Posted
Wednesday, January 04, 2012.
An overview of the Climate Change
Conference (also known as COP 17), held in Durban, South Africa in the December
2010.
Predictably
and sadly, the same issues have resurfaced: lack of media coverage, West
stalling on doing anything trying to blame India and China instead, lack of
funding, disagreement on how to address it, etc.
Geopolitical
threats (real and imaginary) quickly focus a lot of political will and money is
easily found to mobilize military forces when needed.
The
economy also takes center stage as the current pressing issue, while climate
change is easily deferred, in the hopes that the West can let China and India
pick up the burden of addressing emissions even though they have not
contributed to the historical build up of emissions that have started the
recent changes in the climate.
This
page is an overview of the Durban conference.
Posted
Tuesday, January 04, 2011.
An overview of the Climate Change
Conference (also known as COP 16), held in Cancún, Mexico in the December 2010.
This
conference came a year after the Copenhagen conference which promised so much
but offered so little. It also came in the wake of WikiLeaks’ revelations of
how the US in particular tried to cajole various countries to support an accord
that served US interests rather than the world’s.
What
resulted was an agreement that seems much watered down, even an almost
reversal, from original aims and spirit of climate change mitigation. In
effect, the main polluters (the industrialized nations) who should have borne
the brunt of any emission reduction targets, have managed to reduce their
commitments while increasing those of the developing countries; a great global
warming swindle if any!
Posted
Wednesday, December 30, 2009.
An overview of the Climate Change
Conference (also known as COP 15), held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in the middle
of December, 2009.
There
was a lot of hope and optimism before this conference that a meaningful climate
negotiation could be agreed to, as climate change concerns are increasing
rapidly.
Instead,
a mixture of posturing from nations such as China and the US, and the inability
for nations to agree on numerous issues led to a meeting failure.
But
amongst the various reasons for failure are concerns that repeatedly show
themselves every year at these climate conferences.
Posted
Thursday, January 01, 2009.
An overview of the Climate Change
Conference (also known as COP 14), held in Poznań, Poland, at the beginning of
December, 2008. As with past conferences, this too was not without its
controversies. For example, while the Adaptation Fund was launched the funding
of it caused lots of disagreements. The conference came at a time when Europe
seemed to weaken their usually strong stance on climate change action and on
news that in recent years, emissions from industrialized nations had risen.
Posted
Tuesday, January 01, 2008.
The
UN conference on climate change held in Bali, Indonesia in December 2007 led to
a final agreement known as the “Bali Roadmap”. The Bali Roadmap outlined a new
negotiating process to be concluded by 2009 to feed into a post-Kyoto (i.e. a
post-2012) international agreement on climate change. The Roadmap included a
decision to launch an Adaptation Fund as well as further decisions on
technology transfer and on reducing emissions from deforestation. However, as with
past climate conferences, this was not without its controversies, especially
Europe and developing countries’ criticisms of the US position and negotiation
tactics.
Posted
Thursday, December 29, 2005.
December
2005 saw the eleventh session of the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (or, COP11 for short). At the
same time, the first Meeting of the Parties of the Protocol (MOP 1) took place.
These meetings attempted to advance discussions on the future emission
reductions and ways to help developing countries. The US walked out at one
point of the meeting, but were eventually convinced to come back to the
conference. The result, some felt, was a slightly weakened text, but something
to build upon for the future. Developing countries were also discussed, but
issues of climate justice and equity seemed to be missing once again.
Posted
Friday, December 24, 2004.
December
2004 saw the tenth session of the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (or, COP10 for short). This
marked the 10th anniversary of the Kyoto Protocol. Countries were to discuss
adaption measures, and the entry of the Kyoto Protocol into force. In addition,
some discussion on post-Kyoto was also attempted.
Last
updated Saturday, November 02, 2002.
October
23 to November 1, 2002 saw the eighth session of the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (or, COP8 for
short). Leading up to this conference there has still been little progress on
reducing emissions.
Posted
Sunday, November 11, 2001.
October
29 to November 9, 2001 saw the seventh session of the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (or, COP7 for
short). The purpose of the meeting was to agree legal text covering outstanding
technical aspects of the political agreement reached in Bonn in July 2001 on
how to implement the Kyoto Protocol. While an agreement resulted, there are
still concerns there will be little impact on emissions as a result.
Last
updated Tuesday, September 04, 2001.
November
13 to November 24, 2000 saw the sixth session of the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (or, COP6 for
short). Each COP meeting is where nations meet to evaluate the accords and
compliance with meeting emissions reduction targets. This one was intended to
wrap up three years of negotiations on the implementation of the Kyoto
Protocol. Instead though, the talks pretty much collapsed.
Last
updated Sunday, November 12, 2000.
November
2 - November 13, 1998 in Buenos Aires, Argentina the Fourth Meeting of the
Conference of the Parties (COP-4) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC) was held. There were many issues that still needed to be
discussed, especially on the trading of Carbon emissions and equity between the
rich and developing nations.
Last
updated Friday, February 15, 2002.
1997,
at the Conference of Parties III (COP3), Kyoto, Japan, the Kyoto conference on
climate change took place. There, developed countries agreed to specific
targets for cutting their emissions of greenhouse gases. A general framework
was defined for this, with specifics to be detailed over the next few years.
This became known as the Kyoto Protocol. The US proposed to just stabilize
emissions and not cut them at all, while the European Union called for a 15%
cut. In the end, there was a trade off, and industrialized countries were
committed to an overall reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases to 5.2%
below 1990 levels for the period 2008 - 2012. (The Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change said in its 1990 report that a 60% reduction in emissions was
needed...) As with the following COP meetings, there was enormous media
propaganda by affected big businesses and by countries such as the U.S. who
were openly hostile to the treaty. In fact one of the first things George Bush
did when he came to power was to oppose the Kyoto Protocol.
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