Rob Edwards

Copenhagen failure puts hundreds of millions at risk

from Sunday Herald, 20 December 2009

The failure of world leaders to agree targets to cut climate pollution at the Copenhagen summit will lead to a global catastrophe and threaten the lives of hundreds of millions, leading scientists are warning.

As the fraught negotiations in the Danish capital ended in chaos, acrimony and recriminations yesterday, experts agreed that there was now little hope of keeping the average rise in global temperatures below two degrees centigrade.

They predicted instead that temperatures would increase by three degrees or more, bringing widespread flooding, major droughts and mass migrations, along with serious food and water shortages.

“It really couldn’t be any more serious,” said James Curran, the director of science at the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and one of the Scottish government’s top climate advisors.

“It’s staggeringly frightening and deeply disappointing that Copenhagen has failed. This is extremely dangerous for Scotland and the world.”

Copenhagen: the climate climb down that will bring catastrophe

from Sunday Herald, 20 December 2009

For the last two weeks, three tall, thin, cloaked statues have stood, their carved faces staring towards the Bella conference centre in Copenhagen in a silent plea. Today, if they could, they would be weeping.

After two years of fraught international negotiations, a week of organisational chaos and three long sleepless nights, the Copenhagen climate summit has failed to deliver an agreement that will save the world from the ravages of global warming.

As a result, hundreds of millions of people across the globe are now condemned to floods, droughts, exile, famine and worse as sea levels rise, the climate destabilises and food production breaks down. 

“This is a tragedy that will harm the many millions of people in developing countries who are already suffering the effects of climate change,” said Nelson Muffah from the charity, Christian Aid. 

“Powerful nations didn't come to negotiate. They came to play hardball. Lives will be lost as a result. Already more than 300,000 people a year die as a result of climate change. That number will go up.”

Copenhagen: the side shows

from Sunday Herald, 20 December 2009

Like great festivals have their fringes, so Copenhagen had its side shows. Beneath the gently falling snow and between the endless queues of bikes, the Danish capital fizzed with impassioned and sometimes offbeat arguments last week.

Away from the Bella conference centre where the climate negotiations stuttered like a badly tuned engine, the world’s environmental movement swarmed. They filled the hotels, meeting halls, cafes and bars, constantly on the hunt for the latest news, and any rays of hope. 

And, inevitably, the rock stars of the environmental world rolled into town to take the stage. With so little of substance being achieved at the summit itself, they often attracted more attention.

One of the least likely of green heroes, the California governor and Terminator film star, Arnold Schwarzenegger, talked about how the world was “beginning one of history’s great transitions,” You could almost hear the world’s media panting as they waited for him to add: “I’ll be back”.

Copenhagen's emotional plea: “The fate of my country rests in your hands”

from Sunday Herald, 13 December 2009

A powerful and emotional appeal from the tiny Pacific island state of Tuvalu silenced the world climate summit in Copenhagen yesterday, as countries struggled to agree on how much to cut pollution.

Ian Fry, the Tuvalu government’s leading negotiator at the summit, pointed out that his country’s entire population lived less than two metres above sea level. If water levels rose because of global warming, everyone would lose their homes.

“As a humble servant of the government of Tuvalu, I have to make a strong plea to you,” he told 2,000 delegates from over 190 countries gathered in the cavernous Bella conference centre on the outskirts of the Danish capital.

“I woke up this morning and I was crying. That’s not an easy thing for a grown man to admit,” he said, choking back tears. “The fate of my country rests in your hands.”

Copenhagen: pop stars in private jets struggle to combat climate change

from Sunday Herald, 13 December 2009

The stage was all blinding light, the bass made your guts vibrate and the shouts set your teeth on edge. “Are you having a good time tonight?,” yelled one of the prancing performers. “Let’s hear you all say it - climate control!”

The ageing US boy band, the Backstreet Boys, were in Copenhagen to try and help save the planet in the only way they know how. If it sounds surreal, it was. And some.

But in the bizarre maelstrom that is the world climate summit, anything is possible. John Lennon-style bed-ins, painted aliens and cut-price prostitution have all featured so far, with even the film-star-turned-right-wing-blogger, Chuck Norris, sticking in his demented oar.

As the Danish capital became the centre of global attention last week so it attracted almost anyone desperate for the limelight. Like moths to a flame, came they all - corporate PR people, climate deniers, con artists and celebrities.

The Backstreet Boys, who clearly ceased being boys many years ago, were there at the behest of the European Commission. They recorded a short programme for MTV in front of a room full of adoring fans while trying to get across some sort of message on climate change.

Copenhagen: the country fossils and corporate lobbyists

from Sunday Herald, 13 December 2009

The Climate Action Network, a coalition of over 450 campaign groups worldwide, presented a 'Fossil of The Day' award to the countries which had done the most to damage the climate negotiations.

