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Copenhagen Summit 2009

• Off to the Races
  Dec 19, 2009 - Thomas L. Friedman - New York Times
  
  I’ve long believed there are two basic strategies for dealing with climate change — the “Earth Day” strategy and the “Earth Race” strategy.
  
  
• Day 13 - The minor accord and the major plea
  Dec 21, 2009 - Guy Turner - newenergyfinance.com
  
  Essentially, the final day of COP15 in Copenhagen on Saturday did not bring anything new to what had been witnessed late into Friday night. The “Copenhagen Accord” having been hammered out by the US, China, India, Brazil and South Africa on Friday was put to the Plenary on Saturday for just an hour’s consideration
  
  
• Climate reality: Voluntary efforts not enough
  Dec 19, 2009 - Associated Press
  
  Around the world, countries and capitalism are already working to curb global warming on their own, with or without a global treaty.
  
  
• Climat deal falls short
  Dec 18, 2009 - GLENN THRUSH & LOUISE ROUG - Politico
  
  The climate deal reached between U.S, China and other great powers on Friday night is so vague, hastily hatched and non-binding President Obama isn’t even sure he’ll be required to sign it.
  
  
• Complex Models, Simple Solutions
  Dec 18, 2009 - Gavin Schmidt - Earth Institute
  
  This is the twenty-ninth of a continuing series of essays and interviews from Earth Institute scientists on the prospects for a global climate-change treaty. Check with us daily for news and perspectives, and to make comments, as events unfold throughout the Copenhagen meetings.
  
  
• Climate Deal Announced, but Falls Short of Expectations
  Dec 18, 2009 - Helene Cooper and John M. Broder - The New York Times
  
  Leaders here concluded a climate change deal on Friday that the Obama administration called “meaningful” but that falls short of even the modest expectations for the summit meeting here.
  
  
• Obama science advisor John Holdren on U.S. strategy in Copenhagen
  Dec 17, 2009 - The Grist
  
  COPENHAGEN­One of the puzzles about the U.S. strategy here in is how negotiators expected that pledging a 17 percent emissions reduction below 2005 levels by 2020 could be taken seriously. 
  
  
• Hillary Clinton offers climate aid to poor countries—with strings attached
  Dec 17, 2009 - AFP
  
  COPENHAGEN - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton slightly brightened a grim mood at the U.N. climate talks on Thursday by announcing that the United States would contribute toward a long-term fund worth $100 billion a year by 2020.
  
  
• NASA, Google offer more precise emissions tracking
  Dec 17, 2009 - Seth Borenstein and Michael Casey - The Associated Press
  
  The question is a potential deal-killer: If nations ever agree to slash greenhouse gas emissions, how will the world know if they live up to their pledges?
  
  
• Developing nations hold the key to Copenhagen climate agreement
  Dec 16, 2009 - Jim Tankersley - Los Angeles Times
  
  Rich nations still hold some bargaining chips, but many negotiators and observers say key decisions by poor and emerging nations will make or break any deal.
  
  
• Saving Rainforests: Low-Hanging Fruit
  Dec 16, 2009 - Geoffrey Heal - Earth Institute
  
  The climate summit offers an opportunity to agree on two concrete policies that should significantly reduce global warming: incentives to end deforestation, and to generate electricity without releasing greenhouse gases.
  
  
• Chu Introduces Climate REDI Program At Copenhagen Conference
  Dec 15, 2009 - Solar Industry
  
  On behalf of President Obama, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu has announced the launch of the Renewables and Efficiency Deployment Initiative (Climate REDI), a new initiative designed to promote clean energy technologies in developing countries.
  

• World mayors compare notes on saving climate
  Dec 15, 2009 - Jan M. Olsen and Charles J. Hanley - The Associated Press
  
  The Obama administration should have sent federal stimulus money not to the U.S. states, but to cities, where "most of the environmental damage is done and most of the chances for improvement are," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday.
  
  

• Ditch the Climate Change Debate
  Dec 15, 2009 - Green Builder
  
  A recent editorial cartoon that I ran across cleverly expressed a great deal of my own thoughts around the climate change debate. The cartoonist (Joel Pett, Lexington Herald-Leader) depicts an obviously unconvinced audience member at a presentation where benefits of clean energy are being displayed on the stage screen.
  
  
• World's mayors tackle climate change on their own
  Dec 14, 2009 - Charles J. Hanley and Jan M. Olsen - The Associated Press
  
  It isn't easy getting Italy's city dwellers out of their Fiats, off their Vespa scooters and onto bicycles to ride to work, "like here in Copenhagen," says an Italian environmental official.
  
  
• Wind energy can meet 65 percent of tabled 2020 emissions cuts by rich nations: GWEC
  Dec 14, 2009 - Xinhua
  
  The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) on Monday released calculations showing that wind energy alone could achieve up to 65 percent of the emissions reductions pledges by industrialized nations.
  
