Latest United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Stories

BONN, Germany -- Developing countries called for more money and expertise to help them fight the potentially catastrophic effects of global warming, as more than 1,000 diplomats began work Monday on a new accord to control greenhouse gases.The 166 countries and organizations at a two-week meeting of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bonn are to negotiate key elements of a treaty to succeed the 10-year-old Kyoto Protocol, which set binding targets on industrial countries to...

TEMPE, Ariz. "“ Temperatures are rising on Earth, which is heating up the debate over global warming and the future of our planet, but what may be needed most to combat global warming is a greater focus on adapting to our changing planet, says a team of science policy experts writing in this week's Nature magazine.While many consider it taboo, adaptation to global climate change needs to be recognized as just as important as "mitigation," or cutting back, of greenhouse gases...

PARIS - The Eiffel Tower's 20,000 flashing lights will go dark for five minutes Thursday evening, hours before scientists and officials unveil a long-awaited report on global warming.The darkening of the landmark in the City of Light comes at the urging of environmental activists and is timed to coincide with Friday's release of the major report warning that Earth will keep getting warmer and presenting new evidence of humanity's role in climate change.Ahead of the report by the...

NAIROBI, Kenya -- The top U.N. official for the environment asked Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday to convene an international summit to combat climate change, an official said, joining a chorus of world leaders and scientists calling for urgent action to cut greenhouse gases.Ban met with the executive director of the U.N. Environment Program, Achim Steiner, who recommended the summit take place later this year, an official close to the talks said.Ban was sympathetic to the idea, the...

PARIS -- The chief of the United Nations' effort against climate change said Monday there is widespread recognition of the seriousness of global warming but a lack of leadership has created a sense of helplessness.Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, said he will ask the new U.N. secretary-general to coordinate a worldwide response and organize a conference of world leaders."Just opening a newspaper" shows evidence of this sea change...

NAIROBI, Kenya -- The chief U.S. climate negotiator on Monday defended Washington's stand against compulsory caps on global-warming emissions, and said the Bush administration was unlikely to change its policy.At the opening of a two-week U.N. treaty conference on climate change, Harlan Watson told reporters the United States is doing better at restraining the growth of such gases voluntarily than some countries committed to reductions under the Kyoto Protocol."With few exceptions you're...

BONN, Germany -- The industrialized world's emissions of greenhouse gases are growing again, despite efforts under the Kyoto Protocol to cap them and stave off global warming, the United Nations reported Monday.Emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases declined in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet bloc and the shutdown of polluting factories and power plants in eastern Europe. But now those economies are rebounding, contributing to a 2.4 percent rise in emissions by...

By Christian Ntsoumou BRAZZAVILLE (Reuters) - Africa will create a fund to promote its unique environment and seek new ways of funding green reforms such as carbon credits and canceling debts in return for conservation, ministers said. Africa has large areas of ecologically valuable rainforests and other habitat with many unique plant and animal species, but despite a small industrial base its environment faces many pressures including logging, climate change and poaching. "We have...

By Alister Doyle, Environment CorrespondentOSLO -- Industrialized nations can reach 2012 United Nations goals for reining in gases blamed for global warming but many will have to take tougher measures, the U.N. climate change bureau said on Tuesday.A year after the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol on reining in emissions from burning fossil fuels entered into force, it said information filed in early 2006 by rich nations showed "significant progress" in working out new policies and...

By Alister Doyle and David Fogarty MONTREAL (Reuters) - Environment ministers agreed on Saturday to a road map to extend the Kyoto Protocol climate pact beyond 2012, breaking two weeks of deadlock at UN talks aimed at curbing global warming. Minutes after passing the Kyoto resolution, ministers also agreed to launch new, open-ended world talks on ways to fight global warming, overcoming objections by the United States, which had resisted taking part in broader discussions. The Montreal...