Story

Filter by Dates

 

Filter by Topics

Climate Logjam

January 05, 2001 After wrecking the climate talks in The Hague, the US-led coalition refuses to participate in further negotiations in Oslo The US led umbrella group consisting of Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand refused to attend the ministerial meeting in Oslo, Norway. The meeting was aimed at resolving differences that wrecked the UN sponsored climate change conference in November 2000. The group felt that talks were futile unless the EU changed its position on key areas.

African delusions

November 20, 2000 Will CDM benefit Africa? African delegates would have done well to stop a minute and think of what went wrong with CDM’s closest cousin (or should we say clone), the pilot phase of the Activities Implemented Jointly (AIJ). Of 103 AIJ projects carried out since 1995, only two were implemented in Africa.

Mechanisms: Rough Guide

November 20, 2000 What Southern delegates and NGOs should watch out for in CDM negotiations 1 The latest version of the CDM text (November 18) has a bracketed positive list of safe and environmentally sound projects eligible under CDM, listing options for renewable energy, energy efficiency, and demand-side management. Developing countries should push for renewable technologies, to safeguard against having to phase out CDM fossil fuel investments when they have to take on commitments in the future.

Miracle cure or placebo?

November 20, 2000 CDM was formulated overnight at Kyoto to offer temporary relief to Northern countries in meeting their commitments. Since then, quacks have seen its potential and packaged it into the miracle cure for all that troubles developing countries. Suffering from lack of ODA? Have some CDM. Want sustainable development? CDM could promote its growth. Adaptation funds? Technology transfer? No problem, try CDM.

Compliance: More words

November 20, 2000 A complete farce? What do you get after a week's negotiations by the joint working group on compliance? Even lengthier text with more brackets.

Will the mother of all deals be on sinks?

There is disquiet in the air. Everybody is moving around, looking so busy. But nobody knows what is being negotiated. Old hands will tell you that deals are being made behind closed doors. Conference chairperson, Jan Pronk, an experienced politician is expected to move things on. Somewhere there will be a deal to clinch all deals.

Consenting adults in a hot world

November 17, 2000 Back to Basics by Anil Agarwal Why is equity so important for mitigating climate change? Very simple: because we are all human beings. Not Americans, Europeans, Japanese or Chinese. Or more intelligent or less intelligent. We are humans. Just humans. Full stop. Now we have to decide whether we want to be like a bunch of raucous kids or a group of consenting adults.

The far side

November 17, 2000 A visitor to the Congrescentrum would never guess it, but there is only one reason why we are here: the Western model of economic development which is heavily dependant on carbon-based fossil fuels has turned out not to be such a good idea after all, and we need an alternative. Fast.