Copenhagen Day Eleven #cop15

President Obama is scheduled to leave for Copenhagen this evening, but "U.S. officials stressed that when he travels to the climate conference in Denmark, he won't bring anything to the talks beyond Washington's already stated goals," that is, a 17% cut in emissions from 2005 levels (3% from 1990 levels) by 2020 and modest assistance in aid to developing countries for climate change mitigation. 

Bogged down by the party of 'No!', Republicans seem steadfast in their resolve to tie the U.S.' hands in international negotiations.  Senator James Inhofe traveled to Copenhagen ahead of the President to say, "I am here to make sure the 190 countries here don’t go home with a false impression.  The United States is not going to pass cap and trade. It just isn’t going to happen. Its chances are zero".  How low Republicans will sink in order to destroy international cooperation is still left to be seen.  If the U.S. ends up being able to broker a tentative agreement in Copenhagen, Republicans seem ready to stall progress on the issue domestically in a similar fashion as they did to healthcare. Spread misinformation and stall long enough until the American public gets tired of the debate, or worse, starts believing the lies seems to be their strategy.  One thing is for certain, Senator Inhofe has no business speaking for the entirety of the American people; someone ought to remind him of that.  (AP, Fox News JBS)

Speaking of the American public, apparently sex sells better than visions of the apocalypse.  While the fate of the planet has been being discussed in Copenhagen over the past two weeks, "internet surfers appear much more enamored with the latest news in the ongoing Tiger Woods saga by a margin of more than six to one".  The results, tabulated by Google Trends, show that the terms 'Copenhagen', Climate Change', and 'COP15' combined were outnumbered by searches for 'Tiger Woods' by the margin mentioned above over the last thirty days.  The term 'Tiger Woods Mistress' outnumbered searches for 'COP15' by a margin of 4 to 1.  For this, Mr. Woods should be very, very ashamed.  (Epoch Times)

Friends of the Earth and other mainstream environmental groups were barred from the Bella Center, the main venue for negotiations, today.  No reason was given to the organizations on why they were being denied observation of the negotiations.  "We understand there has been unhappiness at some of the actions inside, but no formal explanation has been given. It is completely out of order. People are outraged at what is going on. Big mainstream organisations are being muzzled. This is madness."  Protests outside the building where negotiations are going on have been ramping up since the weekend.  Many people feel as though the interests of the people are being usurped by the wishes of global mega-corporations that control the governments of the world's rich countries.  (guardian)

Reports from inside negotiations reveal that current pledges from countries fall far short from what scientists are recommending in order to avert runaway global warming.  (Climate Scoreboard)  "Pledges so far by all nations for curbing greenhouse gases would mean a world temperature rise of 3 degrees Celsius, a figure above many estimates of dangerous climate change."  A rise of 3 degrees Celsius (5.4F) "could cause a rise in sea levels, droughts, floods, and mass extinction of species".  Until it happens, though, skeptics simply won't believe so.  The figures of the deal that was leaked to Reuters today indicate that much more ambitious pledges are needed, like 30% cuts from rich nations and 20% cuts from developing nations, in the final day.  Not likely, though, with the world still looking to the U.S. for leadership.  The U.S. is the only country that has government officials in Copenhagen still denying the science behind global warming (Inhofe gave a press conference today from Copenhagen).  These are the same people denying evolution, putting dinosaurs and humans on earth together 6000 years ago when God created the universe.  Most of these Republican dinosaurs who spend their days denying global warming will be long dead and buried by the time the phenomenon kicks into high gear around 2040; the sad part is that they won't be around to reap the fruits of all of their hard work.  (Reuters, Telegraph)

In exchange for more transparency from China on emission reporting, the U.S. said it would offer $100 billion in aid to developing countries to fight climate change.  "In the context of a strong accord, in which all major economies stand behind meaningful mitigation actions and provide full transparency as to their implementation, the United States is prepared to work with other countries toward a goal of jointly mobilizing 100 billion dollars a year by 2020 to address the climate change needs of developing countries," Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said in Copenhagen today.  China has been reluctant to allow international inspection of the effectiveness of their emission reduction strategies.  Chinese negotiators acknowledged the U.S. offer but did not give clear indication whether or not they would agree to the terms that the U.S. has been insisting.  In one early report, China "called on the developed world to trust China's internal monitoring system and its sincerity in combating climate change"; later in the day, it seemed as though China's position was softening when they agreed to "dialogue and cooperation (on emission reporting) that is not intrusive, that does not infringe on China's sovereignty". (COP15, WSJ, AP)

