Arctic is warmest in 2 millennia

"The Arctic is experiencing its warmest temperatures in 2,000 years, even though it should be cooling because of changes in the Earth's orbit that cause the region to get less direct sunlight

If it hadn't been for the increase in human-produced greenhouse gases, summer temperatures in the Arctic should have cooled gradually over the last century," says Bette Otto-Bliesner of National Center for Atmospheric, USA and co-author of a study of Arctic temperatures published in the journal Science.
The most recent 10-year interval, 1999-2008, was the warmest of the last 2,000 years in the Arctic, according to the researchers led by Darrell S. Kaufman, a professor of geology and environmental science at Northern Arizona University, USA.
Summer temperatures in the Arctic averaged 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit (1.4 degrees Celsius) warmer than would have been expected if the cooling had continued, the researchers says.
It is the latest in a drumbeat of reports on warming conditions in the Arctic, including:
—A marine scientist reports that Alaskan waters are turning acidic from absorbing greenhouse gases faster than tropical waters, potentially endangering the state's 4.6 billion dollars fishing industry.
—NASA satellite measurements show that sea ice in the Arctic is more than just shrinking in area; it is thinning dramatically. The volume of older crucial sea ice in the Arctic has shrunk by 57 percent from the winter of 2004 to 2008.
—Global warming effects in Alaska also include shrinking glaciers, coastal erosion and the march north of destructive forest beetles formerly held in check by cold winters.
And as land-based ice melts, such as the massive Greenland ice cap, sea levels could rise across the world, to threaten millions who live in coastal cities.
In addition as the Arctic warms there is less snow and ice to reflect solar energy back into space and the newly exposed dark soil and dark ocean surfaces absorb solar energy and warm further, accelerating the warming process.
The Arctic cooling had been the result of a 21,000-year cycle in the Earth's movement that caused the far north to get progressively less summertime energy from the sun for the last 8,000 years. That process will not be reversed for another several thousand years.

Finance ministers' report puts pressure on major developing countries

Ahead of the G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh, USA, by the end of this month, ministers of finance from the world’s largest economies are meeting in London today. According to The Times of India, an overview paper from the G-20 secretariat has “ignored India’s submissions and demanded that (India) impose carbon taxation and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.”
The daily quotes an anonymous “senior Indian official”:
“Despite strong opposition from key developing countries, including India, the G-20 secretariat has sent this overview which more or less mimics the base papers we had rejected as not representative of the views and concerns of all G-20 member countries.”
The G-20 climate change finance report under preparation, originates from the Major Economies Forum (MEF) held in Italy in the beginning of July this year. Here India signed a statement which calls for global warming to be kept below 2 degrees C compared to pre-industrial levels. India has since insisted that MEF discussions are informal and do not relate to the formal discussions under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and

India could be climate deal maker

India will be a “potential deal maker” at the upcoming UN conference on climate change this December, Ed Miliband, UK Climate Change Secretary, tells The Guardian:
“India has very stretching targets on solar energy, on renewable energy (…) it has big ambitions on energy efficiency (…) I think India wants to be a deal maker not a deal breaker in Copenhagen.”
The British minister’s hopes would probably be further encouraged by official statements in an Indian newspaper this week.
“We are (…) hoping to curb ten percent of the current level of emissions by 2012 and attract foreign investment worth 16 billion US dollars through over 1,000 greenhouse gas mitigation projects,” Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh tells The Economic Times (of India).
According to the newspaper, India wants to play a key role in getting agreement especially on three issues in Copenhagen: Forestry for mitigating climate change effects, Clean Development Mechanism and technology cooperation.

Switzerland commits to a 20 percent CO2 cut

Yesterday, the Swiss government committed to cut its carbon emissions by at least 20 percent from its 1990 levels by 2020. According to Reuters, the Swiss proposal is almost identical with a proposal by the European Union – of which it is not a member. The cut is larger than the average cuts planned by industrialized nations of between 10 and 14 percent. However, the proposal is not as comprehensive as the demands of a public referendum proposal for a cut of at least 30 percent, Reuters reports. "By adopting such weak climate targets, the Swiss government ignores scientific facts and refuses to take its responsibilities in the struggle against climate change," says Alexander Hauri, who leads Greenpeace Switzerland's climate campaign, according to AFP. In 2007, a UN panel of climate experts recommended cuts of between 25 and 40 percent by 2020 to avoid the worst of global warming in order to prevent dangerous effects of climate change