From Benny Peiser's Global Warming Foundation

Japan Stuns UN Climate Summit By Ditching CO2 Target

Rich Nations Block Push To Count Past CO2 Emissions At UN Climate Summit

Japan set a new target for greenhouse gas emissions that critics say will set back United Nations talks for a treaty limiting fossil fuel emissions. The new target effectively reverses course from the goal set four years ago by allowing a 3.1 per cent increase in emissions from 1990 levels rather than seeking a 25 per cent cut. --Bloomberg, 15 November 2013

Japan's decision added to gloom at the Warsaw talks, where no major countries have announced more ambitious goals to cut emissions, despite warnings from scientists about the risks of more heatwaves, droughts, floods and rising sea levels. --Reuters, 15 November 2013

Slow-moving U.N. negotiations on fighting climate change can advance only if rich nations fulfill their promise to provide billions of dollars in finance to developing countries, China’s chief climate negotiator Su Wei said Thursday. He told reporters in Warsaw that developed nations should make good on pledges made in 2010 and immediately pay the promised $30 billion to help poor countries cope with the effects of climate change. Rich countries also need to clarify how they intend to scale that up to $100 billion per year by 2020, he said. “That would be a very important starting point and key to the successful conclusion of the negotiation of a (post-)2020 agreement,” said Su. --Reuters, 14 November 2013

The U.S. and European Union blocked a proposal supported by 130 nations including Brazil and China that would use [CO2 emission] levels dating back to the industrial revolution to help set limits on emissions in the future. The proposal goes to the heart of one of the most divisive concepts in the talks — the notion of equity. Developing countries say that because industrialized nations have been emitting greenhouse gases for 200 years, they must bear the most responsibility to rein in the pollution blamed for global warming. Richer countries see a focus on the past as a tool by poorer nations to avoid making bigger efforts to curtail their own emissions. --Alex Morales, Bloomberg, 15 November 2013

According to the Giss database 2013 as a whole is probably going to be between the 10th and the 6th warmest year on record, though such absolute ranks do not mean much as the associated errors encompass the small variations in the mean. A better way of describing the data is that the ‘pause’ in global surface temperatures continues. It is a similar situation with the NOAA data. Again the summary is that there has been no change – the ‘pause’ continues. According to HadCrut4 2013 will end with a continuation of the ‘pause.’ This will make the current ‘pause’ in global surface temperatures a little over 16 years. --David Whitehouse, The Global Warming Policy Foundation, 14 November 2013

A paper published today in Global and Planetary Change finds global sea level rise has decelerated by 44% since 2004 to a rate equivalent to only 7 inches per century. According to the authors, global mean sea level rise from 1993-2003 was at the rate of 3.2 mm/yr, but sea level rise “started decelerating since 2004 to a rate of 1.8 ± 0.9 mm/yr in 2012.” The authors also find “This deceleration is mainly due to the slowdown of ocean thermal expansion in the Pacific during last decade,” which is in direct opposition to claims that the oceans “ate the global warming.” --The Hockey Schtick, 14 November 2013

There have been 35 typhoons with an atmospheric pressure of 895 mb or less, the figure measured for Typhoon Yolanda. The almost total absence of such intense storms in the last two decades is notable. --Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, 14 November 2013

Nigel Lawson and Ed Davey were both on BBC Question Time last night, and the conversation inevitably turned to Typhoon Haiyan. At first, Davey was somewhat less belligerent than normal, offering qualified agreement with Lawson's suggestion that there was no connection between global warming and hurricanes. His qualification was, however, significant. He said in essence that while global warming was not affecting hurricane frequency, it was increasing their intensity. This is not true. --Andrew Montford, Bishop Hill, 15 November 2013

According to the IEA, global emissions last year climbed 3.2%. I believe that corresponds to the annual emission of Germany – roundabout. The most effective climate policy of the last decade was the 1-child policy in China which saved the world from approx. 400 million emitters and emitter-reproducers. --German climate scientist Hans von Storch, 27 May 2012