GCCA Weekly Newsletter ::: September 3, 2010

The coffee bean is threatened by warming, retreat of glaciers in Asia will decrease the water supply of billions, and China’s crop yields are projected to decline in the next few years because of warming-related water shortages. In addition, flooding in Niger is devastating a people already menaced by a food crisis, El Niños leading to extreme weather are growing stronger, and food prices in Russia are soaring after a drought and fires with direct costs between $7 and 300 billion.

As if this wasn’t enough evidence to suggest we need to get a move on to seal that FAB deal, this week saw another oil platform exploding in the Gulf of Mexico (perfectly timed to coincide with the first of seven oil company sponsored public rallies opposing the U.S. moratorium on new offshore oil exploration).

The latest independent review to address attacks on climate science ended with yet another vote of confidence in the overall findings of the IPCC, while calling for changes and streamlining in review procedures.  

Last but not least, in the category of "too little too late" self-proclaimed ‘skeptical environmentalist’ and the darling of climate-deniers Bjorn Lomborg now thinks climate change should be addressed as a top priority.   

weekly summary

Climate Finance talks heat up on the road to Cancun

This week Environment Ministers and officials from 50 countries gathered in Switzerland to discuss long-term finance. While US negotiator Todd Stern called the talks “constructive”, EU Climate Change Commissioner Connie Hedegaard was less optimistic stating bluntly “ we’ve seen nothing new coming out of the U.S., nothing new coming out of China. So we have to be very practical”.  She did however express some cautious optimism around the launch of a Green Fund in Cancun which would ultimately govern climate finance funds. 

It is of concern that the Mexican Finance Minister Patricia Espinosa said a “Green Fund would only be agreed as part of a broad package in Cancun, including ways to share clean-energy technologies or protect carbon-absorbing forests. She said all elements of the package had to be agreed, or none.”NGOs must push back against the “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed” mantra which is a recipe for deadlock. LINK

60 nations recommend Currency Transaction Tax

In encouraging news a group of 60 nations, including France, Britain and Japan, this month will propose at the U.N. that a tax be introduced on international currency transactions to raise funds for development aid.   Ministers estimated that the tax could raise $35 billion annually.

Climate change skeptic Bjorn Lomborg changes his tune

Jaws dropped ’round the world this week as Lomborg executed a well-timed about-face saying in a widely citedGuardian UK article that climate change is "undoubtedly one of the chief concerns facing the world today" and "a challenge humanity must confront".  In the interview, Lomberg said he would finance investment through a tax on carbon emissions that would also raise $50bn to mitigate the effect of climate change, for example by building better sea defenses, and $100bn for global healthcare.

Oh, and he has a book coming out next month.  We can be cynical or we can take it and run with it. 

Environmental groups weigh in

From there to here: Bjorn over the years

Japan and Caribbean Nations agree to work on climate change

Japan and 13 Caribbean nations agreed in Tokyo on Thursday to cooperate in curbing global warming and offering support to quake-hit Haiti among other issues at their first meeting in a decade, a Japanese official said. On climate change, Foreign Minister Okada urged Caribbean nations to endorse the Copenhagen Accord, which resulted from a key U.N. climate conference last December, and aim for the adoption of a comprehensive agreement to tackle the problem, the official said.

IPCC review calls for changes; Next IPCC report to focus on impacts of incomplete action

The United Nations’ top institution for climate change policy, the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change, received a vote of confidence from the chair of the Inter-Academy Council’s independent review.  "Overall, in our judgment, the IPCC’s assessment process has been a success and has served society well," according to Harold Shapiro.  The report nonetheless recommended "fundamental reform of IPCC management structure" Given the growth of the body over the last 20 years since the IPCC began.

The report also said the 12-year limit for the chair of the IPCC was too long and should be shortened. It called for an overhaul of the panel’s management, including the creation of an executive committee that would include people from outside the IPCC.  It also recommended replacing the top eight officials responsible for producing the United Nations reports every seven years or so.

Rajendra Pachauri, the Indian chairman of the UN climate panel, Monday said he would not quit despite an independent review finding flaws in its structure and suggesting shortening the chair’s 12-year term limit.  "It’s a mission I cannot shirk," he told a press conference here, making clear that he would oversee the next report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) due out in 2013-14, unless asked to resign by the full meeting of the 194-member panel in Korea in October.

The report was received a range of headlines around the world, while the UK Guardian’s John Vidal probably asked the most compelling question – “who on Earth would want to be IPCC chair?”

Hot on the heels of these developments comes news that the next report from the IPCC will consider what happens if governments don’t sign on for or follow through with emissions reductions. Lawyers are already acting on related data, and are exploring the implications of nascent efforts to statistically assign blame to global warming for natural disasters already in progress.

Conference raises awareness on climate change in semiarid regions

The call for a summit on sustainable development in drylands was among the requests of the Fortaleza Declaration adopted at the closing of the Second International Conference Climate, Sustainability and Development in Semi-Arid regions, which took place in Fortaleza, Brazil in late August. The Declaration asks the UN to consider the current situation of risk of drylands, mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa, South of Asia and the Middle East. The document is supposed to influence in the agenda of the preparatory process and content of discussion of Rio+20, the Earth Summit in 2012 in Rio de Janeiro.

