Portal:Climate Change

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The Climate Change Portal

The badge to your right appears on key articles in SourceWatch that relate to climate change, and the box on your left has links on how you can help write history. This page highlights key aspects of climate change policy and the debate over a replacement agreement to the Kyoto Protocol. The December 2009 United Nations’ Climate Change Convention in Copenhagen, COP15, failed to produce an agreement, and negotiations are continuing in preparation for the COP16 conference in Mexico at the end of December 2010.

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Featured News

Widespread Disagreement Over Proposed Climate Agreement in Bonn

After a new climate change agreement was proposed in early June during negotiations leading up to COP 16, both rich and poor nations found serious faults with the provisions. The new text mentions industrialized countries should aim to cut greenhouse gases 25 to 40 percent by 2020. But the document does not set a year when that comparison should start. Scientists say the base line should be 1990, while the United States has argued for 2005. It calls for all countries, including developing nations, to “peak” their emissions by 2020 and eliminates reference to goals for 2015. The United States found the goals of the text too ambitious, while European nations and developing nations felt the proposals were not severe enough with regard to the developed world and would limit the growth of impoverished countries. "Climate deal blueprint could curb US emissions and poor nations' growth"

Senator Graham Calls Cap-and-Trade Plan Dead

"Lindsey Graham, one of three senators working against daunting odds to produce a compromise climate bill, has recently turned against imposing the kind of cap-and-trade system used in Europe, which involves companies buying and selling pollution permits." "Senator Graham Calls Cap and Trade Plan Dead,"

Al Gore Takes Aim at Climate Change Skeptics

Al Gore directly addressed climate skeptics in a recent New York Times Op-Ed piece. Gore writes: "I, for one, genuinely wish that the climate crisis were an illusion. But unfortunately, the reality of the danger we are courting has not been changed by the discovery of at least two mistakes in the thousands of pages of careful scientific work over the last 22 years by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In fact, the crisis is still growing because we are continuing to dump 90 million tons of global-warming pollution every 24 hours into the atmosphere — as if it were an open sewer." "We Can't Wish Away Climate Change"

UN Chief on Climate to Retire

The head of the United Nation's climate change effort, Yvo de Boer, announced that he will retire this summer. He has served as the head of the UN's Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for the past four years. His retirement will allow the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, to appoint a successor before the next international conference, COP16, which is scheduled for December 2010 in Mexico.

Public Consequences of Anti-Global Warming Lobbying

"According to Pew, America’s highest net belief in global warming came in early 2006, during the heights of one of the most anti-environmental administrations in recent history. The conclusion: our nation’s net belief in climate change is going down, as anti-climate lobbying and grassroots outreach activities are going up." [1]

“To see these numbers drop has been stunning, but it’s a reaction to a repeated drum beat by Fox News and elsewhere for years,” said Lisa Graves, Executive Director of the Center for Media and Democracy. “What was happening behind the scenes in Washington, was that even people involved in Bush’s policy were coming to grips with climate change and knew it was something they couldn’t pretend wasn’t happening. It’s my experience that the right wing has a lot of leverage and a multi-faceted strategy to push at every single pressure point.” "The Politics of Climate Change"

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Did You Know...

World Nuclear News, a pro-nuclear website run by the World Nuclear Association, is upbeat about the draft "Danish text" climate change agreement. The text, which was secretly drafted by the governments of the U.K., the U.S., Denmark and Australia, provoked an uproar at the COP15 conference in Copenhagen. World Nuclear News notes that that "there are no technology exclusions in the Danish text, in contrast to previous agreements which have seen nuclear excluded from a group of favoured power sources." The draft text states that parties "commit to enable the accelerated large scale development, transfer and deployment of environmentally sound and climate friendly technologies". The nuclear industry has been lobbying to have nuclear projects included in the Clean Development Mechanism, a scheme which allows the funding of 'low carbon' projects in developing countries. The draft agreement would also the allow the experimental carbon capture and storage technology, which has been promoted by the coal industry, to be included in the Clean Development Mechanism.

The World Coal Institute, the power generation industry and some governments want experimental Carbon Capture and Storage projects included in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). While there are no commercial-scale CCS projects operating anywhere in the world, major coal-exporting and consuming countries in the industrialised world want CDM funding used to fund trial projects in less-developed countries. See Clean Development Mechanism and Carbon Capture and Storage and "The Coal Industry Wants Your Cash to Save Them".

