The World Bank increased its financing for fossil fuel projects in the last financial year, according to a new analysis, despite repeated calls by its president to end the global subsidies for oil, coal and gas.

In a report released on Friday, Oil Change International (OCI) identified $3.4bn (£2.3bn) of loans, grants, guarantees, risk management and equity for fossil fuel-related projects in the developing world in the 2013-14 financial year. This was the highest recorded in four years and up 23% on the year before although the bank said it disagreed with lumping in both direct and indirect funding.

On Monday, the bank’s president Jim Yong Kim told the Guardian “we need to get rid of fossil fuel subsidies now”, echoing his previous comments on such “harmful” subsidies. The World Trade organisation’s definition of a subsidy is a “financial contribution by a government or any public body”, including loans and loan guarantees.

Stephen Kretzmann, the executive director of OCI, said: “Bank staff are absolutely right to be concerned about fossil fuel subsidies, but they need to get their own house in order as well. They provided more than $3bn in financing for fossil fuels last year, all of which are clearly subsidies for fossil fuel production. The World Bank should lead by example, not try to hide business as usual.”

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/apr/17/world-bank-fossil-fuel-lending-leapt-in-2014-despite-its-calls-to-end-subsidies

The questions have been lodged with the United Nations for Australia to answer in the lead-up to the December climate summit in Paris, where the world is supposed to sign a global deal to combat climate change.

It comes as Australia is facing questions in diplomatic circles for not sending a minister or its chief climate change negotiator to a meeting of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate in Washington DC, starting on Sunday.

To be opened by US Secretary of State John Kerry, the forum is meant to bring together ministerial representatives from 17 major countries in a bid to accelerate work on a climate deal. Australia is being represented by environment department head Gordon de Brouwer​.

In other questions posed to Australia through the UN:

• The US asked whether the emissions reduction fund was the main replacement for carbon pricing, or whether Australia planned to introduce other policies.
• Brazil accused Australia of having a "low level of ambition", and asked whether it would boost its target to cut emissions more quickly. It also said Australia had effectively reduced the pace at which it cut industrial emissions by expanding the number of agricultural programs included in its greenhouse accounting, summarising: "This kind of action seems to make the level of ambition lower, not higher."
• Both China and Brazil noted Australia's industrial emissions increased by more than 30 per cent between 1990 and this decade, and it was relying on accounting rules that reflected changes in emissions from the land to give it a chance to meet its targets.
• The European Union questioned whether the emissions reduction fund could deliver a 15 or 25 per cent cut by 2020 – targets Australia has said it would embrace if other countries did the equivalent.

Erwin Jackson, deputy chief executive of the Climate Institute and a long-time observer of climate negotiations, said the questions showed the international community saw Australia's commitments as "woefully inadequate" for it to do its fair share in meeting the agreed global target of keeping warming to within 2 degrees.

"This is the first salvo. If the government doesn't come forward with a credible post-2020 target these kind of criticism will continue and only increase as other countries accelerate and deepen their own action," he said.

read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/china-and-other-big-emitters-challenge-australia-over-its-climate-change-policies-20150419-1mnqt3.html

Note to the world: Australia has many reasonable people. Except from its present government which was elected by deceit on A MASSIVE LITANY OF LIES, most people are fair-minded and understand the dangers of climate change aka anthropogenic global warming. Thank you for punching our turdy government. Please don't flinch, nor believe a single word that comes out of our useless government.

Sea-surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific are recording anomalies of more than 1 degree, a combination that has not previously been seen in weekly data going back to 1991, according to a bureau climate forecaster. 

Australia's measure of El Nino thresholds is sustained warmth of sea-surface temperatures of 0.8 degrees above average in the key regions surveyed, a higher bar to clear than set by the US and some other agencies.

"You can see a warming in the eastern Pacific, which looks to be a classic [El Nino] event," said Agus Santoso, an El Nino modeller at the University of NSW's Climate Change Research centre. 

read more: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/weather/world-headed-for-an-el-nino-and-it-could-be-a-big-one-scientists-say-20150507-ggw8bo.html