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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 9, NUMBER 8, AUGUST 1996

NEWS...
NEWS NOTES

Item #d96aug58

European climate shift:A report completed for the European Commission concludes that climate change is affecting Europe now, causing reduced rainfall and possibly the start of desertification, with potentially devastating consequences for millions of people. It summarizes the five-year Medalus project that involved more than 40 European scientists, coordinated by John Thornes, a geographer at Kings College, London. (See New Scientist, pp. 12-13, July 6, 1996.)

Item #d96aug59

Insurers call for reductions: Executives representing more than 60 European and Japanese insurance companies called for "early and substantial" emissions reductions to combat climate change, at a forum conducted during the Second Conference of Parties to the climate convention in Geneva. (See Intl. Environ. Rptr., p. 646, July 24, 1996; Global Environ. Change Rep., pp. 6-7, July 12.)

Item #d96aug60

Russian methane leaks: Unpublished data from Russian researchers, obtained by the European Commission, shows that Russian gas pipelines and wellheads leak an amount of methane representing about a tenth of all anthropogenic emissions of the gas. The emissions probably come from a few big leaks, so plugging them is the single most immediate way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. (See New Scientist, p. 7, May 25, 1996.)