More than 170 governments declared an end to the fossil fuel era on Friday, using the signing ceremony for the landmark Paris agreement as an occasion to renew their vows to fight climate change. The outpouring of support – the largest ever single-day turn-out for a signing ceremony – underscored strong international commitment to deliver on the promises made in Paris last December to avoid a climate catastrophe, the leaders said.
Guardian 22nd April 2016 read more »
Telegraph 22nd April 2016 read more »
SCOTLAND should give an “incredible example” to the rest of the world by taking even more action to help prevent climate change. The call for Scotland to set the agenda on reducing toxic emissions has been made by the chief executive of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, Mike Robinson. As 160 countries officially signed the Paris Climate Agreement yesterday, Robinson acknowledged that Scotland’s targets were already the most stringent in the world. However he said they could be higher still even though the annual targets, set in tonnage terms, had not been achieved in the first few years despite being “relatively modest”. Scotland currently has an interim target of reducing emissions by 42 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020. Robinson said that while it could be argued that more could hav e been done to make sure the targets had been met, it looked as though the 42 per cent mark would be hit after all – although this would be more through luck than judgment as improved scientific data had now more accurately calculated the 1990 baseline figure.
The National 23rd April 2016 read more »