It’s an exciting time as the annual UN Climate Change confab (aka COP 14, MOP 4, SBSTA, and a zillion more acronyms, etc.) is about to begin, this time in Poznan, a university town in Western Poland. Here’s a run-down of some of the key issues and players:
5. Forests
Back in 1992, the Rio summit was originally supposed to develop a forests treaty in addition to the two well-known agreements which came out of the meeting: The U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Convention on Biological Diversity. The forests issue is now coming back in the climate talks in the form of REDD – reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation. The UN does have a way with acronyms, doesn’t it?
Key challenges under REDD are the definition of a ‘managed forest’ for the purposes of carbon credits, what to do about reforestation, and whether or not developing countries should be paid not to cut down their forests. If you’re interested, Friends of the Earth has just released a major report on REDD ahead of the talks.
4. China
Although China is way behind in per capita emissions, the country is now, officially, the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter on an absolute scale. This, not to mention being the world’s most populous nation, makes it one of the most important countries in the quest to stop climate chaos. Until recently, the U.S. and China were both at an impasse, with each country refusing to accept binding greenhouse gas emissions targets without the other. Now, with Barack Obama pledging a new chapter in U.S. action on climate change, the ball is in China’s court. The actions they take at this year’s meeting may influence international climate change policy for many years to come.
3. Money – for adaptation and technology transfer
Moving our great big resource-munching world to a low-carbon lifestyle isn’t just about political will (although that’s a big part of it). It’s about money. In this case, the money is specifically needed for two things: adaptation, to help poorer countries cope with the effects of global warming, and technology transfer, to help other countries grow their economies in a clean, green, lean sort of way. The UNFCCC has already established an Adaptation Fund, but it’s yet to be seen whether this fund will get the money it needs. The U.S. has tried to block proposals for technology transfer in previous negotiations, but this may change under an Obama administration – remember during the debates when he repeatedly mentioned exporting clean technologies to China?
2. The United States
Well, this is a bit obvious, isn’t it? But despite the fact that the country is under new management, the current occupant is yet to move out of the White House. Because the U.S. team at the climate talks is run by the state department, it’s under executive authority – this is why the U.S. delegation in Bali was politely but firmly told to get out of the way and let the world get on with the job of solving the climate crisis. For the past eight years, the U.S. delegation has been pulling out all the stops to prevent climate progress, and arguably there’s even less to keep them from being international nincompoops one last time.
However, the balance of power has shifted. The views from the U.S. congressional delegation, as well as from Obama’s transition team, may be more influential then the spastic flappings of a lame duck administration.
1. The Youth Caucus
This is the youth climate blog, after all. If you’re here, it’s because you already tentatively agree that the next generation is the one to watch. Youth from around the world have spent the last year preparing to hit the ground in Poland and speak truth to power – and you can read about it all here. We have one climate, one future, and one chance to avert disaster.
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If you’re interested in even more information about REDD, I’m in Poznan and am going to be reporting on all things REDD for the next two weeks on redd-monitor.org.
PRESS RELEASE
see http://northwardho.blogspot.com
for Reuters story on this. can you BLOG on this too? thanks. DANNY, Tufts 1971
for immediate release: December 1, 2008
contact: Dan Bloom: danbloom@gmail.com
Lawsuit against world leaders for $1 billion for global warming impact
on future?
Tags: Environment, climate treaty, crimes against humanity, global
warming, greenhouse emissions, international criminal court
In a global publicity stunt, a U.S. environmental activist is poised
to lodge a US$1 billion damages class action lawsuit at the
International Criminal Court (ICC) against all world leaders for
failing to prevent global warming.
Climate ctivist and blogger Dan Bloom, 60, a graduate of Tufts
University in 1971, says he will sue world leaders for “intent to
commit manslaughter against future generations of human beings by
allowing murderous amounts of fossil fuels to be harvested, burned and
sent into the atmosphere as CO2″.
He intends to lodge the lawsuit on Dec. 6 at the ICC in the Hague.
The prosecutor’s office at the ICC, the world’s first permanent court
(pictured below right) for war crimes, genocide and crimes against
humanity, says it is allowed to receive information on crimes that may
fall within the court’s jurisdiction from any source.
“Such information does not per se trigger a judicial proceeding,” the
prosecutor’s office hastened to add.
The question for media analysts and reporters is: will or should the
prosecutor take on the case?
One might argue in defense that world leaders are in fact trying to
impose climate-saving measures. In Vienna last year, almost all rich
nations agreed to consider cuts in greenhouse emissions of 25-40
percent below 1990 levels by 2020. Talks on a new climate treaty will
be held in Poznan, Poland, from Dec. 1-12.
Rajendra Pachauri, head of the U.N. Climate Panel, says the cuts are
needed to limit temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius, an amount
seen by the EU, some other nations and many environmentalists as a
threshold for “dangerous” climate change.
Granted then that there is growing consensus that climate change poses
a real threat, is it not only world leaders who are failing to prevent
global warming?
Perhaps the global collective of individuals, governments and industry
is to blame and the ICC lawsuit a valid publicity stunt in the
constant battle to raise awareness and prompt action?
Because it’s action we need ― and now, right?
6. Planning Process
UN Climate Change Conference from Bali to Copenhagen via Poznan has created Planning Process. Based on my intuition, if COP 13 can produce Bali Action Plan, COP 14 will produce Public and Private Partnerships that COP 15 is to produce Cooperative Intellectual Property.
Yours in Public and Private Partnerships
Tjahjokartiko Gondokusumo
Cooperative Planner
Chris Lang or anyone else at Poznan, please contact me through my website so I can interview you for my podcast about the conference, if possible. or call my VM on skype, 320-300-4273
Shelly, civilianism.com
You make some good points on what to watch for at this conference. I referenced your story in a post on my blog:
http://www.Pay4Rides.com/2008/12/un-climate-summit/
I agree that money is one of the key issues as we deal with a recession of the global economy. Instead of investing billions in new technologies, we need to conserve the resources we currently have. This in turn will reduce our carbon output.