Climate “Reparations”
One of the critical issues facing Copenhagen negotiators is the amount of money (and technology) that will be transferred from wealthy states to developing countries so that the latter won’t burn fossil fuels and thereby create future emissions that could effectively cancel out any reductions achieved by rich states.
OBAMA ALMOST MAKES THE RIGHT DECISION
A recent report indicated that President Obama had finally made a security policy related decision—not on his Afghanistan strategy which is yet to be announced– but rather on whether or not his administration would seek to have the US sign the treaty banning the production and use of anti-personnel land mines, a treaty that 156 other nations have already signed.
Brazil
Will a new climate agreement require developing countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (ghgs)? Will developing states agree to make reductions? In this post, let’s consider the prospects for Brazil agreeing to such reductions.
Interim Deal?
The Copenhagen climate summit is now less than one month away and observers are not optimistic that states will agree to a deal cementing either specific greenhouse gas emission reductions or increased environmental assistance to the developing world so they can meet the standards without threatening growth vital to fighting poverty.
Hidden costs of the status quo
In late October, the United States National Academy of Sciences released an interesting on-line “prepublication” edition of a report called Hidden Costs of Energy: Unpriced Consequences of Energy Production and Use.
IR and the Global South: final confessions of a schizophrenic teacher
As I’ve hacked my way through the thicket of the Great Debates these thirty-odd years past, I’ve increasingly wondered what my students must have made of my passion for ideas which appear at odds with the lives they lead – even, indeed, the countries they have come to know.
Copenhagen: Will a deal emerge?
How can a new treaty ensure more potent action? Further complicating matters is the fact that European governments are said to favor a new Kyoto-style agreement that sets relatively firm emissions targets. The news this week was confusing, but much evidence suggests that any new agreement on climate change will have to wait until 2010.
ICE
Do you remember when I mentioned “Greenfinger” on this blog a couple of months ago? Greenfinger would be a rich master environmental criminal — perhaps pursuing climate geoengineering without international approval.
NORWAY’S CRUEL JOKE
The selection of Barack Obama as the recipient of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize belittles the President. Everybody knows that with just a few months in office that he has not had time to accomplish anything significant. His speeches may be inspiring, but they are likely written by others and usually express broad, vague aspirations that are neither unusual nor likely to be fulfilled soon.
Washington’s 2-level-game
This past weekend, Carol Browner, Director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy proclaimed that the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade climate bill (which passed the House this summer) is not going to become law prior to the upcoming climate negotiations.