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Things You Can Do

You can help write the history of climate change by taking on the following mini-projects:

• • Help track the climate change bill introduced by Henry Waxman, The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, which is a focal point in shaping policies adopted by the U.S. Congress and promoted by the administration of President Barack Obama.
  • Add material about a PR company, The Hawthorn Group which recently newsletter outlined the "grassroots campaign Hawthorn created and managed for the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE)." ACCCE is a coal industry front group.
  • Explore the intersection of theClean Development Mechanism and Big Hydropower Schemes - "International Rivers" released a report on the main problems with major hydro schemes being included in the Clean Development Mechanism. See here, here (pdf) and here (pdf) for background information. You can help summarize the key issues on the Clean Development Mechanism and Big Hydropower Schemes page;
  • Investigate the International Emissions Trading Association - who do they represent and what policies do they advocate?
  • Help summarize the work of the International Risk Governance Council, which published a 32-page paper Regulation of Carbon Capture and Storage, available here (Pdf). The report was funded by corporations such as E.ON Energie, the Allianz Technology Center on behalf of the Dresdner Bank Foundation, Resources for the Future (RFF) and Swiss Re. It'd be great to have a more detailed summary on the Regulation of Carbon Capture and Storage (Report) page.
  • Add links regarding industry-funded groups and think tanks opposing the Kyoto treaty;
  • Help document thegreenhouse gases omitted from the Kyoto Protocol;
  • Expand details about the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action and the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex 1 Parties under the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; and
  • Help update the articles on the Clean Development Mechanism and Carbon Capture and Storage and the Global Energy Forum.

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Beyond COP15

The COP15 conference ended with little progress being made on finalising a replacement agreement to the Kyoto Protocol. Instead, the U.S. and a group of other countries drafted the Copenhagen Accord, a 12-point plan aimed at providing a global framework for addressing global warming. However, the “accord” has been widely criticized for the ‘take it or leave it’ approach to its development and its lack of specific binding targets and strategies. The accord had its origins in the Copenhagen Agreement which was developed by the "Circle of Commitment" and leaked to the Guardian early during the COP15 conference. The next international climate conference, COP16, will take place in Mexico at the end of this year.

Upcoming Schedule for COP16

• May 31 – June 11: the first round of talks leading to COP16 - see Bonn Climate Change Talks - May/June 2010
• November 8 – November 19: the second round of talks in preparation for COP16;
• November 29 – December 10: COP 16 in Mexico City

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Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Concentrations

(Credit: Co2now.org)

One important issue under discussion at COP15 is whether a new agreement will be expanded to include greenhouse gases that are currently excluded from the Kyoto Protocol. See Greenhouse gases omitted from the Kyoto Protocol.

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Featured Advocates

• Climate Action Network, | ECO-Daily NGO Newsletter. During COP conferences the Climate Action Network publishes a bulletin on the day's events from the perspective of the major environmental nongovernmental organizations working on global warming. They also have a blog feed and a Twitter feed.
• Earth Negotiations Bulletin. The Canadian-based IISD publishes a daily bulletin at the negotiating meetings, as well as discussion papers helpful information on key post-Kyoto treaty options. They also have a Twitter feed.
• Third World Network, The Third World Network published one or more summary bulletins per day during negotiating sessions and had created numerous background papers.

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Climate Change Who's Who

Mohamed Nasheed, the President of the Maldives, delivered a powerful speech to a 350.org event at the COP15 conference. In it he urged listeners to continue protests in support of dramatic greenhouse gas reductions. "My message to you is to continue the protests. Continue after Copenhagen. Continue despite the odds. And eventually, together, we will reach that crucial number: Three – five – oh. In all political agreements, you have to be prepared to negotiate. You have to be prepared to compromise; to give and take. That is the nature of politics. But physics isn’t politics. On climate change, there are things on which we cannot negotiate. There are scientific bottom lines that we have to respect. We know what the laws of physics say. And I think you know too. The most important number in the world. The most important number you’ll ever hear. The most important number you’ll ever say. These three words: Three – five – oh. (Three – five – oh) (Three - five – oh)".

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Climate Change Skeptics Corner

Patrick J. Michaels is the Editor of the World Climate Report, a blog published by New Hope Environmental Services, "an advocacy science consulting firm" he founded and runs. Michaels, who is considered to be one of the leading global warming skeptics, has long been a speaker to various think tanks, trade associations and energy and other companies. On a 2007 academic CV, Michaels disclosed that prior to creating New Hope Environmental Services he had received funding from the Edison Electric Institute and the Western Fuels Association.

Check out the recent article in O'Dwyer's Magazine about the "The Politics of Climate Change," which notes that "Many of the same U.S. corporations touting popular “green” initiatives are simultaneously funding anti-climate trade groups to sway public opinion and lobbyists to push polluter-friendly legislation. Does this two-faced strategy reveal hypocrisy at the heart of America’s “green” revolution?" "The Politics of Climate Change". For more information, check out our Greenwashing article.

Most recent climate skeptic, Joe Bastardi, an "expert senior forecaster" at AccuWeather, refutes global warming theories and argues that the earth is actually cooling. Bastardi's educational credibility is limited to a bachelor's degree in meteorology. Read more about Bastardi's ridiculous theory in a New Yorker article, "Weathermen, and other climate change skeptics," New Yorker,.

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Historical Information on COP15

Here are the links to some mainstream media portals that covered COP15 and have updates in prep for COP16:

• The Guardian (UK)
• BBC
• Washington Post Climate reports and blogs from Copenhagen
• Sydney Morning Herald

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