cop17

In my previous essay – following the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP-17) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which adjourned on December 11, 2011 – I offered my assessment of the Durban climate negotiations, addressing the frequently-posed question of whether the talks had “succeeded.”  I took...[read more]

Almost 15 years ago, the world gathered in Japan to negotiate the Kyoto Protcol, a landmark international treaty to limit greenhouse gases. As the expiration date of the world’s first carbon cutting treaty draws closer, energyNOW! asks – was Kyoto a success or a failure?[read more]

Literally one day after the global warming negotiations ended in Durban, South Africa the government of Canada formally notified the world that they were withdrawing from the global warming pollution targets they had taken on under the Kyoto Protocol.  Canadian Environment Minister Peter Kent must have signed the formal withdrawal...[read more]

With the latest round of international climate negotiations coming to an anticlimactic close in Durban, South Africa, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's chief advisor Andrew Charlton offers a pragmatic "Plan B" for tackling the challenges of climate change and energy access. Writing for the Canberra Times, Charlton promotes an agenda centered on technological innovation and the expansion of human welfare.[read more]

The 17th Conference of the Parties (COP-17) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) adjourned on Sunday, a day and a half after its scheduled close, and in the process once again pulled a rabbit out of the hat by saving the talks from complete collapse (which appeared possible just a few days earlier)....[read more]

Like on any of the nighttime dramas, we watch time and time again how yet another police duo utilize the classic good cop/bad cop routine. Well, in my final blog from Durban, I leave you with my own good COP/bad COP. Let’s play good COP first.[read more]

After going into sudden-death overtime, the UN climate conference in Durban, South Africa wrapped up this weekend with an agreement that only a climate diplomat could love. Constituting in effect an agreement to agree to some future agreement, the outcome is open to interpretation. Is this the failure that was widely predicted, the...[read more]

So what the heck happened in Durban? Is the world closer to dealing with the problem of global warming? Or not? If, like me, you aren’t a devotee of the UN climate negotiations, reading the headlines isn’t much help. From the glass-half-full crowd: Progress at end of Durban Cop17 climate talks (LA Times). Reason to smile about Durban climate conference (Eugene Robinson in the WPost). Climate deal salvaged after marathon talks (The Guardian). From the pessimists: How the world failed to address climate change–again (Michael Levi at The Atlantic.com). The Durban climate deal failed to meet the needs of the developing world (The Guardian, again). COP out (South Africa’s Cape Times).[read more]

This is the first of two posts on COP17, the Durban-based UN climate change talks: this summarises the accords reached and others' reactions; the next post following immediately is the Low Carbon Kid's assessment of the accords. After the longest conference in the history of UN climate summits, a "historic" agreement was reached, that...[read more]

Only time will tell whether the Durban climate talks produced an historic breakthrough. It’s possible. What’s clear for now is that the Durban deal keeps the global climate effort intact and moving – however incrementally – in the right direction.[read more]

As Nelson Mandela famously said*: “It always seems impossible, until we are done.”  That is exactly how it seemed at the United Nations COP-17 climate negotations over the past two weeks  – extremely difficult (and even impossible at times). The negotiations lastest more than than 36 hours after  they were supposed to...[read more]

After a Herculean effort by Durban negotiators to clean the climate change Aegean Stables, we have… what, exactly? I don’t think we’ll know for sure for a while, and it will take years, possibly decades, to see how the entire process plays out. Remember, there was a time when the whole world was excited because the US had agreed to be...[read more]

This is the second of two posts about Durban. The first gives a run-down of the accords agreed, this gives an assessment. It was never going to be easy. Anyone watching or following, as I was, the high drama of the last three days of the climate negotiations in Durban must have thought it more gripping than any Hollywood political...[read more]

The Durban conference on climate change ended on a much better note than many expected, but continued to delay the toughest questions for at least three years.The final outcome of the conference, COP-17, is a two-page, breakthrough document called the “Durban Platform for Enhanced Action” that commits all countries to a legally binding...[read more]

Two weeks of international climate negotiations began last week in Durban, South Africa.  These are the Seventeenth Conference of the Parties (COP-17) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).  The key challenge at this point is to maintain the process of building a sound foundation for meaningful,...[read more]