IPCC climate change report 'played down positive impacts'

The IPCC's key global assessment of climate change failed to give sufficient weight to the positive impacts of global warming, according to a study that nevertheless backed its main conclusions. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 2007 report also contained a number of previously unnoticed minor errors, according to the review. However, the errors, and a lack of transparency as to where the conclusions had come from, were not found to have undermined the findings that the negative impacts of climate change posed ''substantial risks'' to most parts of the world.

The Dutch government commissioned an evaluation of the IPCC report after it emerged the study claimed 55% of the country was below sea level - an inaccurate figure which had been supplied by the Dutch environmental assessment agency. The Dutch study raised concerns that the report summary highlighted more of the negative effects of climate change than the positive - but the IPCC authors today said they focused on the greatest impacts to human well being and the environment when preparing the conclusions for governments. The authors also dispute claims that their conclusions for the regional impacts of global warming contained a minor ''inaccuracy'' about the number of people in Africa who will be more at risk of a lack of water - a suggestion the report's authors dispute.

A series of other minor mistakes identified in the 500 page document were found to be mostly references or typographical errors. Prof Martin Parry, co-chairman of one of the main areas of the IPCC's assessment, said the new research showed the conclusions on regional impacts of climate change in the report were ''safe, sound and reliable.'' But he said that the science of climate change was now ''a battlefield'' because some people saw the costs of taking action to tackle the problem of global warming as a threat. And he admitted another high profile mistake in the report which has prompted criticism of the IPCC - that the Himalayan glaciers could melt by 2035 - had done ''huge damage'' and it would take a long time ''for the wounds to heal'' from it. He said his fellow authors of the fourth assessment study published in 2007 were dismayed such a mistake could have been included in the report.

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G20 summit drops clean-energy pledge

Toronto - The leaders of the world's 20 most powerful developed and developing states (G20) on Sunday dropped a pledge to invest in climate-friendly energy generation from their final summit statement. Climate change topped the world agenda last year, but was eclipsed after the relative failure of a massive summit in Copenhagen in December. The G20's decision further tones down international pledges to invest in the fight against global warming. Earlier drafts of the statement for the summit, which brought together the leaders of key states such as China, India and the United States, said that G20 members "reiterate our commitment to ... investments in clean energy."

But that phrase was left out of the final version, which instead reiterated leaders' "commitment to a green recovery and to sustainable global growth." G20 members are deeply at odds over the climate question. The European Union and Japan have already pledged to make deep greenhouse-gas emissions cuts, but other developed and developing states are at odds over the question of who should do how much. "The issue shows that the G20 can't do everything," one diplomat commented drily.

Summit host Canada, in particular, has fought against approving overly ambitious language on clean energy. The country is one of the world's heaviest greenhouse-gas emitters and relies heavily on polluting fossil fuels to power its economy. Environment group WWF reacted angrily to the omission. "They went through this document with a vacuum cleaner to remove any reference to clean energy. In the Pittsburgh G20 summit (in September 2009), there were 8 references to 'clean energy' - in this one, there is zero," WWF climate expert Kim Carstensen said.

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Japanese told to go to bed an hour early to cut carbon emissions

Japanese households are being urged to go to bed one hour earlier than normal in order to help tackle climate change. The Japanese government has launched a campaign encouraging people to go to bed and get up extra early in order to reduce household carbon dioxide emissions. The Morning Challenge campaign, unveiled by the Environment Ministry, is based on the premise that swapping late night electricity for an extra hour of morning sunlight could significantly cut the nation's carbon footprint.

A typical family can reduce its carbon dioxide footprint by 85kg a year if everyone goes to bed and gets up one hour earlier, according to the campaign. The amount of carbon dioxide emissions potentially saved from going to bed an hour early was the equivalent of 20 per cent of annual emissions from household lights, "Many Japanese people waste electric power at night time, for example by watching TV until very late," a ministry spokesperson told The Daily Telegraph. "But going to bed early and getting up early can avoid wasting electrical power which causes carbon dioxide emissions. If people change their lifestyle, we can save energy and reduce emissions." The campaign also proposes that people take advantage of an extra hour of morning sunlight by improve their lifestyles in general by running, doing yoga and eating a nutritious breakfast.

It is the latest initiative tackling climate change by the Japanese environment ministry, which is faced with the challenge of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 25 per cent from 1990 levels within the next decade.

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