UNFCCC
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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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Seven steps to achieving a real climate deal
So where do we go from here? How do we get from the disorganized, disappointing, dispiriting debacle of Copenhagen to a new and worthwhile climate treaty? The world needs solid directions for getting to a real climate deal in Mexico next year.Asking the question recalls the famous joke about the Irishman who, when asked by […]
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BBC World Service: Who is to Blame at Copenhagen?
I just joined the BBC World Service for a live, hour-long program called “Copenhagen: Who is to Blame?” reflecting on the outcomes of the negotiations, including BBC’s environmental analyst, a Chinese policy specialist, WWF’s Campaign Director, India’s Vandana Shiva, and other experts (the podcast is available here, and for a cliffnotes version, start at 39 […]
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Earth to Thomas Friedman: Winning the “Earth Race” Requires Federal Investment
In a major departure from conventional climate wisdom, Thomas Friedman argues in today’s New York Times that the UNFCCC framework is broken and should be replaced by a global competition in the clean-tech industry, which he says the United States can and should lead. “Let the Earth Race begin,” he declares, contrasting this with the […]
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What’s missing in the Copenhagen accord?
Climate delegates finally finished two years of negotiations Saturday by “taking note” of the two-and-a-half page Copenhagen Accord hashed out Friday night. It reminded me of a marathoner who slow-walks the course, hobbles across the finish line seven hours late, and then declares victory. Yes, there was a semblance of a deal by Saturday, but […]
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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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No ‘truth,’ but telling consequences for Inhofe’s strange Copenhagen visit
COPENHAGEN — On the day that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton showed up in Copenhagen to say the U.S. would contribute to a global climate action fund, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) also appeared in Copenhagen. Without, however, his much-hyped “truth squad.” Earlier this month, the Oklahoma Republican and one of Capitol Hill’s fiercest critics of […]
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Heading into the second week of Copenhagen … the arc of the negotiations
Wow! Has it really only been a week of the international global warming negotiations in Copenhagen? Based upon the intensity of the debate you would think that we are down to the wire in the second week of the negotiations. After all, these negotiations often only get finalized in the wee hours of the final […]
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Developing country action to reduce global warming pollution: Copenhagen (part 3)
“If only developing countries would take action to reduce their global warming pollution.” That is the refrain that was heard in capitals around the world for years. This was driven partly by a concern over competitiveness in some places (e.g., the U.S. and E.U.). And it was also driven by the reality that global emissions […]
