Copenhagen didn’t amount to much. Maybe the next world climate conference will.
COP 16 & CMP 6 – Launch of host country website Cancún, Mexico — The sixteenth Conference of the Parties (COP) and the sixth Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP) will be held in Cancún, Mexico, from 29 November to 10 December 2010, together with the thirty-third sessions of the subsidiary bodies and the fourteenth session of the AWG-KP and twelfth session of the AWG-LCA.
The official host country of Mexico’s website is now available online. Visit the website
COP16 will be in Cancun. It’s not actually correct to say it’s near Tulum, as the website advertises, but if you are going to COP16 you should try to visit Tulum even though it’s quite a ways down the coast. I visited Tulum in 2007. The Mayans in general are a cautionary tale about what happens when you misuse the land for farming and diverting water, etc. Cancun itself is frighteningly overdeveloped on the ocean side, with resorts everywhere. If there are any mangroves left there, they must be hiding them. In fact, much of the coast from Cancun down to Tulum is what I would call overdeveloped, and as everyone knows, that’s not exactly great for the ecosystems and the environment. Tulum was a Mayan fortress, or a walled city, and mainly occupied around AD 1200. The walls and location were to ward off invasions that would come from the sea, and obviously they were unsuccessful. The Spanish eventually abandoned Tulum in the 1600s.
The photo below is one I took of Tulum on the sea edge, with some ruins in the back left area. This area of Mexico is unbelievably gorgeous and the water really is that color. It’s impossible to imagine an oil leak off this coast, but I suppose some day there could be one unless something positive happens with a binding climate change agreement very soon.
Photo: Sean Gardner - An Oil-covered pelican sits on the rocky shore line of Queen Bess Island Pelican Rookery three miles north east of Grand Isle, Louisiana June 6, 2010.
Besides the Gulf Oil Spill, there is a lot of other environmental news happening.
PARIS (Reuters, June 9) – The OECD urged governments to end fossil fuels subsidies in a statement on Wednesday that argued this could cut greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent and help deliver on G20 promises to combat global warming. Leaders of the Group of 20 economic powers meet in Toronto in late June and pledged last September in Pittsburgh to press for a phase-out over the medium term, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development said.
Green Business
“Many governments are giving subsidies to fossil fuel production and consumption that encourage greenhouse gas emissions, at the same time as they are spending on projects to promote clean energy,” OECD chief Angel Gurría said. “This is a wasteful use of scarce budget resources.”
Yes, it certainly is. The only energy that should be getting subsidies these days is renewable energy and nuclear power, but only the safest, 4th generation nuclear power that is currently in development. We will probably need at least some of it because the oil faucet is going to be turned off very soon. Electric cars will need massive amounts of electricity and we have to stop burning coal too. (Unless our car culture somehow disappears, and that is hard to picture unless it is done by force).
Senator Lisa Murkowski R-Alaska. Image by Getty Images via @daylife
“If you want to know why the United States has failed to act on climate change–a political failure that could precipitate a larger political failure for the world–here’s one answer: Evan Bayh of Indiana, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas (one of Obama’s favorites), Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, and Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia. [Get these people out of office! ]
Those are the six Senate Democrats who voted with Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski this afternoon in a failed effort to strip the Environmental Protection Agency of its power to regulate greenhouse gas pollution. Murkowski enjoyed the support of all her fellow Republicans in the resolution, which went down 47-53 (roll call).
Independent Joe Lieberman voted with the majority to defeat the resolution. “
The “dirty Democrats” should be replaced as soon as possible. (Looks like we are stuck with Blanche for awhile though). They will hold up any climate legislation and fight against the EPA. It’s astounding that some of these people are from the southern states where the oil spill is having the largest impact!
Is It Antiscience to Limit EPA’s Authority on Greenhouse Emissions?
YES, because they are attempting to strip the EPA of authority for purely political reasons. The EPA needs to retain all of its authority because half the time, members of Congress have their heads up their asses . They won’t do what is legally necessary on climate change and energy due to “political” reasons and I’m fed up with them. The Democrats and Republicans who are against the environment and against addressing climate change need to get out of Washington. They are slimey, dirty, and coated in filthy fossil fuel money.
