donderdag, december 31, 2009
The Fall of Mexico
n the almost three years since President Felipe Calderón launched a war on drug cartels, border towns in Mexico have turned into halls of mirrors where no one knows who is on which side or what chance remark could get you murdered. Some 14,000 people have been killed in that time—the worst carnage since the Mexican Revolution—and part of the country is effectively under martial law. Is this evidence of a creeping coup by the military? A war between drug cartels? Between the president and his opposition? Or just collateral damage from the (U.S.-supported) war on drugs? Nobody knows: Mexico is where facts, like people, simply disappear. The stakes for the U.S. are high, especially as the prospect of a failed state on our southern border begins to seem all too real.Read more | The Atlantic
Labels: Mexico, War on Drugs
- posted by DD @ 11:52 AM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
dinsdag, december 29, 2009
GROW UP, GREENS!
n 1968 Stewart Brand produced the first edition of the Whole Earth Catalog. It had a picture of the earth seen from space on the cover and inside were lists of useful tools for transforming the planet by distributing power to the people. I remember seeing it in bookshops. Thrilling and demanding, it called on me to join my generation. Like Woodstock, student demos, dope, tie-dyed T-shirts and improbably flared trousers, the Catalog told us we were different.We were. But now different has become mainstream. The Catalog was, above all, Green. It treated the planet as a single, finite system whose contents could be catalogued. Now the whole world is Green and the Internet lists its contents. David Cameron and Ed Miliband believe what only doped-out freaks in sandals and Afghan coats believed in 1968. And so Stewart Brand returns to take stock.
Whole Earth Discipline is immensely entertaining, moving and slightly confusing. The confusion is twofold. First, Brand is an unreconstructed cataloguer. The book is, at one level, simply a list of developments in biotechnology, climate science, urbanisation, agriculture and so on. This tends to leave one wondering if these things do tie together in quite the way Brand says they do. Secondly, much of the book is about the author's changes of mind. He is now, for example, pro-nuclear power and genetically engineered foods. This is honourable but it does cast a slight shadow of doubt over his latest enthusiasms.
Bryan Appleyard
Read more | Literary Review
Labels: Climate Change
- posted by DD @ 3:48 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
Forecast for repressive regimes in the 'Teens'
oping to identify what "influences" might have been at work in the world at the time of his birth, writer Arthur Koestler once cast what he called his "secular horoscope." He read a copy of the London Times from the day after he was born -- Sept. 6, 1905 -- and found pogroms, industrial strikes, "disturbances in Kishineff" and the Russian empire's failed war against Japan. All, he reckoned, were harbingers of the political events that eventually shaped his life: the collapse of empires, the Russian revolution, the rise of Hitler, the twilight of liberalism.Now that we are reaching the end of what seems destined to remain a nameless decade, I'd like to borrow this idea and cast the "secular horoscope" of the decade to come.
Anne Applebaum
Read more | The Washington Post
Labels: New year
- posted by DD @ 12:27 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
maandag, december 28, 2009
This wasn’t realpolitik. It was reality-politik
he idea that a PR, celebrity spectacle like Copenhagen could change the world is worse than naive – it’s ludicrous.I have a few hours to kill in Copenhagen before I catch a train to Sweden. Maybe it is the sculptures of emaciated humans outside the conference venue, but for some reason as I walk around I cannot avoid the feeling that I am in the middle of a medieval passion play.
I keep bumping into earnest pilgrims who take every opportunity to remind passers-by that the situation is desperate and the end is nigh. They may describe themselves as protesters or observers at the climate change conference, but in a different era they would have been characterised as camp-followers. There is clearly a symbiotic relationship between the official delegates and the activists hanging around the outskirts of the Bella Centre.
(...)
Throughout history serious negotiations that yield significant results take place in private. In a different era, the idea that 15,000 people hanging out in the Bella Centre could make history and cobble together an agreement that could save the planet would have been dismissed as naive if not ludicrous. Whatever the problems with old-fashioned secret diplomacy, reality TV-style negotiations are far worse. Negotiations carried out in public invariably turn into a routine of play-acting and posturing. The adoption of the reality TV format for an apparently momentous international proceeding guaranteed that the Copenhagen conference would have little substantive meaning. After all, it was meant to work as a spectacle rather than as a venue for the conduct of global diplomacy.
Frank Furendi
Read more | Spiked
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 4:51 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
Afghanistan: What Could Work
ool poker-players, we are tempted to believe, only raise or fold: they only increase their bet or leave the game. Calling, making the minimum bet to stay, suggests that you can't calculate the odds or face losing the pot, and that the other players are intimidating you. Calling is for children. Real men and women don't want to call in Afghanistan: they want to dramatically increase troops and expenditure, defeat the Taliban, and leave. Or they just want to leave. Both sides—the disciples of the surge and the apostles of withdrawal—therefore found some satisfaction in one passage in President Obama's speech at West Point on December 1:I have determined that it is in our vital national interest to send an additional 30,000 US troops to Afghanistan. After 18 months, our troops will begin to come home.
But the rest left them uneasy. This was not, as they might have imagined, because he was lurching between two contradictory doctrines of increase and withdrawal, but because the rest of his speech argued for a radically different strategy—a call strategy—which is about neither surge nor exit but about a much-reduced and longer-term presence in the country. The President did not make this explicit. But this will almost certainly be the long-term strategy of the US and its allies. And he has with remarkable courage and scrupulousness articulated the premises that lead to this conclusion. First, however, it is necessary to summarize the history of our involvement and the conventional policies that have long favored surge and exit.
By Rory Stewart
Read more | Afghanistan: What Could Work - The New York Review of Books
Labels: Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Foreign Policy, United Kingdom, United Nations, United States
- posted by DD @ 12:10 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
Unused body scan could have revealed explosive powder
msterdam airport is not using the 17 special security equiptment it has had since 2007. A millimetre wave scan would have detected the explosive powder Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab set off on board Northwest flight 253 to Detroit on Friday. The radio waves scan people's bodies and reveal anything they wear underneath their clothes.The millimetre wave technology security scans are still in the test phase, Schiphol spokesperson Mirjam Snoerwang told NRC Handelsblad. "European regulations tell us we can only put people through them on a voluntary basis. And objections have been raised with regards to privacy," she said.
Read more | nrc.nl - International - Unused body scan could have revealed explosive powder
Labels: Jasper Schuringa, Terrorisme
- posted by DD @ 12:05 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
zondag, december 27, 2009
Flying Dutchman hero of X-mas terror flight
asper Schuringa, a Dutchman on board the attacked airplain overpowered the terrorist and averted a disaster.Jasper Schuringa interviewed with CNN:
Labels: Jasper Schuringa, Terrorisme
- posted by DD @ 2:23 PM Perma Link/Print (1) comments
1 reacties:
-
DD zei...
