News One » Climate Change

OPINION: Does Anybody Like Obama’s Climate Deal?

News One — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 14:37:40 +0000

From NYTimes.com:

Let’s play Double Jeopardy. Presidential Headaches for $2,000, please, Alex.

It was the contentious debate over which Barack Obama declared on Friday, “The time to talk is over.”

– What is the Senate health care reform bill? Wrong.

– What is Wall Street’s latest high-handed effort to divert any blame for the economic meltdown? Incorrect.

– What is the negotiations with Russia over the now-expired Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty? Nope.

– What is displeasure over the decision to put the University of Texas in the college football national championship game? Sorry,Mr. Connery, no.

O.K., let’s make it a photo Daily Double:

What is the Copenhagen Summit? Of course. But before we get to Final Jeopardy, let me ask a serious question: Wasn’t two weeks of talk exactly what most everyone involved expected from the great environmental get-together?

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SHARPTON: Obama’s Work To Fight Climate Change Is A Positive Step

U.S., China, Three Other Countries Reach Deal At Climate Summit

Associated Press — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 22:02:50 +0000

COPENHAGEN — President Barack Obama announced Friday a “meaningful and unprecedented breakthrough” on a global effort to curb climate change.

But Obama said, “It is going to be very hard, and it’s going to take some time” to get to a legally binding treaty.

A deal reached by the United States, China, India, South Africa and Brazil includes a method for verifying reductions of heat-trapping gases, a senior administration official said. The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity before Obama spoke, characterized the deal as a first step, not yet enough to combat the threat of a warming planet.

Under the agreement, the official said each country also will list the actions it will take to cut global warming pollution by specific amounts. The deal reiterates a goal that eight leading industrialized nations set earlier this year on long-term emission cuts and provides a mechanism to help poor countries prepare for climate change.

Obama addressed reporters traveling with him after racing from one impromptu meeting to another in snow-covered Copenhagen and delivering an animated plea for compromise on the final day of a 193-nation United Nations summit focused on curbing global warming.

The president had planned to spend only about nine hours in Copenhagen as the summit wrapped up after two weeks. But, as an agreement appeared within reach, he extended his stay by more than six hours to attend a series of meetings aimed at brokering a deal.

SHARPTON: Obama’s Work To Fight Climate Change Is A Positive Step

BE ON WASHINGTON WATCH: How Would You Grade Obama?

News One — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:49:29 +0000

Here we are, another week of news consumed and we want to hear your voice! Tell us your opinion about Joe Lieberman and the health care debate, Obama’s falling approval rating, climate change and the shockingly high rate of unemployment in Detroit (nearly 50%!).

Also, Obama’s latest poll numbers show his approval rating is down below 50% but he gave himself a B+. We polled Blackplanet members to find that most of you believe he should get a B.

SUBMIT YOUR VIDEOS HERE telling us what you would grade Obama so far and why. What are the most important issues to you? Is Obama addressing them satisfactorily? How is he handling issues like health care, Afghanistan and climate change?

You could end up on television! Washington Watch is a show hosted by CNN’s Roland Martin. It is a place for Black America to have its voice heard, to ask the hard questions to the lawmakers & politicians that represent us and to speak up!

So what are YOUR thoughts?

U.N. Climate Conference Opens In Copenhagen

Associated Press — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 12:43:02 +0000

COPENHAGEN – The largest and most important U.N. climate changeconference in history opened Monday, with organizers warning diplomats from 192 nations that this could be the best, last chance for a deal to protect the world from calamitous global warming.

The two-week conference, the climax of two years of contentious negotiations, convened in an upbeat mood after a series of promises by rich and emerging economies to curb their greenhouse gases, but with major issues yet to be resolved.

Conference president Connie Hedegaard said the key to an agreement is finding a way to raise and channel public and private financing to poor countries for years to come to help them fight the effects ofclimate change.

Hedegaard — Denmark‘s former climate minister — said if governments miss their chance at the Copenhagen summit, a better opportunity may never come.

“This is our chance. If we miss it, it could take years before we got a new and better one. If we ever do,” she said.

Denmark’s prime minister said 110 heads of state and government will attend the final days of the conference. President Barack Obama’s decision to attend the end of the conference, not the middle, was taken as a signal that an agreement was getting closer.

The conference opened with video clips of children from around the globe urging delegates to help them grow up in a world without catastrophic warming.

At stake is a deal that aims to wean the world away from fossil fuels and other pollutants to greener sources of energy, and to transfer hundreds of billions of dollars from rich to poor countries every year over decades to help them adapt to climate change.

Scientists say without such an agreement, the Earth will face the consequences of ever-rising temperatures, leading to the extinction of plant and animal species, the flooding of coastal cities, more extreme weather events, drought and the spread of diseases.

“The evidence is now overwhelming” that the world needs early action to combat global warming, said Rajendra Pachauri, the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an U.N. expert panel.

He defended climate research in the face of a controversy over e-mails pilfered from a British university, whichglobal warming skeptics say show scientists have been conspiring to hide evidence that doesn’t fit their theories.

