Search Greenrightnow
Environmental Headlines
Home
Tagged : copenhagen
Enviro group gives Obama a ‘C’ on environmental action
By Ashley Phillips
Green Right Now
When President Barack Obama was sworn into office just one year ago, he promised hope to a country in the midst of economic, environmental, and political turmoil. Environmentally, however, the Obama administration that promised “change” has fallen a few cents short, according to one key environmental group, The Center for Biological Diversity.
The administration’s actions (and inaction) are speaking louder than its words, in the view of the center’s Obama Administration First-Year Report Card. Obama’s overall grade: a “C” in protecting (and failing to protect) the environment.
[Read more →]
Tags: · biodiversity, Center for Biodiversity, Copenhagen, environmental programs, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Obama Administration, Obama First Year Report Card on environment, Offshore Drilling, roadless law, species protection
Copenhagen Notes: The glass half full view
Thursday, Dec. 17
Hillary breaks through the chatter
Amid the cacophony in Copenhagen, a bright spot.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke to a packed press conference, pledging that the U.S. would help raise $100 billion a year by 2020 in aid to developing nations to mitigate climate change effects.
[caption id="attachment_7544" align="alignright" width="122" caption="U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton"]  [/caption]
Her words, despite the surrounding maelstrom of discontented protesters, developing nations worried about being marginalized and others who’ve declared the talks either stalled or in chaos, could help bring clarity as the historic summit lurches toward a close on Friday.
The pledge, which Clinton said would come from a mix of public and private money, including funds raised on the carbon market, speaks to both those negotiating on behalf of the other leading nations who want to see the U.S. put real money on the table , and to those in developing nations, many of whom doubt that the rich nations have the political will to put up a strong and well-funded fight against climate change.
[Read more →]
Tags: · #climatechange, #Cop, Al Gore, Arnold Schwarzenegger, ask about climate change negotiations, Copenhagen, Copenhagen climate negotiations, Copenhagen week two, Hillary Clinton, Kenya, Maldives, Nepal, Oxfam International, Oxfam video updates, Post Carbon Institute, Sen. John Kerry, TckTckTck, town hall meeting, Tuvalu, You Tube
United Nations issues statement on Copenhagen agreement
Green Right Now Reports
The two week summit on climate change in Copenhagen wound to a close Saturday with the United Nations issuing a news release that many nations had agreed upon the issues that need to be addressed.
The agreement, seen either as a foothold or a failure in the fight against climate change, fell far short of the hoped-for signed treaty that would have included firm commitments on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the countries around the world.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called it “an essential beginning.”
“The importance will only be recognized when it’s codified into international law … We must transform this into a legally binding treaty next year,” he told the BBC.
The accord provides for industrialized nations to commit to specific emissions reductions targets by stating them within the agreement by the end of January, 2010. The top GHG-polluting nations include China, the United States, Russia, India and Japan, followed by Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, South Korea and Iran.
Here is the news release from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the arm of the UN that oversaw talks:
[Read more →]
Tags: · #COP15, climate change accord, Copenhagen, Copenhagen agreement, countries to sign Copenhagen agreement, United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change, what is Copenhagen agreement
Greenpeace sends ‘rescue squad’ to U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Green Right Now Reports
Greenpeace doesn’t want American citizens to forget who’s stalling progress on climate action, namely, entrenched industrial polluters.
[caption id="attachment_7550" align="alignright" width="250" caption="Greenpeace at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Building (Photo: Robert Meyers)"]  [/caption]
[Read more →]
Tags: · #COP15, climate talks, Copenhagen, Copenhagen Climate Conference, Fossil Fuels, Greenpeace, spoof, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
1 Sky to Obama: Redirect fossil fuel subsidies to curb climate change
By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
Aiming to help put the Copenhagen climate talks on a track toward success, 1 Sky has called for President Obama to tap fossil fuel subsidies to fund developing nations.
“Outrageously, the U.S. spends more than $10 billion of taxpayer money per year on subsidies to fossil fuel companies. Meanwhile, the [...]
[Read more →]
Tags: · #COP15, 1 Sky, BarbaraKesslerBlog, Copenhagen, Copenhagen Climate Conference, fossil fuel subsidiese, Geithner, Obama
Activists will hold global weekend vigils to put for a climate deal
By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
Candlelight vigils have been held for a lot of causes. The cause for a series of vigils this weekend trumps almost anything in scope. Millions of climate activists are expected to light candles to advocate for the safety and preservation of the planet.
The candlelight vigils on Friday and Saturday evenings, will happen around the globe, as climate advocates send a somber signal to negotiators in Copenhagen to make a “real deal” by signing a fair and ambitious treaty to cut the greenhouse gas emissions that are triggering a climate disaster.
