Posted on 6 November 2016 by John Hartz

Story of the Week...

Climate change will once again become the focus of global diplomacy next week, as countries gather in Marrakech for the UN climate body’s (UNFCCC) 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP22).

In many ways, COP22 will be the nerdy friend to its glamorous Parisian predecessor. Last December, the world’s attention swivelled to France as rival nations finally cooperated to sign the first global climate deal.

The Paris Agreement set the overarching framework for dealing with climate change in the decades to come. But alone it will not solve the problem, and nations now have the task of fleshing out the details. The following issues are likely to prove key to this round of negotiations:

• How can all countries be included in the talks?
• What form and content should climate pledges include?
• How should progress be tracked?
• What action should be taken on loss and damage?
• How can poor nations be supported?
• How will action be transparent and accountable?
• What information needs to be provided on adaptation?
• Where’s the money going to come from?
• Who’s US president?

This means that Marrakech, while expected to provide little in the way of drama (US election results aside), will be an opportunity to engage with the nuts and bolts of the deal. Liz Gallagher, a climate policy expert at environmental think-tank E3G, says:

Preview: The UN’s COP22 climate talks in Marrakech by Sophie Yeo, Carbon Brief, Nov 3, 2016

Toon of the Week...

Quote of the Week...

As for Trump’s statement that climate change is a hoax, the director of Drake University’s Environmental Science & Policy Program, David Courard-Hauri, says it’s time to put it to rest.

“There’s not much to say about that. It’s been debunked. The idea that it might be a hoax is ifficult to get one’s head around anymore.”

Climate Change on the Forefront of Many Voters' Minds; Not Receiving Much Attention from Candidates by Ben Kieffer, Emily Woodbury & Anna Williams, Iowa Public Radio, Nov 4, 2016

Graphic of the Week...

CAPTION: Average Arctic sea ice extent for the month of September between 1979 and 2016. Black line shows annual data, and blue line shows the long-term trend. Credit: NSIDC

Arctic summer sea ice to disappear with 2C warming, study says by Robert McSweeney, Carbon Brief, Nov 3, 2016

SkS in the News...

Don’t make a choice that your children will regret, an open-letter to Americans posted on Real Climate includes the following statement:

In case you have any doubts about the science: in the scientific community there is a long-standing consensus that humans are causing dangerous global warming, reflected in the clear statements of many scientific academies and societies from around the world. None of the 195 governments that signed the Paris Agreement saw any reasons for doubting the underlying scientific facts; doubts about the science that you see in some media are largely manufactured by interest groups trying to fool you.

The first link embedded in the above is to:

The importance of assessing and communicating scientific consensus, Edward W Maibach and Sander L van der Linden, 2016 Environmental Research Letters Volume 11, Number 4 

SkS Spotlights...

The American Security Project (ASP) is a nonpartisan organization created to educate the American public and the world about the changing nature of national security in the 21st Century.

The mission of the ASP is:

• to communicate our vision for security in the 21st century by developing and sharing new ideas and critical analyses on the most important national security issues of our time;
• to forge a bipartisan consensus on a new national security strategy that will restore America’s leadership and ensure our security;
• to raise the American public’s understanding of critical national security issues through direct engagement and dialogue. 

Video of the Week...

Bernie Turns up Heat, Burns Trump on Warming by Peter Sinclair, Climate Denial Crock of the Week, Nov 4, 2016

Coming Soon on SkS...

• President Trump would Make America Deplorable Again (Dana)
• So fracking reduces carbon emissions, right? (gws)
• Global weirding Episode 4 (Katharine Hayhoe)
• Guest Post (John Abraham)
• Paris climate agreement enters into force: international experts respond (Bill Hare, Harald Winkler, Julia Jones, Luke Kemp, Pep Canadell, Meraz Mostafa & Stefan Rahmstorf)
• 2016 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #46 (John Hartz)
• 2016 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Waming Digest #46 (John Hartz)

Poster of the Week...

Climate Feedback Reviews...

Climate Feedback asked its network of scientists to review “The Phony War Against CO2” by Harrison Schmitt & Rodney Nichols (Wall Street Journal, Oct 31, 2016). Six scientists analyzed the article and estimated its overall scientific credibility to be ‘very low’.

Click here to access the detailed review. 

SkS Week in Review...

• 2016 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #45 by John Hartz
• US Passenger Vehicle Emissions Comparable to 1980 Mt. St Helens  Eruption Occurring Every 3 Days by Ryan Logtenberg
• Watch: Before the Flood by Guest Author
• Barack Obama is the first climate president by John Abraham (Climate Consensus - the 97%, Guardian) 
• Global weirding with Katharine Hayhoe: Episode 3 by Guest Author
• Coal doesn’t help the poor; it makes them poorer by Dana Nuccitelli (Climate Consensus - the 97%, Guardian) 
• 2016 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Waming Digest #44 by John Hartz 

97 Hours of Consensus...

Kevin Trenberth's bio page

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