“The recent incident of stealing the e-mails of scientists at the University of East Anglia shows that some would go to the extent of carrying out illegal acts perhaps in an attempt to discredit the IPCC,” he told the conference.

Negotiations have dragged on for two years, only recently showing signs of breakthroughs with new commitments from The United States, China and India to control greenhouse gas emissions.

The first week of the conference will focus on refining the complex text of a draft treaty. But major decisions will await the arrival next week of environment ministers and the heads of state in the final days of the conference, which ends Dec. 18.

“The time for formal statements is over. The time for restating well-known positions is past,” said the U.N.’s top climate official, Yvo de Boer. “Copenhagen will only be a success it delivers significant and immediate action.”

Among those decisions is a proposed fund of $10 billion each year for the next three years to help poor countries create climate change strategies. After that, hundreds of billions of dollars will be needed every year to set the world on a new energy path and adapt to new climates.

“The deal that we invite leaders to sign up on will be one that affects all aspects of society, just as the changing climate does,” said Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen. “Negotiators cannot do this alone, nor can politicians. The ultimate responsibility rests with the citizens of the world, who will ultimately bear the fatal consequences if we fail to act.”

A study released by the U.N. Environment Program on Sunday indicated that pledges by industrial countriesand major emerging nations fall just short of the reductions of greenhouse gas emissions that scientists have said are needed to keep average temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees C (3.6 F).

Climate Change Could “Spark African Civil Wars”

Obama Shifts Timing Of Visit To International Climate Summit

Associated Press — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 18:35:27 +0000

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is shifting the timing of his visit to an international climate summit in Copenhagen as prospects for a political agreement at the event seem more likely.

The U.S., India and China all have specific proposals on the table for the first time, and world leaders are aiming for a deal that includes commitments on reducing emissions and financing for developing countries. They no longer expect to reach a legally binding agreement, as had long been the goal.

Obama is hoping to capitalize on steps by India and China and build a more meaningful political accord, the White House said.

The move means Obama will be at the summit on Dec. 18, considered a crucial period when more leaders will be in attendance, as opposed to his scheduled stop in Denmark on Wednesday on his way to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo.

It also means that Obama will be squeezing in a separate, 10th foreign trip before Christmas — a record pace of travel for a first-year president — as a means to giving momentum to a deal aimed at combatting global warming.

Obama will now leave for Oslo late Wednesday, attend Nobel events Thursday and return to Washington on Friday.

The president had said that he would travel to the Copenhagen conference if his appearance would help clinch a deal. His decision to go early to the two-week meeting had been seen by many as a sign that an agreement was still a long shot.

The possibility of an agreement may be improving, however.

“There are still outstanding issues that must be negotiated for an agreement to be reached, but this decision reflects the president’s commitment to doing all that he can to pursue a positive outcome,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said in a statement. Gibbs said the U.S. will have negotiators involved throughout the Dec. 7-18 conference.

It is also possible that Obama could tack on another agenda item to his revamped, final trip of the year: the signing of a broad treaty with Russia to reduce both nations’ nuclear arsenals. The White House had hoped that deal would be ready in time to coordinate it with his receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, but talks have not produced a final breakthrough.

On climate, India pledged Thursday to significantly slow the growth of its carbon emissions over the next decade. China announced its own targets for cutting carbon emissions last week, a day after Obama announced the U.S. goals.

None of the three countries — which are among the top five emitters of carbon dioxide in the world — were subject to limits put in place by the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the treaty that negotiations in Denmark seek to replace.

The development came one day after India said it would cut the ratio of greenhouse gases pollution to production by 20 to 25 percent from 2005 levels by 2020 but would not agree to a hard limit on the amount of heat-trapping gases it could release. India’s pledge, like the one made earlier by China, is a cut in carbon intensity.

That means emissions can keep rising as their developing economies grow, but they would do so more slowly. China pledged weeks ago to commit to a 40 to 45 percent reduction in carbon intensity from 2005 levels over the next decade. That means its emissions would grow at half the rate they would otherwise.

By contrast, the U.S. will propose a cut in emissions over the same time period in the range of 17 percent, regardless of the growth of its economy. For the U.S. to achieve the target it proposes, however, Congress will have to pass legislation to curb greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. The Senate has said it will not take up the measure until next year.

And even if it does, a 17 percent reduction by 2020 is lower than what scientists say is needed to avert the dangerous consequences of climate change.

The Swedish prime minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, said through spokeswoman Roberta Alenius that “it’s positive that Obama has decided to participate in the end-phase of the meeting. It will add political weight to the negotiations.”

“Hopefully the presence of leaders from the world’s largest emitting countries will contribute to bringing the process forward,” he said.

Climate Change “Could Spark African Civil Wars”

SHARPTON: Obama’s Work To Fight Climate Change Is A Positive Step

Rev. Al Sharpton — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 17:36:08 +0000

Two years ago, residents in much of the Southeast underwent an utter revamping of their lifestyle. Instead of blindly showering water across their lawns and leaving faucets running on end, they were forced to self-ration their own usage, and in many cases eliminate certain activities. In North Carolina, Governor Michael Easley urged his constituents to cease using water for all purposes not essential to public health and safety, while the nearly five million inhabitants of the Atlanta metropolitan area faced fines upwards in the thousands for violating certain water restrictions. For the first time in more than 100 years, the Southeast region of the United States faced the highest level of drought on record as water resources plummeted to dangerously low levels … and yet the Bush administration continued to turn a blind eye towards a catastrophe looming in virtually everyone’s future.

