Global Warming Fight Advances Despite Trump’s Skepticism - Bloomberg

• Countries took steps in Morocco to carry out Paris accord
• China, Saudi Arabia among previous opponents now vowing action

More than 190 nations including the U.S., China and Saudi Arabia vowed to step up their efforts to fight global warming despite concerns that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will pull the richest polluter out of the process when he takes office next year.

Envoys and more than 50 national leaders in Marrakech, Morocco, agreed early Saturday to a roadmap for developing a rulebook by 2018 that will strengthen the landmark Paris Agreement signed last year to limit fossil-fuel emissions and keep temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.

“We’ve fulfilled the job we came here to do,” European Union Climate and Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete said in an interview immediately after the talks wrapped up. “The message this sends to America is that there is full commitment from the global community, that climate change is such a big challenge, that it’s much more important than countries and their elections.”

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Northeast Nigeria to get $600m solar power plants

Credit: Clean Technica

Consortium of German renewable energy companies led by Nigus has concluded plans with the Federal Government to build five solar power plants worth N183bn ($600m) in some North-Eastern states in Nigeria

According to the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council and the consortium, each of the solar power plants will have capacity to generate 100 megawatts of electricity.

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a meeting between the council and the consortium in Abuja on Tuesday, the Head, Overseas Operations, NIPC, Mr. Abubakar Yerima, stated that the decision to build the power plants in the North was reached after several meetings with the investors. 

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‘How recession affects Nigeria’s transition to renewable energy’ - Guardian (Lagos)

A photovoltaic park in Les Mees, southern France Credit Jean-Paul Pelissier/REUTERS

Inadequate financing triggered by recent economic recession was on Monday identified as a major constraint to Nigeria’s transition to renewable energy.

Speakers at a seminar on “Start-ups in Renewable Energy”, organised by the Consulate-General of the Federal Republic of Germany, Lagos in conjunction with the Delegation of German Industry and Commerce in Nigeria, said the impact was felt more in foreign borrowing.

According to the delegation’s Head of Energy and Environment Desk, Mrs. Barbel Freyer, while speaking with The Guardian, access to financing for proper start-ups in renewable energy had been hampered as the recession triggers unpredictable exchange rate which does not encourage external borrowing.

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Trump Plans to Quit Paris Deal, Hires Climate Denier for EPA Transition Team - ecowatch

Credit: ecowatch.com

Donald Trump's advisers are exploring alternatives to bypass the four-year waiting period to back out from the Paris agreement, a member of the transition team told Reuters.

The options include withdrawing from the parent treaty, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, entirely or issuing a presidential order to delete the U.S. signature from the climate deal. 

Before leaving for Marrakech on Sunday, Sec. of State John Kerry said that the Obama administration would do everything possible to implement the global agreement before Trump takes office.

In an interview, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Europe should respond with a trade war and institute a carbon tax for U.S. products if Trump backs out.

Backing out of the Paris agreement isn't the only anti-environment plan Trump has been touting. 

He has also said he wants to dismantle the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and revoke the Clean Power Plan.

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Climate change: Nations will push ahead with plans despite Trump - BBC

Climate activists protested at Trump's election outside climate talks in Morocco 

Credit:BBC/Getty Images

At UN climate talks in Morocco, countries say they are prepared to move ahead without the US.

President-elect Trump has said that he will "cancel" the Paris Climate Agreement within 100 days of taking office.

Negotiators in Marrakech say that such a move would seriously damage the credibility of the US.

But fossil fuel supporters say Mr Trump's plans prioritise the needs of American families.

TRUMP AND ENVIRONMENT

Donald Trump has won the November 8 United States presidential election in what is widely seen as the biggest upset in the American electoral history. Earth Tribune, using sources from BBC, briefly examines the implication of Trump presidency on environmental issues  

Donald Trump has issued no position statements on environmental issues on his website. In speeches and debates, however, he has said he opposes what he views as economically damaging environmental regulations backed by "political activists with extreme agendas". 

Onitsha one of the world's two most polluted cities - WHO Report

The new WHO database of worldwide air pollution measures it in two different ways, and as a result two cities – one in Iran and another in Nigeria – can lay claim to the unenviable title of world’s most polluted city.   John Vidal and Saeed Kamali Dehghan of Guardian (London)  report on  Thursday 12 May 2016 

It all comes down to which minute particles, or particulate matter (PM), in the air are being measured. These particles are between 2.5 and 10 microns in diameter, roughly 30 times smaller than the width of a human hair.

The coarser PM10s include dust stirred up by cars on roads and the wind, soot from open fires and partially burned carbon from the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and wood. The particles are small enough to be inhaled deep into the lungs.

But the ultra-fine particles known as PM2.5s can only be seen with microscopes and are produced from all kinds of combustion. These are small enough to get from the lungs into the blood supply and are possibly more deadly because they affect the cardiovascular system.

Many cities in developing countries traditionally monitor only PM10s. But increasingly PM2.5 pollution is seen as the best measure of how bad air pollution is for health. Richer countries usually have higher levels of PM 2.5s, while low income countries have higher levels of PM10s. Both, says the WHO, are deadly.