Developing countries expressed gratitude for the U.S.' climate aid efforts but remained wary of both the follow-through and whether minimal aid would be enough to save their countries from becoming submerged due to sea-level rise or from being swallowed up by sand due to desertification.  "If this is good money and nobody is going to be alive to get a dime of it, how far does this take us?"  (NYT)

NASA and Google offered a way to track emissions more precisely using satellites and cyberspace.  NASA's first satellite that would monitor carbon emissions globally crashed and burned and sank in Antarctic waters earlier this year, but said with funding, it could launch a second satellite.  Google has already launched "a new program called Earth Engine which essentially is a massive storehouse for satellite and other data that countries will be able to access for free by the time of the next U.N. climate conference in Mexico next year".  Together, Google an NASA can provide transparency to the emission tracking problem that has plagued the Copenhagen conference.  (AP)

The U.S. and five other countries pledged $3.5 billion over three years to a fund that will aid in the preservation of the world forests.  Deforestation is responsible for around 20% of the world's emissions.  Trees and plants store carbon dioxide in their leaves; when they are cut down, the CO2 is released back into the atmosphere.  "Behind China and the United States, Indonesia and Brazil are the third- and fourth-largest emitters because of wide-scale cutting and burning of forests."  The UN-REDD Program is seen as the most practical way to reduce global emissions.  "We don't have to develop new technology," said the Norwegian PM, "We can just stop doing something that is destroying the environment of the Earth." It is hard to believe that $3.5 billion is going to halt the multi-billion dollar industries currently destroying the forests of the world for profit.  (L.A. Times)

A network of Climate Innovation Centers as proposed by India has been accepted in negotiations at Copenhagen.  At issue was the issue of intellectual property rights.  Rich countries fear the loss of billions of dollars giving up clean energy technology for free.  Developing countries say that there is no other way for them to reduce their carbon emissions then to implement the most recent clean energy technologies.  Climate Innovation Centers "would increase cooperation between scientific minds of the developed and developing world which would be aimed at achieving cost parity between the conventional energy sources and renewable energy sources. CICs would improve efficiencies of renewable energy technologies like solar PV, wind turbines etc. CICs would bring researchers from all around the world to work for a common purpose of making renewable energy more affordable and more penetrable".  The idea has gained approval 'in principle' this week in Copenhagen.  (Scientific American, liveMint)

The U.S. and 20 other nations have created a mechanism for studying emissions in the agricultural sector.  "Farm-related greenhouse-gas emissions are produced by the burning of crop residues, methane released from decaying manure and the digestive tracts of cattle, and gases emanating from fertilized soil. Together, agricultural sources account for about 6% of all U.S. emissions and 14% of emissions worldwide."  The Agriculture Department will throw down an additional $90 million to study new ways of tending fields and treating animal manure. This brings the USDA's climate change mitigation total to $320 million over four years. (Washington Post, NYT)

It's all but official, clean coal will not be supported under the UN Clean Development Mechanism program.  Rich countries had the potential to receive carbon credits by developing clean coal projects in developing countries, but concerns about using poor countries as 'test sites' for storing the CO2 underground and then studying how the gas responded before implementing them in their own countries caused the the UN to put CCS initiatives on hold, at least until next year.  "That’s got folks in coal country, especially in the U.K. and Australia, a bit nervous. Making carbon capture and storage viable is the key to keeping coal in the energy mix, a priority for both countries, as it is for the U.S."  (WSJ)

With less than 24 hours to go before talks in Copenhagen conclude, hope for an agreement still exists; that is a commendable achievement in and of itself.  With the number of issues that could have derailed this process up until now, none of them have.  The leaders of the world have realized the importance of the climate issue for all of humanity to the degree that even after they walked away from negotiations because of differences, they came back and kept working at it.  Regardless of what happens in Copenhagen tomorrow, the world will come together next year in Mexico City and carry humanity's responsibility to their environment further down the road, hopefully to a more binding agreement.

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