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The race for the clean energy future comes to Washington, DC today—only symbolically if the US doesn’t seize the moment. Energy ministers from 20 countries that account for over 80% of the world’s global warming pollution are in the US to discuss how to speed up the deployment of clean energy throughout the world, as a part of the Clean Energy Ministerial. The subplot of the meeting will be which of these countries will come out sprinting and which ones will begin by jogging in the race for the clean energy future.
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On June 26-27, Leaders from the 20 largest economies will meet in Toronto, Canada as a part of the Group of 20 Summit. These countries represent 85% of the world’s global warming pollution and 83% of the world’s economic output. So with the Heads of Government of these powerhouse countries meeting, will climate change be on the agenda and will they make any strides in dealing with this challenge? The answers are: just barely and maybe.
Continue Reading G20 Leaders to Meet and Discuss Global Warming…but only a little bit
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Every day a huge amount of oil is spewing into the Gulf of Mexico in the US. This is symbolic of the energy choices that we have made to date. And it shows the dramatic implications of that energy choice. But those energy choices are also having devastating impacts which are less visual but more damaging. Rampant global warming is impacting countries around the world as a result of our energy and development choices. The oil catastrophe is a wake-up call for the United States and should be a wake-up call for the world.
Continue Reading The Choice to Move Forward on International Efforts to Address Global Warming
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Indonesia and Norway inked a deal last week to take concrete actions to reduce Indonesia’s deforestation emissions. Indonesia is the world’s 3rd largest emitter of global warming pollution (when deforestation emissions are included) so this is a very important effort. The deal between Indonesia and Norway was reached in the lead-in to the Oslo forest conference where over 50 countries agreed to a new Partnership to address deforestation (as I discussed here). The deal with Indonesia is a critical agreement as it requires action from the Indonesian government and assistance from the Norwegian government to make a serious dent in the loss of Indonesia’s forests.
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The draft of the American Power Act is now out (see NRDC’s first read summary of the entire bill). The core global warming pollution limits in the bill, covering all major pollution sources, are a solid foundation for Senate legislation to put a final bill on President Obama’s desk this year. So how does this legislative proposal address the critical international investments that aid our international efforts to address global warming?
Continue Reading Tools for Supporting International Action on Global Warming: American Power Act
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The World Bank has just announced its intent to seek $86 billion for a general capital increase (the GCI) from its donor countries (see World Bank press release). It is time for the World Bank to become a full part of the solution to global warming, not part of the problem and part of the solution at the same time. The World Bank needs to seize this opportunity to shift its energy investments to clean energy. The US should only approve a contribution towards the Bank’s general capital increase if it secures a firm commitment to transition to clean energy.
Continue Reading Now is the Time to Shift World Bank Resources to Clean Energy
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Ministers from four of the major emerging economies – Brazil, South Africa, India, and China (the “BASIC” group) – met over the weekend and through Monday to discuss the next steps in international efforts to address global warming. These four countries played a critical role in Copenhagen and collectively account for around 30% of the world’s global warming pollution* so they are critical players in addressing this challenge. And each of them have made commitments as a part of the Copenhagen Accord to reduce their emissions and are implementing policies to achieve those goals (as I discussed here).
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It is almost 3 months after the Copenhagen Accord was hammered out by 28 of the world’s key countries that represent over 80% of the world’s global warming pollution and some of the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change (as I discussed here). Given the state of the Accord just after Copenhagen with some calling it a failure, some outlining the foundations in the Accord for international efforts (and as my colleague discussed here), and others…well not quite sure what to make of it, where do things stand on international efforts to address global warming?
Continue Reading Where Do Things Stand on International Efforts to Address Global Warming?
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As I mentioned here by the end of January countries were to register their actions to reduce global warming pollution as agreed under the Copenhagen Accord. And by deadline countries accounting for over 80% of the world’s global warming pollution (and a bit more) have registered their actions to reduce their pollution. So what does this all mean?
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In December 2009, more than 120 Heads of Government attended the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit, the largest meeting of world leaders in history (the previous largest one was the funeral of the Pope according to Wikipedia). Many of the leaders came to Copenhagen with new commitments to actions on global warming pollution (as I discussed here and here). Under the Accord, all of the big emitters are expected to record their commitments officially by January 31st, 2010 (in Appendix I and Appendix II).
Continue Reading Copenhagen Accord = Climate Action
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