-
Nice detail in this story is the name of Jaspers film production company "Go With the Flow Productions".
Obama Undermines the UN Climate Process
wo years of climate change negotiations have now ended in a farce in Copenhagen. Rather than grappling with complex issues, President Barack Obama decided instead to declare victory with a vague statement of principles agreed with four other countries. The remaining 187 were handed a fait accompli , which some accepted and others denounced. After the fact, the United Nations has argued that the document was generally accepted, though for most on a take-it-or-leave-it basis.Jeffrey D. Sachs
Read more | Project Syndicate - Obama Undermines the UN Climate Process
Posted using ShareThis
Labels: Barack Obama, Climate Change, Copenhagen, United States
- posted by DD @ 12:00 AM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
vrijdag, december 25, 2009
The making of the modern state
he Glorious Revolution of 1688 has long been consigned to the revolutionary B-list, dismissed as a bloodless back-room deal. A new history proves the event worthy of its name, writesThe Revolution of 1688-89 was the culmination of a long and vitriolic argument about how to transform England into a modern nation,” Pincus writes. He suggests that later generations took the achievements of the Glorious Revolution for granted. With the passage of time, it boomed less louder, and its effects were perhaps subtler. But the argument had hardly ended. The Glorious Revolution inaugurated a new phase in history, in which commerce supplanted landed wealth as the ultimate guarantor of economic success, and the “Dutch model” became the way of the world. Though the later revolutions in America and France would revise the terms of the liberal state – the first toward democracy, the second toward equality – the world made by 1688, as Pincus so adroitly demonstrates, is the one in which we still live today.
Read more | The making of the modern state - The National Newspaper
Labels: History, United Kingdom
- posted by DD @ 6:01 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
Copenhagen, and After
n April 5, 2009, Denmark got a new Prime Minister, Lars Løkke (“Birthday”) Rasmussen. He was the third Danish Prime Minister in a row to bear that surname, replacing Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who had been named the new Secretary-General of NATO. A capable local politician in his forties, Lars Rasmussen had, in contrast to his predecessor, almost no experience in international politics. His appointment received little media coverage outside Denmark. But just eight months later, with Denmark the host of the Copenhagen climate summit (officially the 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP-15), Lars Rasmussen’s—and Denmark’s—lack of experience in international politics would have a global impact.Following internal conflicts in the Danish cabinet, Rasmussen abruptly took over as chair of the conference two days before it ended, replacing Connie Hedegaard, the President of the COP (and previously his climate and energy minister) at a point when the negotiations had reached a critical juncture. As the host country, Denmark was expected to deliver for consideration that evening a draft statement on a final agreement. It did not arrive; nor was it produced the following morning. When it again failed to appear by lunchtime on December 17, a sense of crisis gripped the national delegations from 113 different countries. Numerous obstructions and demands by particular countries impeded a successful outcome. Leaders of some small countries were using the meeting to grandstand, while others were using it to push their own agendas. Many expressed astonishment when the representative from the Sudan likened a deal to cut carbon emissions to genocide, a comment that was perhaps prompted by Amnesty International’s call for the Danes to arrest Sudanese President Omar al Bashir if he attended the meeting. (He did not.) And by all accounts Rasmussen’s chairing of the final days of the meeting did not help in dealing with such unwelcome developments.
Tim Flannery
Read on | NYRblog - Copenhagen, and After - The New York Review of Books
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 3:58 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
Commission to review Copenhagen failings
nvironment ministers call for a report into the problems at climate conference.The European Commission will produce a report of ‘what went wrong' at the Copenhagen climate summit to help the EU reflect on its international climate strategy.
Environment ministers meeting in Brussels today asked the Commission to come up with a report for their next meeting, in Seville on 15-17 January.
The Copenhagen talks ended in bitter disappointment for Europe, with the US declining to make the emission-reduction pledges that the EU had hoped for, while China blocked a target to slash industrialised countries' emissions by 80% by the middle of the century.
The Copenhagen accord was “a disaster” and “a really great failure that we have to learn from”, Andreas Carlgren, Sweden's environment minister and chair of today's meeting, said.
Read more | The European Voice
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen, European Union
- posted by DD @ 2:34 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
Barack Obama, the fallen messiah
he “salvation narrative” projected onto Barack Obama created false expectations on the left and invited his demonisation by the rightDuring a time of economic decline, persistent cultural strife, deepening American involvement in far-off military conflicts, and rapid environmental deterioration, is there any wonder that some have turned to apocalyptic “salvation narratives” promising both a transcendent, everlasting future and violent retribution against perceived evildoers? A CNN poll in 2002 found that 59% of Americans believe that the prophecies in the Book of Revelations will come true. The startling number reflected the still-fresh trauma of the 9/11 attacks, but I suspect that it has held steady, if not risen. Indeed, mainstream American culture is permeated by apocalypticism; the blockbuster-movie hit 2012 is but one recent example.
Max Blumenthal
Read more | openDemocracy
Labels: Barack Obama, United States
- posted by DD @ 2:27 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
donderdag, december 24, 2009
Obama says disappointment at Copenhagen justified
resident Barack Obama said on Wednesday that disappointment over the outcome of the Copenhagen climate change summit was justified, hardening a widespread verdict that the conference had been a failure."I think that people are justified in being disappointed about the outcome in Copenhagen," he said in an interview with PBS Newshour.
"What I said was essentially that rather than see a complete collapse in Copenhagen, in which nothing at all got done and would have been a huge backward step, at least we kind of held ground and there wasn't too much backsliding from where we were."
Read on | Reuters
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 6:33 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
Obama disapointed in Copenhagen results
resident Obama said in a PBS TV interview that he is disapointed in the Copenhagen results.Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 6:26 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
woensdag, december 23, 2009
How do I know China wrecked the Copenhagen deal? I was in the room
s recriminations fly post-Copenhagen, one writer offers a fly-on-the-wall account of how talks failedCopenhagen was a disaster. That much is agreed. But the truth about what actually happened is in danger of being lost amid the spin and inevitable mutual recriminations. The truth is this: China wrecked the talks, intentionally humiliated Barack Obama, and insisted on an awful "deal" so western leaders would walk away carrying the blame. How do I know this? Because I was in the room and saw it happen.
Read more | The Guardian
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 3:21 PM Perma Link/Print (1) comments
1 reacties:
-
DD zei...
-
The most revealing article on Copenhagen up till now.
If it is true, and China wrecked Copenhagen intentionally, to give its industry breathing space and at the same time playing a master game of blaming the popular US President Obama, they won this one.
Will this story be accepted by the radical greens in the West?
