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John Lanchbery, RSPB Principal Climate Change Advisor, at the Bonn UNFCCC conference Thursday and a warm, humid morning breaks over the climate change talks in Bonn. Up early to ensure that I am sufficiently alert to chair the daily NGO 'political coordination' at nine. Catch the local...

John Lanchbery, RSPB Principal Climate Change Advisor, at the Bonn UNFCCC conference It is warm, sunny day here at the UN climate talks in Bonn. It is less warm and sunny inside the main meeting room, however, where Russia has just finally stalled one of the two main technical sessions, the Subsidiary...

Today DECC has published its new policy on community engagement and benefits for onshore wind developments in England. Onshore wind is a critical technology if we are to meet our 2020 climate and renewable energy targets, as we have written on this blog before . What’s more, we believe that...

MPs are currently debating the hugely important Energy Bill, which will determine how this country is powered for many years to come. Yesterday they didn't take the opportunity to amend the Bill so that generating electricity from unsustainable wood would never receive long-term public subsidies...

Guest blog from Ellie Crane, RSPB Agriculture Policy Officer Arable farming is arguably one of the economic sectors most sensitive to climate change. It is also a very versatile sector: farmers have always had to respond to change. Modern farming looks quite different from early agriculture, but one...

Ed Davey, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, has this week called for the EU to stay ambitious on climate change . Critically, he put forward a proposal that the EU adopts a new climate target for 2030 that would see European emissions cut by half against 1990 levels. Climate change...

Guest post from Rachel Warren, Reader in Integrated Assessment of Climate Change, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of East Anglia We have just published the first global scale analysis of impacts of climate change on the climatic ranges of 50,000 widespread and common animal...

State of Nature , a scientific collaboration of 25 UK conservation organisations, saying that our species are in already trouble, my thoughts turned to consider how climate change might be part of that. Especially when this UK report follows a recent global study , suggesting that more than half of common...

Helen Blenkharn, Climate Change Policy Officer I regularly get asked ‘do wind turbines save carbon emissions?’ A recent report by the Committee on Climate Change looks at the UK’s carbon footprint and the lifecycle emissions from different types of electricity supply and so answers...

The Transport Select committee’s rejection of a Thames Estuary Airport will not be the final word so we won’t be cracking open the fair-trade fizzy pop just yet – that should come later when the Davies commission (we hope) hammers home the final nail. The Thames and its mighty estuary...

For a long time, climate change has felt like a distant problem; a cause of concern for our children’s children maybe, but not us. No longer, however, as our climate is changing before our eyes and we’re being forced to cope with a seemingly endless series of floods and droughts. But if you...

If you want the latest global climate statistics, here they are. Last year was the ninth warmest on record, says the World Meteorological Organisation’s statement on global climate for 2012 . At 0.45°C above the 1961-90 average, it’s the 27th consecutive year above the long term average...

We all know that we can’t afford to burn all of our fossil fuel reserves if we’re to stay within the ‘safe’ climate change of around 2°C average global temperature rise, but a new report last week has revealed just how big the mismatch is between economic and environmental...

Continuing our theme on bioenergy, we invited Danna Smith, Executive Director of Dogwood Alliance to share the threat it poses to America's forests and wildlife... I was born and raised on the Atlantic coast of the Southern US. I spent most of my youthful years romping around in the woods, building...

Guest blogger: Matt Williams, Climate Change Policy Officer My final couple of weeks in the RSPB climate change team are set to be exciting, as MPs prepare to debate the UK’s Energy Bill, which will shape the energy sources used to power Britain for the next forty years. This vital piece of...

John Lanchbery, Principal Climate Change Advisor We are not on course to save the world from climate change. Emissions are not heading downwards so as to ensure an average global temperature rise of less than two degrees, the target agreed by all nations. Instead they are surging upwards towards a...

Sarah Alsbury, RSPB Environmental Management manager Buildings, or more accurately what goes on inside them, are responsible globally for close to half of human produced greenhouse gas emissions. Although buildings could be seen as half the problem we should not feel disheartened, as there are many...

Helen Blenkharn, RSPB Climate Change Policy Officer Last week we posted a blog on our concerns about proposals for a Severn Barrage that are being discussed by a Government committee . The project would involve a shore-to-shore barrage across the Severn Estuary, with potentially catastrophic consequences...

Guest blogger: Jim Densham, Senior Land-Use Policy Officer (climate) at RSPB Scotland Today a new short story book will be published. Beacons: stories for our not so distant future is a collection of fictional stories penned by some of the UK’s most well-known authors (including Adam Marek who...

Tony Whitehead, RSPB South West Regional Office With the DECC Minister Greg Barker saying yesterday that it’s not at all realistic that a Severn Barrage Bill will come before parliament this term we think now is the ideal time for everyone to take stock and look anew at generating power from...

Researchers have found a common physical cause behind recent severe weather extremes, such as the heat waves in the United States in 2011 and Russia 2010, and the 2010 Pakistan flood. They say that man-made climate change repeatedly disturbs the patterns of atmospheric flow around the world’s northern...

In honour of Go Green Week , we've handed the climate blog over to colleagues to share what they are doing in their own lives to make a difference. Helen Leach closes Go Green Week with a final post on how to strive for a paperless office... The concept of the paperless office has been around...

In honour of Go Green Week , we've handed the climate blog over to colleagues to share what they are doing in their own lives to make a difference. Helen Leach from our Norwich office discusses the merits of ridding her world of food packaging. More and more of our food is purchased surrounded...

In honour of Go Green Week , we've handed the climate blog over to colleagues to share what they are doing in their own lives to make a difference. Olivia Betts, in our PR team here at The Lodge shares the tips she's picked up to make her bathroom greener. A slightly unpleasant note for...

In honour of Go Green Week , we've handed the climate blog over to colleagues to share what they are doing in their own lives to make a difference. Here's Wendy Johnson, a media officer based at The Lodge, talking about her love of swapping the car for a stroll. About a month ago we had...