Climate Change


Breakthrough? Meaningful Agreement? Disappointment? Compromise? You decide…

December 18 – All the above words have been used to describe the result of the COP15 Climate Summit in Copenhagen recently, some even call it a failure. So which fits? It depends on your perspective. For world leaders, it seems, any agreement is better than nothing. For developing countries, rich countries didn’t take enough leadership. For Climate activists and Conservation organizations, it is nothing short of a tragedy. From a broader perspective, I can’t think of a result that would have pleased everyone, and, with so many other problems in the world, at least world leaders managed to agree on something at some level. Fact is, they all took this seriously enough to show up in Copenhagen and try to do something. Media blasted them for the amount of fuel, jets, and limos used at a conference supposed to be about more responsible behaviour toward the environment. But how else could they have got there? I believe this is what it always was going to be: A starting point. The place we look back to and say ‘this is where began to turn the corner on climate change.’ Or, the place we look back to and say ‘this was where we had a chance to do something and didn’t.’
Only history, and our planet will tell, and at least we can say we all agree that it has raised awareness of the issue, and that we all need to do more to protect our environment – at every level – from our homes to our governments, corporations and institutions.
What do you think of the ‘COP15 Compromise/Breakthrough/Agreement? VOTE!


‘Meaningful deal’ reached at Copenhagen climate summit

December 18 – Key states have reached a “meaningful agreement” at the Copenhagen climate summit, a US official says.
The US, China, India and South Africa had agreed a “historic step forward”, the official reported.
However, he added that the deal was not enough to prevent dangerous climate change in the future – but nonetheless was an important first move.
Read more…


VoteGlobal Climate Change Polls:

Wind Power=More Power Lines. Acceptable Trade-Off?

Will a New UN Environmental organization help with Climate Change?

U.S. Top Priority for 2010?

What is the greatest threat facing the world today?

What’s the best solution to Climate Change?

• What’s most at risk from Climate Change?

Which county’s actions will have most effect on Climate Change?

Are you directly affected by Climate Change?

What are you doing to help protect the environment?

Should Rich Countries open borders for Climate Refugees?

• COP15: Will they come up with aggressive enough measures to address climate change?


Obama: I came here to act

December 18 – “Our ability to take collective action is in doubt,” US President Barack Obama warned the plenary at COP15. Being the world largest economy and second largest emitter of greenhouse gases, America has a responsibility, he said, and added that America would continue to move toward a green economy – “but we will be stronger if we act together,” he said.
Read more…


Obama Tries to Rally U.N. Climate Conference, but Deadlock Persists

December 18 – President Obama exhorted world leaders today “not to talk, but to act” as they scrambled in the closing hours of a historic U.N. global warming summit to salvage an agreement to curtail greenhouse gas emissions.
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Climate deal looks close, but may not halt warming

December 17 – PA deal at the UN climate summit looks more likely following a frantic day of behind the scenes diplomacy.
China signalled concessions on monitoring of emission curbs, and the US said it would commit money for developing countries.
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Sarkozy: Failure in Copenhagen would be a catastrophe

December 17 – European leaders expressed themselves in no uncertain terms when addressing fellow heads of state and governments attending the penultimate day of the UN climate conference in Copenhagen.
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Copenhagen police battle climate protesters

December 16 – Police have forced back hundreds of protesters who tried to break through a perimeter fence at the UN climate summit venue in Copenhagen.
The Bella Centre, where the conference is taking place, has now been shut off, with no-one allowed to enter or leave.
Read more…


Climate talks deadlocked as clashes erupt outside

December 16 – Danish police fired pepper spray outside the UN climate conference on Wednesday, as disputes inside left major issues unresolved just two days before world leaders hope to sign a historic agreement to fight global warming.
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Al Gore shoots self, climate summit in foot

December 15 – Al Gore, the man who invented both the internet and anthropogenic global warming and made himself obscenely rich in the process, has banged yet another nail into the rickety coffin of the global warming religious cult by coming out with what scientists describe as ‘a complete load of bollocks’ at the Copenhagen climate worryfest.
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Schwarzenegger says go carefully on climate change

December 15 – California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says world policymakers do not have to choose between a clean environment and economic growth.
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Australian PM warns of failure

December 15 – Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Monday urged world leaders to be more flexible as a consensus looks difficult to achieve. Otherwise, the global climate summit is at risk of “failure”, the Prime Minister said.
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Copenhagen COP15 Day 6 Round Up

