Copenhagen climate talks
-
India, Italy, Brazil can fill America’s blanks
Americans pride themselves on being ________ (fill in the blank with something like “biggest,” “best,” or “first”). Especially in California, we think we lead the world on carbon-reducing advances like ________ (fill in blank with “solar power,” “energy efficiency,” or “suntanned, body-builder, movie star, Austrian-born governors”). Given Obama’s U.N.-busting initiative in Copenhagen last month, our […]
-
Climate success in 2009 should inspire the new year
Co-written by Doug Kendall, founder and president of the Constitutional Accountability Center. For good reason, many climate activists view 2009 as a disappointing year, filled with bad news coverage and missed opportunities. The Senate seems a long way from passing a clean energy jobs bill, and the long-anticipated U.N. summit in Copenhagen has come and […]
-
![]()
![]()
Copenhagen revealed a new dynamic between the U.S. and China
This week, Seed magazine hosted a discussion on the Copenhagen climate talks — the outcome and the lessons learned — called Good Cop, Bad Cop. Contributing were K.C. Golden, environmental non-profit policy director, Mike Hulme, climate change scientist, Michael Levi, energy security expert, and yours truly. Click over to Seed to see all the contributions. […]
-
![]()
![]()
With new year comes second chance to save the world
Just about exactly a year ago, patient readers with long memories may remember, I received a sobering New Year’s Day message. “Today,” it began arrestingly, “is arguably the first day of the most important year in human history.” Once again, the climate clock is ticking…The message — sent to a who’s who of top officials […]
-
![]()
![]()
A conversation with Indian youth activist Ruchi Jain
Ruchi Jain, 23, was working as a marketer in Mumbai, India, when she left her job to become a full-time climate activist. Today she works with the Indian Youth Climate Network and 350.org, and she traveled to Copenhagen in December to participate in the climate talks. I followed Jain during the two-week conference as she […]
-
![]()
![]()
Copenhagen blame game is obstacle to 2010 climate deal
The holidays are supposed to be the season of goodwill. But that has been in short supply over the past week and a half as governments and environmental groups blame each other for the disappointing outcome of the Copenhagen climate summit. Did the messy outcome at Copenhagen make it less likely that world governments can […]
-
![]()
![]()
What happens now for the forests?
So Copenhagen is over, with forests mentioned in one paragraph of a politically ambiguous “Copenhagen Accord” and an incomplete REDD agreement stapled on the back with major safeguard and finance issues still unresolved. Clearly, high hopes of a deal that might save the world’s forests and reduce the 15-20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions […]
-
![]()
![]()
Copenhagen coal in the stocking?
As a kid in Milwaukee, my parents told me that Santa would leave coal in my stocking if I was naughty. As the post mortem of Copenhagen is written, was it a lump of coal in our 2009 holiday stocking — or could this global chunk of carbon actually be a diamond in the rough? […]
-
What you need to know following the Copenhagen climate summit
Co-authored by Rebecca Lefton. The international negotiations on climate change wrapped up Dec. 19 in Copenhagen. The conference achieved an interim agreement, known as the Copenhagen Accord, which could put the major polluting nations on a pathway to reducing global warming pollution, and it continues to set the expectation for U.S. domestic action on climate […]
