It’s Getting Hot In Here

According to The Center for Public Integrity, more than 770 companies and interest groups hired an estimated 2,340 lobbyists to influence federal climate policy in 2008.  That means every day, 2,340 briefcase-holding and business card-carrying bodies walk through the halls of Congress with the sole aim of either strengthening or weakening the policies that will help spark a clean energy revolution and combat the climate crisis. From Chevron to Chevrolet, from Alcoa to Xerox, everybody is funding somebody to argue their case. This Washington insider game is what’s determining the climate policies that make it out of Congress.

When you think of it though, why should these inside-the-beltway lobbyists have all the clout? Our future as individual human beings is at stake along with the future of major corporations and utility districts! How can the everyday citizen get on the same playing field as these lobbyists? These questions encouraged us, two college students who are part of the youth climate movement, to set out writing a guide to climate policy that would help every American understand the policy details and political context around the climate debate in Congress. The result is “The Citizen’s Guide to Climate Policy,” a short booklet that will prepare you to become a lobbyist for change. The only way we’re going to get the strong climate policy we need is if a group of impassioned citizens engage their elected officials , and are so well versed on the implications of specific policies that we can battle on the same ground as the industry lobbyists who are walking the halls of Congress. Continue reading ‘Introducing “The Citizen’s Guide to Climate Policy”’

Young people aren’t waiting around for climate policy – we’re taking action around the world and we’re in the rooms where the debate is happening.  For months now, law-makers in Washington have been under the watchful eyes of youth climate activists, sometimes referred to as the ‘green-shirts’.

We’ve been writing about the hearings, tweeting about the hearings, and mobilizing the grassroots all over the country to make more noise so we can deliver that message to our politicians here.

Today (Tuesday June 15th), we’re trying something new.  A new twitter feed will be keeping watch on the climate hearings with a special focus – Lets Talk About Climate, Baby!  >>> Follow Lets Talk About Climate on twitter.

Lets Talk About Climate’s mission is very simple.  Bring the debate back to the seriousness of the issue at hand and the solutions required to address it.  Lets talk about climate change, lets talk about what will actually fix it.  Lets talk about carbon levels in the atmosphere – both where they are now and where they need to be.  Lets talk about how survival is non-negotiable.
Continue reading ‘Lets Talk About Climate, Baby!’

In a meeting Wednesday night with Canada’s lead climate negotiator, Mr. Michael Martin said this to me as he explained the position of the Canadian government. Background information: Negotiating domestic and international targets is precisely why these United Nations conferences exist.

When I asked our lead negotiator, Mr. Michael Martin, to explain Canada’s position further, this was what he said:

Continue reading “Canada is not here to negotiate our domestic targets” here…

Micah Melnyk and Doug Forsythe of the Canadian Delegation in the main Plenary session.

Canada’s lead negotiator for the UN climate talks answers your questions again. You can ask Michael Martin your question by commenting here.

1. What is the length of commitment period that Canada is looking at for the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol?
2. What research initiatives do you think Canada should be focusing on in light of these negotiations?
3. And beyond Copenhagen, how are we going to kick-start the technology revolution that we are going to need?
4. Is Canada looking at the gender perspective in climate adaptation discussions and policies?
5. I heard a rumor that you joined Twitter in the last 24 hours… is this true?

Read his answers here.

You asked, he answered.

Michael Martin, Canada’s Ambassador for Climate Change and head UN negotiator here at the Bonn II climate talks, sat down with me as I asked the questions asked by you, the readers.

1. Do you have a negotiating mandate for here in Bonn?
2. How do you think the talks are going so far?
3. How can Canada negotiate emission targets for the year 2020 when our federal targets won’t be phased in until 2012?
4. Given China’s recent positive actions on climate change, is Canada now more willing to agree to the required science-based emission targets?
5. Does Canada have a position yet on agreeing to avoid 2 degrees of average global warming, which is the projected temperature point at which irreversible changes largely occur?
6. If you could ask 1000 Canadians to do one thing to be constructive and help you be effective in these negotiations, what would you suggest they do?

Read the answers here.

There is light at the end of the tunnel, if Canada chooses to walk towards it.

Canadian negotiators are stuck between a rock and a hard place. These people, government bureaucrats, are sent in good faith by the Canadian government to discuss and deliver on agreements under global climate change agreements. The team may very well be sent with specific mandates of flexibility (or lack thereof), and there may be little room to actually negotiate. But there is room. Plenty of it, and full of potential.

We must remember that we are working with a government that 1) cut climate change funding by 80% in the first month of being elected, and 2) is the only country in the world that has said it will *not* meet its Kyoto Protocol emission reduction targets.

