Green Options

File Photo: Hillary Clinton and the Indian Environment Minister in New Delhi

..and then takes a U-Turn the very next day!

In a reported letter to the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Jairam Ramesh, the Indian Environment Minister proposed a radical shift in India’s stand on climate change–away from its national position on climate negotiations–which India has backed since 1990 and which was defended robustly even in UN talks in Bangkok earlier this month.

Minutes after the news spread, political parties sitting in the opposition were quick to respond. Within the next few hours, the Environment Minister issued a clarifying statement for national media and the entire Nation!

181 of the world’s largest investors say that the climate agreement in Copenhagen needs to be strong and binding.

This is from companies managing over $13 trillion and is the largest such statement to date. Their proposals are even stronger than what most activist organizations are asking for.

Why multinational companies should be considered to be part of the solution to climate change, not part of the problem.

Friday the 13th just got a little scarier. Here are 13 facts about the realities of global warming.

The numbers speak for themselves — we must make 2009 the showdown year for global warming action. There is no time to lose.

35%

Increase in the global carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels since the Kyoto Protocol was signed in 1992.

388.57 ppm

Average concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in May 2008, a record high.

541 – 970 ppm

The projected concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by 2100 under a business as usual scenario where we don’t dramatically reduce global warming emissions.

260 – 280 ppm

Average concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere before industrial emissions.

Hansen believes the world is “imminent peril” and calls the Kyoto climate treaty “weak tea”. The grandfather of climate change believes carbon trading is greenwashing, and Obama must act within his first administration to halt climate change.

Nasa scientists have told government’s that a simple cut in worldwide emissions of soot could lead to a dramatic reduction in the effects of global warming, as well as preventing hundreds of thousands of deaths from air pollution.

Soot contains black carbon, thought to be the second largest cause of global warming after carbon dioxide. Whilst airborne, it it spread around the globe by wind, heating the atmosphere by absorbing and releasing warmth from the sun’s rays. When it falls to the surface it also darkens snow and ice in polar regions or high mountain ranges, further reducing the Earth’s ability to reflect solar radiation.

Cutting soot emissions has a virtually instantaneous effect since it disappears rapidly from the earth’s atmosphere, unlike CO2, which can linger for hundreds of years.

As I mentioned earlier this week, Greenpeace will be holding rallies in 30 cities across America. Here in San Francisco, they will be showing off a 30 x 50 ft. banner (pictured here) in front the Golden Gate Bridge. Check back here at 1pm PST to see photos from the event.

The UN Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland is ground zero for world leaders looking to take the next steps in tackling global warming. The international conference is aimed at negotiating a new agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, and to be finalized in Copenhagen in December of 2009.

The UN Climate Conference in Poznan, Poland, starting today is raising hopes and fears across the green spectrum. As reported in the Christian Science Monitor.

A year-long push to devise a new global climate-change treaty – one that picks up where the Kyoto Protocol leaves off – gets under way Monday in Poland, with delegates from more than 190 nations set to resume grappling with the thorny issues of how much more to cut greenhouse-gas emissions and who will pay.

The talks, in their first round, are focused on reducing human influence on climate from occurring, according to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). More or less, this means keeping global warming to about 2 degrees Celsius above pre industrial levels by the end of the century. Expectations however are low for this meeting.

President-Elect Obama’s pledge to reduce greenhouse gases to pre 1990 levels in the next 12 years notwithstanding, this group has a lot of challenges ahead. This first round of talks is primarily to develop working groups to tackle the various issues surrounding climate change in both developed and developing countries. But, with the global economic crisis on everyone’s mind, it will be hard to keep the conversation on track and work toward lower carbon emissions.

And while they are working to devise ways to reduce carbon emissions, they’ll create quite a few. AFP reports:

Despite its less than impressive treatment of the climate change issue, the Canadian government now claims it has a plan to reduce carbon emissions, and for that reason, believes it will find common ground with an Obama administration despite differences on issues like trade.

Senator Barbara Boxer called the hearing to explore how the administration has held up with respect to environmental integrity.