
Breaking the Climate Stalemate
With China and the United States enabling each other to avoid meaningful emission reductions, the rest of the developing world must take the lead.
With China and the United States enabling each other to avoid meaningful emission reductions, the rest of the developing world must take the lead.
As the doors on government meetings swing shut, Janet ponders whether our future will be one of ecological stability or planetary chaos.
What we need in Durban is a commitment to complete the mandate that already exists. Countries must deliver a renewed Kyoto Protocol, and effective Green Climate Fund, and substantial money to fill it.
At Durban, international negotiators are fiddling while the world burns.
This edition of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change lacks the sense of urgency that was visible on years past. On this interview with the Real News Network, we discuss the repercussions of turning away from the future of our planet.
At a press conference in Durban, South Africa, officials from a diverse set of countries will join civil society leaders to call for innovative sources of finance, including a tax on financial transactions and a fee on emissions from maritime shipping, to be part of a deal in Durban which raises billions of dollars to help fill the Green Climate Fund.
As UN climate negotiations in Durban, South Africa, go into their final week, Janet Redman, co-director of IPS’s Sustainable Energy & Economy Network, provides a quick update on the talks.
A former Central American president proposes that all vulnerable countries should occupy the UN climate change meeting and refuse to leave until progress is made.
Janet Redman, IPS, joins 163 civil society organizations from 39 countries in denouncing a proposed scheme to give corporations direct access to UN Global Climate Fund financing.
“Solving the climate crisis is the most urgent challenge of our time,” said Redman. “Our economy, our jobs, our health and our security depend on climate stability. But over the past year the United States has been undermining the continuation of the world’s only global treaty to curb greenhouse gas pollution, and has blocked critical progress on a Green Climate Fund and long-term financial support for poor countries most impacts by global warming. The Obama administration must use the Durban talks to clean up its act. Our future depends upon it.”
Three experts, including IPS’ own Phyllis Bennis, will discuss the recent Durban Review Conference: what occurred, what was missing, and what will result because of it.
Phyllis Bennis is a scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies and directs its New Internationalism Project.
Imani Countess is the Senior Director of Public Affairs at the TransAfrica Forum.
Constance Dunlap, M.D., works at the George Washington Medical Center.
Refreshments will be provided. This event is cosponsored by the TransAfrica Forum and the Institute for Policy Studies.
Serious work was done at the recent UN conference on racism, and the boycotters have egg on their face.
The Obama administration boycotted the UN conference on racism and missed a golden opportunity.