn strategy to avoid another possible "Day Zero". The proposed strategy, if accepted after public comment, presents ways of meeting growing... →

'South Africans must take climate change seriously' – Ramaphosa BY: NEWS24WIRE        15th February 2019 It is time for South Africans to take climate change seriously, said President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday in his response to the debate on his State of the Nation

Address. He said if South Africa is a country that prioritises the interests of the poor and the vulnerable, then we need to act with... →

President Cyril Ramaphosa

Event set to dissect the future of African energy BY: PAIGE MÜLLER     15th February 2019 The eleventh edition of the Africa Energy Indaba – which will take place at the Sandton Convention Centre, in Johannesburg, from February 19 to 20 this year – will focus on the future prospects and direction of energy on the African continent from an energy provision and investment point of view.... →

Photo by Duane Daws AFRICA’S ENERGY FUTURE The Africa Energy Indaba will take place at the Sandton Convention Centre, in Johannesburg, from February 19 and 20 this year

As renewables soar, BP sees China hitting brakes on energy growth BY: REUTERS     14th February 2019 Global demand for renewable power will soar at an unprecedented pace over the coming decades, BP said in a benchmark report on Thursday, while China’s energy growth is seen sharply decelerating as its economic expansion slows. Still, China is set to remain the largest energy consumer by a long... →

WWF starts One Planet City Challenge 2019 BY: MARLENY ARNOLDI     13th February 2019 Afgri Technology Services (ATS) has partnered with the University of Pretoria’s (UP’s) TuksNovation to foster innovation in the agricultural sector. TuksNovation is a nonprofit organisation founded by the university, in partnership with the departments of Trade and Industry and Small Business... →

DST to showcase benefits of using STI in designing future human settlements BY: SIMONE LIEDTKE     8th February 2019 With a surplus of drivers for the adoption of alternative and innovative technologies in the built environment, particularly in the human settlements sector, the effective application of science, technology and innovation (STI) can be a transformative instrument in addressing South Africa’s most... →

UCT scientists part of international study of Antarctic waters BY: TASNEEM BULBULIA     6th February 2019 University of Cape Town (UCT) scientists, Dr Marcel du Plessis and Isabelle Giddy, are part of an international study team that is attempting to occupy and collect vital measurements of the frigid ice-covered waters of Antarctica – the least studied place on the planet. During winter, Antarctic... →

Research shows West Africa is facing more frequent severe storms BY: REBECCA CAMPBELL     1st February 2019 A multinational research consortium of British, French and West African institutes and scientists, funded by the UK Government, has ascertained that “mega storms” in West Africa occur three times more frequently today than they did 35 years ago. The results of the research are being applied to... →

Agricultural sector plan prioritises job creation, agroprocessing BY: MARLENY ARNOLDI     29th January 2019 Agbiz CEO Dr John Purchase on Tuesday shared the agricultural sector’s five-year business plan at the Business Unity South Africa Business Economic Indaba, held in

Midrand. The plan for this sector prioritised the recovery of jobs lost as a result of the drought in the country and to continue... →

Agbiz CEO Dr John Purchase discusses the agricultural sector's five-year business plan. Video and editing: Nicholas Boyd.

Unisa, Exxaro, Sanedi launch first institutional anaerobic digester    24th January 2019 To promote renewable energy as a cost-effective technology amid climate change and global warming, the University of South Africa, Exxaro Resources and the South African National Energy Development Institution launched in November its first institutional anaerobic digester. Simone Liedtke reports. →

https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/caribbean-parliamentarians-take-action-climate-change-and-disaster-risk

In recent years, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) has been mobilizing parliaments and calling for action on climate change and risk reduction. Since 2009, the Union has organized parliamentary meetings at Conferences of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to increase parliamentary contributions to global negotiations.

In March 2018, UN Environment and the Inter-Parliamentary Union partnered to enhance the capacity of lawmakers and parliamentarians on matters relating to climate change and the Sustainable Development Goals. Small Caribbean countries, and in particular the Small Island Developing States of the region, face major climate change-related challenges. The parliaments of these countries have a critical role to play and need to collaborate to build more effective and coordinated responses to their common concerns.

In 2016, the Union adopted a Parliamentary Action Plan on climate change, which offers critical recommendations on how to reduce global greenhouse emissions and mitigate the worst effects of climate change.

