Politics
Videos to Watch: Climate week highlights, what's next in int'l talks
Published September 27, 2009 @ 02:43PM PT
Above: Climate advocates are striving to contain growing worries that the December climate talks in Copenhagen will be a bust. In this video made just as the G20 summit wrapped up, Kumi Naidoo, chair of the Tck Tck Tck climate mobilization campaign (and incumbent director of Greenpeace), encourages people to get active in their communities, churches, mosques, temples, and clubs. Naidoo and others believe it's crucial that citizens to contact their leaders and demand that they reach a "fair, ambitious and binding" climate treaty agreement in December.
It has been an inconclusive "Climate Week." The world's major economic powers made few significant moves on curbing global warming, and produced no major public breakthroughs in deadlocked climate treaty negotations.
On the activist side, things were a good deal more inspiring:
The Global Wake-up Call saw thousands of people worldwide performing creative, cheerful street actions and calling their political leaders to support a strong climate treaty. This "Human Countdown" in New York City last Sunday kicked off the week's activist events:
The film "The Age of Stupid" had a star-studded evening opening in New York City. The film takes a black-humored backwards look at our era, when no one acted fast enough to stave off global warming. Gillian Anderson! Moby! Heather Graham! Stephen Baldwin!
[[There, my SEO for the week is accomplished.]]
The Yes Men pranked New York City and the media with their mock "climate change edition" of the Rupert "Fox News" Murdoch-owned tabloid, The New York Post:
"SPECIAL EDITION" NEW YORK POST from The Yes Men on Vimeo.
More activist moments, and the anti-climatic policy roundup, after the jump.
Climate at the G20: White House briefs bloggers on climate discussions
Published September 26, 2009 @ 05:25PM PT
Above: G20 Voice bloggers at a briefing by Michael Froman, Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor, at the end of the G20 Summit on Friday, Sept. 25. (Photo by Julie C. Roth; Courtesy G20 Voice.)
Climate activists were underwhelmed by what came out of this week's Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh in the way of formal climate change commitments.
True, the heads of state of the 20 leading developed and developing economies agreed to phase out fossil fuel subsidies "in the medium term." But they couldn't come to a consensus on climate finance -- aid from richer nations to poorer, directed at adapting to and mitigating the impacts of global warming.-- which is what it takes for something to make it onto the summit's final statement.
Stronger pledges on climate had been part of a leaked draft of the summit communique earlier in the week, and climate activists from Oxfam, Greenpeace, US Climate Action Network and other groups were aggravated that they vanished from the final version.
The G20 are asking their finance czars to keep digging into the issue when they meet in Scotland, in November, according Michael Froman, Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor. Froman met with bloggers covering the G20 for a briefing, soon after President Obama's press conference late Friday afternoon.
The G20 "felt it is important that climate financing stays primarily in the UN context," said Froman -- the context of the UN's international climate treaty negotiations in Copenhagen in December -- where all developing as well as poorer nations will also be at the table to help forge the agreement. Although the G20 nations represent about 85% of the globe's economic output, there are over 160 additional countries involved in the Kyoto Protocol climate treaty.
According to Froman, there has been no decision made on whether President Obama will attend December's international climate treaty talks in Copenhagen.
Climate at the G20: Obama to press cuts in fossil fuel subsidies
Published September 24, 2009 @ 09:10AM PT
After three days of an all-climate schedule in New York City, featuring Tuesday's all-day United Nations Climate Summit, I'm now in Pittsburgh to cover the meeting of the Group of 20 (G20) major economies. My thanks to Grist and G20Voice for helping me to be here.
Given that the heads of state chewed over global warming at the United Nations Climate Summit on Tuesday, where will climate figure into tomorrow's G20 agenda of meetings?
According to reports, it's on the list of confab issues -- "Fresh from the UN general assembly in New York, heads of government and a vast diplomatic entourage will descend on Pittsburgh today to kick off two days of talks on economic stability, financial regulation, climate change and bankers' bonuses," reports the Guardian.
President Obama is expected to put a stunner of a demand on the G20 table, as my Grist colleague Dave Roberts notes: that nations stop subsidising fossil fuels, which could cut 12% of global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Since fossil energy subsidies dwarf those going to renewables, such a move would also likely transform energy prices, better reflecting the true costs of dirty energy while making clean more competitive.
