This post originally appeared on ChinaFAQs.
By Angel Hsu, Phd candidate and YCEI Fellow, and Yupu Zhao, MESC '12 In the politics of climate negotiations, which are often steeped in nuance and careful posturing, it’s easy to get lost in translation. On the ground in Cancun, reports have been flying about China’s so-called “game-changing” concessions, which could possibly “buoy” the climate Talks, which are quickly nearing an end. As we’re both on the ground in Cancun, we’re going to try to clear the air and get to the bottom of what exactly the Chinese have and haven’t said in the climate negotiations. Binding commitments? The first “game-changing” issue regards the legal nature or “bindingness” of the commitments China made at…
Being at Cancun has thus far been an incredible opportunity. I arrived here on Saturday evening, and upon the advice of my fellow Yale delegates, I quickly got into the ocean as they said this was probably the only chance I would have to enjoy some waves. They weren’t kidding. Since Monday morning, things have been incredibly hectic, and I’ve been trying to attend as many side-events and presentations as possible, as well taking sometime to attend the plenary to see firsthand just how the UNFCCC process works.
Since the summer, I have been working closely with a small Ecuadorian NGO named CEPLAES. With funding from the Norwegian Rainforest network, this organization has been actively participating in a campaign called the “rainforest and rights’ initiative, which seeks to promote…
Last week I blogged on the push to insert language on gender into the finance section of the LCA text. I’m happy to report, on this penultimate day of COP16, that a subparagraph in Annex IV of the latest draft calls for gender considerations to be taken into account when the composition of the Board of the Cancun Climate Fund is decided. The insertion of this currently-unbracketed subparagraph, if maintained, could bode well for future mention of gender as it relates to the actual allocation of funding.
(Pictured left) La Catrina, on display in Cancun Messe, toasts the Icelandic negotiator who has unrelentingly advocated for the inclusion of the gender text. Thanks to her efforts, mañana might be a good day for…
“The age of cheap electricity is over”. These were the words from Nobuo Tanaka, Executive Director of the International Energy Association on Monday December 6th, 2010 during his review of the 2010 World Energy Outlook. This is the reality that we must face in order to meet the 450ppm of CO2 or 2 degrees Celsius increase target since electricity accounts for approximately 40% of global CO2 emissions today. The 450ppm target would require a rebalancing of our global electricity generation to include significant generation from nuclear power, renewable energy, and fossil fuels with carbon capture & sequestration (CCS). The magnitude of the price increase is uncertain given that renewable energy will continue to make improvements and become cheaper over time. However, the IEA projects that the 450 scenario will cost…
I pledge 0.2% of my personal GDP if you can identify which section this text is from: “Identify ways and means of providing new and additional financial resources, to developing countries, for environmentally sound development programs and projects in accordance with national development objectives, priorities and plans…” Well, this text was drafted twenty one years ago. A couple of years later a set of delegates pledged $125 billion of financial assistance to the developing world for implementing sustainable development practices as identified under the Agenda 21 of the Rio Earth Summit. It’s a different story that most of that money never saw the light of the day.
But history, as they say, repeats itself. Climate change is apparently not as grave a threat as unsustainable development, so in Copenhagen…
By Angel Hsu, Phd candidate, Yale Climate & Energy Institute Fellow
Yesterday, a few members of our Yale delegation here at COP-16 in Cancun met with Jonathan Black, who is a member of Senator Jeff Binagman (D-NM), who is Chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
Our group was particularly interested in the current status of climate and energy legislation in the United States, considering multiple pieces of proposed legislation - including some that Senator Bingaman has had a direct hand in - have failed. Given this context and the political and economic sensitivities regarding cap-and-trade mechanisms and carbon taxes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, Black provided us with a somber picture of what progress the U.S. could…
Youth delegates are still easy to spot in the ever-growing crowds at Cancun Messe and the Moon Palace-- yes, because they’re young... but also because they’re wearing gold stars.
When negotiations began last week on Article 6 (related to education, training and public awareness), the Chair of the Working Group, in somewhat patronizing jest, told youth delegates championing Article 6 that they’d deserve a gold star if consensus was reached on the text in Cancun. Just a few days later, agreement on Article 6 was announced. It marked the first consensus achieved at COP16.
“The most significant aspect of the consensus text,” according to a press release from the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa…
By Angel Hsu, Phd candidate, Yale Climate & Energy Institute Fellow
This post originally appeared on ChinaFAQs.
In the hectic hallway traffic of the Moon Palace Resort, where the UN climate negotiations have been underway since last week, Washington University in St. Louis undergraduates Jiakun Zhao and John Delurey met with lead Chinese negotiator Su Wei. And by a stroke of luck, Jonathan Pershing, a senior U.S. negotiator, happened to walk by in a fortuitous moment reflective of the U.S. and China’s softer and more conciliatory tone in the talks.
Together with Su and Pershing, the students then handed them a copy of a Memorandum of Understanding, which was drafted by undergraduates from their university and Fudan University in China as part of the first student conference on U.S.-China
$100 billion dollars is the amount "agreed upon" in the Copenhagen accord to aid the developing world in adaptation efforts to protect themselves from the harmful effects of climate change, and mitigation initiatives to curb their carbon emissions. The prose from the accord set forth this amount as a "goal" for the world to raise each year by 2020, from "a wide variety of sources."
As I've learned more intimatley while here in Cancun, that this amount is just simply not enough. In fact, it's not even close to enough. The worrysome part of it all, is the current prose positiong the $100 billion figure as a ceiling, with no provisions to allow for a review of the amount and asses whether it's really is enough. If anything, $100 billion should be the floor.
The following pieces of information are…
