Category Archives: International Climate Policy

US Climate Change Envoy calls Durban climate summit a success

Representing the Obama Administration at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Jonathan Pershing, senior US climate negotiator at the State Department, took a more positive view of the 17th Conference of the Parties in Durban, South Africa, than CSW … Continue reading

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The American ‘99%’ as part of the global ‘1%’ in contributing to climate change

In response to our post on The Occupy Movement and the Climate Movement, we received two comments that raise issues suggesting a need to expand the discussion. We argued that the climate movement has much to learn and potentially adopt from … Continue reading

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On the Durban climate conference, Part 2: The problem of international distributional equity

US environmental groups and analysts in the movement for a stronger climate policy have focused on energy technologies, carbon pricing, and other technical issues without, for the most part, coming to grips with the elements of the climate change international … Continue reading

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On the Durban climate conference, Part 1: US hard-nosed conservative negotiating position essentially prevails

Having failed to resolve the fundamental policy issues of global climatic disruption, the major players at Durban pushed them off into the future. The ‘Durban Framework’ for continuing negotiations is so skeletal that it essentially allows everyone to hold their … Continue reading

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A comment on the UN climate treaty negotiations

Don’t expect any major breakthroughs in the UN climate treaty negotiations this year, we told Al Jazeera English TV in an October 2 interview. “Right now you have the US – which has not made any commitment to reduce its own … Continue reading

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Fundamental impasse on U.S. climate policy evident in House Foreign Affairs hearing on UN climate talks chaired by denialist Rep. Rohrabacher

House Foreign Affairs oversight and investigations subcommittee chair Dana Rohrabacher (R-California), Obama administration climate negotiator Todd Stern, and a disparate panel of witnesses squared off at a May 25 hearing on whether U.S. participation in United Nations climate treaty negotiations … Continue reading

Posted in Congress: Legislation and Oversight, International Climate Policy | 2 Comments

U.S. climate envoy Jonathan Pershing: in implementing the Cancun Agreements, the U.S. will be the focus of global attention

On January 5, Jonathan Pershing, the U.S. Deputy Special Envoy for Climate Change, told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies that the framework established by the Cancun Agreements signals a busy year for implementation of climate … Continue reading

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Wikileaks reveals Dalai Lama told U.S. ambassador: Climate change now a more urgent focus for Tibet than politics

A U.S. State Department cable released by Wikileaks shows U.S. Ambassador to India Tim Roemer reporting that, in an August 2009 meeting, the Dalai Lama “argued that the political agenda should be sidelined for five to ten years and the … Continue reading

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CSW interview on IPCC and recommendations for ‘fundamental reform’

On August 30, Climate Science Watch director Rick Piltz was interviewed on Al Jazeera English TV as part of their coverage of the important new report by the InterAcademy Council on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The report calls … Continue reading

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Draft of 5th U.S. Climate Action Report required by climate treaty posted for 28-day public review

The U.S. government on April 7 issued the public review draft of its fifth “national communication” required under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).  U.S. Climate Action Report 2010 is the first comprehensive statement so far from … Continue reading

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