Climate Change

UN mobile app lets users calculate size of carbon footprint

A new United Nations mobile telephone application released today lets users calculate their carbon footprint, visualize its equivalent in a particular ecosystem, and learn new ways in which they can reduce their emissions through specific actions.

Through the so-called Blue and REDD Carbon application, users can input the details of their journeys taken by air, train or road, and find out the equivalent area in a particular ecosystem – such as a tropical forest – that is needed to offset the journeys’ carbon footprint.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=40713&Cr=deforestation&Cr1=

Greenhouse gases reach record levels, could rise further, warns UN agency

The main greenhouse gases have reached their highest concentration levels since pre-industrial times, a United Nations climate research body said today.

The World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) 2009 Greenhouse Gas Bulletin warns that carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have all increased their presence, increasing their burden on the earth’s atmosphere.

“Greenhouse gas concentrations have reached record levels despite the economic slowdown. They would have been even higher without the international action taken to reduce them,”said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=36861&Cr=emissions&Cr1=

Ahead of UN climate change talks, investors warn of economic risks of inaction

The world risks economic crises larger than the recent global financial disruption unless governments, policy-makers and delegates to the forthcoming United Nations conference on climate change take action to combat global warming, major investors warned today.

Nearly 260 investors from Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, Latin America and North America, who collectively have assets valued at $15 trillion, said in joint statement that the potential climate-related gross domestic product (GDP) losses could soar up to 20 per cent by 2050 as a result of climate change.

Citing the economic benefits of shifting to low-carbon and resource-efficient economies, they called for national and international policies that will spur private investment into green technology.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=36783&Cr=climate+change&Cr1=