At Mother Jones, Kate Sheppard hints at Forward Motion in Cancun?
Observers are cautiously optimistic that countries could move forward on the draft text of a potential agreement at the Cancun summit in the next week. The draft, released on Saturday, includes a number of options for negotiators to consider in detail in the next five days, but there are still some big holes.
The 33-page draft for a new agreement—one that would include the US and China, most notably—comes from the chair of the conference and reflects what working groups pulled together in the first week. In many ways, it hews to the Copenhagen Accord from last year's summit—without mentioning it by name—and expands on the portions of that text. The text proposes that countries agree to "hold the increase in global average temperature below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and states that countries "should take urgent action to meet this objective consistent with science and on the basis of equity."
Notably, the draft text also states that there should be a review of the goals between 2013 and 2015, both to determine whether the proposed cuts are adequate, and whether parties should strengthen the temperature goal to 1.5 degrees Celsius instead, based on updated science. It doesn't note, however, that it's already clear that the pledges countries offered last year fall well short of meeting that goal. |
Meanwhile, Margaret Roosevelt at the Los Angeles Times, writes, At climate summit, they're feeling like deserted islands:
In the scrum of 9,000 negotiators gathered in Cancun to wrangle over a global climate treaty Ronny Jumeau has no patience for diplomatic niceties.
"I won't shut up," said the pugnacious chief of the three-member delegation from Seychelles, an Indian Ocean archipelago. "Even when we're underwater, when the bubbles pop, you'll hear us yelling." ...
Vulnerable nations are counting on billions of dollars, promised by wealthy countries in Copenhagen, to rebuild wetlands to absorb flooding and rising tides, store fresh water during droughts, reinforce buildings to resist typhoons — and otherwise defend themselves against calamities they blame on climate change.
"But pledges mean nothing," said [Ronny] Jumeau, who also serves as Seychelles' ambassador to the United States. "Bring something that lands on the table with a clunk." |
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See boatsie's Cancun diary, Fossil Fools? Carbon Currencies & War Rooms.
See Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse's climate change round-up diary, Eco Activists "Greatest Threat" to Society and Church.
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At Daily Kos on this date in 2002:
Read Arianna Huffington's latest column, and then read it again. This issue should be at the top of the Democrats' list over the next two years:
As the war on terror shows troubling signs of becoming a war of error, the Bush administration is waging a far more successful war on behalf of its corporate backers. The latest victory comes courtesy of Congress' 11th hour reversal of a provision in the Homeland Security Bill banning government contracts for companies that move offshore to avoid paying U.S. taxes.
It is clear that the Bush Administration simply cannot help itself, and there will be undoubtedly more examples such as these in the coming two years. Now, the Democratic Party's challenge is to take each of these gross abuses and build upon the last one -- the same way the GOP hammered home the "Gore is liar" theme. None of these incidents by themselves will expose the GOP for the facilitator of corporate corruption that it is, but with deft handling Democrats can help make the case.
I hate to assume that the Dems will let this and other opportunities pass, so let's hope that our side is starting to learn their lessons. |