Insuring against climate: Nature Newsfarmers in the Ethiopian village of Adi Ha have been busy sowing fresh crops of grain in recent weeks,
a researcher who helped develop the policy at Columbia University's International Research Institute for Climate
The idea has taken now root in the United nations'climate talks; many delegates will be pushing to incorporate insurance policies into a deal at the climate summit in Copenhagen this December.
Leading the effort is the Munich Climate Insurance Initiative (MCII), whose members include reinsurance companies,
research groups and agencies such as the United nations Development Programme. The MCII's proposal combines incentives to help communities prepare for natural disasters in a two-tiered programme:
a climate-insurance pool would pay for major disasters in developing countries, and a second tier would promote public-private insurance systems to pay for broader implementation of index and other types of insurance programme.
Warner says that references to climate insurance go all the way back to the original United nations Framework Convention on Climate Change signed in Rio de janeiro in 1992,
but only in the past couple of years has the concept really been integrated into international climate negotiations.
the index insurance pool now provides hurricane and earthquake insurance to 16 Caribbean nations. Much as the Ethiopian policy is tied to rainfall
the Caribbean policies are based on observations of wind speed and earthquake intensity. That saves money on site audits
and speeds up the process, providing money immediately after a crisis when it is needed most.
and $6. 3 million to the Turks and Caicos Islands after Hurricane Ike last year.
which should lower premiums as well as lessen damage during a storm. Insurance advocates acknowledge that spreading insurance tools around the globe would benefit developing nations regardless of global warming,
But fears about increased droughts, floods and more severe weather that could be associated with global warming have added momentum.
Climate change is more or less a new impulse for promoting this, says Thomas Loster, chairman of the Munich re Foundation, a nonprofit philanthropic branch of the German reinsurance giant.
resistant to a variety of insects and diseases and able to withstand the vagaries of climate change,
We also need new farming systems that respond to the exigencies of climate change. We must move from heavy tillage of land to conservation agriculture;
However with climate change, it may be that in the future, it will be needed. We cannot close the door.
Will increasing production put greater stress on the environment? No. If you doubled yields in Africa from one tonne to two tonnes per hectare, you would only need half the land
Developing nations tackle climate: Nature Newsfollowing up on a non-binding pledge to halve its emissions by mid-century,
is our way of proving that you can take the climate change issue seriously and still lay a sound foundation for development,
who heads the Mexico climate delegation and helped broker the deal for a domestic programme.
in the run-up to the United nations climate summit in Copenhagen in December, other developing nations have pledged their own dramatic reductions.
Brazil has promised to reduce deforestation by 70%by 2017, and South africa says it could level off emissions by 2025.
The dispute centres on four words common but differentiated responsibilities that are in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change signed at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de janeiro, Brazil.
Last month, at a UN climate meeting in Bonn, Germany, several countries, including Bolivia, Brazil,
and how they could be incorporated into the next climate treaty. This is basically the fault line between developed and developing countries,
Bolivia carries this approach one step further by framing the issue in terms of'climate debt'.'Like China, it reckons that even if Annex
Everything that developed countries emit above their per-capita allotment incurs a climate debt that must be repaid with either money or technology.
the largest and most diverse coalition in the UN climate talks, which in spite of its name represents some 130 developing countries,
but its members are divided on key climate issues such as emissions restriction and adaptation funding. The Alliance of Small Island States, for instance, often pushes for aggressive action to reduce greenhouse gases because of its pressing concern over rising sea levels,
and Climate organized by the United states but frequently seek refuge within the G77, where expectations for commitments to mitigate climate change are much lower.
You have this huge issue of smaller countries that are in a way shielding larger-emitting countries from any kind of stronger commitment
Shyam Saran, Prime minister Manmohan Singh's special envoy for climate change, says India needs money
Domestically, however, India has developed an ambitious climate agenda, points out Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and a member of Singh's Council on Climate Change.
what he calls a disconnect between India's position on climate at home and abroad. He thinks this stems in part from delays to the climate agenda caused by unrelated distractions,
including the terrorist attacks on Mumbai last November and national elections in May. But the government is now moving forward,
climate experts are looking at ways to combine the country's domestic and international commitments.
as defined by the UN climate treaty. Mexican officials say the goal is to find a middle ground.
