Copenhagen climate talks
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Morocco’s unique vulnerability to climate change
Morocco’s 2,175 miles of coastline makes it particularly vulnerable to sea level rise. With most of its economic activity near the coast, no legislation preventing building in the coastal zone and the government reportedly selling coastal land to developers at notional prices, climate change is a real threat. Small scale farmers increasingly find themselves competing […]
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Suddenly, a few reasons to be optimistic about Copenhagen
Suddenly, unexpectedly, there is a ray of hope in the air, hope that a significant global climate deal may yet be struck at December’s talks in Copenhagen. It could herald the start of a successful agreement, or it could dissolve just as rapidly into despair. And the coming week will do much to determine which. […]
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Japan election a shot in the arm for climate talks
The change in governments in Japan could make Yvo de Boer’s job of shepherding a new climate deal easier.World Economic Forum via Flickr“If we continue at this rate we are not going to make it,” concluded a grim-faced Yvo de Boer at the end of the latest session of international climate talks in Bonn last […]
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100 days before Copenhagen, here are 100 things you didn’t know about Copenhagen
We hope you already know that the most important climate meeting evah will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark, from Dec. 7 to 18. If all goes according to plan at the gathering — known in wonk-speak as COP15 — world leaders will hash out a new global climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol. Now, […]
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Water must be on the table at Copenhagen talks
The participants of the 2009 World Water Week in Stockholm last Friday unanimously said that water must be included in the COP-15 climate negotiations in Copenhagen this December. At various sessions throughout the Week, a number of organizations and officials have articulated the reasons why water needs to be an integral part of the negotiation […]
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Yvo de Boer of U.N. climate convention says 350 ppm is pipe dream
“I don’t think there is a hope in hell that people will agree to 350 in Copenhagen. I think we’ll get 2 degrees.” — Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, speaking at a recent meeting with NGO officials. “350” refers to the goal of reducing the concentration […]
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The computer has spoken: Copenhagen will be a failure
Bruce Bueno de Mesquita uses game theory to predict all sorts of geopolitical and business outcomes. Don’t ask him about global warming…Courtesy NYUCancel your plans for flying to Denmark this December. Send the polar bear suits back to the costume shop, and quit boning up on all those U.N. acronyms (IPCC … UNFCCC … AWG-LCA […]
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Lower your expectations for Copenhagen, says Foreign Affairs journal
Michael A. Levi of the Council on Foreign Relations, writing in the September/October Foreign Affairs, finds “vanishingly small” odds that December’s international negotiations in Copenhagen will produce a comprehensive climate treaty. From the journal’s summary (emphasis mine): “Government officials and activists should fundamentally rethink their strategy and expectations” for the December climate conference in Copenhagen, […]
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Climate disobedience: Is a new “Seattle” in the making?
This guest essay was originally published on TomDispatch and is republished here with Tom’s kind permission. Research assistance was provided by Sean Nortz. Will climate disobedience heat up in the months before Copenhagen?In the early morning of October 8, 2007, a small group of British Greenpeace activists slipped inside a hulking smokestack that towers more […]
