Rajendra Pachauri has stepped downfrom his role as
Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
amid an ongoing police investigationinto claims he
sexually harasses a 29-year old female colleague at his New
Delhi-based research institute. In a letterto U.N. Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon, Pachauri cited concerns that he could no longer show
the “strong leadership and dedication” required from an IPCC chair,
reports RTCC questioning the
significanceof Pachauri’s resignation for crucial
climate talks taking place in Paris in December, Sky Newsin Australia quotes
ambassador Laurence Tubiana of France as saying, “The work of the
fifth (assessment report) has been finalised and nothing is going
to change from this point of view.” The BBC’s Roger Harrabinsays Pachauri’s
departure is “unlikely to create lasting damage to the IPCC as he
was due to retire, and potential replacements are already throwing
hats in the ring”. The Guardianlooks at who’s in the
running. In the meantime, the IPCC has appointed Sudan’s Ismail El
Gizouli, who may end up remaining acting chairman until Pachauri’s
replacement is elected in October, says the Financial Times. Reuters, The Telegraph, The Times, The Daily Mail, AP, The New York Timesand
BusinessGreenhave more on the
story.

Reforms to strengthen the EU’s flagship carbon cutting
policy will begin two years ahead of schedule, after the European
Parliament approved a plan to remove 1.6 billion extra carbon
allowances from the market. While some environmental groups say the
flailing trading scheme still risks undermining emission reduction
targets, the move has been hailed by others as a “gamechanging”
compromise, reports RTCC.
A report by Reuters Thomson Point Carbon estimates that by 2020,
the reforms could lift carbon prices up to €20 per tonne from their
current value of around €5. BusinessGreenhas the
reaction.

The decision may be the beginning of the end for one of the
biggest energy fights of Obama’s administration, says
Bloomberg New Energy Finance. But it
might not be quite the death blow it seems, suggests
Climate Central.

Sea levels north along the northeast US coast rose by a
record 128mm in the two years between 2009 and 2010, according to a
report in the journal Nature Communications. Professor Rowan Sutton
from the University of Reading in the UK says, “There is strong
evidence that the likelihood of such events has been increased by
climate change, and that we should expect more such events in the
future.”

Changes in the way the EU accounts for changing land use in
emissions reductions could mean its targets for 2030 are weaker
than previously proposed. The bloc has set a target to cut carbon
emissions by 40 per cent by 2030 but unlike last year when it was
first proposed, the target now includes emissions from forestry and
land use. Analysts say the contribution from existing forest growth
means that target effectively drops to 35 per cent, placing less
pressure on buildings, agriculture and transport.

Shell has shelved plans for a new 200,000-barrel-per-day tar
sands mine in Canada, as the high-cost production industry tries to
cope with prices at six-year lows. President of Shell Canada,
Lorraine Mitchelmore, says, “The Pierre River Mine remains a very
long-term opportunity for us, but it’s not currently a priority.”
Total, Statoil and Cenovus Energy have recently postponed big oil
sands projects.

A European Parliamentary committee has backed a new limit on
traditional biofuels made from food crops. Tuesday’s vote agreed
biofuel from food crops should not exceed six per cent of final
energy use in transport – a tougher limit than the 7 percent backed
by member states last year. Current legislation requires that
renewable sources account for at least 10 percent of energy in
transport by 2020.

Gavin Schmidt looks at the recent spell of press reports
about the non-disclosure of Willie Soon’s corporate funding when
publishing results in journals that require such disclosures. Among
many questions the issue raises, one is whether the science that
arose from these funds is any good. Unfortunately not. The work and
the motivation behind it are based on a scientific fallacy, he
concludes.

Today, the European Commission will launch a blueprint for a
future energy union, outlining a common
approach to energy security, energy efficiency and emissions
reductions. At a time when the EU faces challenges on many fronts,
the energy union addresses an area where greater co-ordination
among member states is vitally needed, say the FT. But it remains
to be seen if the EU’s member states have the political will to
harmonise their national strategies, it concludes.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is undergoing
what RTCC calls a week of “soul searching” as it gathers to discuss
its future, as it does after the release of all major reports. On
the table for discussion in Nairobi is the option to have smaller,
more targeted reports rather than a bumper one every 5-7 years, how
to reduce the workload of the volunteer scientists, and how the
IPCC can better serve the policy making community while fulfilling
its mandate of being policy-neutral.

Sea levels from New York to Newfoundland rose about four
inches in 2009 and 2010 because ocean circulation changed, a new
study finds. The extreme increase in sea level lasted two years,
not just a few months, the researchers say, causing flooding along
the northeast coast of North America. Such high levels are likely
to become more frequent with climate change, the study
concludes.

New research shows that ocean acidification may slow the
growth of algae. Tests using an Antarctic species of algae show it
grows more slowly in more acidic seawater under the variable light
conditions typical of the Southern Ocean. Algae absorbs carbon
dioxide and helps transport it to the deep ocean. The findings
counter the widely-held assumption that falling pH values would
stimulate their growth.

A newly-discovered species of turtle may provide a clue to
how animals might respond to climate change. Tropical turtle
fossils discovered in Wyoming reveal that when the Earth got
warmer, prehistoric turtles headed north. However, the same
migration in the modern day would be hindered by human development
and habitat loss, the researchers say, potentially leading to
extinction.