December 12 – Environmentalists and activists rallied worldwide Saturday in favor of a global climate agreement. In Copenhagen, host city of the ongoing UN negotiations, a six-kilometer march from the parliament building to the conference venue gathered an estimated 35,000 people.
Read more…

December 12 – Environmentalists and activists rallied worldwide Saturday in favor of a global climate agreement. In Copenhagen, host city of the ongoing UN negotiations, a six-kilometer march from the parliament building to the conference venue gathered an estimated 35,000 people.
Read more…


Copenhagen climate change rally leads to arrests

December 12 – Trouble has broken out as thousands of people marched through Copenhagen demanding action from leaders at UN climate talks there.
Most of the march in the Danish capital passed off peacefully, but one group smashed windows and was arrested.
Hundreds of others were detained in a preventative action by police.
Read more…


EU makes 7bn euro climate pledge

December 11 – EU leaders have agreed to pay 7.2bn euros (£6.5bn; $10.6bn) over the next three years to help developing nations adapt to climate change.
Announcing the deal, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said all 27 EU member nations would contribute and that the EU was doing its “fair share”.
UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the UK’s promise, at £500m ($800m; 553m euros) a year was the highest.
EU leaders hope the deal may boost the current UN climate talks in Copenhagen.
Read more…


Japan’s climate targets are conditional

December 10 – If the Kyoto Protocol is extended without setting emission reduction goals for the United States and China, Japan threatens to back out of its pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
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Copenhagen Summit: developing nations warn of failure without US reverse

December 10 – The top African negotiator at the Copenhagen climate summit called on Barack Obama today to live up to the world’s expectations of him as a Nobel laureate and commit America to a meaningful global agreement to tackle global warming.
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G-77: Personal call on President Obama

December 10 – The Group of 77, representing the majority of the world’s developing countries, urges the US to join the Kyoto Protocol and commit to emission reductions comparable to those of other industrialized nations.
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Developing countries split over climate measures

December 9 – A major split between developing countries has emerged at the UN climate talks in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Small island states and poor African nations vulnerable to climate impacts laid out demands for a legally-binding deal tougher than the Kyoto Protocol.
This was opposed by richer developing states such as China, which fear tougher action would curb their growth.
Tuvalu demanded – and got – a suspension of negotiations until the issue could be resolved.
The split within the developing country bloc is highly unusual, as it tends to speak with a united voice.
Read more…


Ban Ki-moon reasserts leadership in Copenhagen climate talks

December 9 – Danish text raised ‘trust issues’ between rich and poor countries but won’t derail deal, says UN secretary-general.
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Leaked agreement rocks Copenhagen

December 8 – The Copenhagen climate talks have been rocked by the leak of a draft final agreement which weakens the role of the United Nations in climate change negotiations and abandons the Kyoto Protocol.

The “Danish text” draft agreement, published by the UK’s Guardian newspaper, has been described as a dangerous document for developing countries.
Read more…


US to regulate greenhouse gas emissions

December 7 – The US government has declared that greenhouse gases threaten human health. The move could allow the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to order cuts in emissions without the approval of Congress.
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192 nations at UN climate conference in Copenhagen

December 7 – The largest and most important UN climate change conference in history opened Monday, with diplomats from 192 nations warned that this could be the best, last chance for a deal to protect the world from calamitous global warming.
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UN: Historic climate talks must deliver

December 6 – The Copenhagen climate negotiations beginning Monday must yield an ambitious, sweeping agreement to capitalize on pledges by countries to fight global warming, UN climate chief Yvo de Boer said on Sunday.
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Experts are warning: Adapt or die

December 5 – Adapting to rising seas and higher temperatures is expected to be a big topic at the UN climate-change talks in Copenhagen next week, along with the projected cost — hundreds of billions of dollars, much of it going to countries that cannot afford it.
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The rich-poor rift widens only days before the Copenhagen meeting

December 3 – Just five days before the climate talks start in Copenhagen, China, India, Brazil and South Africa rejected a Danish draft that proposed halving global greenhouse gases by 2050, setting a 2020 deadline for a peak in world emissions and limiting global warming to a maximum two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times, European diplomats say, according to Reuters.
Read more…


Big developing states reject Copenhagen climate plan

December 2 – China and other big developing nations rejected core targets for a climate deal such as halving world greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 just five days before talks start in Copenhagen, diplomats said on Wednesday.
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Australia’s Parliament defeats global warming bill

December 2 – Australia’s plans for an emissions trading system were scuttled Wednesday in Parliament, handing a defeat to a government that had hoped to set an example at international climate change talks next week.
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Dalai Lama urges world to act on climate change

November 30 – The world’s leaders must prioritize the issue of global warming above all else, the Dalai Lama said Monday, adding that he feels encouraged by December’s climate change conference in Copenhagen.
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Denmark releases draft climate blueprint

November 30 – The blueprint for the global climate change agreement to be struck in Copenhagen next month has been released.

