Two worrying stories have dominated climate news this week. The first is President Elect Donald Trump’s alarming stance on climate change. Although in favour of urgent action before the 2009 UN climate summit in Copenhagen, he’s promised to pull out of the Paris Agreement immediately, claimed that climate science is a...
Greenhouse gas emissions are still rising. This year atmospheric carbon dioxide levels sailed past 400 parts per million and in January global temperatures were within touching distance of 1.5 deg C above their 1850-1900 levels – the ambitious warming limit set out in the Paris text. Why then am I...
Last week was a big week for climate policy. Last Tuesday the countries of the EU ratified the Paris agreement, taking it past the required threshold to becoming law – which it will on 4 November. On Thursday the 191 countries of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) finally...
Last month, the Priestley International Centre for Climate was officially launched by Sir Alan Langlands, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds, with a special message from astronaut Piers Sellers. The centre aims to provide international solutions to the global problems raised by climate change and its impact on society and...
The good news about the healing of the ozone hole through the implementation of the Montreal Protocol has been hailed as a success story for global environmental agreements. Leeds researchers Anja Schmidt and Ryan Neely, who were a key part of the team, see encouraging signs in this blog for The...