Copenhagen
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Global warming commitments at the G8 and the major economies forum in Italy
If you haven’t been in Italy you might not have realized it, but two events just occurred there in which leaders of the 17 largest-emitting countries tried to make progress in the run-up to the Copenhagen climate talks this December. The first event was the annual Group of Eight (G8) meeting, which brings together the […]
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American Clean Energy Security Act strengthens U.S. ability to sabotage international climate talks
“The world is not going to turn its back on coal.“U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven ChuThe Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy Security Act (ACES) won’t cut emissions. It won’t serve as a platform we can improve later anymore than the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) served as a foot in the door to improve our democracy when […]
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Obama needs to outline his yardstick on global warming
A coalition of major U.S. groups called for the Obama admin to outline its global warming "yardstick." How will the administration measure our efforts?
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Germany’s Merkel praises U.S. House climate bill as a ‘sea change’
Angela MerkelPhoto: Bertelsmann StiftungThe climate bill being debated today in the U.S. House represents a “sea change” and “points to the fact that the United States [is] very serious on climate,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a visit to the White House this morning. “I wish you every success. … I would not have […]
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U.S. is starting to make a down payment on funding international climate change efforts
This past Wednesday (June 17, 2009) the Appropriations Subcommittee of the House of Representatives that has jurisdiction over the international global warming pieces of President Obama’s budget passed a bill that supported increasing US commitments to these needed efforts. The funding will make a “down payment” in helping developing countries deploy clean energy, reduce global […]
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Can a number save the world?
500 marshmallows organize for climate action.Robert van Waarden / Spectral QIt can if that number is 350. That’s the safe upper limit of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere: 350 parts per million (ppm). It’s also the rallying cry of a creative campaign to raise awareness of the climate crisis and build grassroots support for the […]
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Negotiations are all well and good, but where’s the bling bling?
With less than six months to go before Copenhagen, the global climate negotiations are at a pivotal moment. After a two-week negotiating session in Bonn, the negotiations are turning the corner. Or are they? For the first time, negotiators in Bonn debated the draft text of a global deal – a mixed bag of good, […]
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Bonn was disappointing, and Copenhagen will be too. Who to blame?
Photo: rolandFirst up, the climate talks are not going very well. After a rousing start in Rio in 1992, from which we returned with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the negotiations have been anything but inspiring. 1997’s Kyoto Protocol defined the rich-world actions – the first steps – that would put meat on […]
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Transparency at the Bonn climate negotiations
You might think that the international global warming negotiations are occurring in some backroom, filled with smoke, and outside the view of the world. That is after all, what some opponents to global warming solutions would have you believe. But that is the farthest thing from the truth. Let me give you some examples from […]