The Danish Government says the world should cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent by 2050 from 1990 levels, with most of the reduction coming from rich countries.

It is a figure that the G8 grouping of industrialised nations agreed to in principle last year.

Despite a push by poor countries, the Danish draft proposal has not outlined midterm emission target for developed countries.

Read more…


Turmoil in the Australian Parliament questions climate legislation

November 27 – Prime Minister Kevin Rudd faces the same problem as Barack Obama. Both have trouble getting climate legislation through the senate before the UN conference next month, and both need opposition votes.

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Investors happy about announcements from China and the US

November 27 – At the Copenhagen climate change conference, the winners could be renewable energy technology providers and early corporate adopters of emissions reduction measures, investment specialists predict.

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EU environment commissioner urges to cut emissions by 30 percent

November 25 – Unconditional on other nations raising their limits, the EU should raise the bar to lead the way and demonstrate leadership, Stavros Dimas states.

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New Zealand passes emissions trading plan into law

November 25 – The New Zealand Parliament has passed an amended scheme to cut carbon emissions. The scheme is only the second to pass into law after Europe’s began in 2005.

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Copenhagen conference attracts world leaders

November 25 – So far 65 heads of state and government have accepted Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen’s invitation to attend December’s UN climate change conference in the Danish capital.

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Obama boosts hopes of a climate deal

November 25 – The world has moved closer to a “strong operational agreement”, the US President said Tuesday after talks with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The EU welcomes American pledges to set emissions targets soon.

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CO2 emissions up by 29 percent since 2000

November 18 – While the world’s politicians either committed or reluctant are discussing reductions in carbon emissions from fossil fuels, the increase continues.

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South Korea pledges 30 percent emissions cut by 2020

November 17 – The greenhouse gas reduction target announced Tuesday reinforces the country’s position as a green front-runner among developing nations.

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Apec leaders drop climate target

November 15 – World leaders meeting in Singapore have said it will not be possible to reach a climate change deal ahead of next month’s UN conference in Denmark.

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Copenhagen climate summit hopes fade as Obama backs postponement

November 15 – Barack Obama acknowledged today that time has run out to secure a binding climate deal at Copenhagen and began moving towards a two-stage process that would delay a legal pact until next year at the earliest.

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France and Brazil in Climate Deal

November 14 – Brazil and France have agreed a common position on fighting global warming before next month’s UN climate change conference in Copenhagen.

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US set at damage control

November 13 – Trying to avoid “having Copenhagen failure laid at its doorstep”, the US administration is reported to be considering patching up a limited short-term climate deal.

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Amazon deforestation ‘record low’

November 12 – The level of deforestation in the Amazon has dropped by 45% and is the lowest on record since monitoring began 21 years ago, Brazil’s government says.

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World’s public unimpressed by China and US

November 12 – A poll in 20 countries across the globe shows only 34 percent support for Chinese and 39 percent support for US climate policy.

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Bangladesh: Poor nations will not accept failure in Copenhagen

November 12 – Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina urges rich nations to help climate vulnerable nations such as Bangladesh in the same way they bailed out economies damaged by the global recession.

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UN: Climate treaty talks may go on for another year

November 8 – “I don’t think we can get a legally binding agreement by Copenhagen. I think that we can get that within a year after Copenhagen,” UN climate chief Yvo de Boer said Thursday.

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UN pins its hope on world leaders

November 6 – Political will and leadership is what is needed now to give next month’s UN climate change conference in Copenhagen a ”final push” and ”get us to a result”, UN climate chief Yvo de Boer said Friday.

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Rifts appear ahead of G20 meeting

November 6 – Divisions have emerged among G20 finance ministers over the best ways to scale back stimulus spending and tackle climate change, according to the BBC this morning…

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German chancellor calls for climate action in historic US speech

November 4 – Angela Merkel received standing ovations during her address to the US Congress on Tuesday. However, many Republican lawmakers remained seated when she mentioned the deal to combat global warming.

