GENEVA (AP) — The U.N.’s weather and climate agency says 2017 is set to become the hottest year on record aside from those impacted by the El Nino phenomenon. The World Meteorological Organization says this year is already on track to be one of the three hottest years of all time, after 2015 and 2016, … Continue reading
WASHINGTON (AP) — Building suspense about America’s role in the world, President Donald Trump planned to announce Thursday whether the U.S. would stay in a global climate pact. The White House signaled withdrawal was likely, but Trump has been known to change his mind at the last minute on such major decisions. Abandoning the pact … Continue reading
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is expected to withdraw the United States from a landmark global climate agreement, a White House official said Wednesday, though Trump and aides were looking for “caveats in the language” related to the exit and had not made a final decision. Leaving the deal would fulfill a central campaign … Continue reading
MARRAKECH, Morocco (AP) — Hot and wild and with an “increasingly visible human footprint” — that’s how the U.N. weather agency sums up the global climate in the past five years. In a report released Tuesday at international climate talks in Morocco, the World Meteorological Organization said 2011-2015 was the hottest five-year period on record. … Continue reading
MARRAKECH, Morocco (AP) — Climate negotiators started work Monday on implementing the Paris Agreement on global warming amid uncertainty over how the U.S. election will impact the landmark deal as temperatures and greenhouse gases soar to new heights. U.N. climate chief Patricia Espinosa told delegates in the rain-soaked Moroccan city of Marrakech that “no politician … Continue reading
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam (AP) — Wrapping up a historic visit to Vietnam, U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday May 18th, praised the country’s next generation of leaders for being more conscious of the environment than previous ones and urged them to “do something about” climate change. During his final public event here, Obama … Continue reading
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Pope Francis warned Thursday that it would be “catastrophic” for world leaders to let special interest groups get in the way of a global agreement to curb fossil fuel emissions as he brought his environmental message to the heart of Africa on the eve of crucial climate change talks in Paris. … Continue reading
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Aggressive action to fight climate change will be a boon for businesses in Asia and beyond, President Barack Obama has asserted as he reaches for a global climate change agreement he hopes will burnish his environmental legacy. World leaders are just weeks away from a deadline for an unprecedented carbon-cutting deal … Continue reading
STOCKHOLM (AP) — The U.N.’s environmental authority has quietly raised its assessment of the level at which global greenhouse gas emissions must peak to avoid dangerous climate change, as governments seek a new accord to fight global warming. In its first four annual emissions reports in 2010-2013, the United Nations Environment Program said emissions must … Continue reading
STOCKHOLM (AP) — Snowy white winters are likely to become a thing of the past for most Swedes. The national weather service on Monday released a new analysis of how climate change will affect the Nordic country — and it’s bad news for skiing enthusiasts. It said the length of the snowy season is expected … Continue reading
PARIS (AP) — Pretty but noisy Paris, its gracious Old World buildings blackened by exhaust fumes, is going car-less for a day. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo presided over Sunday’s “day without cars,” two months before the city hosts the global summit on climate change. The symbolic initiative is aimed at showing that air pollution from … Continue reading
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California regulators are poised to restore a first-in-the-nation climate change program that requires a 10 percent cut in carbon emissions on transportation fuels sold in the state by 2020, despite oil industry objections that it could drive up gas prices. After the program survived a lengthy legal challenge from fuel makers, … Continue reading
PARIS (AP) — The Alps are the birthplace of downhill skiing and a crucible attracting mountain climbers from everywhere — and now the French government is trying to help towns at the heart of the lucrative tourism industry adapt to a warming world. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Friday is visiting the Sea of … Continue reading
SEQUOIA NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — Giant Sequoias growing in California’s Sierra Nevada are among the largest and oldest living things on earth, but scientists climbing high up into their green canopies say they are seeing symptoms of stress caused by the state’s historic drought. Patches of brown, dead foliage are appearing more than in … Continue reading
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Three people were charged Thursday with running a $54 million Ponzi scheme built on promises of a green energy technology that would turn trash into fuel and “carbon-negative” housing developments, neither of which were ever fully developed, federal prosecutors said. Troy Wragg, 34, of Georgia; Amanda Knorr, 32, of Pennsylvania; and Wayde … Continue reading
BONN, Germany (AP) — Analysts tracking efforts to control greenhouse gas emissions say the reductions pledged by major economies ahead of an envisioned climate pact this year won’t be enough to avoid warming the Earth by 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) or more. That’s the benchmark governments have set to avoid the worst impacts … Continue reading
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Global warming is carving measurable changes into Alaska, and President Barack Obama is about to see it. Obama leaves Monday for a three-day visit to the 49th state in which he will speak at a State Department climate change conference and become the first president to visit the Alaska Arctic. There, … Continue reading
STOCKHOLM (AP) — When leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy countries pledge to “decarbonize” the global economy, they’re talking about a shift so dramatic that one analyst described it as a new Apollo mission. Like putting a man on the moon, it would require overcoming major hurdles related to technology and money and the … Continue reading
Spartan Echo 