There's also the not-small matter of how much aid wealthy nations will provide to poorer nations to help them mitigate and adapt to climate disruptions -- buzzworded as "climate financing." "Wealthy nations promised in 2001 to provide the 49 least developed countries $2 billion for immediate climate change adaptation, but they only funded about a 10th of that," reports Solve Climate. "Since then, the UNFCCC has estimated the cost of global adaptation to be between $40 billion and $170 billion a year through 2030, and more recent studies now suggest the costs will be far higher — with the price growing each year the world delays action on climate change."
Boxer, Kerry Will Introduce Senate Climate Bill Next Week
Published September 23, 2009 @ 09:20PM PT
Teresa Heinz read a message from her husband, Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), this evening at Pittsburgh's Andy Warhol Museum, that set the gala crowd to cheering: He and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) will introduce a climate bill in the Senate next Wednesday.
The bill will be backed by a strong and broad coalition according to Kerry's message, which Heinz delivered at a pre-G20 party sponsored by the US Climate Action Network, and "will take a more comprehensive approach to dwindling oil reserves than any prior legislation."
The legislation will be a "thoughtful, innovative, far-reaching solution" in four areas: the nation's energy foundation; U.S. economic competitiveness; the health of the environment; and national security.
In between sets by the cream of New Orleans jazz musicians, an upbeat Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Penn.) encouraged the crowd to stay optimistic about the prospects for a good international climate treaty to come out of December's negotiations in Denmark. "We need to get the Senate to act," said Doyle, a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which produced the house energy and climate legislation.
"Let's give President Obama some arrows in his quiver to take to Copenhagen," he said, suggesting that the Pittsburgh crowd remember to call Senator Arlen Specter in the coming weeks and ask him to support the upcoming climate bill.
'Climate Week' Kicks Off in NYC: Activism, Politics, Pranks To Come
Published September 21, 2009 @ 07:11AM PT
Hundreds gathered in Central Park on a Sunday to wake up global leaders to climate change with an energetic "human countdown" to action -- the activist kick-off to the coming week, which includes the UN General Assembly's Climate Summit, and the Group of 20 (G20) major economies meeting in Pittsburgh.
The city's going to be chock-a-block with meetings, demonstrations, art, film, and more.
With the assistance of the Climate Voice project, I'll be covering Tuesday's Climate Summit, and the G20 meeting, both here and at Grist, where my intro to some of the week's political intrigues is up:
While climate is not formally on the G20’s agenda, some are hoping that President Obama will come off his speech at the New York event ready to signal to other world leaders that the U.S. will lead on forging a strong replacement to the Kyoto Protocol treaty to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, which expires in 2013. Its successor is supposed to be largely finalized at December’s global-warming talks.
...however, the Obama administration may be hamstrung by sluggish Senate progress on passing climate legislation. Senate leaders keep pushing back the timetable for action on a bill, with Majority Leader Harry Reid suggesting last week that it could be bumped all the way to next year. Republicans are almost universally opposed to a cap-and-trade system for cutting greenhouse-gas emissions, and many moderate Democrats aren’t enthusiastic about cap-and-trade either.
If the Senate doesn’t pass a climate bill by early December, U.S. influence in Copenhagen may well be diminished, though if the EPA takes action to regulate greenhouse gases with its existing authority, that could give the Obama administration something to take the table.
Meanwhile, the administration is working toward a bilateral climate agreement, which could circumvent the Kyoto treaty framework. Where the world’s two greatest greenhouse-gas polluters lead, the rest of the world will probably have to follow, no matter how strong or weak the results may be.
Keep your eyes on this space, and on this space, and on my twitter feed, for ongoing updates and reports.
Fatalistic Friday: GOP Senator may protect polluters from greenhouse gas curbs
Published September 18, 2009 @ 06:10PM PT
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) wants to slice and dice the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to regulate greenhouse gas pollution. Cars and trucks: okay. Power plants and factories: not so much.
Murkowski has said she hopes to introduce an amendment to the $32.1 billion fiscal 2010 appropriations legislation for the Department of the Interior, the EPA, and the Forest Service (part of the Dept. of Agriculture).
