Obama says nothing new while nations drown

Friday morning from Copenhagen:

President Obama made his long-awaited speech here in Copenhagen just a few minutes ago and there was nothing encouraging about it. “The time for talk is over,” he said, and then failed to commit the U.S. to any new climate-saving actions.

“After months of talk, and two weeks of negotiations, I believe that the pieces of [an] accord are now clear… Mitigation. Transparency. And financing. It is a clear formula Continue reading

Down to the wire in Copenhagen

The climate talks in Copenhagen remain deadlocked as many activists went peacefully back to the streets tonight to call for strong action. I joined about 500 activists, brought together by 350.org, for a torchlight vigil in a main downtown square. Expressing a shared sense of real disappointment, the crowd spelled out the words “Climate Shame” with the beautiful flickering lights. In the snowy night air, with Christmas decorations all over this city, it was both sad and strangely uplifting.


Civil Society spells out “Climate Shame” in downtown Copenhagen. (Credit: Robert vanWaarden/Spectral Q)

We still don’t know what final results will come from the talks involving 193 countries. But I’m trying to stay positive. Clearly there will be no binding treaty that gets us anywhere near the science-based emissions reductions we need. But the issues being intensely debated by the US, China, and the rest of the nations are critically important issues that must be resolved in any future treaty. Those issues, of course, are reduction targets, verification methods, and the financing of clean energy development and adaption in the developing world. Hopefully at least two of these three major issues can be resolved here: verification methods and finance.

That could leave for 2010 a final agreement on science-based reductions that get us on a pathway of 350 parts per million carbon in the atmosphere, the only level that leading scientists say is safe by the end of the century.

We’ll see what happens Saturday at the talks. So much is at stake.

Copenhagen: Real treaty — not "drive-by hug" from Obama

Okay, here’s what’s really, really positive about the Copenhagen treaty conference now nearing its second week of talks: the activism. There are tens of thousands of citizen activists here: students, indigenous leaders, faith leaders. They are colorful and noisy and have really left a mark on the proceedings. On Monday, on the downtown streets of Copenhagen, I met a young Congolese climate activist who spoke the same obscure African language I spoke 25 years ago as a Peace Corps Volunteer. I was in the snow, in Scandinavia, speaking Tshiluba with a fellow climate activist from the Congo. Wow. We’re making progress.

And indeed the whole world is paying attention. If you Google “Copenhagen” today you get 43 million hits. But it’s unclear, just 48 hours from the end of the talks, what will happen here. The negotiating nations are still far apart on global emissions targets and how to finance clean-energy development in poor nations.

And now, tragically, with heads of state from 115 countries now arriving in full, the UN has decided to expel from the Bella conference center just about all the activists and other “non-governmental” representatives. The one really bright spot — the inspiration of grassroots voices — is being booted out of the room. Activists are now planning to gather elsewhere downtown for vigils, a “fossil” award ceremony that shames the most intransigent nations (the US has gotten two so far this week), and on Friday a giant aerial photo of activists forming the words “350 is Survival.” 350 of course is the level of carbon pollution leading scientists say is needed to save the planet. Right now, all the proposals from all the nations now officially on the negotiating table would actually lead the world by 2100 to about 770 parts per million carbon. It would be — literally — hell on Earth.

John Holdren, Obama’s own science adviser, told an audience here that the goal was to get the world toward 450 parts per million. The President’s science adviser seemed uninformed of the latest climate science.

Students staged a really big, inspiring demonstration in the middle of the Bella Center Wednesday to tell Holdren and other negotiators that compromise with the physics of climate change is not possible. We must commit to 350 now. Hundreds of students from over 40 nations sat cross-legged on the floor and read the names of 11 MILLION people worldwide who’ve signed a petition demanding a strong treaty. CCAN staffer Kat McEachern read the names of signers from Costa Rica, Latvia, and South Korea. Continue reading

Standoff in Copenhagen

Protesters at Copenhagen climate talks walk out on Wednesday, Dec 16th, over U.N. decision to dramatically limit participation by activists. See below for Earthbeat Radio/CCAN footage of a standoff with police outside the conference:

A Climate Bill Senator Webb CAN believe in!

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A couple weeks ago Senator Jim Webb introduced a bill that would subsidize the nuclear industry and could divert money away from much needed solutions to the climate crisis. We flooded his office with hundreds of emails asking him what his plan was to solve global warming. Senator Webb has raised real concerns about cap and trade — handing money over to polluters for free, complicated offsets, and Wall Street gaming among them. Just last week, Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Susan Collins (R-ME) introduced a bill that represents a new approach to capping carbon that avoids these pitfalls. Over the past year, in meetings with CCAN members, Sen. Webb has indicated interest in this new approach.The Cantwell-Collins “Carbon Limits and Energy for America’s Renewal” (CLEAR) Act is simple, fair and built to last. With this bill all polluters pay and there are no complicating offsets. Instead of most permits given away for free and subsidies for corporations, every American would get a check each month through a monthly carbon “dividend.” Learn more>>Call Senator Webb and ask him to co-sponsor this new approach to reducing global warming pollutionSen. Webb: (202)-224-4024Call Script>>Under the Cantwell-Collins bill, the federal government would auction off carbon shares to the nation’s 2,000 or so fuel producers such as coal and oil companies. Every two years, the shares would expire and, over the years, the U.S. government would offer fewer and fewer shares for sale as a way to reduce carbon consumption. Seventy-five percent of the money raised would be rebated directly to U.S. citizens. Cantwell’s office estimated that an average family of four would receive a total of about $1,100 a year in the form of tax-free monthly checks.The other 25 percent of the money raised would be used exclusively for clean-energy research and development, energy efficiency programs and for assistance to communities and workers transitioning to a clean energy economy.Call Senator Webb now and ask him to co-sponsor the CLEAR ActSen. Webb: (202)-224-4024Call Script>>Thanks for all you do, and happy holidays!

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Hello. My name is ____ and I live in ______.

I’m calling to let Senator Webb know about the Cantwell-Collins CLEAR Act, which was introduced last Friday.

The bill is a simple, fair and enduring way for the United States to address global warming.

Given the Senator’s desire to address climate change, and his concerns about the complexities of a cap-and-trade system, I strongly urge him co-sponsor this important bill.

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