Copenhagen: Real treaty — not "drive-by hug" from Obama

Okay, here’s what’s really, really positive about the Copenhagen treaty conference now nearing its second week of talks: the activism. There are tens of thousands of citizen activists here: students, indigenous leaders, faith leaders. They are colorful and noisy and have really left a mark on the proceedings. On Monday, on the downtown streets of Copenhagen, I met a young Congolese climate activist who spoke the same obscure African language I spoke 25 years ago as a Peace Corps Volunteer. I was in the snow, in Scandinavia, speaking Tshiluba with a fellow climate activist from the Congo. Wow. We’re making progress.

And indeed the whole world is paying attention. If you Google “Copenhagen” today you get 43 million hits. But it’s unclear, just 48 hours from the end of the talks, what will happen here. The negotiating nations are still far apart on global emissions targets and how to finance clean-energy development in poor nations.

And now, tragically, with heads of state from 115 countries now arriving in full, the UN has decided to expel from the Bella conference center just about all the activists and other “non-governmental” representatives. The one really bright spot — the inspiration of grassroots voices — is being booted out of the room. Activists are now planning to gather elsewhere downtown for vigils, a “fossil” award ceremony that shames the most intransigent nations (the US has gotten two so far this week), and on Friday a giant aerial photo of activists forming the words “350 is Survival.” 350 of course is the level of carbon pollution leading scientists say is needed to save the planet. Right now, all the proposals from all the nations now officially on the negotiating table would actually lead the world by 2100 to about 770 parts per million carbon. It would be — literally — hell on Earth.

John Holdren, Obama’s own science adviser, told an audience here that the goal was to get the world toward 450 parts per million. The President’s science adviser seemed uninformed of the latest climate science.

Students staged a really big, inspiring demonstration in the middle of the Bella Center Wednesday to tell Holdren and other negotiators that compromise with the physics of climate change is not possible. We must commit to 350 now. Hundreds of students from over 40 nations sat cross-legged on the floor and read the names of 11 MILLION people worldwide who’ve signed a petition demanding a strong treaty. CCAN staffer Kat McEachern read the names of signers from Costa Rica, Latvia, and South Korea. Continue reading

Copenhagen: Chaotic and Sad

As of Wednesday morning the international treaty talks have turned chaotic and discouraging. The summary: The United States is emerging more and more as the country blocking any meaningful progress. Despite efforts by activists worldwide to highlight the importance of 350 parts per million as the only safe level of carbon in the atmosphere, the US is doing its best to persuade all nations to abandon any talk of science-based reductions and simply wants to collect all the currently weak emissions reduction pledges and just crank out a watered-down treaty most convenient for America.

The scene here at the Bella Center in Copenhagen has been tense. Hundreds of activists and delegates walked out earlier this morning to protest the restriction of access. Many leaders of American climate NGOs are either already denied access to the center or will lose access soon. It’s a disgrace. Friends of the Earth activists and others have spent the morning sitting down in protest outside the center.

Security here and throughout the city is intense. Police dogs outside the center. Coming through the airport-like x-ray machines, I was asked to demonstrate that my water bottle was not poison by taking a swallow in front of security representatives.

I’ve talked to several leaders of the climate movement — including Gillian Caldwell of 1Sky and Jessy Tolkan of Energy Action — and everyone is sort of in a mixed state of anger, panic, and sadness. How can the US be so intransigent? Obama actually telephoned the presidents of Bangladesh and Ethiopia Tuesday to basically try to charm them away from science-based demands.

Danish diplomat Connie Hedegaard, official head of these treaty talks, told delegates yesterday you can leave on Friday in “fame or shame.” Tragically, the latter looks more likely at this point, although miracles can happen.

There appears to be some progress on rainforest protection today, according to the New York Times. But the two other main issues — financing clean energy development in poor nations and rich-nation commitments to serious emissions cuts — are totally unresolved.

I think Greenpeace International best described the current situation in the press release exerpt below. Also visit www.earthbeatradio.org for my complete radio broadcast from the conference, as well as video interviews soon with Jessy Tolkan and Gillian Caldwell.

Onward,
Mike Tidwell
Director, Chesapeake Climate Action Network

Greenpeace International statement Wednesday morning from Copenhagen:

“This situation is ridiculous and unacceptable to the millions of people around the world demanding that heads of state agree a climate saving deal this week.

“The talks are still stalled – because the industrialised country Ministers appear to have left their political will at home. Lets hope their heads of state don’t forget to pack theirs” said Kaisa Kosonen, of Greenpeace International.

At the heart of the problem was the US’s insistence that governments abandon any idea of science-based, legally binding targets and instead try to simply add up any targets on the table and make that the overall outcome for the talks.

The US was also trying to toughen obligations on developing countries, whilst trying to get away with a weaker obligation on themselves.

“The US, the world’s richest country with the largest historical emissions is holding these talks hostage. If Obama doesn’t put new targets and long term finance on the table this week, he will be the leader remembered for causing a breakdown in Copenhagen and guaranteeing climate chaos,” said Damon Moglen of Greenpeace US.

CCAN in Copenhagen: Dispatch from the future

First of all, imagine this: the people of Copenhagen, Denmark, generate one-sixth of the greenhouse gas pollution per capita as people living in Washington, D.C. One sixth! That’s the first thing you notice when you come to Copenhagen, as I have, for the international climate talks. I’m here to represent your voice as a dedicated CCAN supporter. I’m also here to see the future.

