Copenhagen Conference on Climate change ends

The 2 week conference on Climate Change has finally finished. There have been some agreements reached, but also so disappointment that not enough has been done. At the moment, the agreements are NOT legally binding and need further discussion.

Here is a summary of what has happened:

President Obama said a "meaningful and unprecedented breakthrough" had been reached between the US and China, Brazil, India and South Africa.

Reports suggest the following points were agreed

• A commitment from wealthy and key developing nations to limit global warming to 2C

• Between $25bn and $30bn in climate funds for poorer nations over the period 2010-12, with an annual sum of $100bn envisaged by 2020

• A way to check each country's compliance with its commitment to curb greenhouse gas emissions

Five countries agreed the deal - what about the rest of the world?

The 193 nations gathered in Copenhagen are due to vote on the agreement shortly. It is not clear how many will back it. Tuvalu delegate Ian Fry, whose country is one of those most at risk from rising sea levels, said the deal sounded like "30 pieces of silver to sell our future" and rejected it. Venezuelan representative Claudia Salerno Caldera described the US-brokered deal as a "coup" against the UN

Click the headline to find out more answers to common questions about the conference

Copenhagen Conference: Discussions not going too well

The hour of truth loomed Thursday at the UN climate talks where countries had to draw a line under squabbles to nail down a deal ahead of one of the largest gatherings of world leaders in history.
With just hours to go before some 120 leaders are called to seal an agreement to roll back the rise in Earth's temperature, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was receiving "bad news" from Copenhagen.
"At the moment, the negotiations do not look promising but I of course hope that the presence of more than 100 heads of state and government can give the necessary impetus to the event," Merkel said in Berlin.
Wealthy nations pledged some 22 billion dollars late Wednesday to help bankroll the war on global warming, with Japan leading the way by promising to stump up a whopping 1.75 trillion yen (19.5 billion dollars) to developing nations on climate change if a comprehensive deal is reached at Copenhagen.
But the announcements could not mask the huge differences still dividing rich nations and the developing world over how to shoulder the burden.
Some of the bitterest exchanges at the 12-day conference have been between the United States and China, the world's two biggest polluters.
"It's proceeding at a snail's pace right now," Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said after talking into the small hours with Ethiopian leader Meles Zenawi on funds to help developing nations.

Eruption at Mayon Volcano imminent say experts

The Mayon volcano in the Philippines, which has blown its top nearly 40 times in 400 years, menaced nearby residents with small eruptions of ash and lava on Wednesday as Philippine authorities moved more than 30,000 people to shelters in case of a larger eruption.
Trickles of lava rolled down the 8,070-foot mountain towering over the Albay Gulf in the central Philippines, while five new ash explosions, one of them reaching 550 yards in the air, shook Mayon's steep slopes.
During the day, the summit (the top of the volcano) is shrouded in white clouds of dust and ash, and dark orange lava becomes clearly visible in the nighttime. Residents of Legazpi city on the foothills of the cone-shaped mountain converge in a downtown park at night to watch the spectacle from a safe distance.

Look to the left to see video footage of the volcano

Will there ever be a way of preventing HIV?

Hopes of a breakthrough that would allow women to protect themselves from HIV have been dashed with today's revelation from a large, British-funded trial that a promising drug has turned out to be ineffective.

Britain's Medical Research Council (MRC) and the department for international development (DfID) had backed the trial in four African countries, involving 9,385 women. But after four years and significant investment, scientists have been forced to conclude that the PRO 2000 gel does not prevent HIV/Aids. Dr Sheena McCormack of the MRC, chief investigator of the trial, said they were deeply disappointed, but that the search must go on.

A microbicide, in the form of a cream or gel that kills the virus, would give women in Africa and Asia the power to defend themselves against HIV given the refusal of many men to wear condoms. The trials in Africa showed that both men and women found its use acceptable.
Expectations were raised in March when a smaller US-led trial of PRO 2000, involving 3,099 women, found a 30% reduction in infections, but the actual numbers of people who became HIV positive were not large enough to give conclusive results.
"I have to say then we got quite excited," said McCormack. "But in a big trial you get closer to the truth, and unfortunately the truth is it didn't work. It is bitterly disappointing for us, but it will inform the way we go forward."
Half the participants were given PRO 2000 while the other half got an inactive gel. There were 130 infections among those who used the real thing and 123 among those who had the inactive gel. The UK Government £14m to the MRC, Imperial College and five African countries in 2002. The final cost to DfID of the PRO 2000 trial has been £40m, with £2m from the MRC – a substantial sum, but tiny compared with the cost of pharmaceutical company trials.

About 2.7 million people were infected with HIV last year. A number of African countries have run out of money to put newly diagnosed people on drugs to keep them alive and will struggle to continue to treat those already taking them if donations fall because of the economic crisis. There is a danger, said McCormack, that it is "going to go wrong again for Africa".
If PRO 2000 had worked, it could have been made available cheaply over the counter to any woman who wanted it.


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Philippine volcano fears force thousands to evacuate

More than 20,000 people have evacuated homes in the Philippines after lava and ash flowed from one of the nation's most active volcanoes.
Soldiers and police directed the evacuation from around the foothills of Mayon volcano amid concerns that a big eruption could occur at any moment.
Philippine officials raised the alert level for Mayon on Monday.
Mayon, 330km (206 miles) south-east of the capital Manila, has erupted 48 times since records began.
The head of the disaster relief operations in the region, Cedric Daep, said the authorities aimed to evacuate nearly 50,000 people from villages within eight kilometres of the volcano by Thursday.

