This post originally appeared on The Huffington Post and The Metric, the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy’s blog.
Expectations for the global climate negotiations taking place over the next two weeks in Doha, Qatar, are dismally low, and major political transitions in China and the United States – the world’s two largest emitters of greenhouse gases – further temper hope for any kind of game-changing proposal. So what are the more than 7,000 civil society members and 1,500 journalists(myself included) in attendance going to do to make their opinions count and to hold their governments accountable for accomplishing something in Doha?
Well, there’s an app for that, and it’s called DecisionMakr.
Having attended many of these negotiations in the past, I…
Doha is turning into a huge construction site. The COP 18 convention center itself is surrounded by several ongoing construction projects. The high standing cranes seem to signal the country’s ambition in not only expanding its infrastructure but also engaging more in international affairs. The modern, fancy and huge convention center has clearly achieved such ends. It took me more than half an hour to simply walk through the building. I like the giant spider sculpture in the center, the many laptops for the participants to use, the food courts named “Grab n Go” and the wifi server named “Plug n Play”. But when I was about to go the opening ceremony, the volunteer told me the room was full. Last year in Durban, big TV stations lively broadcasted the…
Kivalina clings to the tip of a wisp of a barrier island jutting into the Chukchi Sea. Home to less than 400 people, Kivalina, Alaska, is a windswept collection of buildings: a school, a store, homes. The Inupiat ancestors of Kivalina’s residents have persisted through harsh environmental conditions at or near the village’s current location – 80 miles from the Arctic Circle – for thousands of years. But new environmental challenges may force the residents to leave.
In October, a group of FESers traveled to Kivalina to gain a better understanding of this community’s experience at the frontline of climate change. They learned from a 77-year-old village elder and whale boat captain that whale hunting – a practice which has coloured Inupiat folklore, and provided sustenance…
The next round of United Nations climate negotiations is gearing up to take place starting next week in Doha Qatar, where countries will look to both China and the United States to see whether domestic political events will provide any momentum for the stalling talks. However, because of the proximity of the U.S. Presidential Election and the start of China’s once-in-a-decade leadership transition that will culminate in March, it is not expected that the world’s two largest emitters of greenhouse gases (GHGs) will be bringing too much by way of game-changing developments to Doha. Instead, we can expect most of the discussions in Doha to focus on securing final details for a second commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol, primarily for the E.U. and now Australia, as well as starting to formulate language for a new deal that will be decided by 2015.
If you think the upcoming Doha Climate Conference will be full of yet more uneventful climate diplomatic fanfare, think again. The Guardian recently reported that the US may be considering diverting substantive elements of climate change governance away from the long-established United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) framework and into an alternative arena – the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF). This move would seriously undermine, or even completely kill the future effectiveness of the UNFCCC. Why might the US to possibly go down this route and what would be the ramifications? Let us take a closer look at both the UNFCCC and the MEF frameworks.
The current UNFCCC framework utilises a consensus-based decision making process, and every word in the…
by Marissa Knodel and Omar Malik
This month, a group of enthusiastic Yale students will take part in the ongoing drama of climate change negotiations in Doha, Qatar. They will participate in the 18th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the global stage where countries have been meeting to tackle climate change since 1992. While the experience will be new for the students, seasoned diplomats are prepared for a familiar scene: from Cancun to Durban to Doha, efforts to mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change and prevent harm to millions of vulnerable people around the world have instead turned into deliberations over the process itself.
Even if developed countries were in full compliance with their Kyoto Protocol greenhouse…
New Zealand’s government announced in a statement on Nov.9 that it is not in the country’s interests to be “stuck in the Kyoto space for another eight years”, only a few weeks before nations will meet in Doha for 
the next round of climate negotiations. Like most Kiwis, I pride myself with New Zealand’s commitment to a “100 percent green and clean image.” But after hearing this latest news, I have never felt so embarrassed to be a New Zealander. For me, this disappointing decision reflects a failure not only by our policy-makers, but also negligence and indifference on the part of my fellow Kiwis to push our leaders for more leadership on climate change
Climate change once more attracts the attention of Heads of States, country negotiators, civil society, the private sector and individuals from around the globe as we approach the 18th Conference of the Parties (COP 18) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to be held in Doha, Qatar, in only 2 weeks. One may hypothesize that the very diversity of backgrounds that participants bring to the conference exemplifies one of the main problems of the climate negotiations – how can fruitful communication really be enabled to unify the different areas of work in climate change?
The world will be watching closely as Party countries negotiate in the official climate change negotiations of the international community, over a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, which to…
The environment doesn’t count. Or at least this is the message that GDP numbers send. But as the world becomes increasingly conscious of the shortcomings of our best current measures of progress, efforts are underway to create new ways of measuring the human condition—ones that are more conscious of social and environmental factors. The EPI is part of this effort and is helping policymakers understand the environmental conditions of their countries, highlighting areas where they need to focus efforts to improve. At the Rio+20 Earth Summit last month, the EPI and YCELP were an active part of the dialogue
While the final Outcome Document of the conference recognizes the need for “broader measures of progress to complement GDP” so as to “better inform policy decisions,” it lacks specifics…
On June 17, Yale Professor Ben Cashore took part in the Rio Dialogues on Forests. As one of several facilitators of the online discussion, Ben was responsible for encouraging discussion related to forest governance recommendations at the Rio+20 conference and for bringing the outcomes of that dialogue to the Rio Dialogues panelists for today’s discussion. During the event on the 17th, panelists debated topics ranging from a net zero deforestation goal (as an addendum to goals for restoring 150,000 hectares of forest lands), as well as the inclusion of indigenous voices (as it is difficult for individuals living in traditional communities to gain access to the technology necessary to participate in an online discussion). Panelists also placed much emphasis on valuing forest resources, which could allow society to consider the…
