The world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases met a global deadline Sunday to reiterate their commitments to fight climate change. Under the Copenhagen Accord, which was struck in December, industrialized and major developing nations had to declare by Jan. 31 how much they would cut their emissions by 2020. Spanish Secretary of State Teresa Rivera Rodriguez, whose country holds the European Union presidency, said the pledges will turn the accord “into something meaningful.”
“You mean it’s not the failure of the People’s Assembly in China or the Parliament of India to pass laws cutting down on CO2 (carbon dioxide), it’s only America’s fault, blame America first?” said Republican Charles Grassley.
“You know, you can’t have it both ways. Other countries can’t have it both ways,” he said in a regular conference call with media from his home state of Iowa, according to a transcript of the discussion.
Grassley also said he “would not be satisfied” with any climate change agreement that treats the United States differently than China or India.
“China’s putting more CO2 into the air, and I wouldn’t be satisfied if China’s not treated like the United States because what good does it do for the United States to clean up CO2? It’s not going to make an impact unless China and India (are) involved as well,” he said.
Consider this pie chart of historical greenhouse gas emissions from 1750-2005:
Grassley’s attempt to blame China for this is like the child who makes a huge mess in their room, then blames their younger sibling who just walked into the room. Another decent analogy would be Republicans who blame Obama for the budget deficit despite the obvious fact that he inherited it from Republican George W. Bush. This type of selective memory and faux outrage may be effective among Republican primary voters, but nobody who is actually paying attention is going to fall for it.
QUESTION: If we could turn to another one of those key questions: climate change. That’s obviously going to be a key issue in your talks with the Chinese. Just on the subject of climate change, could we ask you whether you are intending to go to Copenhagen for the talks? You went there for Chicago’s bid for the Olympics; are you intending to go there for the climate change summit?OBAMA: Well, here’s what I’ll say. Since before I was sworn in, I was very clear that I think dealing with climate change is vital to our security interests, is vital to our economic interests. It is an opportunity, as well as an enormous challenge, for us to shift to a clean energy economy. And after eight years in which there was resistance to even acknowledging the problem, I think my administration has been very clear that we intend to be a leader on this issue internationally.
Now, getting to a deal internationally is difficult. This will be one of the top subjects for our conversations with the Chinese. In my previous conversations with President Hu Jintao, I think he acknowledges that this is an area of great interest to the Chinese. The effects of climate change could be devastating on their agricultural systems and their ecology. And the key now is for the United States and China as the two largest emitters in the world to be able to come up with a framework that along with other big emitters, like the Europeans and those countries that are projected to be large emitters in the future like India, can all buy into.
And I remain optimistic that between now and Copenhagen, that we can arrive at that framework. It’s hard work. And one of the things that I’ve come to believe based on a lot of summits this year is that the work is really not done at the summit; the work is done before the summit. And if I am confident that all the countries involved are bargaining in good faith and we are on the brink of a meaningful agreement and my presence in Copenhagen will make a difference in tipping us over the edge, then certainly that’s something that I would do. But I’ve got to make sure that over the next three weeks, pressure is continually applied on our teams and everybody else’s teams to actually create a framework that people can sign off on.
QUESTION: Do you think there’s more you can bring, apart from what’s happening on the Hill, sort of legislation which may not indeed be ready by then, but I mean –
OBAMA: Well, I think everybody understands that the Senate won’t have acted on climate change legislation before Copenhagen. And our key partners, including Prime Minister Rasmussen of Denmark, the host, who’s taken a very constructive and active role on this issue, I think recognizes that not every “t” is going to be crossed and “i” dotted in the next three weeks. I think the question is, we can create a set of principles, building blocks, that allow for ongoing and continuing progress on the issue, and that’s something I’m confident we can achieve.
And I am confident also — last point I’d make — I’m confident that the American people will recognize the enormous opportunity around a clean energy economy and the ability for us to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.
But it takes time. In meetings with world leaders, I’ve repeatedly explained that America is not a speedboat; we’re a big ocean liner. And you can’t reverse course overnight. But what we can do and we are doing is I think changing the trajectory of how we approach this issue, both in terms of public opinion, attitudes on Capitol Hill, and certainly among businesses who really understand that for America to lead in this issue ultimately will create enormous economic opportunities.
Barcelona, Spain, November 4, 2009: At the halfway point of the UN climate talks in Barcelona this week, the USA was named as ‘Fossil of the Day’, with Canada coming in second, by a vote of the Climate Action Network International (CAN-I) – a global coalition of over 450 leading non-government organisations. The daily award is given to those nations judged to be the ‘best’ at blocking or stalling progress in the global climate negotiation that day.
The first-place ‘Fossil Award’ was given to the USA for delaying passage of domestic climate change legislation.