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Growing interest in climate investments

November 4 – Investors warm to so-called “programmes of activities” under a UN scheme that aims at spreading simple climate friendly technologies such as solar water heaters and more efficient cooking stoves.

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Last round before Copenhagen

November 2 – Negotiators from nearly 180 countries hope to nail down the outline of a plan to provide tens of billions of dollars a year to fight climate change, in their final round of talks before a decisive conference in Copenhagen next month.

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Britain pushes for substantial Climate deal

October 30 – A new climate deal in Copenhagen must be ambitious. Britain “should not sign up to a deal that is inadequate,” says the British Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Ed Miliband.

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EU accelerates climate funding

October 30 – The European Union is willing to fund climate mitigation and adaptation in developing countries, starting next year. The EU also puts money on the table for a deal in Copenhagen, according to reports from Brussels.

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Radical ecological shift in the North Sea

October 29 – Warming of the North Sea leads to jellyfish and crabs replacing cod and flatfish, new study concludes.

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Ministers to UN: Create new strong environment organization

October 29 – The UN must create a strong world environment organization that can deal effectively with global environmental crises like climate change, the environment ministers of Italy and Kenya suggest.

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High stake game begins in Brussels

October 28 – IA draft conclusion from this week’s EU summit estimates international public climate support for the developing world at 22 to 50 billion euros by 2020. But which share should EU cover and how much will the individual member countries pay?

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Norway pushes for “COP 15.5″

October 28 – If the UN conference in Copenhagen this December should fail to provide a legally binding global agreement on climate change, both Norway and Sweden would favour a new conference in early 2010.

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UN signals delay in climate change treaty

October 27 – Just weeks before the international conference on climate change, the United Nations signals it is scaling back expectations of reaching agreement on a new treaty to slow global warning.

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Barack Obama must attend Copenhagen climate summit, says Lord Stern

October 26 – The world “desperately needs” President Obama to attend the United Nations meeting in Copenhagen if an effective deal on tackling climate change is to be reached this December, according to one of the world’s leading climate experts. Read more…


Chinese-Indian Plan Seen as Smart Move

October 23 - The prospect of an Asian climate agreement puts pressure on industrialized countries to deliver at the UN conference in Copenhagen, most experts believe. Read more…


Africa Afraid of Being Taken Hostage

October 23 - Highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, Africa badly needs an agreement in Copenhagen. But an agreement could become so weak, that it would be better to walk away, some analysts say. Read more…


Britain Publishes Doomsday Climate Vision

October 22 – Two British Cabinet ministers showed off a doomsday vision of disappearing cities and rising seas on Thursday, part of an effort to push nations to strike a new pact on curbing emissions of CO2. Read more…


Obama and Hu agree on a successful climate conference

October 22 -

US President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao commit themselves to strive for a wide consensus and a successful Copenhagen climate change conference. Read more…


Europe offers to cut emissions 95% if Climate Deal reached in Copenhagen

October 21 - EU sends clear message to the world with ambitious target. Read more…


India and China sign major agreement on combating climate change

October 21 – Two of the world’s largest emitters of greenhouse gases have got together to fight climate change and to protect and promote the interest of developing countries. Read more…


Maldives Government Dives for Climate Change

October 20 – Seated at a table on the sea floor the low-lying island state’s president, vice president, cabinet secretary and 11 ministers signed a document calling on all countries to cut their carbon dioxide emissions.Read more…


No Miracles in London

October 20 – Two day meeting in the Major Economies Forum in London ends without news on binding commitments to fight Global Warming. Read more…


UKs Gordon Brown to world leaders: Come to Copenhagen

October 19 - 17 major economies finish their climate discussions at the Major Economies Forum meeting in London today. The British Prime Minister urges world leaders to attend the UN climate conference in Copenhagen. Read more…


Finland to cut emissions 80 percent by 2050

October 19 – Government plans include revising energy standards for new buildings, renovating old buildings to be more energy efficient, improving low-carbon technology and increasing the use of renewable energy. Read more…


Adaptation fund remains almost empty

October 18 - The UN fund set up to help vulnerable countries adapt to climate change has received only a fraction of the amounts needed. Read more…


Left or right, there’s no room for middle ground on climate change.