Monday: All industrialised countries, for arriving at the talks with a “profound deficit of ambition” for cutting carbon emissions.

Tuesday: Ukraine, for having the worst carbon emissions reduction target in the world, enabling a 75% increase on current levels.

Wednesday: Canada and Croatia, for trying to rewrite the rules by changing the base year from which emission cuts are counted.

Thursday: Poland, for trying to prevent the European Union from increasing its target for cutting emission from 20% to 30%.

Friday: Canada, for breaking its climate promises and wanting to replace the Kyoto Protocol, on which the talks are founded.

Saturday: Japan, for trying to block the extension of the Kyoto Protocol.

Copenhagen tactics: to argue inside or to protest outside

from Sunday Herald, 13 December 2009

It’s the age-old dilemma of anyone wanting change. Do you argue your case within the existing power structure, or do you agitate outside for its downfall?

Like much else, this argument is bubbling away in the cauldron that is Copenhagen, threatening to spill out this week as the climate negotiations come to a head.

While hundreds of established pressure groups lobby away furiously within the vast confines of the Bella centre to try and get a better deal, hundreds more protesters will be on the streets trying to close down parts of the city.

Scottish activists from the direct action group, Plane Stupid, will be joining radical groups from all over Europe in trying to close Copenhagen harbour today. This is likely to be followed by other disruptive actions around the city later in the week.

“Political talking has and will achieve nothing in Copenhagen,” said Johnny Agnew from Plane Stupid. “We know that we will be let down by far off targets and false solutions such as carbon trading, so we’re going all the way to Copenhagen to make ourselves heard.”

The activists have taken heart from the analysis of some prominent experts, like Dr James Hansen, a world-leading climate scientist from the Nasa Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. 

He has argued that it would be better if the Copenhagen talks failed, and the world started again from scratch. “It’s a disaster track,” he said. "The whole approach is so fundamentally wrong that it is better to reassess the situation.”

Big rise in cycling - but doubts over government target

from Sunday Herald, 13 December 2009

There has been a big rise in the number of people prepared to get on their bikes in Scotland despite doubts over the Scottish government’s commitment to boost cycling.

A new report out this week will reveal that the number of pedal-powered journeys on the nation’s network of cycleways has increased by 10% in just a year.

Though that’s welcomed by campaigners, they say that it’s nowhere near enough to meet the government’s target. Ministers are aiming for one in every ten journeys to be made by bike by 2020.

Research conducted for the sustainable transport charity, Sustrans, shows that the number of cycle trips on the Scottish cycle network rose from 28.3 million in 2007 to 31.3 million in 2008.

Surveys funded by the Scottish government suggest that 14% of the cyclists were using the route for the first time, and that there had been a significant increase in the number of people cycling to and from work.

Copenhagen: the world holds its breath

from Sunday Herald, 06 December 2009

She sits, naked, small and vulnerable, on a rock in Copenhagen harbour, the sea lapping ever higher around her. Until now, she has been the urbane Danish city’s most famous symbol.

But over the next two weeks, the Little Mermaid will have her limelight stolen, as Copenhagen becomes synonymous with the world’s increasingly fraught struggle to find harmony with the earth’s elemental forces.

The 15th United Nations climate change conference opens on Monday in the Bella Centre, where 15,000 delegates from 192 countries - watched by 5,000 journalists - try and agree how to cut the pollution that is warming the globe. It has been billed as the world’s most important summit, at least since the Second World War.

But as the long-awaited event has drawn closer, so passions have risen, and conflicts erupted. None more savagely than the row over the emails hacked by persons unknown from scientists at the world-leading Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia.

Extracts have been seized on by climate change doubters to suggest that the whole basis of climate science - that human pollution is causing global warming - was flawed. The British National Party leader, Nick Griffin, even claimed that climate change was a leftist conspiracy “as deadly as any conceived by Stalin or Mao”.

But all this has been firmly rebutted by armies of experts, who point out that a few badly-worded emails don’t undermine a well-established global scientific consensus. Yesterday, the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, weighed in, saying that the Copenhagen summit should not be distracted by “behind the times, anti-science, flat-earth climate sceptics.”

Tens of thousands march for action on climate change

from Sunday Herald, 06 December 2009

They came in their thousands, from every walk of life, from every faith and from every sector of Scottish society. And they came because they were worried about planet earth.

Some 8,000 people marched through Glasgow yesterday in by far the biggest climate protest Scotland has ever seen. A further 20,000 took to the streets of London to demand action to cut the pollution that is warming the globe, on the eve of the crucial world summit in Copenhagen.