The UNFCCC climate conference in Bonn has been going on since May 31st. The U.S. media doesn’t care and has hardly mentioned it. (If in fact they have at all). Luckily, we have the intertubes. See more here: UNFCCC. It ends, officially on June 11th, at which time Yvo de Boer will resign from his job as Executive Secretary.
The thirty-second sessions of the UNFCCC Convention subsidiary bodies are taking place from Monday May 31 to Wednesday June 9, 2010. The twelfth session of the AWG-KP and tenth session of the AWG-LCA are taking place from Tuesday 1 June to Friday 11 June 2010. The venue for the meetings is the Hotel Maritim in Bonn.
The chair of the AWG-LCA is tabling a text to facilitate negotiations among Parties. The documentation to facilitate negotiations among Parties prepared by the Chair of the AWG-KP is available here.
Yvo de Boer has announced today, February 18th, that he will resign his position as Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on 1 July 2010.
Mr. de Boer will be joining the consultancy group KPMG as Global Adviser on Climate and Sustainability, as well as working with a number of universities. I personally don’t think it’s important who the executive secretary of the UNFCCC talks is, but maybe someone younger would be a good idea, given what they have to physically endure during the climate talks (going for several days without sleep during the last talks). Yvo de Boer worked very hard during the climate change talks but often appeared overwhelmed and exhausted and he was unable to pull a binding agreement together. According to the press release today:
“Working with my colleagues at the UNFCCC Secretariat in support of the climate change negotiations has been a tremendous experience”, said Mr. de Boer who has led the organisation since September 2006. “It was a difficult decision to make, but I believe the time is ripe for me to take on a new challenge, working on climate and sustainability with the private sector and academia,” he explained.
“I have always maintained that while governments provide the necessary policy framework, the real solutions must come from business” said Yvo de Boer. “Copenhagen did not provide us with a clear agreement in legal terms, but the political commitment and sense of direction toward a low-emissions world are overwhelming. This calls for new partnerships with the business sector and I now have the chance to help make this happen”, he added.
The climate change talks at Copenhagen, despite last-ditch efforts by President Obama and many others, went on through the night, into the morning and then into the early afternoon. In the end, no legal agreement, though they do have a “Copenhagen Accord” with a maximum temperature agreement, financial support, deforestation agreements, and lots more that will be analyzed for months. If you have heard that Obama accomplished a lot in Copenhagen, that depends on what you mean by “a lot”. You can download the accord and read it: Copenhagen Accord (182 kB)
Here is the final statement from Yvo de Boer. You can read all the documents and see archived video on the UNFCCC site.
“Briefing the press at the end of the two-week conference, Yvo de Boer said an accord has been reached that has significant elements, but that is not legally binding.
He described the accord as “politically important,” demonstrating a willingness to move forward. It brings together a diversity of countries that have put in place a letter of intent with the ingredients of an architecture for a response to climate change.
The key points of the accord include the objective to keep the maximum temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius; the commitment to list developed country emission reduction targets and mitigation action by developing countries for 2020; USD 30 billion short-term funding for immediate action till 2012 and USD 100 billion annually by 2020 in long-term financing, as well as mechanisms to support technology transfer and forestry.
The challenge now is to turn what is agreed into something that is legally binding in Mexico one year from now.”
The accord is a political agreement only, not binding, and it’s primarily to reduce emissions on a voluntary basis without legal oversight. The accord is called operational. That means the money pledged by countries to help poorer countries adapt and develop will be available to them. Yvo de Boer calls it “politically significant” but without legally binding requirements I don’t see how the U.S. and China and India will do what needs to be done in reducing emissions. I do believe that most people in the U.S. government want to do what is necessary but there is strong political opposition from some anti-science right-wing Congressmen who are most concerned with protecting their own state interests.
The Copenhagen climate summit got off to a big start on December 7th with many meetings and opening statements. Here is the COP 15 opening press briefing:
“COP 15 President Connie Hedegaard and UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer held a joint press conference on the opening day of the meeting.
Ms. Hedegaard spoke of an unprecedented political will to reach an agreement. With 110 Heads of State confirmed as attending the conference, she said there is a huge pressure on everyone to deliver not just a deal, but an ambitious deal in Copenhagen. She emphasized the urgent need for such a deal to be reached here in Copenhagen, saying that we cannot send 110 Heads of State home to tell their populations that we couldnt make it.
