There's Still Hope for a Climate Deal at Copenhagen

by Mike Smith

Published November 18, 2009 @ 10:42AM PT

It may seem like anything less than a replacement to the Kyoto Protocol will make the Copenhagen climate conference an absolute failure. With years of negotiation behind us, and Kyoto needing updating, it's the perfect time to make an agreement. But some fear that Obama was last week signaling that there would be no binding agreement made, instead some vague political agreement. Most took that to mean: no progress, and more delays.

However, President Obama stated a political agreement wouldn't be so weak, but be "an accord that covers all of the issues in the negotiations, and one that has immediate operational effect." Putting something into 'operational effect' is important, indicating that Copenhagen won't be all talk, and some action will result. Obama further explained: "We must rally the world." The climate campaign manager for Greenpeace China isn't so convinced, explaining that this pre-conference talk of making an agreement about making a future agreement provides "a lot of room for different interpretations, ranging from a real ambitious climate rescue deal to another meaningless declaration." He think there is still a chance: "The real test is still at Copenhagen."

So the conference hasn't failed yet, and significant progress may still be made. David Turnbull, writing at Grist notes that "there is nowhere near consensus on such a delay approach; in fact, dozens of countries oppose it and are still wishing—and fighting—for more." There is hope that a range of positive and serious measures will arise from talks at Copenhagen, don't write it off just yet.

Photo: rwhgould

Rays of hope amidst the frustration

by Mike Gaworecki

categories: Activism, News, Policy & Legislation, Science

Published November 18, 2009 @ 09:56AM PT

It has not been an entirely encouraging week of climate news, but there are still reasons to be hopeful.

As Katherine wrote the other day, President Obama is certainly in a tight spot when it comes to global warming policy. In his inaugural address he vowed to “restore science to its rightful place,” but he has many other major policy initiatives on his plate. And given the extremely well-funded opposition, passing strong climate change legislation will require heaps of political capital.

Many folks in the environmental community became understandably frustrated with his lack of follow-through on his commitment to restore science to prominence in the climate debate when he seemed to sit back and watch a House bill get rewritten by the coal industry and their friends in Congress.

Making matters worse, it’s now official: the Senate won’t even be considering their own version of climate legislation until 2010. Of course there was also the announcement, made while Obama was meeting with (some) other world leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting this past weekend, that they would punt on establishing a legally binding climate treaty in Copenhagen this December. Some time next year, perhaps, is the new timeline for dealing with the most urgent environmental crisis of our times. The lack of a domestic policy was apparently being used to set Obama’s foreign policy, or at least used as a scapegoat for why his administration is actively stalling a global climate deal.

This is obviously unacceptable given that we are already experiencing the effects of global warming, and they’re only going to continue to get worse. The news that global emissions actually rose by 2% last year, mostly led by China, makes the need for ambitious and binding emissions targets and other measures to combat global warming painfully clear.

So it’s a tiny ray of hope that while meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao this week, President Obama apparently established a “you show me yours and I’ll show you mine” deal on emissions:

Buried in the text of Tuesday's joint declaration between President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao was a hopeful clause about climate talks: The Obama administration is likely to offer emission-reduction targets at next month's climate summit, as long as the Chinese offer a proposal of their own.

U.S. reluctance to set a short-term emissions goal has been a sticking point in the U.N.-sponsored talks for nearly a year. Almost all industrialized nations, and many developing countries, have announced plans to curb their greenhouse-gas output by 2020. Neither the United States nor China -- which is not obligated to do so under the U.N. framework, even though it ranks as the world's biggest emitter -- has done so, thereby hampering the prospects of an agreement.

So perhaps Obama has heard the criticism of him not restoring science to its proper place. Perhaps he is sensitive to the criticisms that he is letting Congress set foreign policy, and is attempting to address the issue. One thing is certainly clear: At this point, the only thing that will get results is massive popular demand for climate solutions.

That’s why I was so heartened by a recent episode in Indonesia, where Greenpeace has set up a Climate Defenders Camp in the heart of the threatened rainforest to highlight deforestation’s role in global warming. When the Indonesian authorities came to close down the camp, over 300 local Indonesians showed up to protest and the police relented. Seriously, this was just an amazing display of non-violent resistance and civic activism. It shows how desperately the people of the world want solutions to the climate crisis we’re facing.

If we keep pushing them, our leaders will have to listen.

Photo courtesy of Elsie esq. via Flickr.

Charged with a Felony? Blame Global Warming

by Katherine Gustafson

categories: Activism, DIY, Environmental Justice, Policy & Legislation

Published November 18, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT

When college student Tim DeChristopher bid his way to committing $1.7 million for 13 oil and gas drilling leases last December at a Bureau of Land Management auction, he had the greater good in mind; he apparently planned to mitigate climate change by blocking the pillaging of the Earth, reports the Associated Press.

Who knows how he thought this would work, considering that he bid with the knowledge that he had no ability whatsoever to pay for the parcels near Utah's national parks that he won. Indeed, instead of being honored as a hero he was indicted in April on felony charges. Apparently, Tim, it's rather illegal to interfere with government auctions and make false representations.

