International Climate Policy

On the Durban climate conference, Part 1: US hard-nosed conservative negotiating position essentially prevails

Having failed to resolve the fundamental policy issues of global climatic disruption, the major players at Durban pushed them off into the future. The ‘Durban Framework’ for continuing negotiations is so skeletal that it essentially allows everyone to hold their current position on commitments for emissions limits and engage in hard bargaining from there. The [...]

2018-10-26T13:28:03-04:00December 12th, 2011|International Climate Policy|

Fundamental impasse on U.S. climate policy evident in House Foreign Affairs hearing on UN climate talks chaired by denialist Rep. Rohrabacher

House Foreign Affairs oversight and investigations subcommittee chair Dana Rohrabacher (R-California), Obama administration climate negotiator Todd Stern, and a disparate panel of witnesses squared off at a May 25 hearing on whether U.S. participation in United Nations climate treaty negotiations is needed or desirable. The hearing exemplified the conflict within the U.S. power elite over [...]

U.S. climate envoy Jonathan Pershing: in implementing the Cancun Agreements, the U.S. will be the focus of global attention

On January 5, Jonathan Pershing, the U.S. Deputy Special Envoy for Climate Change, told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies that the framework established by the Cancun Agreements signals a busy year for implementation of climate measures in 2011.  The Cancun Agreements hammered out what Pershing called a “balanced package” of [...]

2018-10-26T13:33:28-04:00January 6th, 2011|International Climate Policy|

Wikileaks reveals Dalai Lama told U.S. ambassador: Climate change now a more urgent focus for Tibet than politics

A U.S. State Department cable released by Wikileaks shows U.S. Ambassador to India Tim Roemer reporting that, in an August 2009 meeting, the Dalai Lama “argued that the political agenda should be sidelined for five to ten years and the international community should shift its focus to climate change on the Tibetan plateau. [...]

2018-10-26T13:33:47-04:00December 19th, 2010|International Climate Policy|

CSW interview on IPCC and recommendations for ‘fundamental reform’

On August 30, Climate Science Watch director Rick Piltz was interviewed on Al Jazeera English TV as part of their coverage of the important new report by the InterAcademy Council on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The report calls for a number of needed changes in management, structure, procedure, and communications, to strengthen the [...]

Draft of 5th U.S. Climate Action Report required by climate treaty posted for 28-day public review

The U.S. government on April 7 issued the public review draft of its fifth “national communication” required under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).  U.S. Climate Action Report 2010 is the first comprehensive statement so far from the Obama Administration on actions the U.S. is taking at all levels to address climate [...]

After Copenhagen, questions about U.S. commitment to climate change aid to developing countries

After building up expectations with the Copenhagen Accord of substantial new aid to developing countries, is the Obama administration already lowering them now that the action has shifted to the U.S. domestic scene?  Under the Copenhagen Accord, “developed countries commit to a goal of mobilizing jointly” $100 billion a year by 2020 in “new and [...]

Text of the Copenhagen Accord

The United Nations climate conference of 193 nations in Copenhagen ended early this morning with particpants agreeing to “take note” of the Copenhagen Accord, an agreement brokered by the United States, China, India, Brazil, and South Africa. With the Copenhagen Accord, an initial group of more than 25 nations has agreed to adopt and report [...]