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Canada: Three Strikes, You’re Out
4 Nov 2009
Last week, Canadian environment minister Jim Prentice did a great job not protecting the environment. First he broke his promise to reveal the government’s full suite of climate change policies before Copenhagen. As of now, there’s no word on when the strategy (the third in four years) would be completed or even when draft regulations […]
Commissioning the Climate Finance Castle
4 Nov 2009
When constructing a solid building, starting from scratch is often more efficient and cheaper than to trying to retrofit an existing building for a new, much larger purpose. In the same way, developing countries argue that when it the design of the financial mechanism, a new architectural approach is needed. ECO observes that over the […]
Dying for change?
4 Nov 2009
ECO would like an answer to this question: What would you do if your country, lands and the livelihoods of your people were going to become unliveable or disappear under water or sand or face substantial damages beyond their capacity to adapt? Adaptation negotiators entering the halls for the next informal session on adaptation ought […]
Canada: Three Strikes, You’re Out
3 Nov 2009
Last week, Canadian environment minister Jim Prentice did a great job not protecting the environment. First he broke his promise to reveal the government’s full suite of climate change policies before Copenhagen. As of now, there’s no word on when the strategy (the third in four years) would be completed or even when draft regulations […]
Barcelona´s first hearing on adaptation
3 Nov 2009
Yesterday, the first contact group on adaptation in Barcelona took place as the countdown to Copenhagen enters its final phase. It was an extraordinary hearing although ECO struggled to hear because the acoustics were bad. And there were some important things ECO wanted to hear clearly. The chair set out the mission: finish on Friday […]
EU’s Finance Figures Start Race to the Top
2 Nov 2009
After delaying the decision all year, last week’s summit of EU heads of state and government finally agreed on concrete numbers for the scale of public financing needed for adaptation and mitigation in developing countries. ECO of course recognises that the EU is the first Annex I Party to do so, but observes that much […]
LULUCF Follies
2 Nov 2009
Right now in Barcelona is the time for Annex I Parties to change their LULUCF strategy and stop looking for cheap and easy credits from this sector. Continuing on this path will undermine the integrity of the Copenhagen climate agreement instead of creating a fair and transparent accounting framework through which industrialized countries take full […]
Scotland breaks the 40% barrier
2 Nov 2009
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Scotland? Tartan? Golf? Scotch whisky? Now there’s something new — legally binding emissions cuts of 42% by 2020. Scotland has committed to reduce its emissions by that level and 80% by 2050, all relative to 1990 levels. Scotland has also pledged to make […]
Opening Barcelona Fossil of the Day Award
2 Nov 2009
Barcelona, Spain, November 2, 2009: Two Fossil of the Day Awards were presented this evening at the UN climate talks in Barcelona, to those countries who were judged – by vote of the global Climate Action Network International (CAN-I) to have performed ‘best’ at blocking progress in the negotiations. As government delegates and observers from the […]
The Grand Rehearsal for Copenhagen
2 Nov 2009
What a difference only three weeks has made. Delegates, before checking up on your homework assignments from Bangkok, let’s take a step back and look at the wider political picture. Several governments previously not seen or heard from are frantically preparing for Copenhagen. Their heads of government and state want to make a strong statement […]