United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

Bonn climate conference

The latest round of climate negotiations wound down with most delegates expressing guarded optimism that progress has been made toward laying the groundwork for an international agreement to be signed in 2015.[read more]

UNFCCC meeting in Bonn

As countries meet in Germany this week for the next round of climate negotiations it is important to remember that securing a new international legal agreement in 2015 is critical for five reasons.[read more]

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For an international climate agreement to be truly effective, it would need to strike an appropriate balance among three parameters: environmental effectiveness (or the ambition of its environmental objectives), participation of major-emitting countries, and the degree of expected compliance on the part of countries that do participate.[read more]

Global climate is on track for changes including a greater than 2°C rise in average temperature, and that’s going to result in adaptation costs for developing countries well above the World Bank’s 2°C estimate of $70 billion by 2020 and as much as $100 billion per year by 2050.[read more]

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What's the deal with all these international climate negotiations? Do they actually accomplish anything? Great post in anticipation of Rio +20.[read more]

After two busy weeks, the Durban COP was extended by a full day and then went well into a second, with long nights of negotiation along the way. Eventually a deal emerged which has polarized both the media and blogsphere between being the salvation of mankind or the quick route to runaway warming. In reality it is neither, but if that is the case then where are we?[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]

One of the key potential deliverables from Durban is an operational Green Climate Fund (GCF). This is one of the important components of the pledge to channel up to $100 billion per annum by 2020 to developing countries for mitigation and adaptation projects. The current proposals may represent an investment Catch 22 that results in little or no direct use of the fund by the private sector.[read more]

As the next round of international negotiations about a possible climate change treaty — the 17th to be exact since the Kyoto Treaty was signed in 1992 — get up to speed in Durban, South Africa, it’s becoming increasingly clear that an environmental emergency stands the best chance of compelling industrialized countries to act. That’s because nothing else will.[read more]

The UK must stop funding World Bank aid until the Bank stops financing unabated coal power stations in developing countries, says the Environment Audit Committee in a new report on the impact of UK overseas aid on environmental protection and climate change adaptation and mitigation.Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, Joan Walley...[read more]