Daan Diederiks for AP
Brown: we must learn lessons of Copenhagen
he way world leaders negotiate climate change needs to be reformed, Gordon Brown said last night in the wake of the UN's Copenhagen Climate Conference, where the failure to produce a strong agreement to tackle global warming has disappointed millions around the world.Read more | The Independent
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 11:23 AM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
The Copenhagen That Matters
s I listened to Denmark’s minister of economic and business affairs describe how her country used higher energy taxes to stimulate innovation in green power and then recycled the tax revenues back to Danish industry and consumers to make it easier for them to make and buy the new clean technologies, it all sounded so, well, intelligent. It sounded as if the Danes looked at themselves after the 1973 Arab oil embargo, found that they were totally dependent on Middle East oil and put in place a long-term strategy to make Denmark energy-secure and start a new industry at the same time.The more I listened to the Danish minister, Lene Espersen, the more I thought of my own country, where I’ve been told time and again by U.S. politicians that proposing even a 10-cent-a-gallon increase in gasoline taxes to make America more energy independent and to stimulate fuel efficiency is “off the table,” an act of sure political suicide.
Thomas Friedman
Read more | The New York Times Friedman Column
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 11:08 AM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
dinsdag, december 22, 2009
Copenhagen - Historic failure that will live in infamy
he most progressive US president in a generation comes to the most important international meeting since the Second World War and delivers a speech so devoid of substance that he might as well have made it on speaker-phone from a beach in Hawaii. His aides argue in private that he had no choice, such is the opposition on Capitol Hill to any action that could challenge the dominance of fossil fuels in American life. And so the nation that put a man on the Moon can't summon the collective will to protect men and women back here on Earth from the consequences of an economic model and lifestyle choice that has taken on the mantle of a religion.Then a Chinese premier who is in the process of converting his Communist nation to that new faith (high-carbon consumer capitalism) takes such umbrage at Barack Obama's speech that he refuses to meet – sulking in his hotel room, as if this were a teenager's house party instead of a final effort to stave off the breakdown of our biosphere.
Late in the evening, the two men meet and cobble together a collection of paragraphs that they call a "deal", although in reality it has all the meaning and authority of a bus ticket, not that it stops them signing it with great solemnity.
Joss Garman
Read more | The Independent
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 4:48 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
There is a way ahead after Copenhagen
he climate change talks show, at least, that the world takes the issue seriously. Now we need a truly global carbon-trading schemeAs the dust begins to settle and the delegates return home, the mood from the Copenhagen climate meeting appears to be one of disappointment, even dismay. I don't think this is fair. Certainly there were disappointing aspects, though they weren't entirely unexpected. But the underlying message was positive in one crucial regard: at last, the developing world has found its voice in the climate change debate.
The agreement thrashed out late on Friday night by President Obama and his small, hastily convened cabal of key states was not in itself very meaningful. By the time the text emerged it had lost its most important statement – a timeline to achieve a legally binding protocol by the end of 2010. This was a clear demonstration of Obama's weakness. He is a hostage to his own Congress and Senate, and if he goes beyond what they can stomach, they will certainly give him a bloody nose.
Sir David King
Read more in | The Independent
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 4:12 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
Time for a Climate Change Plan B
he world's political leaders, not least President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Gordon Brown, are in a state of severe, almost clinical, denial.While acknowledging that the outcome of the United Nations climate-change conference in Copenhagen fell somewhat short of their demand for a legally binding, enforceable and verifiable global agreement on emissions reductions by developed and developing countries alike, they insist that what has been achieved is a breakthrough and a decisive step forward.
Just one more heave, just one more venue for the great climate-change traveling circus—Mexico City next year—and the job will be done.
Or so we are told. It is, of course, the purest nonsense. The only breakthrough was the political coup for China and India in concluding the anodyne communiqué with the United States behind closed doors, with Brazil and South Africa allowed in the room and Europe left to languish in the cold outside.
Far from achieving a major step forward, Copenhagen—predictably—achieved precisely nothing. The nearest thing to a commitment was the promise by the developed world to pay the developing world $30 billion of "climate aid" over the next three years, rising to $100 billion a year from 2020. Not only is that (perhaps fortunately) not legally binding, but there is no agreement whatsoever about which countries it will go to, in which amounts, and on what conditions.
The reasons for the complete and utter failure of Copenhagen are both fundamental and irresolvable. The first is that the economic cost of decarbonizing the world's economies is massive, and of at least the same order of magnitude as any benefits it may conceivably bring in terms of a cooler world in the next century. After all, the reason we use carbon-based energy is not the political power of the oil lobby or the coal industry. It is because it is far and away the cheapest source of energy at the present time and is likely to remain so, not forever, but for the foreseeable future.
Nigel Lawson
Read more | Lord Lawson in the WSJ and on GWPF
See also |
- UNFCCC
- COP15 Copenhagen (Official site)
- Climate Feedback Blog
- NRC- Handelsblad Background
- BBC Copenhagen
- The Guardian Copenhagen summit site
- The New York Times Summit pages
- Nature.com - Road to Copenhagen
- Financial Times In Depth
- The Copenhagen Diagnosis
- Climate Change Synthesisreport
- Holland Climate House Copenhagen
- Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency
- OpenEnergy Info
- RealClimate
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 3:58 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
Copenhagen, and Beyond
he global climate negotiations in Copenhagen produced neither a grand success nor the complete meltdown that seemed almost certain as late as Friday afternoon. Despite two years of advance work, the meeting failed to convert a rare gathering of world leaders into an ambitious, legally binding action plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It produced instead a softer interim accord that, at least in principle, would curb greenhouses gases, provide ways to verify countries’ emissions, save rain forests, shield vulnerable nations from the impacts of climate change, and share the costs.The hard work has only begun, in Washington and elsewhere. But Copenhagen’s achievements are not trivial, given the complexity of the issue and the differences among rich and poor countries. President Obama deserves much of the credit. He arrived as the talks were collapsing, spent 13 hours in nonstop negotiations and played hardball with the Chinese. With time running out — and with the help of China, India, Brazil and South Africa — he forged an agreement that all but a handful of the 193 nations on hand accepted.
Read more in | The New York Times Editorial
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 3:53 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
Rasmussen: 'Afghanistan is not an exit strategy'
S president Obama recently announced a major troop buildup in Afghanistan and other Nato members will likewise be supplying more troops. Nato secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen spoke with Spiegel about the 'warlike' conditions in Afghanistan, how long Nato will stay and whether Russia might come to the alliance's aid.An interview with the Nato Sec. Gen Rasmussen.