Organizers report that these events, some large and some small, many at iconic locations, and one in Copenhagen featuring Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu, are beginning now. Check out the pictures and details at TckTckTck.org, the alliance through which many groups are organizing events. Find a local vigil to join at 350.org.
[Read more →]
Tags: · 350.org, BarbaraKesslerBlog, candlelight vigils, climate activists, Copenhagen, Copenhagen Climate Conference, Copenhagen Diagnosis, TckTckTck
Yes, he can: Report says Obama has authority to sign binding agreement
By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
One of the most disheartening aspects of the Copenhagen climate talks, beyond the sheer weight of the topic, has been how politicians and handicappers have lowered expectations for the U.S..
Take, for example, the notion that President Obama cannot even sign a binding agreement in the absence of a Congressional mandate or climate bill to back him up, and that he must have a supportive Senate because they’ll be needed to ratify any climate treaty. (And clearly they’re not supportive, having failed so far to pass a strong climate bill, let alone a weak one.)
[Read more →]
Tags: · a report by the Center for Biological Diversity, BarbaraKesslerBlog, Center for Biological Diversity, climate change politics, Copenhagen, Copenhagen Climate Conference, President Obama, Senate, U.S. commitment, Yes He Can
2009 will be among warmest years on record
By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
This past year is expected to rank among the top 10 warmest on record, since record-keeping began in 1850.
The combined global sea and land surface air temperature readings for 2009 (January to October) suggest it will be about the fifth warmest year on record, making the last decade definitively warmer than the 1990s, which was warmer on average than the 1980s, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
The tentative ranking for 2009, was affected by above-normal temperatures recorded in “most parts of the continents,” the WMO reported in a release on its findings, which also detailed droughts and weather fluctuations around the globe.
[Read more →]
Tags: · 2009 average temperatures, Climate Change, Copenhagen, global warming, record temperatures, warming trend, WMO, World Meterological Organization
Kids piece together a massive message of concern for the Earth’s climate
[caption id="attachment_7292" align="aligncenter" width="366" caption="One of the many pieces of the massive Climate Change Quilt, this one from Australia."]  [/caption]
By Melissa Segrest
Green Right Now
The little things, we know, can make a difference. Take for example a little square of fabric clipped from something old – a T-shirt, a pillowcase, any old thing that has seen better days.
[Read more →]
Tags: · Climate Change, climate change conference, Climate Change Quilt, Climate Change Quilt project, Copenhagen, Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, Habitat Heroes, Lisa Kemmerer and climate change quilt, Sharon Lowe and climate change quilt
EPA designates greenhouse gases a public health threat
By Harriet Blake
Green Right Now
In what might seem a no-brainer, the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday pronounced greenhouse gases to be a verifiable public health threat to all Americans.
The announcement came on the first day of the Copenhagen Climate Conference and after what the EPA describes as a “thorough examination of the scientific evidence” required by government rules as the agency prepares to set standards for “light-duty vehicles.”
[Read more →]
Tags: · Carbon Dioxide, carbon pollution, climate talks, Copenhagen, EPA, GHGs, Greenhouse Gases
Rolling out the green carpet for Copenhagen dignitaries
By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
When they roll out the red carpet in Copenhagen, it will be green.
[caption id="attachment_7210" align="alignright" width="209" caption="Copenhagen carpet, green even though it's red "]  [/caption]
Actually, it will be red in color — we wouldn’t want our world leaders walking on tertiary color, say. But it will be eco-friendly, because among those firms that will get to show their green wares on this world stage are a Belgian company that makes carpets for large events, and a US bioplastic maker that’s replaced oil-based fibers in carpet with a plant-based product called INGEO.
[Read more →]
Tags: · Bella Center, carpet, Copenhagen, Galactic, green carpet, INGEO, NatureWorks, Sommer Needlepunch
Boycotting, sitting in, sleeping out – the quickening politics of climate change
By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
One thing you can say about the politics of climate change — people are getting hotter about it.
As we approach the Copenhagen world conference (Dec. 6 – 18), those close to the negotiating progress are becoming more frustrated with the plodding pace of official change.
This week in Barcelona, where negotiators met for pre-talks, activists and leaders of African nations demonstrated to try to win more concessions from industrial nations.
Student activists staged a sit-in at the doors to the conference to press for greater reductions in greenhouse gas targets, beyond even the 30 percent reduction by 2020 proposed by the European Union. What this portends for the US, which hasn’t yet put numbers on the table, is anyone’s guess.
[Read more →]
Tags: · Activists/Authors, African nations, BarbaraKesslerBlog, boycotts, Climate Change, Copenhagen, protests, Republican senators, United Nations Climate Change Conference
|
