– A round-up of the day’s top climate change stories
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EU: The 27 EU Commissioners are meeting in Brussels today (20 February) to consider early proposals for 2030 climate targets covering CO2 emissions and possibly renewables. (Euractiv)
The mass of water held in ice at Antarctica and Greenland exerts a gravitational pull on surrounding liquid water – which disappears when the ice melts
Sea levels: Research in the Geophysical Research Letters publication shows that parts of the Pacific will see the highest rates of sea level rise while some polar regions will actually experience falls in relative sea levels due to the ways sea, land and ice interact globally. (ice2sea)
USA: Bad news for skiers. Two new studies suggest we can expect more giant blizzards yet less snow overall each year. Projections are that that’s likely to continue with global warming. (AP)
EU: Carbon prices fell 20% on Tuesday as investors cast doubt on a vote in the European Parliament that legislators claimed could rescue the EU’s carbon market. (FT)
UN: Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on countries to implement policies that protect the environment, stressing that this will also benefit their economic growth and prosperity. (UN News)
UK: Shares in power firm Drax have risen after the company said it had made rapid progress in its plans to switch to using biomass fuel. The Yorkshire-based power station is one of the largest in Europe. It said the first unit would be converted from coal to biomass in April, with another to follow in 2014. (BBC)
Germany: Feldheim, 90km south of Berlin, has declared itself to be a 100% energy independent town. 47 windmills and an array of solar panels along the edge of town also feed the electrical grid. (Treehugger)
Indonesia: Is geoengineering preventing flooding in Jakarta? Last month military planes carrying tonnes of salt started the cloud seeding operation scattering salt onto rainclouds across the ocean. The operation is expected to last two months. (SciDev Net)