Fifty-five Countries Meet Copenhagen Accord Deadline for Stating their Greenhouse Gas Cutback Goals
The Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) says that it has received pledges from 55 countries to limit and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. For companies, particularly large multi-nationals with facilities around the world, the pledges are a useful indication of the first or additional requirements the companies will have to meet.
Continue Reading...Top 5 Climate & Energy Issues for US Business in 2010: Rocky Road or French Silk?
5. Where Will Things Go Internationally?
Coming out of the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP) in Copenhagen, the role of the COP in international climate negotiations is in flux. Some issues will be negotiated in this forum, yet other issues may move out of this forum. The role of the Copenhagen Accord is uncertain. It remains to be seen what new governance structures will emerge and where different countries will place their political priorities. Relatedly, enhanced China-US bilateral cooperation on reducing emissions and sharing technology promises to be an important prong of the Obama Administration in 2010.
Business Concern: Private sector interests from both climate change risk and opportunity perspectives will need to monitor and understand the direction of international negotiations and cooperation particularly as related to climate finance and post-2012 carbon market design.
Continue Reading...Memo to Senator Murkowski: Legislate for Logical Solution
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) has a point. There are many, if not a vast majority of policymakers, who agree with the senator that reducing greenhouse gas emissions is best left to thoughtful Congressional legislation, not EPA regulation under the Clean Air Act. Thus her looming threats to introduce amendments or resolutions or other procedural maneuverings to “take a time out,” slowing down EPA rulemaking procedures aimed at addressing climate change.
But failing to seize her moment in the spotlight and put forward a specific legislative solution is where her logic falls apart and observers note the senator’s ear to certain greenhouse-gas-intensive industries that oppose action on climate change. This leaves me to believe that if we take climate change seriously, then perhaps EPA action is in fact better than no action at all.
Continue Reading...Does Senator Inhofe Have A Beef With the Pope Now?
Could the recent decision by Pope Benedict XVI to call for a comprehensive agreement on climate change deepen the centuries-old rift between Catholics and Protestants? Yes, I'm kidding...but humor me.
In a January 11, 2010 address to foreign ambassadors to the Holy See, the Pope said he regretted that “economic and political resistance to combating the degradation of the environment” prevented what he called “an ambitious agreement” at December's UN climate change summit in Copenhagen. Benedict said political leaders should take action to stem climate change as part of a “solemn duty” to protect the Earth.
Continue Reading...Copenhagen Outcomes: Lots of Bark, But The Bite Needs Work
Heading into Copenhagen, I provided a “Fab 5” of necessary outcomes for COP-15 to be a success. The Copenhagen Accord took a number of pragmatic steps on finance, accountability and endorsing market-based approaches to tackling the challenge of global climate change. The Accord will likely play well in the US Senate with a view to getting more support for domestic action through cap-and-trade legislation as it brings China, India, Brazil and South Africa along in bending the curve of business-as-usual emissions. It also establishes accountability procedures for developing countries to report on those obligations through the Conference of the Parties. Additionally, the next commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, never popular in domestic politics, appears dubious at best. So these issues play well domestically.
However, in the trade-off for these pragmatic steps, the United Nations Conference of the Parties process was left in tatters. While most countries signed on to the Copenhagen Accord, it was done so with a disdain for the process and skepticism for the result. It will be difficult to regain the level of political momentum and multilateral engagement that was achieved in the lead up to Copenhagen through the UN. Science-based targets to reduce emissions backed by a legally binding UN treaty to fulfill all commitments were lost, for now, in that effort.
Continue Reading...ANDERSON's NOTEBOOK: What Can We Make of the Copenhagen Accord?
Fred Anderson is providing an inside look at COP-15 in Copenhagen to The Bureau of National Affairs (BNA) World Climate Change Report.
Today, Anderson's Notebook (12/21/09), discusses what we can make of the Copenhagen Accord.
To read the full entry, please click here.
This Just In From Copenhagen: Accord Reached By Key Parties!
Attached is the draft Copenhagen Accord, which was hammered out by the United States, China, India and South Africa, and made available less than two hours ago. The Conference of the Parties is still in session; reportedly 26 other nations are reviewing the draft and may join the Accord. Details regarding wider acceptance of this draft are sketchy at this point.
The major issues that have caused controversy among the delegates have been addressed, such as: a commitment by the developed world countries to provide financing to the developing world countries to assist with mitigation and adaptation, amounting to $30 billion between 2010 and 2012, rising to $100 billion by 2020; prevention of deforestation and market mechanisms to enhance forest programs; a recognition of the importance of keeping the rise in temperature to less than 2 degrees; and a commitment to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions to below 50 percent of 1990 level, with Annex I parties committing to reduce their emissions individually or jointly by 80 percent. Finally, implementation of the Accord shall be reviewed in 2016 to determine if the long-term goal of a less than 2 degree rise in temperature should be reduced to 1.5 degrees.
ANDERSON's NOTEBOOK: It's Down to the Final Hours
Fred Anderson is providing an inside look at COP-15 in Copenhagen to The Bureau of National Affairs (BNA) World Climate Change Report.
Today, Anderson's Notebook (12/18/09), titled It's Down to the Final Hours, discusses the encouraging signals from China and what the final day will bring.
To read the full entry, please click here.
ANDERSON's NOTEBOOK: What is US Industry to Make of Copenhagen?
Fred Anderson is providing an inside look at COP-15 in Copenhagen to The Bureau of National Affairs (BNA) World Climate Change Report.
Today, Anderson's Notebook (12/17/09), titled What is US Industry to Make of Copenhagen?, discusses what industry is to make of the proceedings and whether the conference and any agreement it produces will shape things to come in the United States.
To read the full entry, please click here.
COP-15 Day 11: Snow, Money, Gore and More!!!
It seems as though the moods of optimism and pessimism with respect to reaching a deal in Copenhagen change by the hour. Last evening, there was supreme doubt a deal could get done with many observers beginning to retrench to old positions of blaming US intransigence. The US, familiar to the villain role in climate proceedings, was viewed as having a weak target with little assurance it can deliver on anything back in the Senate, yet strong demands of developing countries particularly of China and little finance to provide poorer countries as promised in the Bali Action Plan.
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