Climate Change

Fast Facts on International Targets: Sign of Hope, or Just Hot Air?

Lots of hot air
Mon, 12/08/2008 - 4:15pm
Lots of hot air Reuters has compiled a helpful cheatsheet on country-by-country climate targets (see below). Reminding ourselves (and our leaders) of these targets now would be a good idea, considering that the attitude in Poznan has apparently turned pessimistic - see Ambitions for 2009 UN climate pact fade in Poznan (Reuters). (Oh, by the way, Venice just experienced its highest flood levels in 22 years.) A note on the US: the US emitted 7.28 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent (CO2e) in 2007, a 1.4% increase in emissions, according to a report released Tuesday by the Energy Informatio

The CDM is Taken Apart

Start Helping
Mon, 12/08/2008 - 8:42am
Start Helping Ann-Kathrin Schneider Here at Poznan, the Clean Development Mechanism, CDM, is being taken apart. Sounds like good news you say? Well... It is taken apart in the sense that the reforms to the current CDM are being discussed here in Poznan, and the future of the CDM, post 2012, will only be discussed next year. This means that for now, we have to do with incremental changes to the governing structure of the mechanism, but bigger changes to the fundamental principles of the CDM have to wait until next year. Which gives us room for campaigning and hope, I guess. Or time fo

It's Change I Need

Change Needed
Mon, 12/08/2008 - 7:28am
Change Needed Ann-Kathrin Schneider This Icebear is greeting the participants of the Climate Conference in Poznan, Poland. He is sooo right!!!

Not From the EU, not This Time...

Stop Harming
Sun, 12/07/2008 - 1:14pm
Stop Harming Ann-Kathrin Schneider 24 hours at the Climate Conference in Poznan – and I am still struggling to make the shift between the real world and the world of acronyms. Back home in Berlin, I saw the climate conference in big picture terms: commitments to fight climate change, yes or no? But here, even after just 24 hours on the ground, I am immersed in the technical language, the nitty-gritty details, already climate-acronym-literate. CDM, shared vision, negotiating mandate, mitigation – developed, mitigation – developing, adaptation, finance, tech transfer, LULUFC and last bu

Clean Development Mechanism: Dump It, Don't Expand It

Payal Parekh with Tom Goldtooth and other CJN! panelists
Friday, December 5, 2008
For immediate release. The UN´s Clean Development Mechanism is beyond repair and should be dumped, climate justice campaigners told delegates at the UN Climate Change Conference in Poznan today.1 "The CDM is a ´lose-lose´ proposition that has become a corrupt and cheap way for the rich North to avoid making real emission reductions. CDM projects in the South generate windfalls for major polluters in the North, providing transnational corporations and governments a way to buy their way out the responsibility to make their own emissions cuts" says Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director of the I

Big Dams Are Not the Answer to World's Energy Needs

Monday, July 14, 2008
Published in The Sacramento Bee How to generate electricity without selling out the climate is one of the pressing issues facing humanity today. But don't worry; the international hydropower industry says it has the situation covered. It's using the threat of global warming as a pretext for promoting a new generation of big dams in developing countries. But investment in hydropower dams will not only increase our vulnerability to climate change, it will also sell out some of the last remaining wild places on Earth, and the lives and livelihoods of tens of millions of people.

US Congress's Auditor (Politely) Blasts the CDM

Wed, 12/03/2008 - 11:27am
International Rivers' critiques of the Clean Development Mechanism just got some influential support from the Government Accountability Office, the “audit, evaluation and investigative arm of Congress.” In a detailed report released on November 18 and covered by Reuters yesterday, the GAO concludes that: “Congress may wish to consider the following lessons from the CDM: (1) that it may be possible to achieve the CDM's sustainable development goals and emissions cuts in developing countries more directly and cost-effectively through a means other than the existing mechanism

UN Climate Conference: NGOs Demand an End to Loopholes

Thursday, November 27, 2008
Joint Press ReleaseForum Umwelt und Entwicklung (Environment and Development) and International RiversBerlin The UN climate conference begins on December 1st in Poznan to set the course for the post-2012 climate agreement. International Rivers and the Forum Umwelt & Entwicklung demand meaningful emission reduction goals, as well as corrections to the Kyoto Protocol from decision-makers. One of the most serious loopholes is the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Power plant operators in industrialized countries can offset their emissions with questionable projects in developing countries. M

Poznan Declaration: World vs. Bank

Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Statement Submitted to the World Bank by Friends of the Earth and Focus on the Global South, Signed on by International RiversNations are gathering in Poznan, Poland under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). To meet their obligations towards developing countries and repay their climate debt, industrialized countries must agree to appropriately and adequately finance adaptation, mitigation, and technology development and transfer. The World Bank Group is positioning itself to control key financial mechanisms of the UNFCCC. We, the undersigned organizations, oppos

Rip-Offsets: The Failure of the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism

Monday, December 1, 2008
Barbara Haya, UC Berkeley researcher and International Rivers consultant, explains the shortcomings and implications of the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Video produced by Valdis Wish.

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