Brazil
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Copenhagen coal in the stocking?
As a kid in Milwaukee, my parents told me that Santa would leave coal in my stocking if I was naughty. As the post mortem of Copenhagen is written, was it a lump of coal in our 2009 holiday stocking — or could this global chunk of carbon actually be a diamond in the rough? […]
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The Copenhagen Accord: A Big Step Forward
The Copenhagen climate deal that President Obama hammered out Friday night with the leaders of China, India, Brazil and South Africa broke through years of negotiating gridlock to achieve three critical goals. First, it provides for real cuts in heat-trapping carbon pollution by all of the world’s big emitters. Second, it establishes a transparent framework […]
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Key countries agreed to Copenhagen Accord
In the late morning hours Saturday in Copenhagen, the overwhelming majority of countries adopted a new framework for addressing global warming. This new agreement — called the Copenhagen Accord (available here) — was hammered out by 28 of the world’s key countries. These countries represent over 80 percent of the world’s global warming pollution (both […]
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‘Transparency’ is a hot issue in Copenhagen — but what does it mean?
Sergio Barbosa Serra. Photo courtesy Brazilian governmentCOPENHAGEN — I just had a cappuccino with Sergio Barbosa Serra, Brazil’s ambassador of climate change and one of the country’s top delegates at the Copenhagen talks. We discussed what’s going to get hashed out over the next 36 hours of the U.N. climate conference. He boiled the challenge […]
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The Governors are Coming
What do a thousand jailed demonstrators, President Obama, a dozen Fortune 100 CEOs, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, and a melting ice sculpture of a polar bear have in common? Two things. First, they are all part of the climate talks in Copenhagen that finally start in earnest this week after ten days of street […]
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The end of deforestation in the Brazilian rainforest — for only $7 to $18 Billion?
In October, Brazil’s President announced, “I foresee that by 2020 we will be able to reduce deforestation by 80 percent; in other words, we will emit some 4.8 billion fewer tons of carbon dioxide gas.” Now, a new article in the December 4 issue of Science, “The End of Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon,” (subs. […]
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In last-minute stunner, Obama changes plans to attend final day of Copenhagen talks
On Friday, the Obama administration announced a startling shift in plans: rather than stop by the Copenhagen climate talks on Dec. 9, Obama will be going on the 18th, the final day of the meeting — a notable increase in commitment (and political exposure) from the administration. The first week of every COP meeting consists […]
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City preps and countries posture ahead of Copenhagen talks
As Copenhagen prepares for December, a strange combination of Christmas lights, clean energy expos, evergreen wreaths, and security barriers have begun to crop up around the city. It’s an exciting time to be in Copenhagen reflecting on a year of intense pressure, activity, and engagement around the world. Over the past several months (and years), […]
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How industry pressures and competing national agendas dim prospects for a climate treaty
A version of this post was originally published on the website of the Center for Public Integrity and is reposted on Grist with CPI’s kind permission. —– It is said that borders don’t matter to the atmosphere — all nations have to work together to tackle the problem of climate change. But the forces that […]