Nature Newsthe ability to adapt to a new environment may not always be beneficial for long-term success in flour beetles at least.
whether behavioural plasticity the ability to adapt immediately to changing environments helps or hinders the evolutionary success of organisms.
When the environment changes, the very range of responses that previously constituted'adaptability'may become an evolutionary liability instead, notes Donna Holmes, an evolutionary biologist at Washington state University in Pullman,
says Michelle Scott, a behavioural ecologist at the University of New hampshire in Durham. There must be variations in the metabolic pathway;
a genetically diverse population that is also adaptable may have the best chance for evolutionary success in the face of dramatic environmental change.
The broad analysis of potential US energy and climate-mitigation scenarios compared the land and habitat impacts of various energy mixes from nuclear power to biofuels resulting from an array of policy options.
says study author Robert Mcdonald, a landscape ecologist with The Nature Conservancy, a nonprofit environmental organization based in Arlington, Virginia.
Those other laws include the US renewable fuel standard, which requires that the volume of renewable fuel blended into gasoline is increased from 34 billion litres in 2008 to 136 billion litres by 2022.
Although there is an extensive body of data about the way that climate change could affect habitats and biodiversity,
If we are to prevent serious, damaging climate change, it will require one of the largest land-use changes in the history of the country,
it's important that we do it carefully to minimize the environmental impacts of these new energy resources.
and our society as is climate change, she says. Groom is optimistic that policies can be shaped to promote options that have the least impact on land use and habitat change, such as algae for biofuels,
Nature Newspolicy Events Business Facilities Environment<br></br>The week ahead Sound bites Number crunch<br></br>Policy Stem cells:
The renewable-energy target is expected to spur billions of dollars of investment in wind, solar and hydroelectric power,
environmental groups seeking to block the use of air guns during the tests (see Nature 460,939;
) Environment Mercury contamination: A quarter of fish sampled from 291 streams across the United states between 1998 and 2005 contained levels of mercury higher than those deemed safe for human consumption,
according to a non-peer-reviewed report from the US Geological Survey (USGS). More than two-thirds contained levels exceeding the Environmental protection agency's level of concern for the protection of fish-eating mammals,
and Animal Use in the Life sciences meets in Rome. http//www. aimgroup. eu/2009/WC7 31 august-4 september The World meteorological organization hosts the Third world Climate Conference in Geneva. http://www
1 september The UK Royal Society will release a report on climate geoengineering options the first such review from a major scientific academy.
because melting glaciers in The alps have altered the watershed that marks the border. AP) Number crunch<br></br>16.99 °C<br></br>The average surface temperature of the world's oceans in June and July 2009 the warmest measured
if the United nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) definition of a forest is changed not,
A future climate deal could see developing countries financially compensated for preserving their forests. The UNFCCC defines a forest as an area of land 0. 05-1 hectare in size,
Nophea Sasaki, a forest ecologist at Harvard university, and an author of the study, says that woodland could be degraded severely
%Sasaki is concerned also that forest degradation will be disregarded in the post-Kyoto agreement on climate change due to be negotiated in Copenhagen in December.
and their long-term sustainability including a report2 from the Harvard university project on international climate agreements
Unlike deforestation which can be measured by remote-sensing methods such as satellites, degradation is evaluated through on-the-ground studies that assess what types of tree species are growing
who heads research at the Amazon Institute for Environmental Research (IPAM) in Bras  lia.
Brazil thus has an opportunity to show whether this way of reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) works.
Worldwide, deforestation accounts for as much as 20%of greenhouse-gas emissions and up to 70%of Brazil's emissions.
Climate negotiators in the United nations talks are looking at various ways to link international carbon markets to forest conservation,
or European companies to offset their emissions by paying for forest conservation projects in the tropics.
Last year Brazil pledged to reduce deforestation by 70%by the end of 2017; the government has extended
Deforestation rates fell for three years after peaking in 2004 (see graphic), but then increased in the 2008 season
Deforestation rates seem to have dropped again in the most recent season; experts credit better enforcement and new policies but also the economic crisis,
Climate negotiators are increasingly focusing on national baselines such as this, instead of on particular projects that might save one patch of forest while pushing loggers, developers and landowners down the road to another patch.
to land registry programmes and a proposal from Brazil's National Institute for Space Research for a new satellite to monitor deforestation.
