“FOSSIL OF THE DAY” AWARD

9 December 2009

Tuesday’s awards go to:

First Place – Ukraine

Ukraine won first place yesterday for having the single worst carbon emissions reduction target in the world: a -20% reduction from 1990 levels, which means a 75% increase from current levels. The semi-technical term for this sort of “reduction” is hot air. It is this hot air that was sold to Japan; it is this kind of hot air that is boiling the climate .

Second Place – The Umbrella Group (Industrialised non-EU countries: Canada, Iceland, Japan, Kazakhstan, New Zealand, Norway, Russian Federation, Ukraine, United States and Australia.)

The Umbrella Group was fossiled for proposing in yesterday morning’s SBSTA plenary that carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects should qualify as CDM projects. The CDM should be reserved for projects that move developing countries towards actual clean energy solutions. Umbrella Group, good luck capturing and sequestering your fossil award!

Third Place – Ukraine

Ukraine also won third place – and its second Fossil of the Day – for refusing to tell anyone how it is using its money from selling emission credits. Ukraine has sold Japan €300 million worth of emission permissions. It is required by its own treaty obligations to explain where that money is going. But when Ukraine’s NGOs asked the question, their government refused to answer. The transparency fight is now in court.

more details can be found at: www.fossil-of-the-day.org