  
• Solar industry groups release report in Copenhagen
  Dec 14, 2009 - LA Times
  
  As the United Nations Climate Change Conference enters its second week in Copenhagen, several international solar organizations released a report today summarizing solar power goals around the world.
  
  
• Copenhagen talks a four-corner fight
  Dec 14, 2009 - grist.org
  
  The UN climate talks which wrap on December 18 now rest essentially on brokering a consensus between four key players.
  
  
• The Outrageous Complexity of This Enterprise
  Dec 14, 2009 - Kate Brash - The Earth Institute
  
  This is the seventeenth of a continuing series of essays and interviews from Earth Institute scientists on the prospects for a global climate-change treaty. Check with us daily for news and perspectives, and to make comments, as events unfold throughout the Copenhagen meetings.
  
  
• Monitor Climate Pledges on New UNEP Site
  Dec 14, 2009 - Stephen Meddenger, Porto Alegre - treehugger
  
  The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) unveiled a new Web site that allows users to track the promises of countries to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. The Web site is currently following the pledges made by 27 members of the European Union and more than 25 other nations--and is updated as more proposals are made at COP15. The executive director of UNEP, Achim Steiner, said that from now on anyone can follow, from the comfort of their own home, plans and policies of governments in the area of combating global warming.
  
  
• Interior Secretary Outlines How to Use North American Continent to Combat Climate Change
  Dec 11, 2009 - David Biello - Scientific American
  
  U.S. forests and soils store some 90 billion metric tons of carbon, or 50 years worth of present U.S. emissions from fossil fuels, according to a new study from the U.S. Geological Survey. As negotiators here at the United Nations' climate summit continue to struggle to draft a global agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions—including efforts to reduce deforestation and protect natural sinks—the U.S. Department of Interior is transforming the business of public lands and waters to help combat climate change.
  
  
• American and European CEOs Urge Climate Commitment in Copenhagen
  Dec 11, 2009 - Business Wire
  
  Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies, and European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT), a forum of leaders of major European-headquartered, multi-national industrial and technological companies, today released a common set of principles necessary to slow, stop and reverse greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as soon as possible. In the first trans-Atlantic business agreement of its kind, the groups call for long-term GHG commitments from all major emitters, appropriate action from all other countries and global common reporting standards.
  
  
• Soros Finds Cash Supply for Climate Aid
  Dec 10, 2009 - Andrew C. Revkin - The New York Times
  
  As climate treaty negotiators continued to tussle over how much rich countries should pay to help poor ones deal with climate risks, preserve forests and adopt non-polluting energy technology, the financier George Soros appeared on the sidelines Thursday to identify a new pot of $100 billion that could help pay the bills.
  
  
• EPA chief: U.S. making up for lost time
  Dec 9, 2009 - Juliet Eilperin - Washington Post
  
  COPENHAGEN--The United States has been "fighting to make up for lost time" in the fight against global warming since President Obama took office, Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa P. Jackson said Wednesday.
  
  
• U.S. could reduce gas emissions by up to 29% by 2020, report says
  Dec 8, 2009 - The Associated Press
  
  U.S. greenhouse gas emissions could be cut up to 29 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels if all gas-cutting measures contained in bills currently under deliberation at Congress are implemented, a private-sector think tank report says.
  
  
• 40 percent emissions cut in Europe feasible: study
  Dec 8, 2009 - Xinhau
  
  Despite the European Union's commitment of a 20-percent cut in emissions by 2020, Europe in fact can achieve at least a 40-percent reduction, according to a new study.
  
  
• $30 bil. set to help developing world cut CO2
  Dec 8, 2009 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Hiroko Kono The Yomiuri Shimbun
  
  Developed nations at the U.N. climate change conference are set to agree on providing $10 billion a year for three years from 2010 to developing nations striving to achieve greenhouse gas reductions, sources said.
  
  
• GE chief hopes Copenhagen leads to US clean energy
  Dec 8, 2009 - The Associated Press
  
  General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt said Tuesday he hopes the Copenhagen conference on climate change leads the United States to develop a green energy policy to grow the economy.
  
  
• Copenhagen climate summit in disarray after 'Danish text' leak
  Dec 8, 2009 - John Vidal - guardian.co.uk
  
  Developing countries react furiously to leaked draft agreement that would hand more power to rich nations, sideline the UN's negotiating role and abandon the Kyoto protocol.
  
  
• Top 5 Issues at the Copenhagen Climate Conference
  Dec 8, 2009 - Kent Garber - US. News
  
  For the next two weeks, until December 18, officials from more than 190 countries will be gathering in Copenhagen to write a new treaty on climate change. For much of the year, there have been questions about whether the conference would come together and, if so, what it could accomplish at a time when much of the world is preoccupied with the global recession. In recent weeks, however, many of the world's economic powerhouses and biggest polluters, including the United States and China, have said they're serious about hashing out an agreement. Of course, with so many countries attending, "success" can mean different things to different people: Some want a political agreement; others want a legally binding treaty.
  
