Weekly News Round-Up - 30/09/2013
IPCC report: it is ‘extremely likely’ that humanity is to blame for global warming – Guardian 27/09/13
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the expert panel of global scientists, produced on Friday the most comprehensive assessment yet of our knowledge of climate change.
One of the most striking assertions in this report was the news that scientists are more certain than ever that humanity is to blame for rising temperatures. The head of the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organisation, Michel Jarraud, said “it is extremely likely that changes in our climate system in the past half century are due to human influence.”
If people continue to emit greenhouse gases at current rates, the accumulation of carbon in the atmosphere could mean that within as little as two to three decades the world will face a warming of more than 2C, resulting in rising sea levels, heatwaves, droughts and more extreme weather.
Read all the IPCC report findings here
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UK enters global PV top six with record-breaking half year – Solar Power Portal 24/09/13
The UK reached a ‘new high’ in global PV rankings after a record-breaking first half of 2013 as 802MW of solar PV capacity was installed within the country. This represents 5.5% of the global 14.9GW solar capacity.
In terms of the global solar PV installation rankings for the first half of 2013, the UK is now 6th after Japan, Germany, Italy, U.S and leaders China.
Is the UK likely to hold onto or even improve upon its ranking in the final half of 2013? Read the full trends and figures here
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UK scientists call for global “Sunpower” programme to promote cheap solar energy – Guardian Environment 29/09/13
After the worrying findings from the official climate change report published by the IPCC earlier in the week, UK scientists have called for a global ‘Sunpower’ programme. This global ‘Sunpower’ programme would aim to deliver solar energy that is cheaper than fossil fuels by 2025.
If the programme were implemented worldwide, it would aim to generate 10% of the world’s energy by solar electricity by 2025, and 25% by 2030. After the publishing of the damning report that humanity is largely responsible for climate change, the global ‘sunpower’ programme would attempt to reduce mankind’s carbon emissions and avert climate disaster.