In Brief:

Keeping up with the Kochs:

Earlier this year Greenpeace issued a killer report showing how US oil billionaires Charles and David Koch finance the climate denial machine. Now, comes word that a company owned by the Koch brothers hascontributed $1 million to Proposition 23, a November ballot initiative to suspend California’s groundbreaking 2006 global-warming law. Drops in the bucket according to theNew Yorker which published a scathing article examining the Koch brothers war against Obama. 

2nd Gulf explosion puts drilling back on page one

Just a day after oil companies sponsored the first of seven rallies to protest the Obama administration’s moratorium on new offshore exploration, another oil platform exploded off the Louisiana coast. Initial news reports said one person was injured and 13 people were rescued from Mariner Energy’s Vermillion 380 platform, which operates in 340 feet of water 80 miles offshore, according to Coast Guard and company reports.

In related news, BP, tin-eared as always, issued statements that sounded more than a little a bit like ransom, saying drilling restrictions may threaten oil spill payments. 

Even as all this happened stateside, a handful of Greenpeace International activists braved 50 mph winds tooccupy the underside of a drilling platform in the storm-tossed coastal waters of Greenland.

Copenhagen still fascinates us:  Chinese climate negotiator dishes on COP15

Like a bad break-up, we never tire of rehashing the details of who said what and why at last year’s epic failure, COP15.  From Ban Ki Moon to Yvo de Boer to Todd Stern we’ve heard plenty of dirt being dished.  This week, Yu Qingtai, the Chinese negotiator, spills it during a speech in which he laid the blame at the feet of developed nations and stated that concern about climate change and China’s role must be seen against the background of China’s economic and social development. China’s national circumstances cannot be ignored.  A must read peek into China’s perspective. 

campaign update

WWF Earth Hour 2011 update

Prepping for the 26 March 2011 Earth Hour, WWF launches Earth Hour YouTube channel featuring the new Earth Hour 2011 video. 

You can now embed the Earth Hour 2011 into your country sites and social media platforms.  The Earth Hour YouTube Channel is also a central location for a selection of videos that have been produced over the years that bring to life the Earth Hour determination and vision from around the world.
If you would like to edit the video or translate it for local use, please contact Rebekah Enoch at renoch@wwf.org.au who can provide a digi beta master tape and guidelines.

10:10:10 Update

From 350.org:

We’re gearing up our global communications in the lead up to 10/10/10. By September 1st, 350.org expects to have at least 11 regional media coordinators in place based in Mexico, Peru, Brazil, South Africa, Burundi, India, Philippines, China, Germany, Australia, Canada, and the US.

Our coalition’s political work is already getting some good coverage here in the US with articles in the New York Times, Bill McKibben’s opeds that are making the rounds, and coverage in influential blogs like Politico and Triple Pundit. It’s not just North America, though — check out additional coverage from Times of India to the Guardian.

We hope to be seeing even more build-up coverage as we prepare for our Put Solar On It Roadtrip this September (bringing one of Jimmy Carter’s old solar panels back to the White House), launch of the Great Power Race, and help President Nasheed install solar on his presidential residence in the Maldives and invite the world to join 10/10/10.

Most exciting is what’s happening on the partnership front –conversations are getting going with friends at Greenpeace, Oxfam, NRDC, Sierra Club, RAN, Green for All, and elsewhere. If you’d like a copy of the plan and can contribute to communications for 10/10/10 (the more the merrier!), please email: jamie@350.org.

media highlights

The coffee bean is threatened by warming, retreat of glaciers in Asia will decrease the water supply of billions, and China’s crop yields are projected to decline in the next few years because of warming-related water shortages. In addition, flooding in Niger is devastating a people already menaced by a food crisis, El Niños leading to extreme weather are growing stronger, and food prices in Russia are soaring after a drought and fires with direct costs between $7 and 300 billion.

North Pole:  Looking at a disaster

Gulf:  Human blood tests show dangerous levels of toxics

Environmental movement faces its future

Legal ?:  what if a country sinks beneath the sea

online highlights

Happy days are not here again

If the world is going to hell, why are humans doing so well?

350’s McKibben: Nixon was a better environmentalist than Obama

weekly video

350.org‘s Bill McKibben on The Late Show with David Letterman
Austrailian Youth Climate Coalition cool new video

WWF Climate Savers message to business on climate

upcoming events

     September

• 20 – 22 September:  UNGA plenary meeting on the Millennium Development Goals.  New York.  

    October

• 4 – 9 October:  14th session AWG-KP, 12th session AWG-LCA. Tianjin, China. LINK

• 9 – 10 October:  Annual IMF-World Bank meeting.  Washington, DC.

• 10 October:  10:10 Global Workday.  Worldwide.

• 27 – 29 October: Fourth International Renewable Energy Conference (IREC).  New Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, India. LINK

• 29-20 October:  Cartagena Group/Dialogue for Progressive Action.  Costa Rica.

    November/December

• 11-12 November: G20 Summit. Seoul, South Korea. LINK

• 13-14 November:  APEC Leaders Summit.  Yokohama, Japan.

• 29 November – 10 December: Sixteenth Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the UNFCCC and Sixth Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol. Mexico City, Mexico.LINK