UPDATE: Polar Vortex News, Photos and Videos - ABC News

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UPDATE: Philippines: “The low pressure area was in the vicinity of Surigao del Sur. Because of this weather system, Mindanao, Eastern and Central Visayas will continue to experience cloudy skies with moderate to heavy rains and thunderstorms which may trigger flashfloods and landslides,” PAGASA forecaster Aldczar Aurelio said in a phone interview with ANC. State weather bureau said the LPA seemed to be moving upwards. The Bicol area, Mimaropa, and the rest of Visayas will be under cloudy skies with light to moderate rainshowers and thunderstorms. The north monsoon is also affecting the Northern and Central Luzon. Metro Manila and the rest of Luzon will be cloudy with isolated light rains. Metro Manila's temperature will range anywhere from 20 to 30 degrees Celsius.- Butuan City | View photo - Yahoo Philippines News

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UPDATE: Partially frozen Niagara Falls- The polar vortex that has gripped the U.S. and Canada this week has led to some spectacular icy images. The latest come from Niagara Falls, which partially froze on Tuesday, when the high temperature was a record low of minus 2 degrees. The ice formed on the U.S. side of the falls, which straddle the border between the United States and Canada.| Partially frozen Niagara Falls - Yahoo News Philippines

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UPDATE: UK Floods Turn Town Into an Island | Watch the video - : "The village of Muchelney in South West England remains cut-off completely by water eight days after the storm that hit parts of the UK. There is a possibility of water levels rising further over the weekend. (Jan. 11)" - Yahoo News Philippines

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UPDATE: Earth's New Normal: Wild Weather 2014 | as the New Year began the eastern half of that nation was blanketed by frigid Arctic temperatures more reminiscent to those of outer space as record-breaking wind chills of in excess of -60 degrees (F) were recorded. In fact, in northern Manitoba on New Year's Eve (2013) the mercury touched -62 degrees (F) the same surface temperature as Mars; and by the way, the temperature in the North Pole that afternoon was -6 degrees (F). The meandering polar jet stream is wreaking havoc on the other side of the Atlantic in the U.K. where the Brits have been lashed and pummeled, again by walls of 30-foot waves in concert with king tides (the highest of the year) and colossal hailstones leaving a horrible wake of destruction including destroyed roads, rail lines and floods that with regularity are breaching the defenses. That destruction may be tame compared to the 50-foot waves predicted for Monday (January 6, 2014).- Dr. Reese Halter

"In the Southern Hemisphere, Australia is broiling and enveloped by yet another drought fraught with bushfires. 2013 was their hottest year ever recorded. At 2 degrees (F) above the long-term average it easily surpassed 2005 as the hottest year. Every month in 2013 was 0.9 degree (F) above the normal dating back to the inception of continuous record keeping in 1910. Australia has experienced just one cooler than average year in the last decade -- 2011."
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Carbon market woes blunt prospects for Cameroon CDM projects. Two projects in Cameroon are registered to sell carbon credits via the U.N.’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), but the price of CDM offsets has slumped, blunting prospects for the landfill improvement scheme, according to officials with the state-owned Hygiene and Sanitation Company Cameroon (HYSACAM). The Nkolfoulou-Yaounde and PK 10 Douala plants, built at a cost of around 10 million euros (around $13.6 million), mitigate methane emissions from waste decomposition by capturing and destroying landfill gas in enclosed flare stations. “We started these two landfill projects in 2009, with plans to use our expertise to reproduce similar projects in other countries in the Congo Basin by 2015. But the expansion has been delayed for lack of funding,” said Bikoe Betrant Noel, head of Nkolfoulou-Yaounde. According to Noel, the landfill projects are expected to generate more than 1 million CDM carbon credits by the end of 2015, but so far it has proven hard to find buyers for them. “These are the first CDM projects in the Central African region, and we had envisaged reproducing similar projects in the other countries in the region at an estimated cost of 4.8 million euros ($6.5 million) each, but we don’t have funding for this,” Noel said. Facilities to convert the trapped methane into cheap cooking gas have also had to be put on hold, HYSACAM director-general Michel Ngapanou said last year.

 "An initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from landfill sites in Cameroon cannot be expanded to other Central African countries as planned due to a lack of income from the troubled carbon market, its backers say."
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What climate action can we expect in 2014? - First, there seems to be more effective pressure from activists and fractivists to fight fossil fuel subsidies worldwide. While 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day, unnecessary, wasteful fossil fuel subsidies benefiting profitable polluters such as the oil and gas or the steel industries amount to $5 billion a day (!). Second, climate action is increasingly dependent on the private sector (which already accounts for 62% of climate finance flows according to the Climate Policy Initiative) and crystallized around carbon pricing: According to the Brookings Institute, from 2013 onward, 3 billion people in 36 countries, 11 sub-national jurisdictions in the United States and Canada, and seven cities and provinces in China (and from 2016, all of China) are covered by Emissions Trading Schemes. Other countries are considering market options or have already implemented them, for example India via the introduction of traded renewable energy certificates. The private sector likely will be implementing more climate friendly projects, incentivised by renewable energy support or its mirror image, decreasing fossil fuel subsidies.. Comment - Voices - The Independent

 "China encapsulates this fundamental shift in climate policy dynamics.  Still pounding the tables at the UN Climate Talks with 20-year old policy positions which put other delegates to sleep, its climate action at home has been nothing short of majestic:  Chinese public opinion has forced multiple steps to be adopted to combat local air pollution (including potentially sentencing very bad actors to death), economic growth is increasingly becoming secondary to its people’s health and for good measure, it is unveiling the largest carbon pricing initiatives (both carbon markets and carbon taxes) in the world." CLICK LINK TO READ FULL ARTICLE What climate action can we expect in 2014? - Comment - Voices - The Independent:

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