Read more | NRC- Handelsblad/ Der Spiegel
Labels: Afghanistan, NATO
- posted by DD @ 10:57 AM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
Ban Ki-Moon Press conference
fter returning to New York, the UN Sec.Gen. Ban Ki-Moon held a press conference in which he calls Copenhagen a succes.also commenting are Amb. MARTY NATALEGAWA, ROBERT ORR
See the video | The entire 24 min. [C-Span] Press conference in New York
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen, United Nations
- posted by DD @ 10:40 AM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
After Copenhagen
openhagen was supposed to be the last chance for humanity on an assumption that emissions in the future would continue to grow as they have in the past. But what if the future is one of contraction and disorganisation anyway?In the lead up to Copenhagen it was repeatedly said that this was “the last chance to save the climate”. This idea was constructed on an assumption about “business as usual”. If emissions continue to grow on current trends then, with little time left to put on the brakes and decarbonise the global economy at a sufficient rate, the task appears to be totally unfeasible.
Brian Davey
Read more | openDemocracy
See also |
- UNFCCC
- COP15 Copenhagen (Official site)
- Climate Feedback Blog
- NRC- Handelsblad Background
- BBC Copenhagen
- The Guardian Copenhagen summit site
- The New York Times Summit pages
- Nature.com - Road to Copenhagen
- Financial Times In Depth
- The Copenhagen Diagnosis
- Holland Climate House Copenhagen
- Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 10:13 AM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
maandag, december 21, 2009
Obama as Climate Change Villain
wo years of climate change negotiations have now ended in a farce in Copenhagen. Rather than grappling with complex issues, President Barack Obama decided instead to declare victory with a vague statement of principles agreed with four other countries. The remaining 187 were handed a fait accompli , which some accepted and others denounced. After the fact, the United Nations has argued that the document was generally accepted, though for most on a take-it-or-leave-it basis.Responsibility for this disaster reaches far and wide. Let us start with George W. Bush, who ignored climate change for the eight years of his presidency, wasting the world’s precious time. Then comes the UN, for managing the negotiating process so miserably during a two-year period. Then comes the European Union for pushing relentlessly for a single-minded vision of a global emissions-trading system, even when such a system would not fit the rest of the world.
Then comes the United States Senate, which has ignored climate change for 15 consecutive years since ratifying the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Finally, there is Obama, who effectively abandoned a systematic course of action under the UN framework, because it was proving nettlesome to US power and domestic politics.
Jeffrey D. Sachs
Read on | Project Syndicate - Obama as Climate Change Villain
Posted using ShareThis
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 11:13 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
The road from Copenhagen
he talks were chaotic, at times farcical. But in the accord there were real gains we can build uponWhere do we go from here? That is the question we are all asking ourselves after Copenhagen. We have to begin by understanding the lessons of what went wrong but also recognise the achievements that it secured.
This was a chaotic process dogged by procedural games. Thirty leaders left their negotiators at 3am on Friday, the last night to haggle over the short Danish text that became the accord. To get a deal we needed urgent progress because time was running out. Five hours later, we had got to the third paragraph.
The procedural wrangling was, in fact, a cover for points of serious, substantive disagreement. The vast majority of countries, developed and developing, believe that we will only construct a lasting accord that protects the planet if all countries' commitments or actions are legally binding. But some leading developing countries currently refuse to countenance this. That is why we did not secure an agreement that the political accord struck in Copenhagen should lead to a legally binding outcome.
We did not get an agreement on 50% reductions in global emissions by 2050 or on 80% reductions by developed countries. Both were vetoed by China, despite the support of a coalition of developed and the vast majority of developing countries. Indeed, this is one of the straws in the wind for the future: the old order of developed versus developing has been replaced by more interesting alliances.
Ed Miliband
Read on | The Guardian
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 11:10 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
World leaders welcome the Copenhagen Accord
espite its lack of targets to curb emissions, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other leaders agree to defend the new climate deal.The rich-poor disputes in Copenhagen that dominated the two-week climate conference and almost blocked any deal at all have almost disappeared after the summit.
"This breakthrough lays the foundation for international action in the years to come," German Chancellor Angela Merkel told the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag.
"Copenhagen is a first step toward a new world climate order, nothing more but also nothing less. Those who are only putting Copenhagen down are helping those who want to blockade rather than move forward," the chancellor added.
According to AFP, both China and the US, the world's largest emitters of greenhouse gases, lauded the outcome of the historic UN climate conference.
"With the efforts of all parties, the summit yielded significant and positive results," Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said in a statement, and US President Barack Obama said that this breakthrough laid "the foundation for international action in the years to come".
Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh called it a "good deal" and told Hindustan Times that India had "upheld the interests of developing nations" and their "national sovereignty".
Read on | World leaders welcome the Copenhagen Accord - COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 11:06 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
Copenhagen: The Final Hours
report from Nature.com, with Thom York and Tom Friedman.Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 3:26 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
vrijdag, december 18, 2009
Leaked UN report shows cuts offered at Copenhagen would lead to 3C rise
N secretariat initial draft shows gap of up to 4.2 gigatonnes of CO2 between present pledges and cuts required to limit rise to 2CThe emissions cuts offered so far at the Copenhagen climate change summit would still lead to global temperatures rising by an average of 3C, according to a confidential UN analysis obtained by the Guardian.
With the talks entering the final 24 hours on a knife-edge, the emergence of the document seriously undermines the statements by governments that they are aiming to limit emissions to a level ensuring no more than a 2C temperature rise over the next century, and indicates that the last day of negotiations will be extremely challenging.
Read on | The Guardian
See also | The UN document
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 9:34 AM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
A climatologist's take on Copenhagen
limatologist Stephen Schneider on the climate debate in a report from Nature.com.Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 9:15 AM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
donderdag, december 17, 2009
Copenhagen summit veering towards farce, warns Ed Miliband
limate talks at least 18 hours behind schedule as world leaders set to arrive in CopenhagenThe climate change summit in Copenhagen was in jeopardy tonight with the complex negotiations falling far behind schedule as the climate secretary, Ed Miliband, warned of a "farce".
With just two days remaining, the inability to overcome disagreements about the shape of a deal to combat global warming led to hours of inaction today , while outside the negotiations police clashed with protesters who broke through a security cordon but failed in an attempt to storm the conference centre.
"We have made no progress" said a source close to the talks. "What people don't realise is that we are now not really ready for the leaders. These talks are now 18 hours late."
Read on | The Guardian
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 1:04 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
Obama won't break new ground at summit
warning to delegates in Copenhagen: If you're looking for President Barack Obama to cave to pressure and deepen US efforts to curb greenhouse gases, don't bet on it.Obama, like most world leaders, is constrained by tough politics at home. And that makes it tougher for the summit to produce meaningful pollution cuts.
