Chemistry World Blog

— hot-earth

Good news this week as the US has stood up and said it might just manage to put forward an emission reduction target in time for the Copenhagen climate conference after all.

The announcement, apparently made by an unnamed White House official, came following promising reports that over 60 presidents and prime ministers will now be attending the conference in person, boosting hopes that an agreement will be made.

However, leaders of some of the world’s biggest polluters – China, the US and India – are still not down to make an appearance in at the meeting.

With less than two weeks until the summit kicks off, it seems computer hackers want to get in on the action, with the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit targeted last week. The hackers apparently stole thousands of emails and other documents from the centre, a selection of which have been released and are being used as ammunition by those who disagree with generally accepted ideas about climate change.

Beautifully timed, today then brought a statement from the UK’s Met Office, Natural Environment Research Council and the Royal Society underlining the importance of the Copenhagen conference, the ‘unequivocal evidence’ for global warming, and the body of scientific evidence that ‘underpins the call for action now’.

It seems kind of fitting that as the Copenhagen conference creeps closer, over here in the UK we’re being battered by torrential rains, flooding, and unseasonably warm temperatures…

Anna Lewcock