Paulo Adario, Amazon campaign director for the Brazilian arm of environmental organization Greenpeace, is wary of governors opening their states directly to international investments;
The official deforestation data for the 2009 season, which ended in July, will be available in December.
Preliminary results suggest that total deforestation will hit a two-decade low of less than 10,000 square kilometres low enough to secure another payment from Norway in 2010.
By studying experimental rice plots and real farmland, Chris Butenhoff and Aslam Khalil, physicists from Portland State university in Portland, Oregon, together with Xiong Zhenqin, an ecologist at Nanjing Agricultural
The team presented their results on 13 august at a meeting on climate science convened at a Beijing hotel by the US Department of energy and China's Ministry of Science and Technology.
says Raymond Mccord, an ecologist at the Oak ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, who was involved not in the research.
With global temperatures rising as a result of climate change, the emission of methane which traps about 25 times more of the Sun's heat than carbon dioxide will play a greater part in the global carbon budget than it does now
Based on the temperature-increase projections of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, he and his colleagues estimate that methane emission from paddies in China could go up by a further 2. 5 million tonnes by 2100.
The study has important implications for climate change and mitigation efforts, says Mccord. Methane is an attractive greenhouse gas to target for emission reduction,
But these systems had many negative consequences for the environment, such as water pollution and reduction of biodiversity.
The severity of the problem is equal to that of climate change, maybe more so, and may well be exacerbated by it.
which can damage ecosystems and tend to lose their impact as pests acquire resistance. European and US researchers, headed by Theodoor Turlings, a chemical ecologist from the University of Neuch ¢tel in Switzerland
bred maize that produced (E)- Ã Â-caryophyllene, which attracts nematodes that kill western corn rootworm an insect
Guy Poppy, a chemical ecologist from the University of Southampton, UK, agrees that the method should allow farmers to reduce crop damage without eradicating the entire population of pests in a field's ecosystem-allowing biodiversity to remain mostly unchanged.
John Pickett, a biological chemist from the Rothamsted Research institute in Harpenden, UK, is pleased also that negative environmental effects of pesticides can be avoided.
future studies should address the effects that enhancing natural chemical signals might have on a whole ecosystem including the resident populations of insect-killing nematodes.
or be washed away by rain, if it were not being emitted continually by the plants it would be better to guide the nematodes to the plants most in need of protection,
Climate change will hit developing world harvests hardest: Nature Newsdeveloping countries could see large drops in crop yields by 2050
if climate change is unchecked left, according to a US report, potentially leaving as many as 25 million more children malnourished compared to a world without global warming.
The study by the International Food Policy Research Institute in WASHINGTON DC is one of the most comprehensive to look at the links between climate change and food security.
The results are being released today at the international climate-change meeting taking place in Bangkok, Thailand.
and agricultural supply and demand under the A2 scenario of the fourth report from the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that is that by 2100 the temperature will rise between 2. 0 °C
It uses two climate models to forecast these effects: one developed by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado,
This report brings together for first time a detailed modelling of crop growth under climate change with insights from the crop market,
If left unchecked, climate change will reduce wheat yields from irrigated fields by 20-35%by 2050 compared with the potential yields for these crops under a no-climate-change scenario.
The developing countries will probably be the hardest hit by climate change and will face bigger reductions in crop yields than industrialized countries,
The results show that southern Asia will be hit particularly hard by climate change, with some of the largest losses in crop production.
In a worst-case scenario, the models show that farmers in this region could see a nearly 50%drop in wheat production by 2050 compared with potential production with no climate change.
Nelson says that the biological effects of climate change on crops will work their way through the agricultural market,
and help farmers adapt to climate change. This report links climate change to food security, Keith Goulding, says a soil scientist at Rothamsted Research in Hertfordshire Britain's largest agricultural research centre.
This is important as one of the problems we face is focused narrowly policies that address one issue without considering others.
but notes that the IPCC climate scenario used in the study predicts quite extreme conditions.
such as climate change effects on crop production by regions, and on world prices for livestock products and major grain, don't take into account gains in crop yields
The US Environmental protection agency has announced its nationwide reporting system for greenhouse-gas emissions. Large facilities will have to disclose their emissions every year,
The chemical was approved for agricultural use by the US Environmental protection agency in October 2007, prompting protests from activists and scientists.
Climate rift: Exelon of Chicago, Illinois, the largest US nuclear-power provider, has become the latest company to quit the US Chamber of commerce because of differences over climate change.
