Talks at a UN climate conference enter their final day Friday, gridlocked by a make-or-break tussle between rich and developing nations over money for countries in the crosshairs of increasingly intense and costly impacts of global warming.. For many developing countries -- and small island states most threatened by sea level rise -- the defining issues at the conference is money for the "loss and damage" caused by climate change impacts.
Hong Kong's controversial shark fin trade may face its biggest shakeup in years if conservationists get their way in securing tighter regulations at an international wildlife conference in Panama.. "If this Panama conference adds more species to (CITES regulations), the government should pay close attention," he told AFP. "Wildlife smuggling has become very systematic and organised, so investigations need to be dialled up." hol/jta/axn/cwl
In the lush, fertile mountains of Cuba, farmer Jesus Chaviano dreams of adding his arabica beans to a list of specialty coffees the country hopes will lift an industry in decline.. Chaviano is optimistic that one day his coffee will be one of the feted specialty brands being exported from Cuba.
A global wildlife summit in Panama took an important step Thursday towards upgrading protection for sharks, the ancient ocean vertebrates targeted for their fins used in a status-symbol soup.. Shark fins -- which represent a market of some $500 million per year -- can sell for about $1,000 a kilogram in East Asia for use in shark fin soup, a delicacy.
The first galaxies may have formed far earlier than previously thought, according to observations from the James Webb Space Telescope that are reshaping astronomers' understanding of the early universe.. The galaxies' rapid discovery also defied expectations that Webb would need to survey a much larger volume of space to find such galaxies.
Government action to curb global warming should be a top concern despite inflation, an energy crisis and nuclear sabre-rattling by Russia, according to a YouGov survey in wealthy nations published exclusively by AFP. Carried out before the COP27 climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, the survey found that more than half of respondents in France, Britain, Italy, Spain, Germany and the United States said halting global warming should be a "key priority" regardless of the state of the economy.. More than 60 percent of respondents in France, Spain and Italy said tackling global warming should not give way to other problems, but barely 40 percent held this view in Germany, Britain and the United States.
UN climate talks were deadlocked Thursday over calls to create a special fund to cover the losses suffered by vulnerable nations hit by natural disasters, raising the risk that negotiations could collapse.. A 130-nation group known as G77+China issued a proposal to create the fund at the COP27 and agree on the nitty-gritty details at the next UN talks in Dubai in 2023.
The world is in danger of blasting past its goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, said climate champion Laurence Tubiana, slamming a "flagrant" lack of global leadership.. There is a fairly flagrant lack of international leadership." adb/jv/klm/pjm
French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday backed a proposal by Brazilian President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to hold a 2025 United Nations climate conference in the Amazon rainforest.. Lula, who will take office on January 1, expressed a wish Wednesday at the COP27 climate meeting in Egypt to organise COP30 in the Amazon -- an ecosystem essential to the balance of the global climate and biodiversity.
Winemaker and olive grower Jure Susac's land in Bosnia used to be blanketed with frost or even snow by autumn's end, but years of rising temperatures now mean balmy weather late into the year.. In Bosnia, the rising temperatures have also been accompanied by rarer rains.