His opinion? The auction itself was illegal, so his interference of it couldn't possibly run afowl of any law. He came before the judge trying to use a "necessity defense," stating that he was forced to choose between two evils, namely the evil of lying in the auction and the evil of allowing climate change to continue unabated.

Logically, U.S. District Judge Dee Benson denied DeChristopher's lawyers' motion to use the defense. According to the AP, his nine-page ruling included this amusing statement: "Unlike a person demolishing a home to create a firebreak, DeChristopher's actions were more akin to placing a small pile of dirt in the fire's path."

Photo courtesy of walknboston via flickr

Glacier in a Freezer Helps Scientists Study Melting

by Katherine Gustafson

Published November 17, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT

Iowa State University professor Neal Iverson has a freezer like no other.

This is much more than your average walk-in ice box. This is a massive beast, over nine feet tall, on which he has been working for three long years. Science Daily introduces us to the "glacier sliding simulator."

Inside is a miniature glacier undergoing the same pressures from a warming atmosphere that a real glacier contends with. The freezer is equipped with a hydraulic press that can apply up to 170 tons of force on the mini-glacier, simulating the impacts on a 1,300-foot-thick glacier.

The purpose of this contraption is to allow scientists to study how glaciers move across their beds, an understanding of which will help them make key predictions about glaciers' reactions to climate change.

Read More »

EU Shows Cap and Trade Works, Exceeding Emission Reduction Targets

by Mike Smith

Published November 16, 2009 @ 03:22PM PT

Cap and trade works. An up-and-running EU scheme is proving how effective it can be, reports TNR. After Kyoto Protocol promises, the EU stepped up and agreed to cut emissions by at least 8% of 1990 levels, promising to do so by 2012. Part of this scheme involved the Emissions Trading Scheme which after some initial missteps is succeeded in pricing carbon and encouraging cuts. The effect of this? Way above the 8% target, EU nations are expected to cut emissions by 13% of 1990 levels, exceeding Kyoto demands. It's still not enough, but it's encouraging progress.

There has been some creative accounting — financing clean-energy projects in the developing world, and purchasing carbon credits from countries that are below their targets for emissions — but overall the policies enacted have been successful. However, as TNR report, Chinese imports haven't helped things, as they've created higher emissions that the EU is responsible for. This only emphasizes how important it is to secure a binding global deal.

Photo credit: openDemocracy

Obama Walks Tightrope on Climate Negotiations

by Katherine Gustafson

categories: International Action, Policy & Legislation, Politics

Published November 16, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT

Obama's in a tough spot. Well, many tough spots, but let's just talk about the one that concerns us here: the Copenhagen climate negotiations. Now that Congress won't vote on a climate bill until next year, Obama has to somehow punt settlement of a long-term international agreement a ways down the road while still portraying an impression of progress and US commitment on the issue to the global audience.

According to the Washington Post, former vice president Al Gore said in an interview that Obama has the difficult task of satisfying both US and global audiences. "The disappointment in the world community that would accompany a failure of Copenhagen, if it were laid at the doorstep of the United States, would be significant," Gore told the Post. "I'm optimistic that they will handle Copenhagen well. What's important is that what emerges from Copenhagen is perceived as an important step forward."

This "important step forward" will come in the form of an interim agreement that will set up a basis on which to build a final, long-term settlement at a later date. In doing so, Obama must walk a very fine line, taking bold enough action to forestall the outrage of the global community and the US climate activist community, on the one hand, and avoiding the dreaded "over-promise" that Senators warn him against, on the other. The mark he needs to hit, US Special Envoy on Climate Change Todd Stern told the Post, is an arrangement that can be widely "seen as substantive building blocks to a full, legal agreement."

Mr. Obama, have you seen "Man on Wire," the film that illustrates Philippe Petit's 1974 walk between the twin towers on a tightrope? You might want to give it a screening before December so you can see what you're in for.

Photo courtesy of _gee_ via flickr

Did Rural Farmers Kill The Chance Of a Copenhagen Protocol?

by Mike Smith

category: agriculture

Published November 15, 2009 @ 12:00PM PT

Farmers in rural America depend on oil, with their costs linked to its price. A cap and trade deal, and subsequent higher energy prices, would endanger farm jobs, and as the Economist reports, farmers cannot see how they would be able to work without cheap fossil fuels. In order to have any climate deal pass the Senate (like the House Cap and Trade deal) benefits and allowances must for those representing farmers. That was tougher enough in the House, but in the Senate, with sparsely populated states over-represented, more allowances will have to be made.

Farmers will be given handouts, and clean coal subsidized. Many question the logic and the phenomenal cost of clean coal (at the expense of cheaper, cleaner technology) but many Senators representing the interests of these farmers like it, and if any climate deal is going to be passed, it's essential to have them on side.

Senators skeptical of the need for immediate action will be glad to hear that the liklihood of a binding climate deal happening at Copenhagen is even less likely now, with President Obama acknowledging that time has run out, and that a deal is more likely to happen next year. The outcome of the Copenhagen conference is now likely to only be a political agreement, rather than an action plan. The U.S. Senate is being blamed for the lack of progress in domestic legislation, which is having a knock-on effect worldwide.

Photo credit: Let Ideas Compete