Archived Policy News Stories
November 21, 2012
New Report on Greenhouse Gas Emissions Gap. The United Nations Environment Programme’s 2012 Emissions Gap Report finds that GHG emissions have increased 20% since the year 2000, and that total GHG emissions will be 58 gigatons of CO2 equivalent by 2020. Greenhouse gases will need to be reduced by at least 8 gigatons of CO2 equivalent by 2020 in order to meet international agreement to keep global temperature increases below 2 degrees Celsius this century. Learn more about the UNEP Emissions Gap program HERE.
October 20, 2012
Agreement Reached to Double Financial Support for Conservation at Convention for Biological Diversity Conference of the Parties. Today, in Hyderbad, India, member nations today agreed to raise conservation funding to $10 billion by 2015 to support biodiversity protection efforts in the developing world. Read the press release HERE and the Earth Negotiations Bulletin summary of the entire conference HERE.
September 15, 2012
World Conservation Congress Report on the 100 Most Endangered Species. A new report, Priceless or Worthless? has been published by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature detailing the ethical choice as to whether society should save the 100 most endangered species from around the world.
August 20, 2012
Citizen Participation in U.S. Endangered Species Act Helps the Most-Imperiled Species. A recent study in Science has concluded that the ability of citizen to petition the U.S. government to protect species under the ESA has clear benefits for the most imperiled species of plants and animals due to the reluctance of the government to initiate conservation measures to protect politically controversial species. Read the paper HERE and a related news story HERE.
August 5, 2012
Weather Extremes Linked to Climate Change. A newly released paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, authored by Jim Hansen, head of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, demonstrates with a high degree of confidence that recent extreme hot weather in the United States and Europe is a consequence of global climate change. Read the early copy of the Hansen et al. paper HERE, and read the related Op-Ed in the Washington Post authored by Hansen HERE.
July 19, 2012
New Analysis of the Legislative Proposals from the U.S. House of Representatives. A coalition of conservation groups has conducted an analysis of the legislative proposals approved by committees of the U.S. House of Representatives so far in 2012. Many of these legislative proposals could have severe negative environmental consequences, including for biodiversity. Read the analysis HERE.
July 11, 2012
European Commission Proposes Strongest Standard in the World for Automobile Carbon Emissions. Under the European Commission's proposal, new cars would be limited to 95 grams of CO2 emitted per kilometer by 2020. Vans and small trucks would be limited to 145 grams CO2 per kilometer. Read more about the European Commission proposal HERE.
June 25, 2012
Rio + 20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development Concludes. Ten days of negotiations in Rio de Janeiro ended with 191 nations agreeing to take preliminary steps towards a more sustainable global economy. Read the Earth Negotiations Bulletin summary HERE and the official United Nations Document "The Future We Want," agreed to by the parties HERE.