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Green Notes - 11 Dec 08

By Chinthana ⋅ December 11, 2008 ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

• Global warming rivals the Iraq War as the policy for which George W. Bush has been most savaged, with critics accusing him of braking or even sabotaging efforts to tackle climate change. But the chief US delegate at the UN climate talks here, in an interview on Wednesday, said Bush’s administration had shown “an evolution” over two terms and had made practical contributions in shaping the global debate. “I think this issue (climate change) is important, we care about it greatly. Looking back, if there was anything that maybe I would have hoped, it’s that we could have done a more effective job in getting our message out, in other words, (in) public diplomacy,” said Paula Dobriansky, under secretary for democracy and global affairs.
• Almost 200 countries have gathered for a UN Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland, to decide on a replacement to the Kyoto Protocol. The most pressing issue is seen as being whether the world can agree targets to reduce carbon emissions. However, Bjorn Lomborg, professor at Copenhagen Business School and author of the Skeptical Environmentalist, said the meeting is focusing on the wrong area. However, environmental groups are concerned that as governments in the EU and elsewhere reach for ways to tackle the global financial crisis, they will put climate change to one side. Mr Ban said that must not happen. “We are going through unprecedented multiple crises starting from global financial crisis, food crisis and also climate change crisis,” he told BBC News.
• President-elect Barack Obama met with former vice president Al Gore in Chicago on Tuesday to discuss climate change, declaring after the meeting, “The time for denial is over.” The meeting, also attended by Vice President-elect Joe Biden, came as Obama prepares to nominate his administration’s top environmental officials — decisions that could come as soon as this week. Obama hopes addressing climate change can create the kind of jobs that will help pull the U.S. economy out of a deepening recession. He has begun to lay out plans for a massive recovery program to help stimulate the U.S. economy and create about 2.5 million jobs. The elephant in the room is still the issue of carbon regulation. During the campaign, Obama said he was in favor of a cap-and-trade scheme, but since the economic crisis has taken the spotlight, carbon mitigation has been quietly looming in the corner. Putting a price on carbon, either through a carbon market or with a tax, as Gore himself suggests, is the greatest boost the government could give clean technologies.