Climate Politics
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Winning the battle in Bali, and then winning the war
Since COP13 / MOP3 -- hereafter "Bali" -- has begun, I thought I'd send a brief note on expectations and strategy. Brief because there's too much to say, so I shouldn't try. Besides, I'll try to post again in a few days.
Here's the thing: Bali is freighted with terrific expectations, which are entirely appropriate given the state of the science. We now "know," insofar as we can know these things, that we've got to do everything to hold total temperature increase from global warming below 2 degrees Celsius, and that to have a good chance of doing so global emissions are going to peak by 2015.
In other words, we now know this is an emergency situation. So why would we demand anything except emergency action? No reason at all. Which is why EcoEquity signed the "Call for Climate Talks to Accelerate Global Economic and Energy Transitions: What Bali Must Achieve" (PDF), now being circulated by the Institute for Policy Studies and the International Forum on Globalization.
The Call urges negotiators to pursue three paths:
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As climate conference kicks off, defenses are up
When I visited Bali 20 years ago, the beaches teemed with people offering any manner of products and services, and the most abundant seemed to be blowguns. Lying in the sand with your eyes closed, you could just hear, above the rhythmic lapping of the waves, the repeated murmur of “Blowgun? Blowgun? Blowgun?” What the […]
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White House renews energy bill veto threat
The White House just sent this letter (PDF) to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, renewing its threat to veto any bill that doesn’t follow exactly the (absurd) guidelines it laid out in its last letter.
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What should I ask Andrew Rice?
In about three hours, at 1pm PST, I’ll be chatting with Andrew Rice, the 34-year-old Okla. state senator and Democratic candidate for Senate in Oklahoma. Yes, that’s the guy running against the 74-year-old Inhofe. You can read about his positions on the issue here. (Global warming is one of the top four.) Oklahoma’s a fairly […]
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Malawi celebrates, but for how long?
So while the U.S. Farm Bill is out to pasture until 2008, it looks like most commodity subsidies will remain untouched. Agricultural price supports may be the law of the land here, but it's certainly not what we've been advocating abroad. A bittersweet story on page one of today's NY Times documents how Malawians are pulling back from the brink, largely because -- going against the wishes of the World Bank -- they've begun to reinstitute government crop subsidies:
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Australia national government transforms; conservative party falls apart
UPDATE: Australia’s new government has ratified Kyoto. Wow. That was fast. Though we’ve mentioned them a couple of times in our news stream, I’m not sure I’ve fully appreciated just how seismic recent political changes in Australia have been. Not only was the Liberal (pro-business right) party defeated but according to John Quiggen it’s completely […]
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Greens need to learn how to celebrate their friends and their movement
I’ve run into a lot of sentiment along the lines of this comment thread — harumphing about how weak and insufficient the impending energy bill is — and it seems crazy and wrongheaded to me. I urge you to check out this post by Josh Dorner on the post-2000 history of energy bill negotiations. Remember […]
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Pelosi says bill up for vote next week will contain CAFE, RFS, and RES
For days I’ve been hearing that some kind of deal is imminent on the energy bill. There was talk that the Renewable Energy Standard (RES) was going to get dropped, perhaps to be attached to some other bill, and that the production tax credit (PTC) for wind and solar was going overboard, along with rescinding […]
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Heartland Presidential Forum will allow grassroots activists to ask Dem candidates questions
The Heartland Presidential Forum will take place in Des Moines, Iowa, tomorrow, broadcast live from 2:30 to 5:30 EST on CSPAN1 and webcast live at movementvisionlab.org. Clinton, Dodd, Edwards, Kucinich, and Obama will be there. This forum should be somewhat unique in that grassroots activists from all over will be allowed to tell their stories […]
