Climate Change

Tech Tent: Iron Man’s climate change mission

But Robert Downey Jr has ambitions to play another role - that of an investor in technology to combat climate change.

He tells Tech Tent he wants to step out of the make-believe world of his Avengers character and confront the real threat to the planet.

"I'm not a kid any more. And I really want to find things that I think are dynamic and interesting and - tell me if I'm wrong - but isn't this the space to be catching the buzz right now?"

Pacific renews call for urgent global action against climate change

The decision was taken during Friday's virtual leaders' summit to mark the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement.

The leaders have endorsed the development of a 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent ahead of next year's COP26 in the UK.

The leaders also renewed their commitment to progress the implementation of the Paris Accord.

The forum acknowledged the need for urgent and immediate actions against the threats and challenges of climate change.

Australia urged to take in 3000 Pacific Islanders to offset climate change

The recommendation was outlined in a new policy paper released today by the University of New South Wales' Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law.

The paper urges the government to do more to help neighbouring countries, with several Pacific island nations facing an existential threat from rising sea levels.

Co-author Jane McAdam said it was a roadmap for Australia to deal specifically with the displacement of Pacific Islanders as a result of climate change and natural disasters.

Climate change: 'Rising chance' of exceeding 1.5C global target

It assesses a 20 percent chance the threshold will be broken in one year before 2024 and a 70 percent chance it will be broken in one or more months in those five years.

Scientists say it shows the tough task of controlling climate change levels.

The 2015 Paris accord had tasked world leaders with certain goals.

It committed them to pursue efforts to try to keep the world from warming by more than 1.5C this century.

Study finds quarter of climate change tweets from bots

Bots are computer programmes that can masquerade as humans to post or send messages on social media.

Researchers discovered tweets posted by bots created the impression there was a high level of climate change denial.

The paper detailing the finds has not yet been published and was first reported by The Guardian newspaper.

The research team analysed 6.5 million tweets from the period surrounding President Donald Trump's June 2017 announcement that he was removing the United States from the Paris climate accord.

Effects of climate change in Pacific worse than predicted

Elisabeth Holland, who's based at the University of the South Pacific, said the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) Special Report - which she contributed to - painted another dire forecast.

The report found oceans were heating at such a rate their chemistry is being altered which, in turn, is threatening food supplies, fuelling more extreme cyclones, and posing a profound threat to people who lived in low-lying areas.

Prince Charles to visit Solomons, focus on climate change

During Prince Charles' trip next month, he will launch a national ocean policy and a malaria elimination roadmap.

The prince will also learn about sustainable fisheries management in the Pacific.

A statement from the Solomon Islands government said the prince would also meet with Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare and other leaders in Honiara.

Prince Charles will be in Solomon Islands on the 24 and 25 of November, following his visit to New Zealand and Tuvalu.

The prince last visited Tuvalu in 1970.

Nauru President warns of possible climate change ‘economic Armageddon’

The President said tuna fishing generates $6 billion annually for the handful of small island developing States known as the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA), a 1982 accord on fisheries management.

“This fishery is projected to disperse and disappear from the waters of the nine-member countries and territories of the PNA in the not too distant future: another victim of the climate crisis,” he told fellow world leaders.

Greta Thunberg: 'Leaders failed us on climate change'

"You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words," she told a UN climate summit in New York.

About 60 world leaders are taking part in the one-day meeting organised by UN Secretary General António Guterres.

He earlier said countries could only speak at the summit if they came with action plans to cut carbon emissions.

US President Donald Trump, a climate change sceptic, had not been expected at the meeting - but he was briefly spotted in the audience.

Forum brings Pacific Island Nations closer together on climate change

Speaking after his attendance at last week’s Pacific Islands Forum in Tuvalu where climate change was high on the agenda, President Waqa said Nauru was highly vulnerable to the impacts of global warming.

“Climate change is a very important topic for all the Pacific Islands, especially Nauru where we need to future-proof the coast,” President Waqa said.