US officials stressed Wednesday that when Obama travels to the climate conference in Denmark this week he won't bring anything to the talks beyond Washington's already stated goals: to commit to reducing greenhouse gases by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020 and to pay a "fair share" into a 10 billion US dollars fund to help developing countries deal with climate change.
Read on | Obama won't break new ground at summit - COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009
See also |
- COP15 Copenhagen (Official site)
- Climate Feedback Blog
- NRC- Handelsblad Background
- BBC Copenhagen
- The Guardian Copenhagen summit site
- The New York Times Summit pages
- Nature.com - Road to Copenhagen
- Financial Times In Depth
- The Copenhagen Diagnosis
- Holland Climate House Copenhagen
- Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen, United States
- posted by DD @ 11:29 AM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
woensdag, december 16, 2009
Video: Chaos in Copenhagen
eport by nature.com on the organisational breakdown at COP15.Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 5:22 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
Climate summit president resigns
Breaking News
anish minister Connie Hedegaard has resigned as president of the UN climate change summit in Copenhagen.The reason for her resignation is unclear but she will be replaced the prime minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen.
The talks are currently deadlocked over emission cuts and financial aid for poorer countries.
See also | The Guardian
See also | Connie Hedegaard resigns as president of Copenhagen climate summit
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 12:10 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
UN conference gearing up for make-or-break finale
orld leaders “face a defining moment in history”, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said as the Copenhagen conference formally entered its high-level stage Tuesday.As heads of states and governments were beginning to arrive at Copenhagen, a ceremony Tuesday marked the formal opening of the final high-level stage of the ongoing UN conference on climate change, COP15.
“We know what we must do. We know what the world expects. Our job here and now is to seal the deal, a deal in our common interest,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said according to AFP, while adding that the world’s leaders face “a defining moment in history”.
Read on |UN conference gearing up for make-or-break finale - COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 9:28 AM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
Nuclear Power Expansion in China Stirs Concerns
hina is preparing to build three times as many nuclear power plants in the coming decade as the rest of the world combined, a breakneck pace with the potential to help slow global warming.China’s civilian nuclear power industry — with 11 reactors operating and construction starting on as many as an additional 10 each year — is not known to have had a serious accident in 15 years of large-scale electricity production.
And with China already the largest emitter of gases blamed for global warming, the expansion of nuclear power would at least slow the increase in emissions.
Read on | The New York Times
Labels: China, Climate Change, Copenhagen, Nuclear energy
- posted by DD @ 6:06 AM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
Carbon capture is put on hold
s some countries have reservations on carbon capture and storage (CCS) the emerging technology will not be added to the UN-backed carbon reducing mechanisms here in Copenhagen.Capturing carbon dioxide at coal-fired power plants in order to store in it the ground will not become a measure supported by the UN-backed Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) this year. A committee under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has discussed the issue, but delayed any decisions for summits to come.
A text by the UNFCCC Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice “recognizes that carbon dioxide capture and storage in geological formations has been proposed by some Parties for inclusion under the CDM”, but also “recognizes that other Parties have registered concern regarding the implications of this possible inclusion.”
USA and UK are the chief advocates of the emerging technology. However, some other countries have concerns over “the long-term liability for the storage site, including liability for any seepage”, the text displays.
Read on | Carbon capture is put on hold - COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009
See also | The text on CCS produced by the Susidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 1:02 AM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
dinsdag, december 15, 2009
This is bigger than climate change. It is a battle to redefine humanity
t's hard for a species used to ever-expanding frontiers, but survival depends on accepting we live within limitsThis is the moment at which we turn and face ourselves. Here, in the plastic corridors and crowded stalls, among impenetrable texts and withering procedures, humankind decides what it is and what it will become. It chooses whether to continue living as it has done, until it must make a wasteland of its home, or to stop and redefine itself. This is about much more than climate change. This is about us.
The meeting at Copenhagen confronts us with our primal tragedy. We are the universal ape, equipped with the ingenuity and aggression to bring down prey much larger than itself, break into new lands, roar its defiance of natural constraints. Now we find ourselves hedged in by the consequences of our nature, living meekly on this crowded planet for fear of provoking or damaging others. We have the hearts of lions and live the lives of clerks.
George Monbiot
Read on | The Guardian
See also | The exit strategy - nature.com
See also |
- COP15 Copenhagen (Official site)
- Climate Feedback Blog
- NRC- Handelsblad Background
- BBC Copenhagen
- The Guardian Copenhagen summit site
- The New York Times Summit pages
- Nature.com - Road to Copenhagen
- Financial Times In Depth
- The Copenhagen Diagnosis
- Holland Climate House Copenhagen
- Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 8:16 AM Perma Link/Print (1) comments
1 reacties:
-
DD zei...
-
Mobiots dramatic words might be true, might. And if they are, we are in a serious fase of transition. And that will allways hurt and means that tough times are ahead of us.
The one image sceptics are so afraid of and are so unwilling to comply with.
We are only at the beginning.
Daan Diederiks
maandag, december 14, 2009
Press briefing of former Nato Commander de Kruif
he former Nato Commander to southern Afghanistan, the Dutch Maj. Gen. Mart de Kruif conducted a press briefing at the Pentagon to discuss his experiences leading 40,000 coalition troops in southern Afghanistan from November 2008-November 2009. See also | C-Span Pentagon briefing
Labels: Afghanistan, Foreign Policy, NATO
- posted by DD @ 11:10 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
Poor countries agree to resume climate talks
he European Union says poor countries have stopped their boycott of climate change negotiations at Copenhagen and have found a solution to their dispute with rich nations.Poor countries ended a temporary boycott of the UN climate talks Monday after getting assurances that rich nations were not conspiring to reduce their commitments to cutting greenhouse gases, European officials said.
Informal talks resolved the impasse between rich and poor nations and ended the daylong boycott, which was started by African countries and backed by 135 developing countries including China and India.
Read on | Poor countries agree to resume climate talks - COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 10:18 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
New model for climate funding
orway and Mexico launch a joint model to provide predictable funding for climate actions in developing countries, starting in 2013.Norway and Mexico join forces and propose a model for climate funding at the negotiations in Copenhagen. The model establishes a Green Fund for financing of climate actions in developing countries.
Read on | New model for climate funding - COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009
See also | The Mexican-Norwegian Proposal on Climate Change Financing
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 4:19 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
Copenhagen talks stall as African bloc accuses UN of trying to kill Kyoto
N and Danish hosts rush to repair rift as G77 delegate claims scrapping Kyoto would mean 'killing of Africa'One of the two negotiating tracks at the UN climate talks in Copenhagen broke up in drama and confusion today when the Africa group of countries followed by other developing countries accused the chair of the conference of trying to "kill" the Kyoto protocol. They were also objecting to what they characterised as efforts to sideline the poorest countries.
