Green Options » poznan

Developed, Developing Nations Argue Over Sharing Costs of Cutting Carbon Emissions

Mridul Chadha — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 01:54:34 +0000

There is an urgent need to bring down the rising carbon emissions and switch over from the dirty fossil fuels to clean alternative energy sources. Leaders of the developed and developing nations completely agree over this plan of action but, sadly, the agreement between the two ends there. Both parties agree that they have got to act quickly but none is willing to take the initiative on the economic front of the fight against climate change.

Under the Kyoto Protocol the onus of controlling and bringing down the carbon emissions was on the developed nations with the help of tools like the national carbon registry and the emission permits whereas the developing nations were not obligated to any emission cuts. Now that the talks for a new climate treaty have started to gain momentum the developed nations want the developing countries to reduce their carbon emissions under that treaty. And although the developing countries recognize their responsibility in the fight against climate change they are unwilling to bear the full economic burden of the same.

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From Real Life to Second Life: Global Warming Activism in the Metaverse

Richard Elen — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 05:40:51 +0000

For many, the UN’s COP14 global climate talks going on in Poznan, Poland are a long way away, but for some, they are only as far away as your computer

[Editor's note: In a recent piece about the Poznan climate talks and their existence in the virtual world of 'Second Life' I ended with a plea for more information; a plea answered by journalist Richard Elen.]

Green Options readers are probably not the only people who will be struck by the irony of an intended attendee at the Poznan Climate Talks being unable to leave Stansted Airport on his decidedly anti-environmental RyanAir flight because of climate protestors closing the runway. In many ways, flying to an environmental conference makes you part of the problem, not part of the solution.

I was always very conscious, in attending the UN Climate Negotiations in the run-up to Kyoto (which were often held in Geneva) that flying to conferences was a bad idea. Even driving there, or best of all going by train where possible, was exacerbating a problem we were there to try to do something about.

In those days, some 15 years ago, however, there were few other options. Video conferencing existed but it required going to a specially-equipped location and cost a lot of money. You were limited to one small group making a presentation to another small group. And while the Internet made it much easier to get information out of a conference, it did not initially help you a great deal to get in.

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Skiers Urge UN Climate Delegates to Act

Timothy B. Hurst — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 20:52:22 +0000

Skiers including Olympic gold medalists made an appeal at the UN climate talks in Poland to do more to slow global warming, keeping skiers in business.

Late last week, several Polish skiers and snowboarders slid down a ramp covered by snow trucked in by the WWF and handed a petition to Polish Environment Minister Macjiec Nowicki in Poznan. Looking beyond the carbon footprint of trucking-in a ton of snow, it’s great to see unusual players getting involved in these important global climate change talks.

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UN’s de Boer Warns of Devastating Environmental and Economic Impacts if We Don’t Act on Climate Change [video]

Timothy B. Hurst — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 09:39:09 +0000

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer briefs the press on the strategic goals of the COP14 UN Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland, and outlines the way forward for the delegates over the next two weeks.

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Even in Absentia, Obama Attracts Attention at Global Climate Talks in Poland

Timothy B. Hurst — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:40:16 +0000

Some 9,000 delegates, activists and researchers assembled in Poznan, Poland on Monday, for the opening of the fourteenth session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP14). The meeting is the fourth of its kind this year. And even though the U.S. delegation will be comprised of the outgoing Bush team, the pending change in American leadership is palpable in Poznan as global climate conferees see the potential of president-elect Barack Obama ushering in a new era of U.S. leadership on the environment.

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UN Climate Change Conference Creates 13000 Tons Of Carbon

mcmilker — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:42:13 +0000

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:

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