Home/Posts Tagged ‘kyoto’
Posts Tagged ‘kyoto’
Climate & Change, Politics, Nov 30th, 2011,
COP 17 updates, anyone? Anyone care about the future of the climate, planet Earth or its human and non-human inhabitants? No? Well neither do your leaders, apparently. Wo what are they doing there, anyway? One aspect of the climate summit in Durban, South Africa seems to be various large polluting countries balking at committing to reduce emissions unless every other country does. This effectively means that none of them really want to. Not enough to take a stand. Make no mistake: the rule of the day is economic self-interest. Brazil, China, India are not considered industrialized nations and want exemption…
Tags: China, climate, cop 17, Durban, emissions, EU, global, japan, kyoto, REDD, Russia, treaty
Climate & Change, Politics, Apr 12th, 2010,
The first UN climate talks since Copenhagen ended in Bonn, Germany, much as expected – with little concrete progress. The cleavage between industrialized and developing countries that characterized the Copenhagen conference is likely to continue through the next major climate talks in Cancun, Mexico at the end of the year. This rich poor divide provided the fireworks for the meetings in Bonn, which ultimately ended in an agreement to intensify negotiations before Mexico. From an article in the Guardian: In what was interpreted as a major rebuff to the US, Russia and Japan, the G77 (plus China) group of 130…
Tags: accord, ALBA, binding, Bolivia, Bonn, Cancun, China, climate, copenhagen, countries, deal, developing, japan, kyoto, Mexico, nations, talks, UN, US
Climate & Change, Politics, Apr 9th, 2010,
Copenhagen it’s not, but the first UN climate meetings since December’s disappointment in Denmark began today in Bonn, Germany. According to a report from BBC News, developing countries are strongly on board with the UN process and would like to see a binding global climate deal under the Kyoto Protocol by the next major summit, which takes place in Mexico in November and December. But political will is lacking in some richer nations, especially the US. US President Barack Obama’s modest pledge made at Copenhagen to reduce emissions by 17% from 2005 levels by 2020 probably does not have the…
Tags: accord, Bonn, climate, climate change, copenhagen, countries, developing, emissions, Germany, kyoto, meetings, Mexico, nations, protocol, rich, treaty, UN, US
Climate & Change, Politics, Dec 15th, 2009,
It has been expected from the start of the COP15 climate summit in Copenhagen that there would be a clash of interests between the developing world and the wealthy industrialized countries. The rich nations cause most of the pollution and the poor ones suffer the most from its effects. So they would like some recompense or – depending on which nation you ask – at least be able to industrialize and pollute their way into the developed countries club. As actor/comedian/columnist David Mitchell puts it in Sunday’s Observer ‘our long, unaffordable global lunch is coming to an end’, we’ve asked…
Tags: Africa, copenhagen, countries, developing, industrialize, kyoto, Obama, United States
Climate & Change, Politics, Dec 1st, 2009,
The world has been through some drastic changes since the Kyoto agreement in 1997, and none of them have been for the better. Over a decade has passed and it seems the most people have been capable of is studying and talking, but not much doing. Yes, there have been conferences, protests, demonstrations and some off-the-wall actions by organizations and the like; but what of the politics and science? For all the research done and meetings held, look at the good it has [not] done: All of the oceans have risen by 1.5 inches. Droughts and wildfires have worsened on…
Tags: climate change, cop15, environmental crisis, global warming, kyoto
Climate & Change, Politics, Oct 10th, 2009,
To head off the worst of global warming, scientists say the world needs to slash its greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050, which would mean an 80 percent cut for developed countries. The Copenhagen talks will attempt to make progress toward that goal. Europe wants them to set targets of 25 to 40 percent reductions by 2020 for rich nations. –David Adam, Washington Monthly The road to and from Kyoto has seen plenty of speed bumps, potholes roadblocks, carjackers and – at least from my back passenger seat – a fair amount of road rage. That may be milking…
Tags: carbon emissions, climate change, cop15, copenhagen, global warming, kyoto
Climate & Change, Politics, Sep 28th, 2009,
What are the UNFCC and the Kyoto Protocol? Unofficially known as ‘Earth Summit,’ the UNFCC first gathered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June of 1992 with the basic goal of establishing limits on greenhouse gas production. The treaty was non-binding and without legal power. It is therefore commonly referred to as a ‘protocol’. The next significant and most well known meeting of the UNFCC was in Kyoto, Japan in 1997, marking a commitment from developed countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions. The United States famously did not ratify the protocol, citing the belief that the treaty should include…
Tags: climate change, cop15, copenhagen, greenhouse gas, kyoto, protocol, UNFCC
Uncategorized, Aug 29th, 2009,
Depends on whom you ask Most sources seem to say that it’s either the tropical eco-paradise of Costa Rica or Germany, the environmentally conscious, European economic powerhouse. But it was Switzerland, followed by Sweden and Norway, which topped Yale’s 2008 EPI – or Environmental Performance Index – a grading system that ranks countries by their carbon and sulfur emissions, water purity and conservation practices. And yet there are others, such as Finland and New Zealand, who are also vying for that coveted seat atop the eco-throne. So why is there so much disagreement about who occupies it? Here we’ll take…
Tags: carbon, Costa Rica, environment, footprint, Germany, Green, greenest, Greenest country, kyoto, New Zealand, united nations
