COP-16: What is Business Doing in Cancun?
It is a frustrating time for business entities that are seeking policy certainty that will unleash investment in a global low carbon economy. For instance, U.S. policy certainty seems to have been pushed off for at least two years based on the failure of Congress to pass cap-and-trade legislation and the mid-term election outcomes that signal even less support for such legislation. Internationally, there is a growing sense of business concern with the United Nations Conference of the Parties’ ability to agree upon a comprehensive way forward after 2012 when the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol expires. Yet hundreds of private sector technology, retail and investor interests are in Cancun for the 16th Conference of the Parties and looking to find strategic ways forward nonetheless.
Continue Reading...COP 16: The Heat Goes On......
In news that is sure to come as a surprise to those of us who were trapped under 2 feet of snow earlier this year (remember the Snowpocalypse?), the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has released data at the UN climate talks in Cancun confirming that 2010 was one of the hottest years globally on record. Specifically, it appears that 2010 will rank in the top 3 warmest years since the beginning of instrumental climate change records in 1850, continuing a warming trend that scientists have linked to the steadily increasing emission of heat trapping gasses into the atmosphere.
Continue Reading...COP 16: What a Difference a Year Makes
This is the second year that MLA has participated in the annual UN Climate Change negotiations (COP 16), and the differences between the proceedings this year and last are fairly significant. On a superficial level, there's the location -- last year's talks were in frigid Copenhagen, while this year government representatives, NGOs, business interests and protesters have converged in sunny Cancun, Mexico. (I understand it is quite chilly there today, so I will refrain from sharing the temperature down here, but suffice it to say that if one -- entirely hypothetically of course -- had a few extra moments in between meetings to sip a margarita on the beach, it would not be unpleasant).
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