Murkowski's rider would limit EPA to creating rules to regulate greenhouse gas pollution from mobile sources only -- that is, automobiles -- while preventing the agency from devising regulations for stationary sources like factories and power plants off-limits until after September, 2010:
Effective during the 1-year period beginning on the date of enactment of this Act, none of the funds made available for the Environmental Protection Agency under this Act may be expended to regulate or control carbon dioxide from any sources other than a mobile source as described in section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act or to treat carbon dioxide as a pollutant subject to regulation under the Clean Air Act except for purposes of section 10 202(a) of that Act.
Murkowski, the top-ranked Republican member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, is opposed to creating a cap-and-trade system for lowering greenhouse gas pollution. She supports drilling for oil and gas on the Outer Continental Shelf off Alaska's coast.
Waking Up Our Leaders to Climate Change: Global movement demands action
Published September 18, 2009 @ 04:08PM PT
Nowhere in the world are the effects of global warming more plain than in the Arctic. Glaciers across Greenland, for instance, suddenly started disintegrating and gushing melt-water into the ocean at an alarming rate in the first half of this decade.
The melt accelerated so much that scientists began to fear that the entire Greenland ice sheet — which contains enough water to raise sea levels as much as 20 feet — might be in serious trouble.
A Greenpeace expedition to the Arctic has been searching for clues that might explain this unprecedented meltdown. The Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise made history when it successfully navigated the entire length of the Nares Strait in mid-June — a time of year when the strait is typically impassable because of sea ice. The crew has sent back some startling images of the impact global warming is having on the Arctic, while independent scientists onboard have confirmed that warmer water from Southern latitudes was not only making its way up to Greenland’s glacial fjords but also lapping at the glaciers themselves, contributing to their decline.
The National Snow and Ice Data Center announced today that 2009 saw Arctic summer sea ice recede to the third lowest extent ever recorded. The agency restated its warning that the Arctic could be free of sea ice altogether in the summer as soon as 2030.
Polar bears have been listed under the Endangered Species Act because their crucial sea ice habitat is vanishing; Pacific walrus are now being considered for listing as well. Milder winters have caused some sea geese to stop migrating South for the winter.
Even with these danger signs in the Arctic, world leaders have made no significant progress addressing climate change, largely because they’re waiting for the US to lead the charge. Will we come through? The Guardian recently published a very troubling report that far from getting out in front on climate policy, the Obama administration has made new proposals that would massively restructure the treaty to be discussed at this December's international climate negotiations. "Sources on the European side say the US approach could undermine the new treaty and weaken the world's ability to cut carbon emissions," reports the Guardian.
So where is the global movement demanding that President Obama and the rest of the world’s leaders take bold action?
A new global climate action campaign, TckTckTck.org, aims to be that movement. Representing a coalition of groups, including Greenpeace, Oxfam, Avaaz.org, Christian Aid, 350.org, and many, many more, TckTckTck has already logged over a million signatures of people who have joined together “to show world leaders that the support for a fair, ambitious, and binding climate treaty is diverse, broad, and crosses borders.”
In addition to aggregating signatures from concerned citizens the world over, the TckTckTck.org website has some pretty cool and useful features to help you stay on top of the news, get active, and organize your own circle of friends and family. The site features a “major moments” calendar that lays out the key dates from now until the Copenhagen climate talks, as well as a lot of excellent content, such as the climate "Campaign Stories" blog.
It also features a tool really like: the climate orb – an interactive globe that lets you explore people’s stories about how climate change is already effecting their lives.
Signing on with TckTckTck is a great way to show world leaders that there is broad support among citizens of Earth for bold action on global warming. But if you prefer to act a little closer to home (and right here on Change.org no less!), you can sign this petition by Earthjustice calling on the Obama adminstration not to open the newly ice-free Arctic to drilling.
Or you can sign the United Nations Foundation’s petition calling on President Obama to support a strong international climate treaty in Copenhagen.
Or if it's real-world action you prefer — and you can be in Pittsburgh next week — you can join the climate contingent at the People's Uprising march that will take place Sept. 24, during the meetings of the Group of 20 (G20) major world economies.
As I wrote last week, inaction is the biggest danger we face: Absolutely nothing will happen unless you get out there and make your voice heard. Whether it's signing a petition, making a phone call, or marching, join the global movement demanding fast, bold and effective action to stop global warming.
