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POLLUTION

Are top polluters funding Paris climate summit?

France on Wednesday unveiled a list of companies which will sponsor the year-end UN climate talks in Paris, sparking accusations of corporate "greenwashing" from campaigners.

Published: 27 May 2015 15:59 CEST
Are top polluters funding Paris climate summit?
The EDF (Electricty of France) powerhouse of Cordemais near Nantes, western France. Photo: AFP
Twenty percent of the €170 million ($185-million) cost of the November 30th to December 11th conference will come from the private sector, a senior foreign ministry official said.
   
Pierre-Henri Guignard, who is responsible for organising the event, identified 20 firms in the first batch of sponsors.
   
They include French energy companies Engie and EDF, BNP Paribas bank, Renault Nissan, Air France, insurance giant Axa, luxury goods maker LVMH as well as Ikea of Sweden and Italian insurance company Generali.
   
The conference “will be financed by French champions of pollution,” Oxfam France complained.
   
It pointed the finger at what it called “greenwashing” by companies involved in coal-fired energy or the financing of it.
   
“The French government had pledged to work with 'climate-compatible' companies, but its hypocrisy is now clear,” the NGO said.
   
The talks — called “COP 21,” for the 21st conference of the parties — will assemble 195 countries and the European Union under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
   
The goal is to seal a global pact on limiting emissions of heat-trapping “greenhouse” gases — the invisible pollution from burning fossil fuels that scientists say is driving dangerous climate change.
   
Corporate sponsorship is a routine feature of the annual COPs. The UNFCCC has consultative guidelines about the nature of sponsors and prominence of logos when used in connection with the event.
   
COP 19 — the 2013 conference in Warsaw — was disrupted by protests over the staging of an “International Coal and Climate Summit” in parallel to the talks.
   
The Paris conference marks the first attempt at forging a global accord on climate change since the ill-fated Copenhagen Summit in 2009. That event cost €150 million, said Guignard.

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CLIMATE

Central and southern Italy brace for storms and heavy snow

Storms and snowfall are forecast across much of central and southern Italy over the next few days, according to weather reports.

Published: 29 November 2021 15:13 CET
Snow is forecast in the hills of much of central and southern Italy.
Snow is forecast in the hills of much of central and southern Italy. Photo: Miguel MEDINA / AFP

Italy’s Civil Protection Department on Monday issued ‘orange’ alerts for bad weather along Campania’s Tyrrhenian coastline and the western part of Calabria, while Sicily, Basilicata, Lazio, Molise, Umbria, Abruzzo, central-western Sardinia, and the remaining areas of Campania and Calabria are under a lower-level ‘yellow’ weather warning.

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts is warning Italy’s central-southern regions to prepare for a blast of polar air from the Arctic Circle that will bring heavy snowfall, rain and storms, reports national weather forecaster Il Meteo.

The village of Grotte di Castro in the province of Viterbo, two hours’ drive north of Rome, mountainous parts of Sardinia, and much of the province of Campobasso in the central-eastern region of Molise were already blanketed in snow on Monday morning.

The department is responsible for predicting, preventing and managing emergency events across the country, and uses a green, yellow, orange and red graded colour coding system for weather safety reports.

An orange alert signifies a heavy rainfall, landslide and flood risk, while a yellow alert warns of localised heavy and potentially dangerous rainfall.

The current meteorological conditions mean that snow is expected to reach unusually low altitudes of around 450-500 metres, with flakes already falling thickly on parts of the southern-central Apennines mountain range at 500-700 metres altitude.

The hills of Marche, Abruzzo, Molise, Lazio, Sardinia, Campania, Calabria and Basilicata are likely to see heavy snow around the 500m mark, while areas at an altitude of 1000m or higher will see between 50-60 cm of fresh snow.

Affected parts of the country could see 50-60cm of snowfall.

Affected parts of the country could see 50-60cm of snowfall. Photo: Vincenzo PINTO /AFP

In areas where the snow is unlikely to reach, heavy rains and thunderstorms are anticipated, with rain forecast throughout Sardinia, Campania, Calabria and Lazio, reports Il Meteo.

Strong winds are forecast over the whole country, with the island regions of Sicily and Sardinia facing windspeeds of over 100km/hour and the risk of storm surges, according to the national newspaper La Repubblica.

READ ALSO: Climate crisis: The Italian cities worst affected by flooding and heatwaves

The north of the country, meanwhile, will see sun but low temperatures of below 0°C at night in many areas, including across much of the Po Valley.

While conditions are expected to stabilise on Tuesday, cold currents from Northern Europe are forecast to trigger another wave of bad weather on Wednesday and Thursday, with Sardinia and Italy’s western coastline again at risk of storms and heavy rainfall that will move up towards Lombardy, Emilia Romagna and Veneto in the north.

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