Updates

Superstorm ‘Sandy’ tells us why the climate change denial must stop I start this blog on climate politics as tropical superstorm Sandy expends its fury on the eastern coast of the US. The satellite imagery shows the movement of the gathering storm as it builds and breaks over land, bringing with it massive destruction and massive upheaval in the wealthiest and most powerful nation of the world. More by Sunita Narain

Climate Change

Progress at Bonn marred by old climate politics Will negotiating parties be able to sort out their differences at Doha? By Uthra Radhakrishnan

Workshop on a Framework for Various Approaches

On May 19, a workshop organised by the UNFCCC under the AWG-LCA track was held at Bonn. The workshop was mandated by the UNFCCC at Durban last year in order to better understand the multiple approaches countries took towards achieving their mitigation targets. The purpose of this was to explore the concept of a framework through which these approaches could be recognized by the UNFCCC and counted towards national pledges.

BONN - What is on the agenda?

The upcoming climate change inter-sessional at Bonn will take place from May 14-25. Following the decisions agreed to at CoP-17 in Durban, one more track, Ad hoc working group on the Durban Platform for enhanced action (ADP) will be added to the four existing tracks – Ad hoc working groups on Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP) and Long-term cooperative Action (AWG-LCA) and the subsidiary bodies (SBSTA, SBI). Under this new track, deliberations for the work plan on a future protocol post-2020 and the means to increase ambition will be carried out.

Message from Bonn: Drop Bali agenda

Disagreements begin; parties to discuss informally to adopt long-term cooperation agenda By Uthra Radhakrishnan Two days into the ongoing negotiations at Bonn and the all too familiar rifts are visible. The primary disagreement is over how to move forward—whether to begin discussions from what was agreed to in the meeting of the Conference of Parties (CoP) in Bali in 2007 or the Durban CoP in 2011. Read more  

LDCs ring the alarm bell before Bonn

Demand higher ambition; will EU still take the lead? By Uthra Radhakrishnan Just ahead of the mid-year climate change session at Bonn, starting on May 14, the least developed countries (LDCs) have issued a call for efforts to be directed towards raising ambition on mitigation for the pre-2020 period, calling it the sine qua non of a successful outcome on the new Durban Platform negotiations. Read more

EU warns Indian, Chinese airlines

Developing countries say no to unilateral trade measures to curb carbon emissions at Bonn meet By Hemant Nair The European Union (EU) recently issued a warning to two airlines from India and eight airlines from China for not providing their 2011 baseline emission data to it. The EU expected them to provide this data to set a benchmark for emissions from the aviation sector under its emissions trading scheme, commonly called the EU ETS. Read more

Fossil Fuel Suicide Why fossil fools will cost us the Earth

November 17, 2000 The Kyoto Protocol will be a disaster of bigger proportions if it subsidises carbon-based energy through CDM.  The world will then not achieve safe concentration levels until the end of the century. The world needs investments in R&D  and policy changes  that drive down fossil fuel subsidies in the North and the South Even a focus on energy efficiency will not work (see below)

SBI 14: Bonn, Germany

Press Release Biggest rogue of them all April 3, 2001 The world should declare the US a rogue nation for this act of extreme selfishness. And the Indian government should stop being a pushover.