Read on | The Guardian
See also | The Guardian
Hear also | The Guardian audio/ radio
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 3:07 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
Climate negotiations 'suspended'
egotiations at the UN climate summit have been suspended after the African group withdrew co-operation.African delegations were angry at what they saw as moves by the Danish host government to sideline talks on more emission cuts under the Kyoto Protocol.
As news spread around the conference centre, about 200 activists responded with chants of "We stand with Africa - Kyoto targets now".
It is unclear how matters will proceed now, though informal talks are likely.
Read on | BBC News
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 1:46 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
Study: Sea level rises much faster
ew estimates of sea level change including the dynamics of the big ice sheets are way higher than the IPCC 2007 estimate.In an epoch report published in 2007, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted that oceans would rise by 18-59 centimeters in 2100. In a new report, the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme estimates the increase to be more than the double.
Read on | Study: Sea level rises much faster - COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009
See also | The Greenland Ice Sheet in a Changing Climate (GRIS) - Report
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 12:17 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
New study: Substantial irreversible damage to ocean ecosystems
y 2050, ocean acidity could increase by 150 percent. This increase is 100 times faster than any change in acidity experienced in the marine environment over the last 20 million years.The secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) released Monday a major study in collaboration with the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC).
According to the study, seas and oceans absorb approximately one quarter of the carbon dioxide emitted to the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation and other human activities. As more and more carbon dioxide has been emitted into the atmosphere, the oceans have absorbed greater amounts at increasingly rapid rates.
Without this level of absorption by the oceans, atmospheric CO2 levels would be significantly higher than at present and the effects of global climate change would be more marked.
However, the absorption of atmospheric CO2 has resulted in changes to the chemical balance of the oceans, causing them to become more acidic.
Read on | New study: Substantial irreversible damage to ocean ecosystems - COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009
See also | Convention on Biological Diversity - Press release
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 12:10 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
Climate Change Reality: Smears Can't Obscure Scientific Case for Action
hile the eyes of the world are focused on Copenhagen, I’m halfway around the globe, representing the National Wildlife Federation at the American Geophysical Union’s fall meeting in San Francisco. More than 16,000 geophysicists -- people who study all aspects of the Earth & solar system, including climate -- from around the world will be convening to continue advancing the science. It's often the place where major new discoveries are first announced – including the latest news on global warming.It’s absolutely baffling to me that as I present & participate in sessions on the latest cutting-edge climate science, the international media has gone hook, line & sinker for a distraction about hacked emails pushed by polluters and science deniers. But it’s a sad reflection of the disconnect between the scientific debate here in San Francisco and the political debates happening in Washington and Copenhagen.
Read on | DrAmandaStaudt at Daily Kos - Climate Change Reality: Smears Can't Obscure Scientific Case for Action
Posted using ShareThis
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 11:48 AM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
Climate Change and “Climategate”
OPENHAGEN – Thousands of politicians, bureaucrats, and environmental activists have arrived in Copenhagen for the COP15 global climate summit with all the bravado – and self-regard – of a group of commandos who are convinced that they are about to save the world. And, although the political differences between them remain huge, delegates are nonetheless congratulating themselves for having the answers to global warming.The blustery language and ostentatious self-confidence that fill the Bella Center here remind me of a similar scene: Kyoto, 1997. There, world leaders actually signed a legally binding deal to cut carbon emissions – something that will elude the Copenhagen summit-goers. But what did the Kyoto Protocol accomplish? So far, at least, virtually nothing.
Bjorn Lomborg
Read on | Project Syndicate - Climate Change and “Climategate”
Posted using ShareThis
See also |
- COP15 Copenhagen (Official site)
- Climate Feedback Blog
- NRC- Handelsblad Background
- BBC Copenhagen
- The Guardian Copenhagen summit site
- The New York Times Summit pages
- Nature.com - Road to Copenhagen
- Financial Times In Depth
- The Copenhagen Diagnosis
- Holland Climate House Copenhagen
- Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency
Labels: Bjorn Lomborg, Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 11:27 AM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
Confronting Climate Change, with Al Gore
Google Earth production in collaboration with Al Gore on the climate change.Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 10:02 AM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
zondag, december 13, 2009
Oceanographer Robert Pinkel speaks about the Arctic
ceanographer Robert Pinkel speaks about his research in the Arctic and the influence of the Gulfstream on the climate in the Arctic.Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen, science
- posted by DD @ 3:38 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
A first draft conference text is circulating
he Washington Post laid its hands on a first draft text, which can be downloaded in pdf.See also | The Washington Post
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 2:34 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
No quick switch to low-carbon energy
n the first of two pieces on reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, Gert Jan Kramer and Martin Haigh analyse historic growth in energy systems to explain why deploying alternative technologies will be a long haul.Summary
- There are physical limits to the rate at which new technologies can be deployed
- Governments need to design policies targeted at specific technologies to accelerate deployment
- More action is required on demand side to increase efficiency and curtail consumption
Gert Jan Kramer & Martin Haigh
Read on | Nature.com
See also |
- COP15 Copenhagen (Official site)
- Climate Feedback Blog
- NRC- Handelsblad Background
- BBC Copenhagen
- The Guardian Copenhagen summit site
- The New York Times Summit pages
- Nature.com - Road to Copenhagen
- Financial Times In Depth
- The Copenhagen Diagnosis
- Holland Climate House Copenhagen
- Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 2:23 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
Let the global technology race begin
n the second of two pieces on decarbonization, Isabel Galiana and Christopher Green argue that fostering a technology revolution, not setting emissions targets, is the key to stabilizing the climate.Summary
- Reducing carbon emissions requires an energy-technology revolution that has not yet started
- A slowly rising carbon price could provide long-term financing for energy research and development
- A global technology race asks parties to use scientific capabilities rather than to sacrifice future development
The fixation on near-term targets for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions at the climate meeting in Copenhagen has resulted in insufficient attention towards the technological means of achieving them. Let us not forget that the true objective of climate-change policy is to limit global temperature increases. To achieve that requires a revolution in energy technology and the courage to dispense with target-focused climate policies.
Isabel Galiana & Christopher Green
Read on | Nature.com
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 2:17 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
Scientists: Climate talks aim too low for target
he cuts in greenhouse gases offered at the 192-nation climate conference are "clearly not enough" to assure the world it will head off dangerous global warming, a key UN-affiliated scientist said Saturday.Such projections, moreover, don't even account for the "potentially hugely important" threat of methane from the Arctic's thawing permafrost, other researchers said.
Midway through the two-week UN conference, richer nations are offering firm reductions in emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases ranging from 3-4 percent for the US to 20 percent for the European Union, in terms of 2020 emission levels compared with 1990.