Climate Change. The left seems dead set for action to combat it, the right — not all, but enough to make a difference — have seemed set to defend our way of life as it is, regardless of how that way of life might be impacted by climate change. In Copenhagen, with the United Nations Conference on Climate Change December 7-18 2009, the stage is set for — some hope — the event that will deliver the result of either a: solutions that may set us on the right track or b: compromises that have little effect. Read more…

Glaciers in Indian Kashmir melting at “alarming” speed

The water supply of millions of people in the Himalayan region is threatened by the melting, which scientists ascribe to rising temperatures. Read more…


North Pole summers could be ice free in 10 years

Findings by the Catlin Arctic Survey team show that most of the ice in the region is first-year ice that is only around 1.8 meters deep and will melt next summer. Read more…


Brazil to cut deforestation by 80 percent

October 14 – At December’s UN climate conference in Copenhagen, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will announce an ambitious target for reducing deforestation in the world’s largest forest. Read more…


Risk of “half-baked” climate deal

October 14 – While hailing the EU, China and Japan for taking steps to cut emissions, the UN climate chief said on Tuesday that other nations need to do better ahead of December’s climate conference in Copenhagen. Read more…


Ban Ki Moon: We Sink or Swim Together

October 13 – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon set a cautiously optimistic tone when he gave a lecture at the University of Copenhagen Saturday.

He referred to the Climate Change Summit at the United Nations less than two weeks ago, when leaders from all over the world signaled their determination to seal a comprehensive, fair and effective deal at Copenhagen.

“What I sense from the Summit is that finally, we are seeing a thaw in some of the frozen positions that have prevented governments from making progress in the negotiations…. this was a crucial step forward on the road to Copenhagen – and not a moment too soon,” Ban Ki-moon said.

The UN Secretary-General listed four benchmarks for a successful climate deal at Copenhagen and beyond:

First, a successful deal must involve all countries. Second, a successful deal must provide comprehensive support to the most vulnerable. Third, a deal needs to be backed by money and the means to deliver it, and fourth, a deal must include an equitable global governance structure that addresses the needs of developing countries.

In Bangkok the UN-sponsored climate talks continue. The Secretary-General urged governments to table concrete proposals.

“We are not there yet. There is still a lot of work to be done, and not much time to do it.” he said, inciting world leaders to seize the opportunities that history is giving us, “so that tomorrow’s generations can look back and say: Our leaders rose to the challenge. They did what was right.”

“We share one planet, one small blue speck in space. As people, as nations, as a species: we sink or swim together,” Ban Ki-moon concluded.


- From BBC News Online: Q&A: The Copenhagen climate summit


- The essentials in Copenhagen

Rather than getting every small detail of a new global climate treaty done in Copenhagen, UN climate chief Yvo de Boer hopes the conference will reach agreements on four political essentials:

1. How much are the industrialized countries willing to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases?

2. How much are major developing countries such as China and India willing to do to limit the growth of their emissions?

3. How is the help needed by developing countries to engage in reducing their emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change going to be financed?

4. How is that money going to be managed?

Read more…


- Chu hoping for US climate bill before Copenhagen talks

October 13 – Although chances are slim that the US Congress will pass legislation in time for a presidential signature, the Energy Secretary is still optimistic. Read more…


- Copenhagen emissions offset in Dhaka

October 13 – Replacing 20 old, heavily polluting brick factories in Bangladesh by modern, efficient ones is to compensate for greenhouse gas emissions related to December’s UN climate change conference COP15.

Read more…


- Carbon finance is key to better protection of gorillas and elephants to maintain health of African rainforests says UN Ambassador

Washington/Bonn, 13 October 2009 – The United Nations Ambassador for the Year of the Gorilla, Ian Redmond, has called for the inclusion of gorillas and elephants, as important components in African rainforests, in the upcoming climate negotiations in Copenhagen.

Large mammals, such as elephants and gorillas, are keystone species in their relevant ecosystems. Gorillas act as ‘gardeners’ in the rainforests of the Congo Basin, and protecting them helps prevent loss of flora that are ecologically dependent on them. more information…


- Support for New Panel for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Gathers Momentum. Five-Day IPBES Discussions Underline Need for Serious Strengthening of ‘Science-Policy Links’ to Reverse Declines

Nairobi, 9 October 2009 — Momentum towards the establishment of a new international body to address the loss and degradation of the world’s multi trillion dollar nature-based assets gathered pace at a meeting of close to 100 governments. There was strong support that an intergovernmental panel, similar to the one that has catalyzed political action on the issue of climate change, is now needed to galvanize a step change in respect to the management of biodiversity and ecosystems. more information…


- UN Climate Change Negotiations result in more clarity on ‘bricks and mortar’ of Copenhagen agreed outcome.

