If the Waxman-Markey climate bill goes unchanged through the Senate, it could make an adequate and fair global deal on climate change impossible. The bill would allow new coal-fired power plants to be built up until 2020. It would also strip the Environmental Protection Agency of their existing authority to regulate coal-fired power plants under the Clean Air Act. It would replace this direct regulation with the widely-discredited Cap & Trade system. It has a very low level of ambition.
As 125 civil society groups from around the globe write to President Obama asking for US leadership on climate change, we chew over options for enhanced US action with our guest Daphne Wysham, presenter of Earthbeat Radio and founder and director of the Sustainable Energy & Economy Network.
With just three negotiating weeks left before Copenhagen, we ask “what do the developing countries think a fair deal would look like?”
At the latest round of UN Climate Talks in Bonn, G77+China bloc (representing 132 developing countries) said that historical responsibility should be part of the global deal’s shared vision and should be used as a guide for future action on climate change.
At the previous set of talks in June in Bonn, developing world countries shared their perspectives on what “historical responsibility” might mean in practice. An increasingly popular view is that countries should get equal access to the total safe emissions budget across time. This would mean that the rich world is already in debt. Rich countries must therefore rapidly decarbonise their societies and fund low carbon development in poor countries.
This idea goes beyond Contraction & Convergence which divides up only the remaining emissions budget on a fair basis. A version of this idea has recently been formulated by the German Advisory Council on Global Change and endorsed by the German government’s chief advisor on climate change, John Schellnhuber who says: “Our basic principle is that all humans have equal rights to the to the atmosphere. This is a basic right.”
This is a permanent plug for Climate CampRadio, TV and Indymedia coverage. Much respect! The audio for this post is Dissident Island Radio’s 60 minute compilation of their Climate Camp Radio coverage for ResonanceFM’s Clear Spot broadcast on 11 September 2009. Here’s what they have to say about it: Links & References
Reports from the first Camps for Climate Action in Ireland and Scotland from Molly & Oli.
The Scottish camp supported a local campaign against the expansion of open-cast coal mining in an Area of Great Landscape Value. This landscape-destroying form of mining also seems to be linked high rates of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cancer amongst local residents. The Scottish government’s enthusiasm for expanding open-cast coal mining is incompatible with its ostensibly world-leading Climate Change Act which commits the country to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 42% and producing 50% of its electricity from renewables by 2020.
The Irish camp focussed on the issue of peat-burning in three power stations. Peat is more carbon-intensive than even coal and the strip-mining of peat bogs is destroying a natural carbon sink as well as impacting on biodiversity. A nine-day Camp ended in actions which shut down two of the power stations and helped to restore the peat bogs.
Another negotiating week on the road to Copenhagen has come and gone. We try and tell you as much as we can in plain English about where the talks currently stand, now that there are just 100 days left to go to Copenhagen. Our focus here, is on the overall “shared vision” element of the agreement.
Key points
The Association of Small Island States and Least Developed Countries (together representing over 80 countries) now support both the 1.5°C maximum temperature target and reducing greenhouse gases to a concentration level of 350ppm CO2e in the atmosphere
More countries now support the 1.5°C target than the 2°C target that Europe and the Obama-convened Major Economies Forum (representing only 39 nations) support
European Environment Commissioner, Stavros Dimas agrees that 2°C is no longer safe and that the upper threshold should be 1.5°C maximum temperature rise
The Africa group of around 50 countries won’t support even a 2°C target until they see stronger commitments from rich nations on domestic action and finance
UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Chair, Rajendra Pachauri, has come out in support of the 350ppm target Links & References
It is the fatal flaw at the heart of both the EU and US climate policies which threatens to make a scientifically robust and fair climate deal in Copenhagen impossible. It is the reason that when the EU says it is cutting greenhouse gases 20% by 2020 or 30% if there is a global deal in Copenhagen, they are in fact putting a cut of just 10 or 15% on the negotiating table. And it is the reason why when the UK says it is cutting greenhouse gases by 80% by 2050 it is actually committing itself to a cut of only 40% within the UK.
This week we take a look at the creative accounting mechanism which makes this sleight of hand possible – carbon offsetting under the United Nations Clean Development Mechanism – more commonly known at the CDM.
We take the argument against large-scale carbon offsetting under the CDM to the head of the Market-Based Instruments Unit at the European Commission, Yvon Slingenberg; and we hear from Tom Picken, Head of the International Climate Change at Friends of the Earth, who is co-author of the most accessible report yet on the case against carbon offsetting under the CDM, “A Dangerous Distraction.” Links & References
55-minute special featuring the voices of Climate Camp activists. Arthur of the London Camp for Climate Action media team is live in the studio discussing
the rapid take-up of the Climate Camp model around the world – there are over a dozen Camps around the globe this year
policing and legal aspects and
the justification for direct action in the face of inaction to prevent devastating climate change
We have interviews with four London campers on
what’s planned for this year’s camp
legal and policing aspects
the direct action training that’s on offer and
the mass action that’s planned for later in the year
We also have four short statements from the Camps in Australia, New Zealand, US and Finland; and a range of voices taken from a recent Climate Camp promotional video.
A political reality may be emerging here that civil action could well force the government to act. This might even be one of those rare ocassions where everyday but resolute citizens have a lasting impact on the great issue of our time. – Paul Rogers, Professor of Peace Studies, University of Bradford
With this year’s Camp for Climate Action in London fast approaching we revisit our report on last year’s Camp at Kingsnorth coal-fired power station in Kent. The programme provides a window on the gaping gulf between mainstream reporting on the event and the reality of the Camp itself. Includes interviews with some of those involved in some of the associated direct actions. Links and references
In the second part of our Arctic special featuring New Internationalist co-editor Jess Worth we look at
the historic Indigenous Peoples’ Global Summit on Climate Change and its implications for the UN climate talks in Copenhagen at the end of the year
the Arctic’s central position in the climate tipping point story and
the rush to exploit the fossil fuel resources in the Arctic opened up by the sea ice melt
We also hear from Vietnam vet and Arctic National Wildlife Refuge campaigner, Robert Thompson, about the potential impacts of an oil spill and about the oil company tactic of bribery that has attempted to split and buy-out local opposition to oil drilling.
The first of two episodes featuring Jess Worth – a co-editor of New Internationalist – who has recently finished editing an issue of the magazine focusing on the Arctic which uncovers the largely untold story of how climate change is impacting already on indigenous peoples and their traditional subsistence lifestyles.
We hear from Gwich’in activist Faith Gemmill (co-odinator of REDOIL) about how indigenous peoples are fighting back against fossil fuel developments on their lands. A recent string of successful legal challenges suggests that indigenous peoples could end up playing a critical role in the fight against climate change. REDOIL have won important victories over Shell, the US government and the Environmental Protection Agency.
