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The European Union confirms the next milestone along its energy Roadmap . The nations of the world are working toward establishing a new climate treaty by late 2015 that would lower future greenhouse gas emissions (among other provisions). Independently, the European Union (EU) agreed  to a significant goal in reducing emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) on October 23, 2014 .   The EU is a supranational organization of 28 member nations.   As detailed below, it has had policies in place for almost a decade to reduce GHG emissions.   The new pronouncement extends its timelines and codifies goals it had already established earlier.   Specifically, the EU agreed to lower GHG emissions by 40% below the emission levels of 1990 by 2030.   The goals also include achieving a 27% share of energy from renewable sources, and increasing energy efficiency by 27%. Emission Trading Scheme . The EU began implementing policies to reduce GHG emissions as the Kyoto Protocol...

Global Average Temperatures and CO 2 .  The global average temperature has increased by about 0.7-0.8ºC (1.3-1.4ºF) over pre-industrial values.   Humanity’s use of fossil fuels to power industrialization emits carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), a greenhouse gas, leading to warmer average temperatures.   Analysis of the increased CO 2 levels shows that they arise directly from burning fossil fuels, and not from natural causes (see also the U. S. National Climate Assessment ). Climate deniers do not accept that our planet is warming, and/or that human activity is its cause.   Climate skeptics may question that human actions are responsible for warming, or that warming is harmful to human populations and other life forms.   Here both groups will be called “deniers”. Climate deniers claim that global warming has ended .   They selectively display global temperature data for, say, the period 1980 to the present, as shown in this graphic:     Yearly values...

The United Nations convened a Climate Summit on September 23, 2014 as a springboard for action on addressing global warming.   About 120 national leaders attended, as well as leaders in business, government and action groups.   Notable by their absence were the leaders from China and India , two of the nations among developing countries with the highest annual rates of emission of greenhouse gases (primarily carbon dioxide (CO 2 )) and/or the highest rates of growth in those emissions from year to year. Negotiations toward a new international climate treaty to stabilize the world’s average temperature are about to begin under the U. N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (the Convention).   Work on the treaty will proceed for next 14 months, with the goal of reaching agreement by December 2015.   The new treaty is considered a follow-on compact to succeed the Kyoto Protocol ( Kyoto ), negotiated in 1997.   Kyoto adopted the same wording as appears in the ...