Protecting the environment with intelligence
Amid preparations for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) climate talks in Bonn this week, the Montreal Protocol quietly announced a decision to fund China’s phase-out of hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), a move which will keep eight billion tonnes of greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere. To put that into perspective, eight billion [...]
One year ago, almost to the day, I had just left an air-conditioned conference centre in South Africa where international climate negotiators were still working on a deal to take one more arduous step forward in the effort to reign in global warming. Fast-forward to the present and I’m on another continent but otherwise experiencing [...]
DOHA, QATAR: The London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) today issued an open letter to global leaders meeting at the international climate negotiations in Doha, Qatar, urging them to act now to eliminate hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) – one of six classes of greenhouse gases (GHG) controlled under the climate regime. Among the issues being discussed by delegates [...]
A report to the 18th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
Last Sunday night, flash floods killed eight people in and around the city of Durban and left thousands homeless. Just one in a series of recent extreme weather events here in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal Province, it probably wouldn’t have crossed most people’s radar screen were it not for the fact that thousands of foreign delegates [...]
Montreal, Canada: Faced with a funding shortfall for eliminating ozone-depleting substances (ODS), the Montreal Protocol is preparing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to phase in hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) – even though these substances could sabotage international efforts to halt global warming. Despite its reputation as the most successful environmental accord in history, the Montreal [...]