Rich nations quarrel ahead of new Kyoto bid: Rich countries are already squabbling over the conclusions to be drawn from the latest international report summarising the key scientific messages on climate change ahead of a critical meeting to discuss a successor to the Kyoto treaty. Indonesia is to play host to the meeting on climate change organised by the United Nations and set to begin in Bali in early December. The meeting will be the first at which a possible successor to the Kyoto protocol on climate change will be discussed in detail. Financial Times

Poll spotlight on climate: A stark United Nations report painting a picture of rising hardship and species extinction has undermined the Coalition and Labor’s credibility on climate change as the election campaign enters its final week. While the parties seized on the report by the UN’s Nobel-winning panel of scientists, claiming it backed their environment policies, climate scientists said it demonstrated both were failing the planet by refusing to commit to immediate cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. The Age

New Zealand glaciers shrinking forever: New Zealand’s glaciers are shrinking and twelve of the largest glaciers in the Southern Alps are unlikely to return to their earlier lengths without extraordinary cooling of the climate, according to new research. Research released by the National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research (NIWA) today shows that the volume of ice in the Southern Alps has reduced by about 5.8 cubic kilometres, or almost 11 per cent, in the past 20 years. More than 90 per cent of this loss is from 12 of the largest glaciers in response to rising temperatures over the 20th century. ScienceAlert 

Africa “forgotten continent” in climate fight: Africa is the “forgotten continent” in the fight against climate change and needs help to cope with projected water shortages and declining crop yields, the U.N.’s top climate change official said on Sunday. Yvo de Boer told Reuters that damage projected for Africa by the U.N. climate panel would justify tougher world action to slow global warming even without considering likely disruptions to other parts of the planet. Reuters

Asia must act fast to lessen climate change: Asia, home to nearly two-thirds of the world’s people, must take urgent action to lessen the effects of climate change but needs considerable help from rich nations elsewhere, a report said on Monday. “Up in Smoke? Asia and the Pacific,” the last in a series of reports from the New Economics Foundation (NEF) think-tank, appears just after leading scientists said the effects of global warming would be all-pervasive and irreversible. “Wealthy industrialised countries must act first and fastest to cut greenhouse gas emissions, but emerging Asian countries also need to contribute to climate change mitigation,” it said. Guardian