At a recent meeting held in November 2018 in the Caribbean region, parliamentarians were informed of recent developments in the international climate change regime and gained a better understanding of what is being done in the region at parliamentary level to combat climate change and face natural disasters. The meeting brought forth a regional network of parliamentarians to coordinate efforts to address climate change by adopting the Paramaribo Declaration on Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction which recognized the negative impact of climate change on the coastal areas of the region, and urging parliaments to take a more active role in working with executives on climate action.

For more information, please contact: Robert.Ondhowe I Maria.Manguiat

https://sdg.iisd.org/news/partners-launch-climate-transparency-hub-in-the-caribbean/

21 February 2019: Project implementation partners have launched a climate transparency hub that will help to strengthen measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) of climate action under the Paris Agreement on climate change in the Caribbean region.The Caribbean Cooperative MRV Hub, which was formally launched during a meeting of English-speaking Caribbean countries at St. George University in Grenada from 5-6 February 2019, will enable countries to cooperate on technical challenges related to climate change mitigation, share expertise to foster regional excellence, and generate stronger policy-relevant carbon accounting.

The MRV Hub, a project of the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Management Institute, aims to empower English-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries to efficiently develop GHG inventories and mitigation assessments, and track Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). The Hub is geared towards enhanced and sustainable technical GHG capacity for domestic policy making and national reporting to the UNFCCC.Planned activities of the Hub include:

operating with digital coordination systems; convening a steering committee; conducting GHG capacity needs assessments; mentoring and training Caribbean experts, including

expert mentoring trips for country-specific technical issues;

multi-country working sessions at the Hub; co-developing streamlined MRV and projections tools

and guidance; co-producing transparent MRV and mitigation projection

outputs; and developing frameworks for Hub sustainability and

improvement to suit countries’ needs.

As a regional cooperative, the Hub will provide expert training, mentoring and institutional support to further enhance the technical work of countries, filling gaps where needed and empowering national experts to expand and improve their MRV outputs.The Hub is structured for long-term sustainability beyond the duration of the project, which is expected to run through July 2023. The Hub, which represents a cost-effective regional approach to cooperatively preparing data and reporting, will be documented in an MRV Hub Framework so that countries may continue Hub operations.The Hub is housed at St. George’s University. The 12 participating countries are Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados,

the Bahamas, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago. The Hub is supported by the UNFCCC, the Windward Islands Research and Education Foundation, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), among others. [UNFCCC Press Release] [GHG Management Institute Press Release] [Caribbean Cooperative MRV Hub] [Summary of Hub]

http://www.ipsnews.net/news/projects/caribbean-climate-wire/

CARIBBEAN CLIMATE WIREQ&A: Caught Up in the Opportunities of Climate Change and Less So With Adaptation

By Desmond Brown Reprint  |        |    Print  | Send by email

Ronald Jackson, Executive Director of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), told IPS in an interview that the ambitions around establishing strong early warning systems in the Caribbean date back to the early 2000s. Credit: Desmond Brown/IPSBRIGDETOWN, Mar 3 2019 (IPS) - Caribbean countries have been signalling their willingness to dedicate time and resources to implement and sustain effective multi-hazard early warning systems.

Most countries located in the hurricane belt face being impacted during the yearly Atlantic Hurricane Season. But all Caribbean countries face another challenge—climate change

Ronald Jackson, Executive Director of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), told IPS in an interview that the ambitions around establishing strong early warning systems in the Caribbean date back to the early 2000s.

Related IPS Articles

Accelerating the Caribbean’s Climate ResilienceCountries On the Frontline of Climate Change Impact Call for Stronger Mitigation CommitmentsHow Guyana Must Prepare to Cope With the ‘Jeopardies and Perils’ of Oil DiscoveryBut he said, “it still remains incipient, despite the fact that there has been some level of investment in the area over time.”

“I think Jamaica would have been the farthest advanced way back in the 90s with the Rio Cobre warning system which included a community warning infrastructure as well as telemetre gauges linked to the met offices and to the National Disaster Management Office,” he said

Jackson believes countries “have gotten more caught up . . . in the opportunities of climate change . . . and less so with advancing what is considered to be adaptation.”

The CDEMA head said his unit has been working with its partners to look at framing a common vision, recognising the need for a more comprehensive investment in establishing people-centred early warning systems at national level.

“We have so far delivered a solutions package for four of our members—Antigua & Barbuda, Dominican Republic, Saint Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines—looking at their gaps and using that to define the priority areas for investment to establish these early warning systems.”

