News
President highlights ‘historic opportunity’ to change the world, as 69th UN General Assembly concludes
The 69th session of the United Nations General Assembly presented countries with a “historic opportunity” to change the world for the better and was guided by the overarching principles of cooperation, compromise and solidarity, its President said today.
“Our shared vision of ‘putting people at the centre of everything we do’ has yielded many important outcomes that will improve the everyday lives of men, women and children around the world,” Sam Kutesa, who is also Minister for Foreign Affairs of Uganda, said in his closing address to the 193-member body.
CO2 emissions change with size of streams and rivers
All freshwater streams and rivers actually release carbon dioxide, but the source of those emissions has for years been unclear to scientists.
Now, researchers have shown that the greenhouse gas appears in streams by way of two different sources—either as a direct pipeline for groundwater and carbon-rich soils, or from aquatic organisms releasing the gas through respiration and natural decay.
UN chief welcomes climate change plan unveiled by President Obama
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed the Clean Power Plan formally unveiled today by President Barack Obama, saying it shows the determination of the United States to address global warming while also saving money and growing the economy.
The Plan reportedly assigns each state a target for reducing its carbon pollution from power plants. States will be allowed to create their own plans to meet the requirements and will have to submit initial versions of their plans by 2016 and final versions by 2018.
ADDIS: new UN-backed report details ways to boost finance for sustainable energy
A new United Nations-backed report launched today at a conference in Addis Ababa details concrete ways to boost crucial investment in sustainable energy by some $120 billion a year.
'Scaling Up Finance for Sustainable Energy Investments,' launched at the Third International Conference on Financing for Development that opened today in the Ethiopian capital, was produced by the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) initiative.
According to the latest estimates, investment from both the public and private sectors will need to triple to more than $1 trillion per year to meet SE4All's ambitious goal of sustainable energy for all by 2030.
Where does water go when it doesn't flow?
More than a quarter of the rain and snow that falls on continents reaches the oceans as runoff. Now a new study helps show where the rest goes: two-thirds of the remaining water is released by plants, more than a quarter lands on leaves and evaporates and what's left evaporates from soil and from lakes, rivers and streams.
"The question is, when rain falls on the landscape, where does it go?" says University of Utah geochemist Gabe Bowen, senior author of the study published today in the journal Science. "The water on the continents sustains all plant life, all agriculture, humans, aquatic ecosystems. But the breakdown - how much is used for those things - has always been unclear."
