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Climate policy

A Special GreenFacts Newsletter: Keys Facts on climate, climate change, its consequences and energy management challenges

Report calls for policy reforms to achieve planetary and human health

This new report “Planetary Health: Safeguarding Human Health in the Anthropocene Epoch” launched by The Rockefeller Foundation - Lancet Commission argues that changing environmental conditions such as increased carbon dioxide emissions, rampant use of fertilizer and the acidification of the oceans could lead to major health challenges for millions of people. Increasing population, unsustainable consumption and production and the over-exploitation of natural resources are also factors straining the planet's resources and having an impact on human health.

Video: Explaining climate facts – what is climate balance?

This is the first of a series of videos explaining the basic facts about climate change, its causes and consequences. It is produced by GreenFacts , an organisation dedicated to publishing accessible and peer-reviewed summaries of major international scientific documents independent experts.

Ingredients on a cutting board. Photo by Katie Smith via Unsplash.

Global Nutrition Report: what is says about malnutrition, the SDGs and climate change

In this piece, Duncan Williamson reviews the Global Nutrition Report in the context of other developing food and sustainability policy.Duncan has been working internationally in the field of sustainable systems for 20 years. For the last seven, has been leading WWF UK’s food work while also leading the international WWF Network’s position on sustainable diets and coordinating its work on sustainable food security- which recently co-produced a report with the Food Ethics Council entitled: From Individual to Collective action; exploring the business cases for addressing sustainable food security. Duncan is the originator of WWF’s ongoing Livewell project, which demonstrates that a healthy diet can be sustainable. He also interacts closely with other organisations, including Eating Better , a cross sectorial coalition on NGOs working on meat consumption, where he is a director. An FCRN member since 2009, Duncan sits on the FCRN’s advisory board.

Summary of Bonn Climate Talks

Emissions pledges ahead of UN climate summit are not ambitious enough to avoid dangerous climate change according to new policy paper

Tracking intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs): what are the implications for greenhouse gas emissions in 2030? is the title of a policy paper produced by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and the ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy at London School of Economics and Political Science. Parties to the UNFCCC agreed to set out their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) at the 20th Conference of the Parties (COP20) in Lima, Peru, in December 2014. The policy paper, which is intended to inform decision-makers in the public, private and third sectors, considers whether the INDCs submitted so far are consistent with the 2°C limit.

Nature commentary: Energy policy- Push renewables to spur carbon pricing

In this comment piece in Nature, a group of researchers argue that putting a price on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to curb emissions must form the centrepiece of any comprehensive climate-change policy. They point out that the current price of carbon remains much too low relative to the hidden environmental, health and societal costs of burning a tonne of coal or a barrel of oil. The global average price is below zero, once half a trillion dollars of fossil-fuel subsidies are factored in.

China's carbon emissions from fossil fuel combustion and cement production substantially over estimated.

An international research project co-led by the University of East Anglia suggests that international agencies have overestimated Chinas carbon emissions for more than 10 years. The research team re-evaluated emissions from the burning of fossil fuels and cement production from 1950-2013 and their results suggest that China produced 2.9 gigatonnes less carbon between 2000-2013 than previous estimates of its cumulative emissions.

Global Food Security Governance - Civil society engagement in the reformed Committee on World Food Security

In 2007/8 world food prices spiked and global economic crisis set in, leaving hundreds of millions of people unable to access adequate food. The international reaction was swift. In a bid for leadership, the 123 member countries of the United Nations’ Committee on World Food Security (CFS) adopted a series of reforms with the aim of becoming the foremost international, inclusive and intergovernmental platform for food security.