Green Options » Climate Research

After Maldives, India Sends Serious Message on Climate Change

Govind Singh — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 17:18:35 +0000

Chaired by President M. Nasheed, the Government of Maldives recently concluded the world’s first ever underwater cabinet meeting. The small island nation of Maldives will perhaps be the first country to go under water, if predictions based on climate change models come true.

The underwater meeting was called to raise this concern and put pressure on the West to act NOW, and for a fair deal at COP in Copenhagen this December. A day after the event, extensively covered by the media (View on: CNN | BBC), the Government of India has announced the setting up of a National institute for long-term research on climate change.

Climate Researchers Mourn Failed Satellite Launch

Timothy B. Hurst — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 23:38:29 +0000

NASA’s Carbon Observatory that failed to reach orbit on Tuesday would have provided the first complete picture of CO2 sources and sinks. Scientists are now reassessing their strategy.

After NASA’s first spacecraft dedicated to studying atmospheric carbon dioxide plunged into the ocean on February 24, a wave of disappointment struck climate scientists worldwide.

The satellite would have measured carbon dioxide concentrations in unprecedented detail. Many also hoped that it would pioneer an approach for monitoring greenhouse gas emissions under a future Kyoto-style global warming treaty that could be reached at Copenahagen later this year.

IPCC Re-Elects Dr. R.K. Pachauri as its Chairman, Celebrates 20 Years of Its Existence

Govind Singh — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 17:00:58 +0000

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - a scientific body set up by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and UNEP celebrated twenty years of its existence on the 31st of last month. At its 29th session, the IPCC re-elected by acclamation, its Chairman Dr. R.K. Pachauri to a second term. A new IPCC Bureau and Task Force Bureau were also selected in the process.

Last year had been glorious for the IPCC and for climate change research and action. Especially historical was the 10th of December, 2007 when the IPCC (and Albert Arnold Gore Jr.) were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change”.

It is thus not too surprising, that the then Chairman has been re-elected, unopposed, for a second term by the IPCC.