The US ratified the UN’s ‘Framework Convention on Climate Change’ in 1992, promising to reduce its greenouse gases emissions to 1990 levels by 2000. But it has failed to meet this promise. The US delegation to the international negotiations now says they will follow the lead of the Congress – so the delay in climate legislation hamstrings the US delegation’s negotiating ability.
Earlier this year, when the House of Representatives pushed forward climate legislation, it seemed likely that domestic legislation would be passed before the crucial Copenhagen climate summit this December. Recent delay tactics in the US Senate – boycotts and commissioning redundant economic analysis – leave the world wondering whether the US will get it done.
“Other countries – developed and developing alike – have moved forward, committing to emission reductions and advancing prospects of a global deal,” said Sara Svensson, a youth climate activist from Sweden.
“It is time for the US Administration and for those on Capitol Hill to get the job done. Their lack of action undermines international trust in the UN negotiations and endangers the prospects of reaching a global solution to climate change.”
Section 1 contains submissions as they relate to measurable, reportable and verifiable support and actions, Section 2 contains submissions related to shared vision, Section 3 contains the legal aspects of proposals for an agreed outcome, Section 4 contains submissions on finance, Section 5 presents Party submissions on adaptation, Section 6 summarizes submissions on technology, and Section 7 summarizes Party presentations on the Architecture of a post-2012 Agreement in Bonn on August 7, 2009.
Here is the latest summary:
Videos posted online by US oil company Chevron purporting to show rampant corruption among Ecuadoran officials are actually a set-up meant to taint an ongoing trial against the energy giant, an attorney in the case alleged.“By releasing the videos, in my opinion Chevron is trying to taint a trial process that they knew they were going to lose, with the hope that the case would be dismissed in Ecuador,” Steven Donziger, an attorney for Ecuadoran Amazon communities who are suing the oil giant told reporters.
Chevron at the end of August released several grainy videos purporting to show “a three-million-dollar bribery scheme implicating the judge presiding over the environmental lawsuit” against the US oil major.
The Ecuadorans allege that Chevron dumped billions of gallons of toxic waste into the Amazon.
But a report released Thursday by the Amazon Defense Coalition found that one of the individuals said to have produced the videos was a convicted felon with “a habit of breaking the law” and with longstanding ties to the oil company.
Here is Amazon Defense Council’s Report:
With enough technological advances, the world could get to a dramatically lower level of greenhouse gas emissions at a cost of between one and three percent of global GDP per year, according to a report issued Tuesday by a group of economists. That price tag is in line with previous economic estimates aimed at meeting more modest climate goals.
Frank Ackerman, an economist at the Stockholm Environment Institute and Tufts University and the report’s lead author, said the study looked at what it would take to meet the recommendations of climate scientists who call for reducing carbon atmospheric concentrations from their current level to 350 parts per million.
Here is the report:
The WEO-2009 excerpt sets out, for key countries and regions (including the United States, Japan, the European Union, Russia, China and India), the energy transformation that each might undertake, sector by sector, if the world were to adopt a 450ppm trajectory. It also describes the current trends in energy use and emissions in a fully updated Reference Scenario, detailing the implications of current policies and taking into account the global financial and economic crisis.
The entire WEO 2009 will be launched in London on 10 November 2009 and contains substantially more climate analysis than that presented in the excerpt. It analyses the full impact of the financial crisis on the energy sector, provides a comprehensive set of results, by sector and by region, for both the Reference Scenario and the 450 Scenario, and analyses the international financial flows and mechanisms that might underpin a post-2012 agreement. WEO 2009 also contains major studies on global prospects for national gas markets and energy trends in Southeast Asian countries.
A major new World Bank report out today concludes that the world can fight poverty and climate change at the same time. But it won’t be easy, and it won’t be cheap.
The biennial global economic assessment, which this year focuses exclusively on the threat of climate change, estimates that nations will need nearly $500 billion annually by 2030 to both develop clean energy technologies across the world and cope with natural disasters.
Beyond the need for money, the “World Development Report 2010″ calls on governments, research institutions and individuals to overcome a worldwide “inertia” that the authors argue has kept nations dependent on fossil fuel and too slow to muster the resources necessary to solve a problem many still see as distant.
New Zealand has set a target of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by between 10 and 20 percent from 1990 levels, the government announced Monday, according to press reports.The target, which falls short of demands by environmentalists, would be met by reducing domestic emissions, expanding forests and buying emission reductions from other nations.
Prime Minister John Key said the country had a long way to go if it was to fulfill the pledge.
“It seeks to balance our economic opportunities with our environmental responsibility,” he said, in comments reported by the New Zealand Press Association.
Here is a graphical depiction of 2020 targets, which was released simultaneously:
Graphical Depiction of 2020 Targets –
Press release below the fold.