We’re also working with a country with an economy currently depends largely on 1) our 2nd largest oil reserve in the world, after Saudi Arabia, and 2) trade relationships with the United States of America.

This means that there is reason to back down on climate commitments, but certainly not reason enough to outweigh the reason why we should live up to our word – and to our world.

…Continue reading “Let’s be honest here.”

Inspirational banners, music, drums and polar bears welcomed delegates to the thirtieth sessions of the UNFCCC Convention subsidiary bodies – SBSTA and SBI, sixth session of the AWG-LCA and the eighth session of the AWG-KP this morning at the Maritim Hotel in Bonn. Delegates in Bonn will be hammering out the draft text for the Conference of Parties (COP 15) in Copenhagen in December, 2009.

This important meeting will see an unprecedented level of youth engagement for an intercessional. Following on the successful participation at Bonn I, the international youth have descended on Bonn. Action factories, negotiator trackers, 350.org, a day of action and regular actions throughout the conference will remind the delegates that we are watching.

See more images from the first day in Bonn here. (©Robert van Waarden)

On April 17th, 2009, the Obama EPA announced that it was proposing to find carbon dioxide (and five other heat trapping gases) a danger to human health.  While this might seem self-evident to us, this is big news for the federal government because this is the first step in the process of EPA regulation.  In 2007 we celebrated the Mass vs. EPA decision when the Supreme Court ruled that global warming pollution poses a danger to human health and must therefore be regulated under the Clean Air Act.  Under the Bush Administration we saw no action taken on this ruling.  But now, Obama has instructed Administrator Jackson and the EPA to move forward with the process of regulating carbon dioxide and other global warming causing pollutants.  Regulation is likely not the single silver bullet and must be used in combination with other policies such as investment.  Many consider this ruling a pressuring tactic to aid floundering climate legislation in Congress.  This ruling could also provide the foundation for a negotiating position at December’s UN Copenhagen climate talks.

From April 17th — June 23rd, the EPA is encouraging public comment.  They held two hearings for this purpose in Arlington, VA and Seattle WA on May 18th and 21st respectively.  I had the privilege of attending the Seattle hearing and rally, organized by a coalition of groups including the Sierra Student Coalition and Cascade Climate Network.   EPA reported that response to both hearings was “overwhelming.”

More than 2,000 people turned out in Seattle to support the EPA’s decision at the noon rally on the 21st.  Hundreds of children and students joined members of the faith, business, and environmental communities.  David Nokovic, freshman at Portland State University, spoke at the rally on behalf of the youth in attendance.   “We pledge to end this climate crisis within our lifetimes, because failing to do so is unconscionable,” said Nokovic.  “We pledge to hold ourselves and our elected officials accountable, and we pledge to work with all who will join us.”

All through the day, nearly 200 people testified and over 90% of that testimony was in favor of global warming pollutant regulation.  Over 25 youth gave compelling testimony to the panel of EPA representatives who heard 10 hours of testimony that day.  I myself, was on a panel with two industry lobbyists from the Washington Farm Bureau and two other youth… Continue reading ‘Youth Call for Just Regulation at Seattle EPA Hearing; more comments needed’

When was the last time you found yourself partying because our federal government is acting on climate change? Oh right, not really ever in our lives. Well, friends, the time has come.

As you may have heard, President Obama has instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to act on the 2007 Massachusetts v. EPA decision. In that watershed case, the Supreme Court ruled that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare according to the Clean Air Act, and that EPA must therefore regulate carbon dioxide.

EPA didn’t move on the decision until President Obama entered the White House, but now they’re moving quickly: first up, the Agency must solicit public testimony on federal climate regulation. They’ve set up hearings for all comers in two cities this week – Arlington, VA, on Monday, and Seattle on Thursday – and according to top EPA officials, public response to the hearings has already been “overwhelming.” Continue reading ‘Time to celebrate your EPA’

As sweeping climate and clean energy legislation is readied for debate in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, details are emerging on the deals and compromises struck between the bill’s architects, Congressmen Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Ed Markey (D-MA) and the group of reluctant swing members of the committee who hail largely from states reliant on coal and heavy industry.

The “breakthrough deal” struck between Waxman, Markey and the swing E&C Committee Dems will enable a full subcommittee markup of the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) beginning Thursday and likely proceeding through next week (markup = votes on a series of amendments on the proposed bill followed vote to pass the bill out of (sub)committee). The deal apparently involves a series of concessions that either incrementally weaken the objectives of the bill or give free greenhouse gas pollution permits to utilities and heavy industry in order to blunt the impact of the proposed cap and trade program on these sectors of the economy.
Continue reading ‘Climate Bill Heading for Markup – Will it Invest in a Clean, Prosperous Energy Economy?’