Increasing temperatures, changing precipitation, rising sea levels, more intense and frequent extreme weather events and melting glaciers, ice sheets and Arctic sea ice are some of the challenges for Europe already triggered by global climate change, says a report released by the European Environment Agency, the World Health Organisation Regional Office for Europe and the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission.

Reframing the climate change challenge in light of post-2000 emission trends (2008) by Anderson, K. and A. Bows, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 366, pp. 3863-3882. The 2007 Bali conference heard repeated calls for reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions of 50 per cent by 2050 to avoid exceeding the 2 degree C threshold. While such endpoint targets dominate the policy agenda, they do not, in isolation, have a scientific basis and are likely to lead to dangerously misguided policies.

New Zealand kiwifruit exporter Freshco has become the first company to have its kiwis certified as climate-neutral, through a partnership with Dutch organic specialist Eosta. The kiwifruit is certified by German certification agency TüV Nord, and will be marketed in Europe by Eosta, which already this year has launched apples and pears from South America, vine tomatoes from Holland and citrus fruit from South Africa and Egypt under the climate-neutral label.