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...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.
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.
Continue Reading...COP-15 Day 10: Copenhagen - Moving from Rhetoric to Reality?
As heads of state begin to arrive, the mood remains quite anxious in Copenhagen. Significant amounts of negotiating text still remain in brackets and unresolved. Clearly political level help is necessary. Information suggests that in fact high level talks began in the past few days from respective capitals. There will be little time for informal negotiations once all key heads of state arrive, so ministerial negotiations will need to continue in parallel as it is unrealistic to expect all nuances of climate policy text to be taken care of at the highest level. Heads of state will only be asked to address the bigger picture issues: targets & timetables for reductions, finance and a timeline for achieving a legally binding agreement.
Continue Reading...COP-15 Day 9: Political Horses are Coming to Water
The UN climate negotiations are getting more tense by the day. Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC Yvo De Boer, reflecting on his work today, noted that “you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink” in reference to the Heads of State who will be arriving over the next 48 hours with a view to a political agreement being reached.
Continue Reading...COP-15 Day 8: Chaos in Copenhagen
The Bella Center is hot, crowded and beyond its capacity. Lines are hours long to even enter the building. Security is tightening up. Around the city, Copenhagen is ground zero for climate change this week as there are countless business events, protests, and conferences all day and night.
Negotiations were suspended as G77 nations, led by African delegates in this instance, walked out. Their desire is a continuation of the Kyoto Protocol and pushing developed countries for bigger carbon cuts and international climate finance. Speculation is that this action is about negotiation theatrics to raise the stakes in Week 2 and they will come back to the table soon. Informal negotiations took place over the weekend in an upscale warehouse district of Copenhagen that were reported to be positive, so the latest G77 action caught some delegates by surprise.
Continue Reading...COP-15 Day 5: Intellectual Property and Developing Countries' Frustrations Take Center Stage
Today, there was some limited progress on a few implementation issues which are largely peripheral to the main obstacles to a consensus agreement. Most of the work was done behind closed doors by separate working groups.
In the morning session, intellectual property protection was a major focus as developing countries insisted on the free flow of new climate friendly technologies while R&D companies feared the conversion and cloning of their intellectual property. In addition, scientists discussed in various briefings the implications of deforestation.
Continue Reading...COP-15 Day 4: Reaching a Political Agreement and the Role of the UN
'Political agreement' was the word of the day in late briefings yesterday and continuing today. Its definition varies from country to country.
For the United States, it means an agreement that President Obama can sign when he comes next week with the full expectation that the United States will honor its terms even without Congressional action. While the preference is for adoption by the Congress by simple majority votes as legislation (as opposed to ratification by the Senate as a treaty with a 2/3 vote), Parties have been assured that President Obama can implement his commitments without Congressional action.
A serious and growing issue remains the role of the UN in monitoring, verifying, and enforcing emissions reductions commitments. African countries have taken a high profile and vocal role in opposing early proposals for an supervising entity outside of the UN. So far, the United States remains firm on its pre-conference position regarding a newly created structure outside of the UN for monitoring and enforcement. Most regard this issue as one of the most significant impediments to a political agreement at COP-15.
Jon Sohn Discusses Progress on International Finance in Copenhagen on E&E TV
As one of the most contentious issues in the international climate negotiations, climate finance is expected to be a major focus in Copenhagen. During today's OnPoint, Jon Sohn explains the climate finance issue and discusses US and European pledges for international aid to developing nations.
To watch the interview, please visit: http://www.eenews.net/tv/2009/12/09/.
COP-15 Day 2: Leaders of Developing Countries Pressed for Commitments Necessary for a Formal Accord
Utilizing the momentum of the announcements from the United States and the United Kingdom, COP-15 representatives pressed leaders of developing countries for commitments necessary for a formal accord among the participating parties. India and China hold the keys to meaningful language committing developing countries to material changes in their total greenhouse gas emissions trajectories.
Continue Reading...The Fab 5: Defining Success in Copenhagen
With 5,000 delegates, 6,000 media and 16,000 non-governmental organizations descending upon Copenhagen for the UN Conference of the Parties on Climate Change, there is no shortage of opinion and spin on what “success” looks like. But through all the talk, 5 key elements are necessary for an agreement that will further efforts to address climate change.
