During the embarrassing UN Climate Change Conference in Poznań, Poland, Al Gore held a speech where he said that the old and now “inadequate” climate change targets of 450 ppm (parts per million of CO2) had been made obsolete by new science (That’s what we and others have been saying for a while now). Gore said that the world should instead aim for a 350 ppm target.
The full transcript of his speech can be found below:
George Monbiot writes today on the Guardian that the new EU emissions agreement is a disaster and calls it carbon colonialism.
So much for the Europeans leading the way on climate change. Even as our governments claim they want to drag the world into an effective climate agreement in Poznan, they have just pulled Europe out of one in Brussels.
The agreement they have just reached is a disaster. The 20% carbon cut they promise by 2020 falls miles short of what’s needed, and they’ll be able to buy most of it from abroad anyway. All this means, in a world which has to eliminate most of its carbon pollution, is that other countries, which have sold their easiest reductions to us, will then find it harder to make emissions cuts of their own. It’s carbon colonialism, in which Europe picks the low-hanging fruit in developing countries, leaving them with much tougher choices later on.
Leaders from the European Union (EU) have just agreed on a new watered-down climate deal to tackle global warming. The actual emissions cuts could amount to as little as 4% by 2020.
Yesterday UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in Poznan that “the world is watching us. The next generation is counting on us. We must not fail.” He also called for the EU to show the way and leadership on the climate crisis for other countries. Unfortunately it seems the short-sighted “leaders” of Europe ignored him. Instead of 30% emission cuts by 2020 the EU leaders only agreed on cuts by 20% by 2020, compared to 1990 levels.
But the actual emission cuts could end up being as little as 4% by 2020, environmental groups warned. That is because of special exemptions for dirty industries in Europe as well as allowing cheap emission cuts overseas to be counted to the EU total. The latter has been heavily pushed by the new Swedish right-wing government who has called for as much as 88% of the EU emission cuts to be allowed to do overseas in development countries.
George Monbiot talks with Yvo de Boer, the current Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, in the first of a series of interviews from the Guardian. In the video you can, for example, see Yvo de Boer defend George Bush and expensive Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects.
In the first of a remarkable series of video interviews, Britain’s leading green commentator, George Monbiot, charges the UN’s leading climate change official with lacking ambition for a global emissions deal, and takes him to task over expensive carbon offset schemes and his support for the US president, George Bush. In the coming weeks, Monbiot takes on the bosses of Shell and the International Energy Agency and more.
Watch George Monbiot meets Yvo de Boer on the Guardian.
Avaaz, an independent and not-for-profit global campaigning organization, says that European leadership on climate is “essential to secure us all a global deal” in the UN climate conference in Poznań, Poland. Unfortunately have Germany, Poland and Italy so far been the “main blockers” during the climate negotiations for strong European actions.
But Avaaz says that Poland has begun to change their mind and that now only Germany and Italy are left “standing in the way”. And so they want you to help them put pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel “to do the smart thing for the environment and the economy”.
Germany is the key – Chancellor Merkel is normally a climate champion, but has caved to industry, fearing for German jobs. She needs to hear from us that a Green Recovery is the answer to both our climate and our economic crises.
Merkel cares a great deal about her international reputation, which is why Avaaz has delivered our 150,000-strong petition and protested at her international meetings with the Poles. But now for the punch: an Avaaz commissioned opinion poll which reveals that 85% of Merkel’s own people are calling for her to show leadership in securing a strong climate deal. Together, we can help push Merkel over the edge — follow this link to leave her a quick message encouraging her to do the smart thing for the environment and the economy: http://www.avaaz.org/en/merkel_lead_on_climate/
So far the UN Climate Change Conference in Poznań, Poland, hasn’t really been that promising. But hopefully things turn out a bit better by the end of the conference. At least 49 countries now support a 350 ppm climate target.
Below you can find videos from the press briefings for the first week:
I just got this email and video from 350, the global grassroots climate movement:
It’s 3 in the morning in Poland and I need your help with an experiment. Can you take 2 minutes watch an animation and help take over YouTube?
A little background: starting a week ago, a few members of the international 350.org team have converged for the annual UN Climate Conference. It’s a little crazy here–over 9,000 people representing 190 countries have gathered to negotiate our collective future. Things are changing by the hour, and there’s both bad news and good news to report.
The bad news first: lots of countries still don’t get it, and some (most notably, the EU) are using delay tactics to postpone action, squandering time that scientists say we simply do not have.
Now for the good news: over 49 of the least developed countries (that’s more than a quarter of the world’s nations) just announced support for a 350 target. This is AMAZING, as last year a 350 goal wasn’t even on the map. It’s testament to your hard work–and the very real threats these countries are facing right now–that we’ve come so far in such a short time.
The UN climate conference in Poznań, Poland, has started. The conference will be held on 1st – 12th of December. Thousands of participants from around the world will discuss and negotiate on an “ambitious and effective” international climate change agreement. The meeting is the “halfway mark” until Copenhagen in 2009.
During a climate summit in California today Barack Obama said, in a taped video, that his “presidency will mark a new chapter in America’s leadership on climate change”.
Obama spoke about his support for a cap-and-trade system and that he would reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and with 80% by 2050. Obama also said he wanted to give the private sector $15 billion each year to support their investments efforts in clean energy.
“I promise you this: When I am president, any governor who’s willing to promote clean energy will have a partner in the White House. Any company that’s willing to invest in clean energy will have an ally in Washington. And any nation that’s willing to join the cause of combating climate change will have an ally in the United States of America.”
The global grassroots climate movement, 350, asks for your help to invite President-elect Barack Obama to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poland this December.
So far over 48,000 “invitations” have been sent. Sign the invitation, click here!
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