News feeds on climate change, international waters and other environmental news

Source: The Australian - FOREIGN Minister Kevin Rudd has warned that Australia will lose international credibility in the debate about action on climate change if it does not price carbon.

Source: Daily Star - Thousands of jobs will be created by the year 2020 if the government follows through with plans to “green” the country’s economy, a preliminary study conducted by the United Nations Development Program and the International Labor Organization estimates.

Source: China Daily - China will soon release detailed plans on ensuring that its goal for reducing carbon intensity from 2011 to 2015 is attainable, and it has started looking at technical options for cutting carbon dioxide emissions after 2020.

Source: NY Times -

Source: Reuters - The United States is on a pace in 2011 to set a record for the cost of weather-related disasters and the trend is expected to worsen as climate change continues, officials and scientists said on Thursday.

Source: BBC - An exceptional wildfire in northern Alaska in 2007 put as much carbon into the air as the entire Arctic tundra absorbs in a year, scientists say.

Source: Reuters - British farmers are experimenting with crops such as olives and nectarines which have traditionally been imported from southern Europe while the first British tea plantation has opened with a changing climate set to transform the nation's countryside.

Source: Dow Jones - China will soon release detailed plans to ensure that its near-term goals to reduce carbon intensity are attainable, and it has started examining technical options for cutting carbon dioxide emissions in the longer term, the official China Daily newspaper reported Friday.

Source: Engineering News - In January, India’s Environment Minister, Jairam Ramesh, said: “There is a groupthink in climate science today. Anyone who raises alternative climate theories is immediately branded a climate atheist in an atmosphere of climate evangelists.

Source: International Business Times - The amount of soil-bound carbon released to atmosphere in the 2007 Anaktuvuk River fire was enough to impact the global climate, according to UF ecologist Michelle Mack and other scientists.

GloBallast: GloBallast family expands - Panama joins the Lead Partnering Country track of the project.

Representatives of national, regional and local authorities, members from the private sector, academia, NGOs and civil society organisations, as well as representatives of international organizations, met on 11 July 2011, in Podgorica, Montenegro to discuss the baseline situation with regard to the main common issues identified in the river basin and the coastal area as well as the stakeholders’ expectations with regard to the management of the Buna/Bojana area including the coastal, ...

Partner/Collaborator News The Asia Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN), a network of member country governments that promotes global change research and strengthens interactions between the science community and policy-makers in the region, has recently approved a project on "Impacts of Global Warming on Coastal and Marine Ecosystems in the Northwest Pacific".

Partner/Collaborator News In line with UNEP efforts to strengthen project management capacity, NOWPAP RCU staff members have completed the "Projects in a Controlled Environment (PRINCE2)" online training courses. read more

Partner/Collaborator News At the invitation of Greater Tumen Initiative (GTI) secretariat, a NOWPAP representative attended the Inaugural Meeting of GTI Environmental Board, held on 1-2 June 2011 in Beijing, PR China as a resource person to introduce NOWPAP activities. read more

Partner/Collaborator News In conjunction with the Toyama port call of Hakusan, oil recovery and harbour dredging vessel, which participated in the third NOWPAP joint oil spill response exercise held in Wakkanai, Japan in 2010, NOWPAP Deputy Coordinator delivered a presentation to Toyama citizens introducing NOWPAP activities including those carried out under the NOWPAP regional oil spill contingency plan. read more

Partner/Collaborator News After about 10 years of uncertainty, on 26 May 2011 the Russian Government has issued a Resolution resuming its commitment to annual contributions to the NOWPAP Trust Fund at a scale agreed by the Intergovernmental Meeting. read more

Partner/Collaborator News NOWPAP will host the 13th Global Meeting of Regional Seas Conventions and Action Plans (GMRS) in Busan, Republic of Korea, on 3-5 October 2011. read more

Partner/Collaborator News Two NOWPAP Regional Activity Centres (RAC) convened their annual Focal Point Meetings (FPMs) where on-going activities and projects were reviewed and workplans were discussed for 2011 and the next biennium. read more

Partner/Collaborator News A NOWPAP representative attended the Eco-life Act meeting and delivered a congratulatory address on 19 June 2011 in Toyama. read more