Political and religious leaders, trade unions, students, church groups, community organisations and environmentalists came together in an unprecedented coalition to demand “climate justice” for the world’s poor, who are already suffering from changing weather patterns.

The only group notable by its absence was the Scottish Nationalist government, most of whom were attending the party’s national council in Perth. The SNP leader, Alex Salmond, had earlier turned down an invitation to address the protest.

The long road to Copenhagen: by bike, foot, bus, boat, car, train and plane

from Sunday Herald, 06 December 2009

For 61-year-old Rosalind Jarvis, it will be an act of love. When she mounts her bike at 7am on Wednesday morning to cycle 140 miles to the climate summit in Copenhagen, it will be for her four children, her three grandchildren and her husband, Geoffrey, who died in February.

The veteran churchgoer from the small rural parish of Baldernock in East Dunbartonshire is worried about the kind of world that her offspring will inherit. If countries don’t commit to cut the pollution that is wrecking the climate at Copenhagen, she fears the future could be bleak.

But people don’t seem to care, she said. “There is still a huge denial about climate change. Apparently it is people of my age who are most in denial. They don’t seem to be concerned about future generations. It’s very worrying.”

Jarvis is just one of many thousands of people who will be making their way to Copenhagen over the next few days because they do care. Campaigners, activists, academics, scientists, students, professionals, public officials and politicians are all heading east by every available means of transport.

One man is walking, a women is hitching, groups have hired coaches, many are using ferries, and there are lots of long-distance train journeys booked via Eurostar and the Channel Tunnel. Most government officials, a Scottish minister and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency are flying to Copenhagen to save time.

The Copenhagen primer: science, major players, victims, key questions

from Sunday Herald, 06 December 2009

1. The science

Most scientists now agree that pollution from homes, factories, farms and vehicles is causing global warming. Greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane rise up into the atmosphere and trap the sun’s heat, causing temperatures to rise.

About 26 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide are released every year by the burning of coal, oil and gas in power stations and cars, and it’s rising fast. Before the industrial revolution the gas was present in the atmosphere at a level of below 280 parts per million. It is now around 386 parts per million, and increasing by 2-3 parts per million every year.

Aberdeen by-pass could be halted by bats

from Sunday Herald, 06 December 2009

One of Scotland’s most controversial road developments could be stopped in its tracks by a few colonies of roosting bats, and waste £51 million of taxpayers’ money, say campaigners.

Rare soprano, pipistrelle and brown long-eared bats have been discovered in the International School of Aberdeen, which is due to be demolished to make way for the new Aberdeen by-pass.

But the bats are protected under European law, making it illegal to destroy their roosts, unless suitable alternatives are provided for them nearby. According to experts, that means it will be “impossible” to knock down the school.

A decision by the Scottish government on whether or not to give the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route the green light is now overdue. Ministers have been considering a secret report from last year’s public inquiry since July.

But the government has already promised to pay £51 million to help the international school relocate. This will turn out to be a colossal waste of money because of the bats, according to the local group, Road Sense, which is opposed to the Aberdeen by-pass.

MSPs awarded in honour of Shackleton

Exclusive, 06 December 2009

MSPs on the Scottish Parliament’s climate change committee have been awarded a prestigious new medal in honour of the famous early 20th century explorer, Sir Ernest Shackleton.

The politicians are being rewarded for their success in giving Scotland strong legislation to cut the pollution that is changing the climate. The country’s target - to cut greenhouse gas emissions 42% by 2020 - is one of the toughest in the world.

The bugs and birds that will suffer from global warming

from Sunday Herald, 06 December 2009

They live high in the mountains, love the cold and will be among the first to die as the globe warms. And there are millions of them.

Government scientists have discovered more than 200 different species of spiders and insects living over 1,000 metres in the Scottish highlands. Because they depend on icy conditions, they will suffer as temperatures rise.

This means, the scientists say, not only that the bugs could disappear, but that the mountain birds which feed on them could starve, and the environment could be disrupted.

“These species are like the canaries in the mines, and will warn us what is happening,” said Iain MacGowan, an expert from Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), the government’s wildlife conservation agency.

“They are in the front line of climate change and at the bottom of the food chain. If they go, there will be implications for the birds that feed on them, like dotterel and ptarmigan, and for the wider ecosystem.”

Safety flaws queried in new nuclear reactors

from New Scientist, 02 December 2009

You'd think it would be the one thing nuclear companies want to be sure about: that their reactors can withstand freak weather or a plane crash.

Yet Westinghouse, the US-based company owned by Toshiba in Japan, has so far failed to convince regulators that its AP1000 reactors can withstand such events. "At this stage Westinghouse has not presented an adequate safety case for external hazards," concluded the UK's Health and Safety Executive (HSE) last week.