Excerpts of the interview follow:

Inter Press Service (IPS): What is the state of early warning systems in the Caribbean?Ronald Jackson (RJ): We are trying to implement interventions around an integrated early warning systems agenda in all our 18 states by 2024, which is the sort of end cycle of this particular strategy. We’ve broken that up into bite size amounts from the point of view of how we are going to try to attract investments at a specific juncture over the life of that strategy, but by 2024 certainly to address the needs of the 18 [Caribbean Community] CARICOM member states as it relates to integrated people-centred early warning systems.In Guyana for example, they don’t have hurricanes, but they do have flood issues which would require them looking at a flood warning system that is linked to tropical cyclonic events. A country not faced with challenges related to significant flood events may also want to look at their tsunami warning systems. So, we are targeting having a full system in each of our states by 2024.

IPS: What, if anything, would you like to see countries do differently?RJ: We have gotten more caught up I would think in the opportunities of climate change, which is really the energy aspect of it, and less so with advancing what is considered to be adaptation. There is more of a heavier occupation on the opportunities of climate, which is good.The opportunities are in the area of renewable energy and how best we can capitalise on that and I think it is a necessary process that we must embark on and embark on fully because of the benefits to be derived.You can reduce the cost of energy, allowing you to release additional resources into areas of resilience building—one of which is early warning. But the area which is categorised as adaptation in climate change, which is where you will see people use the language more around risk reduction and prevention, is an area that has not gotten the same level of focus as the climate mitigation aspect which is where you look at clean energy, reductions of emissions and so on. That for us is where the greatest threat is. The human security element of climate change is where we should be focusing heavily because we’re talking about people being displaced. You’re talking about floods, you’re talking about the loss of livelihoods. That’s where the greatest threat for Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS), and in fact any developing island nation, lies. They have to face the challenge of having limited land masses and resources and having that constantly being impacted by the changing climatic conditions—sea level rise, saline intrusion, water scarcity, flood conditions and other environmental and health related issues—all aligned to climate change.IPS: Given the challenges Caribbean countries have been facing, could it be that there still exist some misconception regarding adaptation?RJ: As it relates to adaptation, we seem to think a lot of the interventions required are new. They are not new, we’ve been grappling with those things that are packaged under the theme of adaptation for some time. These are largely programme areas at national level which if you look at the analysis they have never, in my mind, in the last 20 years or decade or so received very strong budget allocations. That’s what the analysis is showing us. There could be a lot of questions or reasoning around that. It could be how countries determine what are the main priorities of the day given the limited resources and the fiscally strangling environment in which they are operating.

IPS: Which takes us to the issue of funding. As is the case with almost everything else, procuring funds is an issue. What has been the experience of countries getting funds for sustaining Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems?RJ: There is programme support from international sources. The challenge there is that it’s been ad-hoc—either financing one element or two elements of the four elements of people-centred early warning. Part of it is also sustainability because there are different elements that exist. The problem also is, can you maintain the infrastructure? Can you replace the parts in a timely manner? So, there is also a sort of maintenance issue that is linked to budget allocation.*Interview edited for clarity.

CLIMATE AND GREEN ECONOMY NEWS

World Bank approves 185 mln USD for Bangladesh renewable energy projectSource: Xinhua| 2019-03-02 19:57:26|Editor: xuxin

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-03/02/c_137863426.htm

https://dailynewsegypt.com/2019/03/02/egypt-on-right-track-toward-renewable-energy-yet-it-needs-to-exert-more-effort-experts-2/

https://www.thesouthafrican.com/south-africa-government-vows-expand-availability-renewable-energy/

http://www.infrastructurene.ws/2019/02/27/renewable-energy-programme-attracts-r209-4-billion-to-economy/

https://www.renewableenergyworld.com/index/all-articles.html

https://www.greentechmedia.com/

What Happens to Tesla’s Solar Business as Retail Stores Close and Sales Go Online?Another nail in the SolarCity coffin. And a profit warning for Q1.1 DAY AGO by Eric Wesoff

Jay Inslee Announces Presidential Run on a Climate and Clean Energy PlatformThe governor of Washington pitched his climate-centric candidacy from the site of a Seattle solar installation.1 DAY AGO by Emma Foehringer Merchant

http://www.infrastructurene.ws/2019/02/20/capes-green-economy-gets-r67-9-million-boost/