Bangkok, 09 October 2009 — The penultimate negotiating session before the historic UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December wrapped up Friday in the Thai capitol Bangkok with progress made on what needs to constitute the “bricks and mortar” of the Copenhagen agreed outcome, but a continuing lack of clarity on key deliverables to make a successful international climate change deal workable. “A will has emerged in Bangkok to build the architecture to rapidly implement climate action,” said UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer, “but significant differences remain.” more information…


- Blue Carbon Report to Highlight the Importance of Healthy Oceans

Cape Town, 06 October 2009 – The world’s oceans, seas and marine ecosystems, such as seagrass, salt marshes and coastal wetlands, are daily absorbing and removing large quantities of carbon from the atmosphere. They are a crucial – and perhaps overlooked – natural ally in strategies to combat climate change.

On Wednesday, 14 October 2009 at 10.30am, a report will be launched at the Cape Town International Conference Centre, South Africa that illustrates how the ocean’s carbon capture and storage systems are being undermined by human activity, thereby harming their ability to ’sequester’ greenhouse gas emissions.

The Blue Carbon report, compiled in collaboration with the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), puts some hard figures on the carbon capturing potential of the marine environment and on the impact of marine degradation on climate change.

It also outlines the way markets might begin paying developing countries for conserving and enhancing the marine environment’s carbon capture and storage services (CCS) and the links between healthy oceans and adaptation to climate change.

Currently, several developed countries are considering spending billions of dollar on CCS at power stations while the CCS services of natural systems, such as the seas and oceans, are tested and probably more cost effective.

The report is launched some 60 days ahead of the crucial UN climate convention meeting in Copenhagen. more information…


- Article: The Business of Climate Change

In many respects, the scientific debate is irrelevant. For the business community, climate change represents an impending market shift – one that will both alter existing markets and create new ones. It will not be unlike shifts that have occurred in the past, when consumer needs changed, or technology advanced, and some companies declined while others rose to take their place. In the 1980s alone, computers eliminated the typewriter industry, compact discs replaced phonograph records, and the Bell System’s demise wrought structural changes in telecommunications. New competitive environments produce both risks and opportunities, as well as winners and losers.

This market shift will create new supply and demand for emission-reducing technologies, new financial instruments for emissions trading, new mechanisms for transferring technologies globally (i.e. Joint Implementation and the Clean Development Mechanism), and new pressures to retire historic sources of greenhouse gases. The shift will affect all companies to varying degrees, and all have a managerial and fiduciary obligation to assess their business exposure and decide whether action is prudent. In short, as the market shift of climate change looms on the business horizon, the argument against action is increasingly harder to make.

For many within the business community, the future is a carbon-constrained world and the time for action is now. Companies with this perspective already have engaged in GHG reductions. Yet other companies (particularly in the United States) continue to resist and deride their proactive competitors with labels such as ‘carbon cartel’ or ‘Kyoto capitalists.’ Such resistance is a very risky strategy, however, in the face of the coming market shift.

The debate is thus strategic (not scientific) and companies taking voluntary climate action are not practicing philanthropy or pure social responsibility (although many couch their activities in the language of ‘doing the right thing’). In fact, many companies are agnostic about the science of climate change. They engage the climate-change issue as a way to protect their strategic investments and to search for business opportunities in a changing market.

This article was adapted from: Hoffman, A., 2007. The coming market shift: Climate change and business strategy,” in K. Tang and R. Yoeh (eds.) Cut Carbon, Grow Profits: Business Strategies for Managing Climate Change and Sustainability. Middlesex University Press, London, pp. 101-118.


- Africa says polluters should pay

The African continent will need at least 65 billion US dollars to deal with the effects of climate change. Left: With little means but certain success peasants of Burkina Faso are fighting the advancement of the Saharan desert by planting shrubs. Read more…


- India: Limited climate deal should focus on financing

India’s environment minister urges nations to scale down ambitions for a global climate agreement in Copenhagen rather than have “exaggerated expectations”. Read more…