Yvo de Boer stated that countries in the conference room this morning made clear their desire to deliver a strong and ambitious outcome in Copenhagen. I believe the conference will write history, but we must make sure it writes the right history, he said. He underlined the need for ambitious commitments to cut and limit emissions, for immediate funding and for prompt action on the ground.”
See below for a strong message on the agreement NASA Scientist James Hansen is expecting from Copenhagen and how it needs to be improved.
Look at the box on the left! The Climate Change Conference starts today in Copenhagen. Throughout the next two weeks, Futurism Now will bring you a wide range of topics associated with the conference, and update you on news from Copenhagen as much as possible. Some of our partners in this effort (there are many) include Link TV and OneClimate.net. They are both devoted to bringing up to date media from Copenhagen to everyone around the world who tunes in. We are embedding their daily video here so you can check back here or visit their site for the latest media.
“Millions of viewers are expected to tune in December 7-19, 2009 during the climate summit, which has been called ‘the most important conference since World War II’.” The videos will include breaking stories, the lowdown with experts, and crowd-sourced video.
And don’t forget, the official Copenhagen COP15 media channels are there for everyone too. Here is the page with everything on it from the UNFCCC, where you can also participate virtually, every day.
Kilimanjaro's Snows are Melting Away. Mount Kilimanjaro in June 2001 (left) and July 2009 (right). The satellite images show a vastly decreasing amount of snow.
“The snows of Mount Kilimanjaro will be gone within two decades, according to scientists who say that the rapid melting of its glacier cap over the past century provides dramatic physical evidence of global climate change.” Read this story here.
“Climate change is already happening, is unequivocal and this change can
now be firmly attributed to human activity.” – UNFCCC
The effects of climate change are being observed and measured, world-wide, right now. Sadly, the world is losing its ice and its mountain snow, and its glaciers — not all at once, but faster than expected.
As one scientist (Gavin A. Schmidt) from RealClimate says,
“If you ask a scientist how much more CO2 do you think we should add to the atmosphere, the answer is going to be none.
All the rest is economics.”
But due to the amount of misinformation coming from energy corporations, politicians, and their gullible followers, it’s seems that the public needs to be reminded constantly that climate change is a fact, that most scientists agree it’s happening, and that it’s caused by human activity. We know this. This consensus was reached quite a while ago, not last year, or recently. Global warming was first measured and observed in the early part of the last century. It was predicted in the late 1800s. Yet still, there is a small sub-group of a political faction in this country that does not believe in climate change, as though it were a matter of faith, and for them, I will be publishing more science related topics here. They need to know what most of the world knows, and it’s clear their usual reading is not providing them with this information.
Planned emission cuts still mean a far hotter Earth — (story below). Even the newest plans to fight climate change are not going to be adequate to keep temperatures rising beyond safe levels, according to the UNEP in their latest warning two days ago. This is the newest and most convincing reason more people have to write and talk more about climate change.
This is a climate change science video produced weekly called “Climate change crock of the week” by Peter Sinclair. It’s covers a lot of recent scientific proof of global warming. It also explains cooling anomalies and explains a point I make a lot when I talk to people about climate change: just because it’s cool where you were this summer, as was much of the United States, does not mean that those temperatures represent anything but your own local region. People don’t think “planetary” enough when thinking of climate change. They also think in terms of short amounts of time, like one or two years.
Then again, many people seem to think we have decades before we really have to seriously address climate change. They are wrong — we have to act to cut emissions as soon as possible.
The latest warning is that global warming is speeding up. That is the message of scientists who observe the melting of the Greenland ice sheet, and it’s the message from a recent new UN report, following the climate change summit that was held on September 22nd. They are characterizing it as an update to the last IPCC report, which is now out of date in many respects because everything is happening faster than they projected.
WASHINGTON (AP) –Earth’s temperature is likely to jump nearly 6 degrees between now and the end of the century even if every country cuts greenhouse gas emissions as proposed, according to a United Nations update.
Scientists looked at emission plans from 192 nations and calculated what would happen to global warming. The projections take into account 80 percent pollution cuts from the U.S. and Europe by 2050, which are not sure things. . . . . Carbon dioxide, mostly from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil, is the main cause of global warming, trapping the sun’s energy in the atmosphere. The world’s average temperature has already risen 1.4 degrees (0.8 degrees Celsius) since the 19th century.
Copenhagen Accord