From December 7th-18th , about 75 world leaders will congregate in Copenhagen, Denmark as they undertake the complex and ever urgent dilemma of climate change. Luckily for the United States – and for the world at large – President Obama himself will attend and address the summit on December 9th as he pushes forth his goals to reduce carbon emissions 83% by 2050. As the first sitting U.S. President since George H.W. Bush’s 1992 trip to Rio de Janeiro where a global warming treaty first began this process, Obama will address the annual U.N. conference and finally propose an emissions reduction target that will undeniably save lives and our planet.

As hurricanes grow in intensity, floods wash away entire towns, tsunamis erase generations, droughts leave children starving and the number of respiratory diseases around the world continues to exponentially rise, there are those that would still chose to deny the existence of a dire global warming crisis. And the sad reality is that even though developed nations are largely to blame for growing environmental damage, it is poorer, underdeveloped countries which suffer the most repercussions. Many times lacking the appropriate resources and infrastructure to combat natural disasters and emerging catastrophes, these countries almost always experience disproportionate levels of death, starvation and destruction. And a majority of the time, it is children who fall victim to the devastating outcomes of an increasingly volatile environment.

Despite the mounting evidence and countless examples of global warming, those with their own financial or personal incentives would choose to deny its existence. Following eight years of the Bush administration’s rejection of the 1997 Kyoto climate accords, and its continued refusal to reduce greenhouse gases, President Obama will finally make a concerted effort to rectify an overly neglected and increasingly troubling situation. For the first time, the American delegation to the climate summit will have a U.S. Center set up at the conference where keynote speakers will address topics ranging from the investment of $80 billion in clean energy via the Recovery Act, to the President’s gas emissions standards for cars and trucks. Obama will also be accompanied by several Cabinet officials, including the head of the Environmental Protection Agency – marking this as the highest profile contingent of U.S. officials to ever partake in international climate discussions.

When the majority of Americans elected Obama as the 44th President of our great nation, they did so with the conviction that he would not only alter our stance on the world stage, but that he would finally transform political rhetoric into ardent actions. With real, sustainable goals of reducing emissions that have unfortunately grown at a rate of 3.5% annually since 2000, President Obama is once again defining what true leadership should in fact entail. After decades of abuse and neglect, our planet and all the world’s inhabitants will take comfort in knowing that we finally have a President that is making a concerted, meaningful and decisive effort to combat an emergency that impacts us all. It is no surprise then that he is leaving Copenhagen to travel to Oslo, Norway to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

Climate Change “Could Spark African Civil Wars”

News One — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:45:05 +0000

From BelfastTelegraph.com:

Climate change could increase the likelihood of civil war in sub-Saharan Africa by 50% within the next 20 years, leading to hundreds of thousands of deaths, it has been claimed.

Researchers at Stanford University in California combined historical data on civil wars with rainfall and temperature records across Africa.

They found that between 1980 and 2002, civil wars were significantly more likely to break out in warmer than average years. A 1C increase in temperature in a given year increased the incidence of conflict by almost 50%.

This trend was then applied to future projections from 20 global climate simulations. The results suggested that the incidence of African civil wars could increase by 55% by 2030, causing an estimated 390,000 extra conflict-related deaths.

Economist Professor Edward Miguel, one of the US researchers from the University of California at Berkeley, said: “The large majority of the poor in most African countries depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, and their crops are quite sensitive to small changes in temperature. So when temperatures rise, the livelihoods of many in Africa suffer greatly, and the disadvantaged become more likely to take up arms.”

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Obama Tells Africa To Take Responsibility For Their Problems

African Leaders Meet To Discuss Development And Climate Change

News One — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:24:22 +0000

From the AFP:

DAKAR — African policy makers meet in Ouagadougou Friday to discuss climate change just two months before a critical UN summit where African countries are poised to seek billions in compensation for the effects of global warming.

Experts say Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the regions most affected by global warming. The World Bank estimates that the developing world will suffer about 80 percent of the damage of climate change despite accounting for only around one third of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

At the seventh World Forum on Sustainable Development organised by the government of Burkina Faso together with the United Nations and the African Union several African heads of state will meet key policy makers to discuss the opportunities climate change could offer for sustainable development.

“Luckily AFrica has only a very small part in (global) pollution. The continent emits less than 4 percent of greenhouse gasses,” Burkina’s Environment Minister Salifou Sawadogo, a member of the forum’s organising committee, told AFP.

However, Africa needs “to make it clear to countries that have achieved their economic development to the detriment of the environment that they have to take responsibility and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and help the continent most vulnerable to climate change,” he said.

Africa is already facing the consequences of climate change: a drop in rainfall has led to a historic five year drought across east Africa which aid agencies said could see more than 23 million people face hunger and destitution.