Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Live Issue Reporting: Day 1



Hi fellow COPpers!!!!

1st live issue reporting... 3 things I want to flag:
1) A 10 minute NGO video
2) Durban and the Climate Change Deniers (Guardian)
3) Do we really need a global agreement? Bottom up country approach suggested

Here are my thoughts on each:

Covers the ‘Big 3’ issues. KP, mandate for future big deal, funding. Good watch.
  

This article highlights what is at stake. Its states that the main discussion will be focused around the future of the KP, and that it will be a BASIC vs Umbrella/EU battle.

Brazil and South Africa have (allegedly) claimed that they will commit to targets in exchange for financing. China and India voluntarily pledged to reduce the emissions intensity of their GDP by respectively 40-45% and 20-25% by 2020.

FACT: Pledges made by the NORTH (rich, powerful, 75% of CO2 emissions come from them) are much lower than the ones made by the SOUTH (financially poor, but perhaps incredibly RICH in commitment to fight climate change?)

The article concludes that if the US is excluded, but the EU and other developed players sign up to something, progress will be made.

It predicts that it is unlikely that caps will be set on developing countries. Finally, it concludes that there is the threat of COP15 occurring again in Durban..... that is, a vague, non-realistic document making an appearance in the 2nd week.

  READ THIS ONE!

Very interesting. Basically claims that MORE has been achieved since Copenhangen and Cancun via individual country’s voluntary emissions cuts and pledges than by having a multilateral agreement.

Quote: “In the years since Copenhagen and Cancún, 85 countries – together responsible for 85% of the world's emissions – have now announced voluntary climate commitments”

The author argues that individual countries should take on schemes that are suitable for that country and voluntarily pledge to reduce emissions. The WTO would oversee carbon trading schemes expanding from 32 to countries to as many as possible. This would be more useful than having a vague, post-2012 agreement.

Of course, this is a media article. It will require more research and in class discussion to evaluate if this approach is actually a viable option.

Bottom up action FTW?


Fed

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