Marzo 2014 - Futuro Sostenibile

Home » Posts made in Marzo, 2014

Clima, rapporto WGII IPCC

Gli effetti del riscaldamento globale probabilmente sono “gravi e irreversibili”. È impietoso il giudizio dell’Ipcc (Panel Intergovernativo sul Cambiamento Climatico delle Nazioni Unite) nel rapporto diffuso oggi a Yokohama, Giappone, sullo stato di salute mondiale dell’ambiente. I dati confermano che il cambiamento climatico “è una realtà, sta avvenendo ora e sta colpendo le vite e il benessere di intere popolazioni così come quello di ecosistemi delicati alla base di importanti cicli vitali”. Basti pensare alle ondate di calore che hanno colpito l’Europa nel 2003, alle devastazioni prodotte dagli uragani negli Stati Uniti e agli incendi in varie parti del pianeta.

“Le nuove evidenze scientifiche sui cambiamenti climatici: i rischi, la mitigazione e le politiche di adattamento in Italia”

Il 15 aprile dalle 10.30 si terrà a Roma, presso la Camera dei Deputati, il convegno dal titolo “Le nuove evidenze scientifiche sui cambiamenti climatici: i rischi, e le politiche di adattamento in Italia”, organizzato dalla Fondazione Centro per un Futuro Sostenibile in collaborazione con l’Institute of European Democrats. Prossimamente saranno infatti pubblicati i contributi del Working Group II (impatti, adattamento e vulnerabilità) e del Working Group III (Mitigazione dei Cambiamenti Climatici) del Quinto Rapporto di Valutazione (AR5) dell’Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), uno degli elementi cruciali del dibattito internazionale sul clima.

IPCC report: climate change felt ‘on all continents and across the oceans’

has already left its mark “on all continents and across the oceans“, damaging food crops, spreading disease, and meltingglaciers, according to the leaked text of a blockbuster UN climate science report due out on Monday. Government officials and scientists are gathered in Yokohama this week to wrangle over every line of a summary of the report before the final wording is released on Monday – the first update in seven years. But governments have already signed off on the critical finding that climate change is already having an effect, and that even a small amount of warming in the future could lead to “abrupt and irreversible changes”, according to documents seen by the Guardian.

WHO: air pollution is single biggest environmental health risk

Air pollution has become the world’s single biggest environmental health risk, linked to around 7 million – or nearly one in eight deaths in 2012 –according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). The new figures are more than double previous estimates and suggest that outdoor pollution from traffic fumes and coal-burning, and indoor pollution from wood and coal stoves, kills more people than smoking, road deaths and diabetes combined. Around 80% of the 3.7 million deaths from outdoor pollution came as a result of stroke and heart disease, 11% from lung diseases and 6% from cancers. The vast majority were in Asia, with 180,000 in the Americas and Europe combined, said the WHO.

Bullish Chevron to outspend Exxon

Chevron has long been overshadowed by its larger rival ExxonMobil. Next year, however, it will overtake Exxon on one important measure: capital and exploration spending. This is striking because Exxon is so much bigger: it produces 54 per cent more oil and gas than Chevron and its market capitalisation is 85 per cent bigger. The fact that Chevron is nevertheless planning to invest more than Exxon shows how sharply the companies’ strategies have diverged. Exxon is aiming for stability, while Chevron is going for growth.

Chevron is planning to invest about $40bn per year in 2014-16: slightly less than the $42bn it reported for 2013. Exxon is cutting its spending more sharply, from $42.5bn last year to about $40bn this year, and then an average of less than $37bn per year in 2015-17.