A summary of today’s top climate and clean energy stories.
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Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. (Pic: Boston9)
Europe: Euro MPs and environmentalists are urging the European Commission to take rapid action to prevent UN Climate Summit hosts Poland from building two huge new 900MW coal plants, which violate EU laws on Carbon Capture and Storage. (EurActiv)
US: Former vice president of the United States Al Gore said in an interview he is more optimistic than ever that the issue of climate change has reached “a tipping point.” (Washington Post)
Fiji: Climate change is one of the greatest barriers to sustainable development for small island countries, a Fijian official said Wednesday. (Xinhua)
Asia: Asian Development Bank is ready to invest US$1.55 million into strengthening the capacity of the executing agencies for Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to improve environmental management and monitoring. (ABZ.AZ)
US: The World Wide Fund for Nature has launched a series of election advertisements aimed at highlighting the need for action on climate change, ahead of the September Federal Election. (Mumbrella)
Saudi Arabia: Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) has hired Germany’s Linde Group to build the world’s largest plant for capturing and using climate-warming carbon dioxide, the Saudi petrochemical giant said on Wednesday. (Planet Ark)
Arctic: Greenpeace will consider sailing down the Northern Sea Route to protest oil exploration this Friday, defying the Russian authorities who have refused them access to the area. (RTCC)
Brazil: Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is on the rise sharply, sparking alarm over the future of the world’s biggest rainforest. Scientists detected a 100% surge in the clearing of land. (Phys.org)
US: Desert plants living in Arizona’s Santa Catalina Mountains have moved surprisingly far upslope in the past 50 years, a trend that’s likely due to warmer, drier temperatures in the region, new research has found. (Think Progress)
Italy: A senior Roman Catholic bishop has said that fracking could pose risks to “God’s creation”, as environmental campaigners said that they had spectacular protest activities planned. (The Times)
Research: Scientists have discovered a cost-effective solution to replacing expensive platinum in solar cells with graphene. (RTCC)
UK: A UK poll has shown nearly seven times more people would rather have a solar farm located near their homes than a fracking site. (RTCC)