Continue Reading...COP-15 Day 2: UK's Gordon Brown Pledges 30% UK GHG Reductions; Developing Countries Shift Focus to Transition Aid
The United States jumpstarted the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP-15) with solid commitments by the Obama Administration for reductions in Greenhouse Gas Emissions and funding. On Day Two, the United Kingdom confirmed that it would move well beyond the US commitments in hopes of keeping the pressure on for an accord among the participating parties.
Continue Reading...Carbon-Reduction Strategies Likely To Create Friction In Copenhagen
Posted on CNBC.com
One of the biggest obstacles to achieving a global climate change agreement is a fundamental difference between how developed and developing economies would set carbon-emission goals. The big developed economies prefer absolute emissions targets while emerging markets want “carbon intensity” cuts based on the rate of a country’s GDP growth.
Featuring insights from Jon Sohn ...
"We have a lot of exciting technologies and companies that can fill the gaps,” says Jon Sohn, a climate change expert with DC office of law firm McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP. "We can be ahead of the curve and see this coming or dig in our heels."
To read the full article, please visit http://www.cnbc.com/id/34312894.
US Envoy Johnathan Pershing Opens Copenhagen Talks with US Commitment to 17% GHG Reduction Targets
Expectations ramped up with the announcement by Jonathan Pershing, US Deputy Special Envoy for Climate Change, that the United States would commit to specific Greenhouse Gas Emission targets (17%) in line with various climate change legislation pending before the United States Congress.
I sat in on the Plenary Session in which Pershing spoke. The response of the packed room was skeptical with polite spattered applause. The comments by the US negotiator were the most specific to date by any representative of the United States government. Following these comments and several others, I visited with delegates and representatives from several countries around the world as well as from a coupe of states from the United States. There is a genuine sense that negotiators have been given the boundaries for a Copenhagen Accord to be finalized when President Obama visits Copenhagen on December 18, 2009. Several important parties to any successful accord, including India, made clear their reluctance to agree to enforceable defined limits. With the outline of the Obama Administration's commitments, negotiators will now attempt to create an outline of an agreement that is broad enough to accomodate the concerns of many developing countries, while capitalizing on the specifics of the United States' committment.
Making the Business Case for International Funding in US Climate Legislation
As the Senate deliberates on climate change legislation this Fall, strong provisions related to international cooperation and investment in greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation and adaptation are necessary. Recent news reports show that various fossil fuel intensive industries are ramping up for even greater free allowance allocations to meet their emerging climate risk obligations. It is imperative that the slice of the allowance set aside and auction revenue pie, marked for international finance and embedded in the Waxman-Markey bill from the House, is not lost in this feeding frenzy. The Waxman-Markey approach strategically avoids the annual appropriations process for financing climate mitigation efforts abroad and creates the beginnings of self-sustaining finance mechanisms. State Department Climate Envoy Todd Stern testified on the importance of these provisions in a September 10th hearing before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.
Continue Reading...How to Win China and India
Reagan-era economist Martin Feldstein weighed in on the current cap-and-trade plan under consideration in Congress with an op-ed in today's Washington Post.
I'd like to celebrate his contribution, since I noted last week how little thoughtful criticism was coming from Republicans, but unfortunately I can't. Feldstein uses dubious logic and selective inputs to argue that the Waxman Markey bill is a bad idea.
Feldstein argues that the cost of the scheme to taxpayers -- $1600 per typical household, according to a Congressional Budget Office estimate -- is too high since the impact on global warming would be "virtually unnoticeable." Instead, Feldstein argues, the United States "should wait until there is a global agreement that includes China and India."
I agree with Feldstein that climate change cannot be solved without the cooperation of China and India. But unless and until the United States takes a leadership role in battling climate change, those two countries are not going to play ball.
Continue Reading...Who Owns the Amazon?
The Brazilian Supreme Court yesterday blocked an attempt by the country’s rapacious rice farming industry to plow under a 4.2 million acre section of the Amazon rainforest. This decision didn’t receive a lot of press (it was buried in the news briefs in this morning’s Washington Post) but it gets my vote as the most important climate change development to date in this new year.
The Court concluded the land in question, known as the Raposa Serra do Sol reservation, belonged to 18,000 aboriginal Amazionian Indians.
This is the latest twist in a decades-long struggle between an aboriginal people and the modern agricultural industry over the future of the Amazon.
But here’s the larger import: preventing deforestation in the Amazon rainforest may be as important to climate change as any legislation that the United States could adopt.
