Copenhagen2009

After Copenhagen: Bay Area Activists Report Back

Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Join us for a panel report-back from the Copenhagen climate negotiations, and a discussion on what we think will happen next! When: 7:00 pm, Tuesday, January 19th Where: Goldman Theater, David Brower Center, 2150 Allston Way in Berkeley. (map) Payal Parekh, Climate Program Director at International Rivers, will be presenting on the panel along with activists and researchers from 350.org (Jamie Henn), EcoEquity (Tom Athanasiou), and the Rainforest Action Network (Bil Barclay). May Boeve from 350.org will moderate. Among the topics we will be discussing are the North/South impasse, the emerg

Disappointing End to Climate Talks

Demands for Climate Justice
Mon, 12/21/2009 - 2:09am
Demands for Climate Justice Ben Powless The disappointing conclusion of the climate negotiations in Copenhagen reinforced how little rich countries, which have caused climate change, are willing to do to ameliorate its impacts and limit warming. Essentially the United States cut a deal with a handful of nations and then shoved this deal down the rest of the world's throat. Even during President Obama's press conference, he admitted that it wasn't legally binding and that it wasn't enough to limit warming to under 2 degrees Celsius (we should note that over 100 countries are c

Water Justice at Copenhagen (or Lack Thereof)

Fri, 12/18/2009 - 2:28pm
Daniel Bachhuber On the final day of the COP15 climate negotiations at Copenhagen, leaders have reportedly reached a final deal, though one that insufficiently deals with emissions reduction targets, timelines, accountability, compliance, and the question of who's responsible for adaptation and mitigation action and funding. Water justice - the belief that every human being deserves the right to access clean water to meet their basic needs - is another issue that has largely been glossed over by delegates these past two weeks. Over at the Klimaforum, global water activists attempted

Loopholes and Targets at Climate Talks

Fri, 12/18/2009 - 7:30am
Here in Copenhagen, a lot of the discussion has been around the lack of ambition coming from developed countries.  There has been little discussion of long-term finance to meet the mitigation and adaptation needs of developing countries. With regards to the emission reduction targets, they are adding up to a mere 11-17% below 1990 levels, despite the fact that the most recent science is calling for emission reductions of at least 40% below 1990 by developed countries. A leaked draft of a document prepared by the UNFCCC secretariat found that the current pledges commits the world to a 3 de

Offsets and the Rich/Poor Divide

Wed, 12/16/2009 - 10:52am
International Rivers' Payal Parekh gives an update on the current status of the climate negotiations at Copenhagen's COP15. Developed countries continue to avoid taking strong targets, raising tensions between rich and poor countries on the third-to-last day of the negotiations. News on offsets and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) are mixed and constantly changing.

Payal Talks About Climage Change on Reuters

Tue, 12/15/2009 - 3:12pm
  International Rivers climate scientist Payal Parekh was interviewed about climate change on the Reuters blog today from Copenhagen.  Take a look at the whole story on Reuters.com. Ian Elwood is the Web Producer for International Rivers, he blogs at: internationalrivers.org/en/blog/ian-elwood

As Negotiations Drag, Subnational Leaders Step Up

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California addressing the 194-nation U.N. climate talks
Tue, 12/15/2009 - 3:08pm
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California addressing the 194-nation U.N. climate talks United Nations As the clock winds down, and countries are nowhere near an agreement, subnational leaders from Canada, Nigeria, France and Algeria, led by California's "Gubernator," announced today in a press conference at Bella that they plan to advance the concept of a new regional coalition to fast track the results of the Copenhagen negotiations. Already, California is engaged in the Western Climate Initiative and has underway its own cap-and-trade program (which, good news, recentl

Half-time Review of Climate Negotiations

At the Bella Center, home of the COP15 negotiations
Mon, 12/14/2009 - 3:42am
At the Bella Center, home of the COP15 negotiations http//:www.international-club-copenhagen.blogspot.com/ It's halftime at the climate negotiations in Copenhagen. Thus it is a good opportunity to analyze what happened last week and discuss what we can expect in the coming week, with a focus on the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and new proposed trading schemes. On Friday, a new draft text was released that focuses on reforms to the CDM.  From the perspective of International Rivers, most of the reforms would not be considered improvements. The only option on the table that woul

Crunch Time in Copenhagen

Flood for Climate Justice
Mon, 12/14/2009 - 2:13am
Flood for Climate Justice http://www.dr.dk/Nyheder/Billedserier/2009/12/12212940.htm Week Two of the COP15 in Copenhagen opens with the arrival of over 110 ministers and soon their heads of state - i.e. crunch time for the negotiations. This is also leading to incredibly long lines at the entrance and limits to the number of NGO members being admitted. With the arrival of high-level officials, there's increasing concern among civil society that officials may end up greenwashing the outcome, i.e. making pretty speeches even if a weak agreement is reached. The offsets loopholes in parti

Down and Dirty: Farm Soil Will Offset Emissions in Australia's Carbon Cut Scheme

Monday, December 14, 2009
Originally published in The Sydney Morning Herald It was a candid remark in a private briefing. But unfortunately for the Government, comments by an Australian climate negotiator late last week in Copenhagen have pretty much let the cat out of the bag on where Labor intends to find any ambitious cuts to Australia's 2020 greenhouse gas emissions. Ironically, it will be in exactly the same places that the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, goes looking for his ''practical measures'' to solve climate change. And they will not be anywhere near the smokestacks of dirty coal-fired power stations or t

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