In pictures: Filipinos flee
He said that after a series of ash puffs and ash explosions up to 1,000m high, a major explosion could not be ruled out.

Copenhagen Conference: Signs of progress after talks with African group lead to proposals for climate fund

Gordon Brown became the first world leader to fly into Copenhagen tonight, aiming to break through one of the greatest obstacles to a climate change treaty: who should pay to tackle global warming.
With the UN talks balanced on a knife edge, the prime minister said they had three days to "shape the future of humanity".
As the high-level political part of the summit began, its Danish president, Connie Hedegaard, said: "In these very hours we are balancing between success and failure. Success is within reach. But I must also warn you: we can fail."
Delegates at the summit are nervously awaiting fresh versions of the draft treaty (agreement) which more than 115 world leaders will want to finalise by Friday.
The first sign of progress could come tomorrow with the Ethiopia's prime minister, Meles Zenawi, expected to announce proposals for climate change funding that some rich and poor countries have agreed on. Developing countries say they need billions of dollars to cope with rising sea levels and extreme temperatures, and to move to clean energy technologies

Copenhagen Conference Day 5: EU agrees climate pledge, led by UK and France

EU nations are set to commit more than €2bn (£1.8bn) a year to help poorer countries cope with global warming, the leaders of Britain and France indicated today as they sought to bolster UN climate talks in Copenhagen.
The UK prime minister, Gordon Brown, and president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, said their two countries would contribute the bulk of that sum and were trying to persuade smaller members of the 27-state European Union to pledge more.
EU leaders failed on Thursday to come up with a firm figure for the fund, an embarrassing setback for a bloc that has seen itself as a trailblazer in the fight against global warming. Smaller eastern European states are reluctant to donate as they struggle with public sector debt and rising unemployment in the wake of the financial crisis.
The climate aid is intended to go towards a global $10bn (£6bn) annual fund for short-term help to poor countries, particularly in Africa. It would begin in January and run for three years, when any new climate treaty emerging from Copenhagen would come into force.

Click on the title for more information and to see a press conference by Brown and Sarkozy

Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change, Day 4: Vulnerable and poorer countries clash with the richer countries

More than half the world's countries say they are determined not to sign up to any deal that allows temperatures to rise by more than 1.5C, as opposed to 2C, which the major economies (richer and powerful countries) would prefer.

But any agreement to reach that target would require massive and rapid cuts in greenhouse gas emissions combined with removal of CO2 in the atmosphere. An extra 0.5C drop in temperatures would require vastly deeper cuts in carbon dioxide and up to £6.5 trillion extra in energy-related investment by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency.

Today the Alliance of Small Island States (Aosis), a grouping of 43 of the smallest and most vulnerable countries, including Tuvalu, said any rise of more than 1.5C was not negotiable at Copenhagen. They are backed by 48 of the least developed nations.

But the UN conference chief, Yvo de Boer, implied this morning that the proposal had little chance of being adopted. "It is theoretically possible that the conference will agree to hold temperatures to 1.5C but most industrialised countries have pinned their hopes on 2C," he said.

Click here for photos of the conference and more information

25 year anniversary of the worlds worst industrial accident (Bhopal, India)

People in the Indian city of Bhopal have been marking 25 years since a leak at a gas plant killed thousands and left many more seriously ill. Activists and survivors marched through the city, chanting slogans against the government and Union Carbide - the US firm that owned the plant at the time.

The incident was the worst industrial disaster in history. Forty tonnes of a toxin called methyl isocyanate leaked from the factory and settled over slums on 3 December 1984.

Campaigners say at least 15,000 were killed within days and that the effects of the gas continue to this day.

The site of the former pesticide plant is now abandoned. The state government of Madhya Pradesh took it over in 1998, but environmentalists say poison is still found there.

Campaigners say Bhopal has an unusually high incidence of children with birth defects and growth deficiency, as well as cancers, diabetes and other chronic illnesses.

No-one has ever stood trial over what happened at Bhopal.

Twenty years ago, the American company, Union Carbide paid $470m (£282m) in compensation to the Indian government.

Click on the headline to see a short video of the effects of the disaster

Nepal Government hold cabinet meeting on Mount Everest

Nepal's cabinet met on Mount Everest today to highlight the threat of global warming to the glaciers and mountains of the Himalayas.

The government, represented by ministers wearing thick jackets, woolen hats and in some cases oxygen masks, endorsed a resolution on climate change in the bright sunshine of a Himalayan morning before flying back.

The 20-minute meeting, which took place under the shadow of the peak of Mount Everest, comes in advance of next week's key climate change summit in Copenhagen. The political stunt comes after a cabinet meeting held underwater in October by Maldivian ministers which drew attention to the risk the Indian Ocean island-state faces from rising seas.

On the Himalayan slopes, ministers posed for pictures, signed a commitment to tighten environmental regulations and pledged to expand the nation's conservation areas.

"Due to global climate change and its effects, the entire human civilisation is faced with additional challenges for their survival" said the prime minister, Madhav Kumar Nepal told reporters.

Nepal, which sits between China and India, is home to Everest, the world's tallest peak, and eight more of the world's 14 highest mountains. Global warming, say many experts, could see glaciers on the roof of the world melt away – threatening the water and food security for 1.5 billion people downstream in south Asia.