One authoritative independent analysis finds the aggregate cuts amount to 8-12 percent. But the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changes (IPCC), the UN-sponsored science network, recommends that reductions average in the 25-40-percent range to keep global temperature increases below 2 degrees C (3.6 F) above preindustrial levels and head off the worst of global warming.
"I think it is clearly not enough," the IPCC's Thomas Stocker said of the numbers discussed here. "We are by far short of having security that the 2-degree target will be met."
Read on | Scientists: Climate talks aim too low for target - COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 2:03 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
vrijdag, december 11, 2009
EU nations to commit 3 billion US dollars to climate fund
he leaders of Britain and France say EU leaders will commit more than 2 billion euro (3 billion US dollars) a year to help poorer parts of the world combat global warming.The leaders of Britain and France say EU leaders will commit more than 2 billion euro(3 billion US dollars) a year to help poorer parts of the world combat global warming.
Britain's Gordon Brown and France's Nicolas Sarkozy said their two countries would contribute a big part of that sum and they are trying to get the full 27-member European Union to pitch in more at a summit in Brussels ending Friday.
EU leaders failed Thursday to come up with a firm figure for the fund.
The money is meant as short-term help for poor countries, particularly in Africa, to start cutting emissions and shoring up against the effects of global warming. The European money is a bid to bolster international climate talks in Copenhagen aiming at a longer-term pact.
Read on | EU nations to commit 3 billion US dollars to climate fund - COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 12:45 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
Obama: Climate change is a security issue
"
ot only scientists and environmental activists call for action on climate change, but also military leaders understand that our common security hangs in the balance,” said President Obama in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech.Giving the Nobel Peace Prize to US President Barack Obama "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples," has been seen as a means of boosting international climate talks.
In his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in Oslo, President Obama stressed the importance of confronting climate change:
"There is little scientific dispute that if we do nothing, we will face more drought, more famine, more mass displacement – all of which will fuel more conflict for decades," and then he drew attention to the question of security in the climate problem:
"It is not merely scientists and environmental activists who call for swift and forceful action – it's military leaders in my own country and others who understand that our common security hangs in the balance."
Read on | CPO15 Copenhagen
See also | The White House (Obama speech)
See also | Obama defends war as he picks up Nobel Peace Prize BBC News
See also |
Labels: Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Climate Change, Copenhagen, United States
- posted by DD @ 8:29 AM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
Copenhagen: Barack Obama backs Norway-Brazil forest protection plan
he US president endorses scheme proposed by Norway and Brazil that would protect the world's rainforests with funding from rich countries which cannot cut their emissions at homeThe US president, Barack Obama, made his first public intervention in the Copenhagen climate summit today by backing a plan put forward by Norway and Brazil which would protect the world's rainforests with funding from rich countries that cannot meet their commitments to cut emissions domestically.
Speaking after he accepted the Nobel peace prize in Oslo, Norway, Obama said: "I am very impressed with the model that has been built between Norway and Brazil that allows for effective monitoring and ensures that we are making progress in avoiding deforestation of the Amazon.
Read on | The Guardian
Labels: Barack Obama, Climate Change, Copenhagen, United States
- posted by DD @ 8:25 AM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
Remember - 14 Giga Tons
ighting through the hot air being vented in Copenhagen to understand the real numbers is an obligation, not just a ‘nice to do’. Project Catalyst, an international policy platform that I have been working with for over 18 months, has produced what I think is simply the best piece that crystallises the data in a document entitled ‘Taking Stock: the Emissions Levels Implied by the Current Proposals for Copenhagen’.14GTs is what we have to mitigate by 2020 below ‘business as usual’ to have a 40-60% chance of keeping temperature rises below 2 degrees. This then is the magic number we have to make vanish, below which species disappear and whole eco-systems are predicted to collapse with unknown consequences.
Read on | OpenDemocracy Copenhagen Blog
See also | Taking stock – the emission levels
implied by the current proposals for
Copenhagen - Report by 'Project Catalyst
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 8:15 AM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
donderdag, december 10, 2009
U.S. Negotiator Dismisses Reparations for Climate
OPENHAGEN — The top American envoy to climate talks here flatly rejected arguments Wednesday by diplomats from poor lands that the United States owes a debt to developing nations for decades of American emissions that contributed to global warming.It was not the first time that the American negotiator, Todd D. Stern, had dismissed the notion. But his words highlighted the divide that persists between the poor and the wealthy as nearly 200 nations try to sketch the outlines of a new pact on climate change here.
Read on | The New York Times
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen, United States
- posted by DD @ 8:46 AM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
woensdag, december 09, 2009
Copenhagen talks break down as developing nations split over 'Tuvalu' protocol
eveloping countries have split between those who favour a new protocol proposed by Tuvalu and others who want to continue with the Kyoto agreementNegotiations at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen dramatically broke down today after developing countries split between those who favour a new protocol and others who want to continue with the legally binding Kyoto agreement.
Read on | The Guardian
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 5:53 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
Copenhagen: Leaked draft deal widens rift between rich and poor nations
limate talks are in disarray barely days into the summit, putting at risk international unity to fight global warmingThree hours after the "Danish text" had been leaked to the Guardian, Lumumba Di-Aping, the Sudanese chairman of the group of 132 developing countries known as G77 plus China, spelt out exactly why the poor countries he represents were so incensed. "The text robs developing countries of their just and equitable and fair share of the atmospheric space. It tries to treat rich and poor countries as equal," said the diplomat.
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 5:51 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
China: the US and EU must present deeper cuts
hinese climate official blames the US, EU and Japan for too low ambitions on emissions cuts.The United States and the European Union (EU) are expected by the Chinese delegation to bring more notable emission reductions targets to the Copenhagen climate talks.
At a press conference Tuesday, the Deputy Head of the Chinese delegation, Su Wei, said neither the US, the EU, nor Japan had offered sufficient cuts in their greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.
According to Su Wei, the US target on emissions reduction and the US financial support to developing nations are key to the success of the ongoing climate change conference.
Su Wei rejected an EU proposal that the economically advanced developing nations commit to emissions reductions and pay part of the public financing of adaptation and mitigation to climate change in the developing countries.
Read on | COP15 Copenhagen
Labels: China, Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 4:47 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
EPA chief: US will regulate CO2 with common sense
he United States for the first time outlined a dual path toward cutting greenhouse gases that would involve both President Barack Obama's administration and the US Congress to reduce greenhouse emissions.Speaking Wednesday at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson described her agency's decision that greenhouse gases should be regulated as complementary to US legislation — not an effort to supplant the work of Congress.
"This is not an either/or moment. This is a both/and moment," she told.
