The Kyoto Protocol has been on life support since 2001. And the fear of having to build governance in a world without it has made us keep it going for another 8 years. But it wasn’t that good of an agreement in the first place, it obviously is a failure at this point, and it … Continue reading »
Tagged with United States …
If you aren’t part of the solution, then you are the United States
James Traub recently posted a piece to Foreign Policy which argues that even though the U.S. emissions have been decreasing, U.S. climate policy is largely a failure by being too weak in trying to build an effective climate organization. Traub writes: “the real failure of U.S. policy has been, first, that it is still much … Continue reading »
Ambition Gap: Important issue or side-show at the Doha Conference?
In fact, I consider ambition to be so light and airy that it’s only the shadow of a shadow. -Rosencrantz from Hamlet Some phrases seem to come out of nowhere and then become absolutely prominent in discussions. And one such phrase is the “ambition gap” at the Doha Climate conference. The idea became important at … Continue reading »
What will be the legacy of Doha?
When we look back at this era of global politics, what will be the legacy of Doha? It is an important question when we consider the places which have become synonymous with international conferences: Yalta and Potsdam as sites for the development of the post-World War II agenda, Stockholm and Rio as key sites for … Continue reading »
Do we want to learn from disasters? Reflections on Hurricane Sandy and Climate Change
Chris Mooney is one of the better writers about climate change and public perception out there. His response to Sandy was clear: We’d been warned, we didn’t learn, will Sandy be the start of learning. To quote from his article: So, yes, we knew. We knew well ahead of time that this could happen, and … Continue reading »
Rio+20 Countdown: Who is to blame for the weak text at Rio+20?
This is Part 25 (and last) of a series of blog posts leading up to the Rio+20 Sustainable Development Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on June 20-22. The full series is available here. ———————————————————————————————————————————– This post isn’t going to win me any friends…. Brazilian Delegation Celebrating Completion of Proposed Rio+20 Declaration Text. Source: IISD … Continue reading »
Rio+20 Countdown: Obama will not attend the Rio+20 Conference
This is Part 14 of a series of blog posts leading up to the Rio+20 Sustainable Development Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on June 20-22. The full series is available here. ——————————————————————————————————————————————- As predicted here for a while, Obama will not be attending the Rio+20 Conference. The U.S. Delegation will include some key individuals: … Continue reading »
What Endangered Species will the U.S. Support for International Protection?
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) came into force in 1975 with the declared intention of controlling trade of endangered species or products made from them. CITES uses listing procedures to establish trade relevant limitations and controls. An endangered species gets listed in the Appendices and these decisions are based upon the … Continue reading »
The Energy Storage Issue: Not just a problem with Renewables
Recent years have identified that the limitation to renewable power sources is not its capacity, not its costs, not any negative externalities: the limitation on renewable energy sources is storage in the current energy grid. When energy demand increases, our current system responds by increasing production at coal or gas plants. Nature’s background on the … Continue reading »
Round 3 of Environment vs. Trade: Rare Earths, China, and the World Trade Organization
Last week, the United States, European Union, and Japan requested a consultation (essentially accusing another country of unfair trade practices) in the Dispute Settlement Body of the World Trade Organization regarding China’s various barriers to the trade of rare earth metals. Although, currently it does not have much, you can follow updates from the WTO … Continue reading »