In recent months the chamber, which is among the nation's most influential business groups,
and it will almost certainly fail to meet the US Environmental protection agency's (EPA) projection of 381 million litres of cellulosic biofuels in 2010.
The EPA must decide by 1 december whether to increase the blend wall to 15, %in response to a request submitted by advocacy group Growth Energy based in WASHINGTON DC.
whether the EPA will put annual targets for cellulosic-biofuel production into effect on 1 january 2010 as originally proposed.
including climate change, biofuels, nutrition, and food safety and security. Yet Beachy's arrival also underscores the often-close ties between US agribusiness and federal research.
Ignacio Chapela, an environmental scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, worries that such close industry links might result in narrow-minded policies.
Imprinting NIFA with such a clearly biased character is likely to exacerbate the discredit of US policy-making bodies in a national and international environment,
Nature Newsa review committee in Sacramento, California, begins on 24 september to assess the science behind methyl iodide a pesticide that has been approved for agricultural use by the US Environmental protection agency (EPA),
but which faces a storm of opposition from activists and scientists. At issue is a set of apparently conflicting assessments of the chemical's health hazard.
In 2007, the EPA concluded that health standards could be met by proper use of masks and procedures,
The EPA approved methyl iodide in October 2007, prompting protest at the time including from a group of chemists familiar with the toxic properties of the chemical in the lab
One reason for the difference between the EPA and the California DPR reports is that the EPA effectively assumed that no one would get hit by a'plume'of pesticide created by stagnant air pockets
or wind, says Kegley. Such plumes of other fumigants, she says, typically send a couple of dozen people in the United states to the emergency room every few years.
EPA spokesperson Dale Kemery says his agency's report used data and models that are representative of real field conditions in California.
The EPA is due to re-review its approved fumigants in 2013, including methyl iodide. Kemery says the agency is open to reconsidering its methyl iodide registration earlier than that
says study co-author JÃ rg Bohlmann, a chemical ecologist at the University of British columbia in Vancouver, Canada,
The goal, says Dezene Huber, a chemical ecologist at the University of Northern British columbia in Prince George
who plans to incorporate the genomic data into landscape ecological models. Once you have that information,
and a few symbiotic ecological relationships such as leaf-cutter ants and their microbial partners, but the approach has never before been applied on this scale for an outbreaking forest nuisance.
says Rob Bailis, an environmental scientist at Yale university. But over the past three years, the investment got way ahead of the plant science,
And jatropha seedlings are often not well-suited to the climate in which they are planted.
says Bart Muys, a forest ecologist at the University of Leuven in Belgium. But Hoekstra says that more thought needs to be given to variables such as where jatropha is planted
It has collected samples from jatropha plants growing wild in different environments and is creating a library of genetic material from
says Jeremy Woods from Imperial College London's Centre for Environmental Policy. And jatropha can play a big part in that.
Released jointly by the US Environmental protection agency (EPA) and Department of transportation, the regulations would effectively increase fuel efficiency standards by nearly 40 percent, to more than 35.5 miles per gallon (about 15 kilometres per litre) in 2016.
EPA administrator Lisa Jackson said the move marks a significant advance in our work to protect health in the environment and move our nation into the sustainable, energy-efficient economy of the future.
The regulations are rooted in a 2007 Supreme court finding that the EPA has the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles.
EPA administrator Lisa Jackson took the first step in April with an endangerment finding that would formally declare carbon dioxide a danger to public health and the environment.
EPA has yet to finalize that ruling, which could be expanded to include broader greenhouse gas regulations for industrial sources such as power plants and heavy industry.
He credits the administration with eliminating both loopholes under the EPA regulations. In addition to increasing overall fuel efficiency, automakers could improve their air-conditioning systems
The US Environmental protection agency (EPA) has agreed to set new rules governing emissions of mercury and other toxic chemicals from power plants by November 2011,
according to a settlement in a federal lawsuit filed by several environmental and health groups. Environmentalists say that the Clean Air Act required the EPA to set limits by 2002,
but the administration of former US President George w bush avoided this in part by creating a market-based system that would allow mercury emissions to continue at some plants
Environmental groups are protesting after the Mexican government's 15 october approval of the first permits to plant experimental genetically modified (GM) maize (corn.
