It\’s Getting Hot In Here

Here is what you need to know:

• Things have gone a little crazy in Copenhagen.
• Civil society has been severely restricted from entering the conference venue, and have effectively been banned on Friday, which is the final day of high level negotiations.
• Friends of the Earth, which in my opinion remains the “big ENGO” most closely connected to the grassroots, has beenbanned from entering the venue at all as of this morning.
• FYI, in my experience (and I’ve been to a few of these things), both of these developments are unprecedented and shocking.
• 350.org has called for a climate justice fast to be taken by individuals, for 24 hours, starting at any time on Thursday. I think this is a great action, and maybe when I turn my paper in I will tell you why in more detail. Let me just say now that I am participating, I think you should too, and i think you should tell all your friends. Take the time to think about the way climate change is going to cause worldwide food scarcity and famine. Pray.
• 350 is also asking you to call heads of state: check out the handy list and the call tool. You don’t have to just call your own head of state, either. Climate change affects us all and the responsibility is global. In particular, fire up your Skype and call one of the leaders on the green list and thank them for supporting the target of 350 ppm.

If you are reading this blog, it means you care - YOU CAN HELP, SO DO IT.

In a recent editorial article for the academic journal Climatic Change, Jon Barnett argues that the current debate about climate change and security is missing the point.  Everyone following the news knows the story by now – global warming leads to resource scarcity, and resource scarcity leads to war.  Barnett, one of the world’s foremost researchers on climate and security, cautions scholars and activists against making such simplistic assumptions.

A major problem with the popular discourse on climate wars is that it is excessively general, and poorly if at all informed by evidence…. what is passing as research on climate conflicts is not good social science either: it eschews evidence, most of it ignores the large body of research on the causes of conflict generally and on so-called ‘environmental conflicts’ in particular, and very little of it is peer-reviewed.

Continue reading ‘Keeping an eye on climate insecurity’

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? Continue reading ‘Five Things to Watch in Poznan’

The front page of today’s Guardian offers cold comfort for people in the developing countries worst affected by climate change.  The UK wants to help them, but only if they get a little something in return.  That’s right, the UK treasury only wants to offer climate adaptation funds in the form of conditional loans, fully repayable with interest and administered by the World Bank.

When the Environmental Transformation Fund (ETF) and its £800 million pot for developing country adaptation was being discussed and promoted at the climate change talks in Bali last December, it was clear that the UK was using it as a major tool in the negotiations to highlight the government’s commitment to (and moral authority on) climate change.  But the intention to disburse the fund in the form of loans (although it will, of course, still be earmarked as aid) belies the government’s good intentions.  Additionally, the Guardian article confirms rumors which have been circulating for some time that the UK government is trying to get other G8 governments to also donate in the form of concessionary loans, ahead of a media push when the international adaptation funds are announced at the G8 meeting in Japan in July.  However, other G8 countries, including the US, prefer to offer adaptation funding in the form of loans.  Furthermore, the World Bank, the UK’s loan distributor of choice, is well known for its enthusiastic funding of fossil fuel projects in the development world, and its refusal to cease this form of lending when its own independent review told it to do so. Continue reading ‘Adaptation assistance – with a hefty price tag’

Tesco, the UK’s largest retailer, has announced a plan to put ‘carbon labels‘ on four categories of its own-brand products: orange juice, potatoes, laundry detergent, and light bulbs.  The labels, which were developed with the Carbon Trust’s carbon labelling program, show the number of grams of carbon which the product is responsible for during production, packaging, distribution, and disposal.
Continue reading ‘Comparing salt, fat, sugar, and CO2′

At the moment I’m sitting on a fourteen hour flight, the last leg of my journey home. My round-trip flight from London (where I live and work) emitted about 3 tons of carbon dioxide. When I started a Facebook group to support youth activism at the Bali conference, one of the first comments I got was “Isn’t it ironic that you’re all flying to Bali for a climate change conference? You’re better off spending all that money on local climate change efforts at home.” It echoed a sentiment I had heard from a number of people, including my own partner. I wasn’t the only one going, of course; I was part of a delegation of 22 young Americans and approximately 150 people under the age of 26 attending the conference. I fully recognize that flying halfway across the world and staying in a big, air-conditioned hotel is hardly the most obvious way of living out my principles. So what possessed me to go? And what did I do when I got there to justify the expense and the emissions? Continue reading ‘BaliBuzz: The end of the beginning’

Whew! Another hot day in Bali! Well, okay, there are only hot days in Bali. In theory this is the weekend, but in fact it’s time for climate justice rallies, virtual (and non-virtual) marches, aerial photography stunts, strategy meetings, side events, and the occasional quick trip out of the city to remind ourselves that Bali is not just a convention centre.

The most memorable time so far was the ‘Fighting for our Future’ side event – an informal sharing and learning session organized for other people at the conference – we held to highlight the youth climate movement.

Presenter after presenter took the stage to show amazing work done by young people in Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Japan, Canada, the US, and the UK to raise awareness and inspire action. There was more energy in the room than I’ve ever felt at the UNFCCC conference, and the session was packed. We heard about cycle campaigns, press stunts, lobbying, and even how to occupy your local coal-fired power plant without disrupting the national grid.

At the end, a woman in the audience stood up. “I’m from Kiribati,” she said, “which is two meters above sea level.” She had to pause to fight tears. “And I just wanted you to know how connected I feel to all of you. Thank you.” We all had tears in our eyes too. It’s rare to get such a powerful reminder of just what we’re all fighting for.

Continue reading ‘BaliBuzz: Fighting for our Future’