WORLD GETS TO WORK ON CARBON

So when are US politicians going to stop talking and get to work? After November, 2008? Probably. Despite the clamoring from scientists, activists and business for leadership.

Nations Begin Carbon Emissions Work; Delegates From More Than 150 Countries Begin Work on Accord to Control Carbon Emissions
Daniela Pegna, May 7, 2007 (AP via Yahoo Finance)
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WHO
1000 diplomats from 166 UN countries, Yvo de Boer, executive secretary

WHAT
A two-week meeting of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change

WHEN
Convened May 7 to begin the process of reaching a new agreement by 2009. The formal negotiations begin in December.

WHERE
Bonn, Germany. The December meeting will be in Bali, Indonesia.

WHY
- The Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. The delegates to this convention will begin negotiating a new set of emissions targets and a means of achieving them. The delegates hope to draw in the US (world’s largest CO2 emitter) as well as emerging giants India and China.
- This will be the first meeting since the latest round of findings were issued by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), based on the work of its 2500 scientists. IPCC findings are that the means and technology exists to avoid the worst possibilities but suggest worst-case impacts on poor countries, drought in places like northern Africa, flooding in river deltas like Bangladesh, widespread increased hunger, thirst and disease, and the threatened extinction of up to 30% of species if action is not taken.
- German delegate/EU spokesman Nicole Wilke said emissions should peak within 10-15 years and slowly decrease by 50%, recommitted to the EU goal of 30% of 1990 levels by 2020 with a minimum 20% cut and called for an expansion of the EU CO2 market.
- Pakistani delegate Jamil Ahmadsaid, speaking on behalf of 77 developing countries plus China, called for the developed, industrial countries to lead with funding, technology and change.
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QUOTES
Yvo de Boer: "…there is increasing sense of urgency and of a need to move forward…What you traditionally find in the run-up to an important negotiating moment is that not everybody is willing to put their cards on the table…"