The EPA on Monday gave the president a new way to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions when the agency determined that scientific evidence clearly shows they are endangering Americans' health. That means the EPA could regulate those gases without the approval of the U.S. Congress.
The EPA decision was welcomed by other nations in Copenhagen that have called on the US to boost its efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
The full US Senate has yet to take up legislation that cleared the Senate environment committee and calls for greenhouse gases to be cut by 20 percent by 2020, a target that was scaled back to 17 percent in the House after opposition from coal-state Democrats.
"We need legislation" to remove any uncertainty that businesses might have, Jackson added. "The reason for legislation is to take that question out of their minds. ... We will work closely with our Congress to pass legislation to lower our greenhouse gases more than 80 percent by 2050."
Read on | COP15 Copenhagen
See also |
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen, United States
- posted by DD @ 4:34 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
With the Mounting Climate Crisis, Our Global Trade Inter-Dependency is Vital
s I was jogging today, the image of Jacques Diouf fasting at the opening of the Rome Food Summit came to mind. I could not help but think about the thousands who die of hunger every day. The fresh air of the early morning acutely brought to my mind the huge number of global challenges facing us.At the end of 2009, a year marked by the first ever global crisis, we are confronted with the need to find a multilateral compromise to fight climate change. With the need to reduce the threat of nuclear proliferation. With the need to achieve closure of the Doha Round. And with the food crisis ... Each a formidable challenge in its own right. Each of them leads us back to the essential question: to what extent is each one of us ready to pay for protecting and preserving global public goods?
Pascal Lamy
Read on | With the Mounting Climate Crisis, Our Global Trade Inter-Dependency is Vital On the Blog "Ideas for development"
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen, Pascal Lamy
- posted by DD @ 11:07 AM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
The Climate Science Isn't Settled
s there a reason to be alarmed by the prospect of global warming? Consider that the measurement used, the globally averaged temperature anomaly (GATA), is always changing. Sometimes it goes up, sometimes down, and occasionally—such as for the last dozen years or so—it does little that can be discerned.RICHARD S. LINDZEN
Read on | In the Wallstreet Journal
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 10:06 AM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
Copenhagen climate summit in disarray after 'Danish text' leak
eveloping countries react furiously to leaked draft agreement that would hand more power to rich nations, sideline the UN's negotiating role and abandon the Kyoto protocolThe UN Copenhagen climate talks are in disarray today after developing countries reacted furiously to leaked documents that show world leaders will next week be asked to sign an agreement that hands more power to rich countries and sidelines the UN's role in all future climate change negotiations.
The document is also being interpreted by developing countries as setting unequal limits on per capita carbon emissions for developed and developing countries in 2050; meaning that people in rich countries would be permitted to emit nearly twice as much under the proposals.
Read on | Leaked text in The Guardian
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 9:52 AM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
dinsdag, december 08, 2009
The climate denial industry is out to dupe the public. And it's working
hink environmentalists are stooges? You're the unwitting recruit of a hugely powerful oil lobby – I've got the proofWhen you survey the trail of wreckage left by the climate emails crisis, three things become clear. The first is the tendency of those who claim to be the champions of climate science to minimise their importance. Those who have most to lose if the science is wrong have perversely sought to justify the secretive and chummy ethos that some of the emails reveal. If science is not transparent and accountable, it's not science.
George Monbiot
Read on | The Guardian
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 10:48 AM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
COP15: it's all about the money
he debate in Copenhagen is not about what to do about global warming: it's about who's going to pay for it.The almost 200 countries taking part in the Copenhagen climate change conference face one of the most complicated diplomatic puzzles ever. And yet what's at stake couldn't be simpler.
Science tells us what needs to be done to cap global warming at two degrees Celsius. All the participants at COP15 (the 15th Conference of Partners) have to do is decide who will bear the burden.
In theory at least, that too is very simple: divide the amount of greenhouse gases the atmosphere can handle by the number of people on earth and you know exactly what the maximum per capita emissions should be.
Read on | nrc.nl - International - COP15: it's all about the money
Labels: Climate Change, Copenhagen
- posted by DD @ 10:44 AM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
maandag, december 07, 2009
Copenhagen climate change conference: 'Fourteen days to seal history's judgment on this generation'
Today 56 newspapers in 45 countries take the unprecedented step of speaking with one voice through a common editorial. We do so because humanity faces a profound emergency.Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security. The dangers have been becoming apparent for a generation. Now the facts have started to speak: 11 of the past 14 years have been the warmest on record, the Arctic ice-cap is melting and last year's inflamed oil and food prices provide a foretaste of future havoc. In scientific journals the question is no longer whether humans are to blame, but how little time we have got left to limit the damage. Yet so far the world's response has been feeble and half-hearted.
Read on | The Guardian | Copenhagen climate change conference: 'Fourteen days to seal history's judgment on this generation'
Lees ook de Volkskrant | Het Moet Lukken
See also |
Labels: Climate Change
- posted by DD @ 9:13 AM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
zondag, december 06, 2009
How Obama Came to Plan for ‘Surge’ in Afghanistan
ASHINGTON — On the afternoon he held the eighth meeting of his Afghanistan review, President Obama arrived in the White House Situation Room ruminating about war. He had come from Arlington National Cemetery, where he had wandered among the chalky white tombstones of those who had fallen in the rugged mountains of Central Asia.Read on | The New York Times
Labels: Afghanistan, Barack Obama, NY Times, United States
- posted by DD @ 11:17 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
woensdag, december 02, 2009
Groet Ramses
ij de dood van een geliefd zanger, Sammy.Labels: Ramses Shaffy
- posted by DD @ 4:13 PM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
dinsdag, december 01, 2009
What Next in Afghanistan?
ERLIN – Afghanistan’s future does not look good. The Taliban are gaining military and political strength, and President Hamid Karzai is losing support at home and internationally due to his administration’s rampant corruption and the obvious fraud committed in his re-election. Weariness with the war is spreading in the United States, where President Barack Obama finds it difficult to decide about an increase in troops, as demanded by his own generals. European NATO members with troops in Afghanistan would prefer to withdraw them today rather than tomorrow.The West seems to have lost its orientation in the Hindu Kush – that “graveyard of empires,” as it was called after the British disaster in January 1842, when only one man survived an expedition 16,000. What, many people are asking, is NATO really fighting for in Afghanistan?
Joschka Fischer
Read on | Project Syndicate - What Next in Afghanistan?
Posted using ShareThis
Labels: Afghanistan, Joschka Fischer, Project Syndicate
- posted by DD @ 10:53 AM Perma Link/Print (0) comments
Op dit werk is een Creative Commons Licentie van toepassing.
0 reacties:
Een reactie plaatsen