Mexican environmental and agricultural agencies say that they will keep plantings away from traditional'landrace'maize,
A European council summit meeting in Brussels may firm up European promises to finance climate-change action in developing countries. go. nature. com/1kwxls 2 november The European space agency is scheduled to launch its Soil Moisture
Convention on Climate Change holds its fifth round of international climate talks this year in Barcelona,
But barely 24 hours later, Jairam Ramesh, India's minister of environment and forests, said that permission for its cultivation will be given only after consulting all stakeholders.
Mahyco says that at least 25 environmental-safety and food safety studies on animals carried out since 2002 show that Bt brinjal is absolutely safe to eat.
Nearly 40%of animal and plant species in the country's arid and semiarid ecosystems are in danger from habitat loss,
If deforestation continues at this rate, by 2036 we will only have small patches of native forests left in the country,
Scientists are concerned not just about losing particular species. By losing ecosystems, we lose what cannot be seen diversity within,
or severe impacts on their environments, says Daniel Tomasini, the environment coordinator for the United nations Development Program in Argentina, based in Buenos aires. Abraham
and others are also calling attention to the interplay between climate change, environmental modification and deforestation.
The northern part of the country has seen longer and heavier summer rains, which allow crops to be planted where they could not be sustained previously.
More trees are cleared then for agriculture, meaning fewer trees can absorb the water from the rains.
Massive floods have hit the provinces of Chaco and Salta regions that have seen particularly high rates of deforestation.
Historically, native forests haven't been regulated properly, says Octavio PÃ rez Pardo, director of the national government department in charge of soil conservation and fighting desertification.
The first federal law to regulate logging came into effect in 2007. As a result national and local governments are now working with universities and research institutions,
along with social organizations, to classify forests from most to least threatened. Different programmes are being implemented in regions that have already been deforested,
that could be wrapped into the global climate agreement due to be hammered out at the United nations climate-change conference in Copenhagen in December.
Nature Newspolicy Facilities Events Business Research Awards The week ahead Sound bites Number crunch Policy Climate law:
Democrats in the US Senate unveiled their climate legislation on 30 september. Based largely on the Waxman-Markey bill passed by the House of representatives in June,
On the same day, the US Environmental protection agency proposed a rule that would require major industrial facilities to use best available technologies to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
The US Environmental protection agency (EPA) laid out White house-backed principles for a radical reform of US legislation regulating toxic chemicals, at present controlled by the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act.
EPA administrator Lisa Jackson said the act had proved to be an inadequate tool for protecting the public.
She wants to strengthen the EPA's authority to clamp down on dangerous chemicals, and for chemical manufacturers routinely to give the agency toxicity data.
An earthquake measured by the US Geological Survey as a magnitude 8. 0 triggered a tsunami off Tonga
if climate change is unchecked left, according to a study released on 30 september by the International Food Policy Research Institute in WASHINGTON DC.
or more by 2050, compared to a no-climate-change scenario, and that farmers in southern Asia might see their wheat production almost halve.
The excerpt was released on 6 october to coincide with United nations climate talks in Bangkok. Awards Nobel winners:
US Senate gears up for climate debate: Nature Newsafter months of back-door talks with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, Democrats in the US Senate released a cap-and-trade climate bill on Wednesday.
The legislation is by no means complete and as such represents little more than a starting point in the Senate debate,
California Democrat Barbara Boxer has primary jurisdiction over the issue as chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public works,
Given the ongoing debate about health care and other competing priorities, could the bill make it through the Senate before the United nations climate summit in December?
whether he plans to seek a vote on climate before Copenhagen, Reid responded with one word:
Although always difficult and slow, major environmental legislation in the past has tended to end up with bipartisan support on final passage.
Could this be the case with climate? Probably not. Leaders are currently fighting for the support of more conservative Democrats from states with strong industrial bases and energy production,
Similarly, major companies such as The Dow chemical Company and General electric are pushing for legislation as part of the US Climate Action Partnership.
Could President Barack Obama still act through the Environmental protection agency (EPA? Yes, and he has opened already the door to direct regulation under the Clean Air Act.
That began earlier this year with a proposed finding that carbon dioxide endangers human health and the environment,
Speaking at the Governors'Global Climate Summit in Los angeles on Wednesday, EPA administrator Lisa Jackson announced a new proposal to require all major industrial facilities to obtain permits
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