  
• Exactly What is COP15?
  Dec 7, 2009 - Gary M. Vasey, Ph.D. - Utili Point
  
  For the next two weeks, the global media will undoubtedly spotlight the United Nations Climate Change Conference being held here in Copenhagen, Denmark. Without a doubt, the eventual outcome of COP15 is likely to have a significant impact on both you as an individual and your company. Indeed, if the kind of agreement envisaged by, for example, the European Union (EU) is reached, it is likely to have huge global economic, political and social ramifications and it will dramatically change our world and the way we live. However, while some form of agreement is virtually certain to emerge from Copenhagen, the actual shape and nature of the agreement has yet to be determined. So what exactly is at stake this next two weeks in Copenhagen and how did we arrive at this point?
  
  
• Under Banner of Urgency, Delegates Tackle Policy
  Dec 7,2009 - Andrew C. Revkin and Tom Zeller Jr. and James Kanter - The New York Times
  
  Two mock gateways set up by environmental campaigners — a fiery red one symbolizing the perils of climate change and a green one representing an international climate accord to address it — greeted delegates on Monday as they filed into a conference center here.
  
  
• Climate scientist gets blunt on trading scheme
  Dec 7, 2009 - Shelly T - civilianism.com
  
  The Copenhagen climate summit got off to a big start on December 7th with many meetings and opening statements.
  
  
• Climate summit produces greenhouse gas
  Dec 7, 2009 - UPI
  
  British researchers said the 12-day U.N. climate change summit in Denmark will generate as much greenhouse gas as an African nation.
  
  
• E.P.A. Sets Carbon Crackdown
  Dec 7, 2009 - John M. Broder - Green Inc.
  
  The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday will complete its determination that greenhouse gases pose a danger to human health and the environment, paving the way for regulation of carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles, power plants, factories refineries and other major sources.
  
  
• Copenhagen climate conference kicks off
  Dec 7, 2009 - David Biello
  
  To be or not to be? That is the question. Will 192 world governments agree in the next two weeks on a framework to cut emissions of greenhouse gases and thereby combat climate change? Or will they dither and divide at the Copenhagen climate summit, as they did with previous efforts, including the ineffectual Kyoto Protocol?
  
  
• Copenhagen climate change conference: 'Fourteen days to seal history's judgment on this generation'
  Dec 7, 2009 - The Guardian
  
  This editorial calling for action from world leaders on climate change is published today by 56 newspapers around the world in 20 languages.
  
  
• End the Politics. Let Scientists and Engineers Lead
  Dec 3, 2009 - The Earth Institute
  
  This is the fifth of a continuing series of essays and interviews from Earth Institute scientists on the prospects for a global climate-change treaty. Check with us daily for news and perspectives, and to make comments, as events unfold throughout the Copenhagen meetings.
  
  
• Why Copenhagen will, and should, fail
  Dec 3, 2009 - Kevin Krajick - The Earth Institute
  
  This is the sixth of a continuing series of essays and interviews from Earth Institute scientists on the prospects for a global climate-change treaty. Check with us daily for news and perspectives, and to make comments, as events unfold throughout the Copenhagen meetings.
  
  
• "New World Wide Web” Key to Fighting Climate Change, Expert Says
  Mar 3, 2009 - Michael Powers - terrawatts.com
  
  The key to fighting climate change is for the U.S. to take a leadership role in promoting a “new world wide web of electricity,” according to Michael Powers, board member and spokesman for Global Energy Network Institute, a non-profit research and education group based in San Diego.
  
  
• 'Copenhagen Diagnosis' offers a grim update to the IPCC's climate science
  Nov 25, 2009 - Guardian Enviroment Network
  
  The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change received a kick in the pants today from members who say the climate situation is much worse than the IPCC has so far reported. From Grist, part of the Guardian Environment Network
  
  
• Complex Models, Simple Solutions
  Dec 18, 2009 - Gavin Schmidt - Earth Institute
  
  This is the twenty-ninth of a continuing series of essays and interviews from Earth Institute scientists on the prospects for a global climate-change treaty. Check with us daily for news and perspectives, and to make comments, as events unfold throughout the Copenhagen meetings
  
• 'Copenhagen Diagnosis' offers a grim update to the IPCC's climate science
  Nov 25, 2009 - Guardian Enviroment Network
  
  The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change received a kick in the pants today from members who say the climate situation is much worse than the IPCC has so far reported. From Grist, part of the Guardian Environment Network
  
  
• Complex Models, Simple Solutions
  Dec 18, 2009 - Gavin Schmidt - Earth Institute
  
  This is the twenty-ninth of a continuing series of essays and interviews from Earth Institute scientists on the prospects for a global climate-change treaty. Check with us daily for news and perspectives, and to make comments, as events unfold throughout the Copenhagen meetings.