Barack Obama
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Copenhagen outcome: a real climate catastrophe
President Barack Obama negotiating with, from left, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Møller, and Israeli President Shimon Peres, at the Copenhagen climate conference.Photo: White House/Pete Souza This piece appeared first in The Daily Beast. Saturday morning witnessed one of the most extraordinary and dramatic debates in the 17-year history of […]
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Obama hits the reset button on the foundations of international climate agreements
Shortly before leaving Copenhagen yesterday, President Obama announced that the terms of an interim, “political” agreement, the Copenhagen Accord, had been reached with the leaders of Brazil, South Africa, India, and China which very well may lay the groundwork for a new international agreement on climate change. Commentators are already lining up to decry this […]
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Why is everyone so pissed at Obama?
An insufficient deal has been struck at Copenhagen, leaving many participants dismayed by the outcome and miffed at President Obama. Resentment toward Obama had been building throughout the day, and it spilled over as I went looking for food. After buying a plate of lentils at a cafeteria inside the Bella Center, I sat down […]
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Transcript: President Obama’s remarks to press about climate accord
Just before departing Copenhagen for Washington, President Obama made a brief appearance before the White House traveling press corps. The transcript was provided by the White House press office. — THE PRESIDENT: Let me start with a statement and then I’ll take a couple of questions. Today we’ve made meaningful and unprecedented — made a […]
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With climate agreement, Obama guts progressive values, argues McKibben
The President of the United States did several things with his agreement today with China, India, and South Africa: He blew up the United Nations. The idea that there’s a world community that means something has disappeared tonight. The clear point is, you poor nations can spout off all you want on questions like human […]
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Mixed reactions to late-night deal in Copenhagen
COPENHAGEN–What a day here in Copenhagen. For much of the afternoon and well into the evening, the cold and dark seemed to settle more deeply today on this city of 1.2 million. Here in the Bella Center, as the day turned to night without an agreement to cool the planet that most people expected today, […]
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The Climate Post: Rumors, intimations, and a deal
First Things First: Denmark’s most widely sought-after exports this week, at least until several minutes ago, were intimation and rumor. World leaders have been locked in negotiation on the second floor of the Bella Center, trying to strike a political “Copenhagen Accord,” various drafts of which (confirmed or unconfirmed) have circulated for the past several […]
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McKibben uninspired by Obama
COPENHAGEN — I watched Barack Obama from the back of a drafty warehouse, which the U.N. has repurposed as the holding tank for all the NGOs they kicked out of the Bella Center. Great idea, except they didn’t manage to hook up Internet. So now I’m at a nearby coffeeshop monitoring the end of the […]
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Impatient Obama urges forward movement in Copenhagen, but glum mood prevails
COPENHAGEN — There’s a sour mood inside the Bella Center, where a closed-door meeting among more than a dozen heads of state or top national officials on Friday morning appeared not to have yielded any immediate agreement. Talks are supposed to wrap up today, but there’s a rumor that Yvo de Boer, head of the […]
