LONDON (Reuters) – Traditional measures showing strong economic growth in Brazil and India over nearly two decades fail to take account of the depletion of their natural resources, scientists and economists at a climate conference said on Wednesday.

Scientists and environment groups have been pressuring governments to include the value of their countries’ natural resources – and use or loss of them – into future measurements of economic activity, rather than relying solely on the gross domestic product calculation.

LONDON (Reuters) – Traditional measures showing strong economic growth in Brazil and India over nearly two decades fail to take account of the depletion of their natural resources, scientists and economists at a climate conference said on Wednesday.

Scientists and environment groups have been pressuring governments to include the value of their countries’ natural resources – and use or loss of them – into future measurements of economic activity, rather than relying solely on the gross domestic product calculation.

LONDON (Reuters) – European Union ambassadors were due to meet on Wednesday in an effort to settle a dispute over the allocation of seats to member states on the United Nations’ Green Climate Fund (GCF) board, sources close to the matter said.

U.N. climate talks in Durban last year agreed on the design of the fund, which is aimed at channeling up to $100 billion a year to help developing countries adapt to climate change.

LONDON (Reuters) – Dwindling supplies of metals, water and biomass could slow the deployment of clean energy technologies by 2035, a study by research organization the Stockholm Environment Institute and by business initiative 3C showed on Tuesday.

Governments and companies are increasingly developing low-carbon technologies to reduce their dependency on fossil fuel-based energy sources and to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

LONDON (Reuters) – Expanding cities threaten to eat up a swath of land the size of France, Germany and Spain combined in less than 20 years, putting the world under even more environmental pressure, experts said at a climate conference on Tuesday.

Cities are growing to accommodate a rising global population and as countries like China, India and Brazil pursue fast economic growth.

LONDON, March 26 (Reuters) – The world is close to reaching
tipping points that will make it irreversibly hotter, making
this decade critical in efforts to contain global warming,
scientists warned on Monday.

Scientific estimates differ but the world’s temperature
looks set to rise by six degrees Celsius by 2100 if greenhouse
gas emissions are allowed to rise uncontrollably.

LONDON/MADRID (Reuters) – Europe’s wave and tidal power technology is likely to disappoint EU expectations for 2020 and take over a decade to contribute to energy supply in a significant way, even though it is chalking up rapid growth and drawing in big industrial investors.

The nascent industry has attracted a flurry of investor activity over the past year, securing an estimated few hundred million euros from companies such as Siemens and Vattenfall.

LONDON (Reuters) – Extreme weather events over the past decade have increased and were “very likely” caused by manmade global warming, a study in the journal Nature Climate Change said on Sunday.

Scientists at Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Research used physics, statistical analysis and computer simulations to link extreme rainfall and heat waves to global warming. The link between warming and storms was less clear.

LONDON, March 21 (Reuters) – The cost of damage to the
world’s oceans from climate change could reach $2 trillion a
year by 2100 if measures to cut greenhouse gas emissions are not
stepped up, a study by marine experts said on Wednesday.

The study found that without action to limit rising
greenhouse gas emissions, the global average temperature could
rise by 4 degrees Celsius by the end of the century causing
ocean acidification, sea level rise, marine pollution, species
migration and more intense tropical cyclones. It would also
threaten coral reefs, disrupt fisheries and deplete fish stocks.

LONDON (Reuters) – Global greenhouse gas emissions could rise 50 percent by 2050 without more ambitious climate policies, as fossil fuels continue to dominate the energy mix, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said on Thursday.

“Unless the global energy mix changes, fossil fuels will supply about 85 percent of energy demand in 2050, implying a 50 percent increase in greenhouse gas emissions and worsening urban air pollution,” the OECD said in its environment outlook to 2050.