Denmark as a nation gets nearly 25 percent of its electricity from wind farms. The city of Copenhagen itself is full of bicycles. They’re everywhere. And the subway system is world class. I saw a guy on the subway Sunday in Copenhagen carrying a Christmas tree. On the train. People do everything here, go everywhere, without cars! And Danes, at the same time, are consistently ranked in surveys as some of the happiest people on Earth. Radically low-carbon and happy people.

So I’m seeing the clean-energy future in practice this week. Too bad the world’s top leaders Continue reading

The Movement is Glowing

This just arrived in my inbox from May Boeve, policy coordinator at 350.org:

It’s been a wild day here inside the Bella Center–the tension and the drama are ratcheting up almost by the hour. The “350 language” has been in and out of the draft text of the agreement half a dozen times, and our allies are doing their best to keep it in. You should have seen President Nasheed this afternoon making the case in front of an auditorium packed with members of the global media.

As the policy coordinator for 350.org, I spend most of my time lobbying–waiting in the hallways for meetings to end so I can speak to delegates and ministers as they walk to their next session. And what I hear, over and over again, is “You’ve changed the mood of the meeting.” The relentless case you’ve made for the science of 350 has been extraordinarily effective–and it got a remarkable boost over the weekend from the thousands of vigils around the world.

In DC, Avaaz built a giant ark, which they called “Plan B.” The ark evokes the great flood with which billions around the world identify. It signifies the scale of calamity that climate change poses to communities across the globe and also represents hope for survival if world leaders take bold, ambitious, and immediate action. While hundreds of thousands of people were taking action across the world, activists gathered outside the Capitol to discuss the urgent need for “Plan A” – a fair, ambitious, and binding global climate treaty.

350.org just came out with another beautiful video from the worldwide vigils this Saturday. Take a look:

Plan B: The Ark

Maryland students gather at the candlelight vigil in DC next to the the ark (Plan B if Plan A- a binding, fair, and ambitious deal in Copenhagen- doesn’t happen)

How about some serious financing

Today, the Washington Post broke news of an announcement by Secretary of Energy Steven Chu that the United States was contributing $85 million to The Climate Renewables and Efficiency Deployment Initiative.

“The initiative — which includes $85 million from the United States and donations from industrialized nations such as Italy and Australia — aims to make energy-saving technology that already exists cheap enough to penetrate markets in India, parts of Africa and elsewhere. It is distinct from the major financing package the United States is expected to unveil this week as part of a broader climate deal.”

While it’s good to see initiatives such as these, the total amount and the contribution by the US fall of what international talks in Copenhagen need in order for a successful agreement. The broader deal the US is expected to unveil later this week will lay out around $1.2 billion in its 2010 budget for international climate aid and mitigation, and Senator John Kerry recently wrote a letter to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton pushing for $3 billion to be included in the 2011. Both figures depend on the Senate passing climate legislation. At the same time, the EU is trying to scrape together $10 billion in funding from the 2010-2012 period, although there is concern right now over whether it’s new money, or international assistance dollars being redirected. Continue reading

Cash for Caulkers should use Energy Efficiency Loan Fund Model

Back in September, I wrote about the the power of energy efficiency loan funds, and how they could be utilized by local and state governments to eliminate the barrier of upfront financing for energy efficiency improvements which often prevents them from happening. When my student group UMD for Clean Energy was involved in our local city council elections this past fall, the priority policy of our platform was a low-interest energy efficiency loan fund. We managed to elevate this to being an important issue in the elections, and our city council has made it a priority to push for tweaking a state law that would allow municipalities in Maryland to undertake this kind of a program.

Last week, President Obama announced that as part of his new jobs bill, a cash for caulkers program that puts people back to work by weatherizing houses, will be a key part of the legislation. However, as Dave Roberts notes a Grist, right now “public statements from the administration have focused almost entirely on cash rebates, which would pay back homeowners up to half the cost of various retrofit investments. There’s a way to get far more bang for federal bucks, though, and it has to do with financing” Continue reading

The Scientists Strike Back

There has been quite an assault on the climate science in the past few weeks. Far more so than ever before, which is saying something given the Climate Cover-Up that’s gone on for so long. First, e-mails were hacked from a British university, showing some cherry-picked conversations between climate scientists, which global warming deniers have stretched and chalked up to data misrepresentation, and a massive global scientific conspiracy to trick people into reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Continue reading

Responding Rapidly to Copenhagen

Students are getting involved with climate negotiations in Copenhagen from here in the States! Hundreds have joined the nation-wide Rapid Response Team organized by the Energy Action Coalition: providing a way for the youth delegation in Copenhagen to keep in contact with state-side youth activists.

The latest action was in response to a request by Tuvalu, a small island nation in the Pacific Ocean, for an open conversation about a legally binding deal and a return to 350ppm carbon in the atmosphere. Despite the request only being for the start of a conversation, several larger countries blocked the idea. So the youth delegation in Copenhagen is calling for us to stand with Tuvalu!

Thalia Patrinos from Walter Johnson High School received a call and responded! A group of Walter Johnson students ate cookies, recruited friends, and called President Obama during lunch. They asked him to protect the future of small island nations and the future of all generations by playing a lead role in a legally binding, scientific based deal that limits carbon pollution to 350 ppm! Go Walter Johnson! Want to join the team? Go to powershift09.org/rapidresponse