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Portal:Climate Change
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Portals: Coal Issues · Real Economy Project · Climate Change · Corporate Rights · Tobacco · Water · Front Groups · Global Corporations · Nuclear Issues · See All Welcome to the SourceWatch portal on climate change policy, the citizen's encyclopedia on global climate change policy that you can edit.
The portal aims to build the best information resource investigating key aspects of climate change policy and debate on a replacement agreement to the Kyoto Protocol. While the December 2009 United Nations’ Climate Change Convention in Copenhagen failed to reach agreement, negotiations will continue ahead of the COP16 conference in Mexico in December 2010.
Barack Obama's brokering of the Copenhagen Accord amongst an invited group of countries at the COP15 conference captured headlines around the world. The "accord" was part of a divide and conquer strategy aimed at helping the U.S. administration gain an agreement that can help overcome opposition to climate change legislation in the U.S. Senate. However, even supporters of the administration, agree that the accord finalizes little. Critics argue that on key issues the accord has failed to address key issues and that the 'crash or crash through' approach adopted by the U.S. has created a bitter legacy which will hamper further negotiations.
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)".
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, has provoked 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 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 criticised 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.
If you want to follow the detail of what was discussed at the COP15 conference and the fallout from it, some mainstream media portals covereing the conference are:
For detailed specialist coverage of the conference there are three groups which provided detailed daily updates. These are:
The Road to COP16
If you would like to help document climate change issues and debates, this is the place for you. This project relies on citizen journalists to expand, update and create articles on topics. You can view the existing articles on climate change here. And it is also worth visiting the Coal Issues portal which documents areas such as coal mining, coal consumption and coal-fired power station proposals around the world. If this is your first experience of a wiki, don't worry - help is at hand. To learn how you can edit any article right now, visit SourceWatch:About, SourceWatch:Welcome, newcomers, our Help page, Frequently Asked Questions, or experiment in the sandbox. If you need help, feel free to post a note to the User talk:Bob Burton or User talk:Diane Farsetta. Or, you could post a query to the 'talk page of any other user (by clicking the 'Talk" next to the name of other users at the Special:Recentchanges page. 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.
Ian Plimer, a Professor of Mining Geology at the University of Adelaide, South Australia, is the author of Heaven and Earth, a book hailed by climate change skeptics. Plimer is also a director of three mining companies: Ivanhoe Australia, a subsidiary of Bob Friedland's Ivanhoe Mines, CBH Resources and Kefi Minerals.
Portals: Coal Issues · Real Economy Project · Climate Change · Corporate Rights · Tobacco · Water · Front Groups · Global Corporations · Nuclear Issues · See All
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