Continue Reading...Black Carbon Steps from the Shadows as a Major Climate Culprit Worldwide
You may have recently heard about “black carbon” and wondered if it was a climate epithet, a word reversal in a familiar product (carbon black), or simply redundant (carbon is black). But in fact “black” or elemental carbon is emerging as a particularly potent greenhouse agent that needs to be reckoned with on its own terms with special measures to prevent releases to the atmosphere. Recent studies suggest that black carbon emissions, which are not yet controlled by the Kyoto or Montreal Protocols, are the second largest contributor to global warming (after carbon dioxide) and that reducing them may be the fastest strategy for slowing climate change. Black carbon emissions are greatest from developing countries, a trend which is expected to increase, but the US and other developed nations can also do much more to address the problem. Reducing black carbon emissions offers a nearly instant return in lowering the greenhouse effect, because black carbon particles remain airborne for weeks while carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for more than a century (see footnote 24 of IGSD October 2008 Climate Briefing).
Continue Reading...The Montreal Protocol Out-Kyotos Kyoto
International Adaptation Assistance - the Dark Side of the Climate Debate
We have shared views in an earlier blog on climate adaptation, but recent discussion of responsibility for the overall global impacts of climate change leads us to return to the subject. For some time it has been clear that great care needs to be taken in how greenhouse gas reduction responsibilities are assigned to developing nations. They do not want to be denied the blessings of development in order to counter global warming created by the economies of the developed world over the past decades.
Now, a second major issue has surfaced. The developing world is going to need adaptation assistance – upwards of an initial $100 billion – as it experiences actual injuries from the changing climate. The issue is kicking up a lot of sand recently.
Continue Reading...Coal: The Energy Source of the Future?
Gas, oil, nuclear energy, biofuels, other alternative energy, energy conservation – are they enough to cause plentiful, Btu-rich, relatively inexpensive coal to take a back seat to post-Kyoto climate concerns in the developed and developing economies of the world?
With high prices for oil and gas and other promising sources of energy, precisely the opposite appears to be happening, with uncertain implications for carbon dioxide emissions levels and the success of technological fixes for Old King Coal’s dark side.
Continue Reading...The US's Existing Climate Protection Laws: Will They Work?
Summary of the UNFCCC and Plans for Moving Forward
The 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) sought to launch a global climate change regime. In 2005 the well-known Kyoto Protocol, to which a large group of developed and emerging countries became signatories, laid the groundwork for a detailed system of incentives and targets for carbon emissions reductions, but the Protocol will remain in effect only through 2012. The December 2007 meeting in Bali of the Kyoto Conference of the Parties (COP) began to address a new international climate change treaty to take effect in 2013 upon the expiration of the Kyoto Protocol. Their “Bali Road Map” identified the core issues a new treaty must address: adaptation, mitigation, technology, finance, and cooperative action. [summary]
Continue Reading...Food vs. Fuel and Impacts on Climate Change: Biofuels Under Siege
Concern about world food prices and shortages is causing law makers in both the EU and the US to consider either a moratorium or a cutback in biofuels production. In particular, ethanol produced from corn is being blamed as a significant contributor to the world food crisis. [summary]
Continue Reading...International Wind Power
Wind energy experienced a record year of international growth in 2007. According to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), installations of new wind energy facilities increased by thirty percent in 2007, with twenty gigawatts (GW) of new installations brought into service worldwide. According to a US Department of Energy May 2007 report, this follows seven years of growth in wind capacity at the rate of twenty-four percent per year in the US and twenty-seven percent per year worldwide. This growth has been driven in part by multinational utilities such as Iberdrola and Acciona, which joined FPL Energy and Babcock and Brown in 2007 as leaders in wind power plant ownership with new facilities installations in North America and worldwide.
The annual 2007 survey by GWEC and Emerging Energy Research (EER) reflect that wind power ownership and installations continue to increase in North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia. EER reports that while the United States in 2007 remained the largest market with 5.2 GW of new installations, it was closely followed by Spain and China, which added 3.5 GW and 3.4 GW, respectively, to their total capacity of wind power. The other leading international markets include Germany, Canada, India, Denmark, Italy, the UK, Portugal, and France.
The development of wind power is now a global opportunity. For many companies, establishing operations in new international markets may be a sound and profitable part of their strategic growth, particularly markets in which sponsors can achieve greater cost efficiencies and profitability.
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