Friday, December 18, 2009

December 18th



Hi Everyone,

Today was the final day of the UN Climate Change two-week Conference. I watched Obama through UNFCCC website on a live broadcast. You can view it on the link below.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/34484243#34484243

From my opinion, I felt Obama's speech was passionate but very ambiguous and open for a lot of interpretation. He didn't set any new carbon-cut targets and financial aid to what Hillary Clinton and Todd Stern said, which was very disappointing from a leadership standpoint. However, I have empathy for Obama. His first executive orders dealt with energy security and climate change with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 signed into law on Feb. 17th, that committed $40.75 billion to clean energy initiatives. I found out the previous day from a political organization that Obama originally had the carbon cuts at 14% and were able to increase it an additional 3%. The 17% by the year 2020 was the best the chance for the bill getting balance support from both utilities and environmentalists as well as making it through both the House and Senate. The key is that 17% target figure could be increased to 25% or 30% by year 2020 or 2025 in the near future. What will be required for this to happen is for the US public to see and understand how beneficial and easy it is to achieve the goals on a low-carbon economy.

After Obama's announcement, an agreement titled the Copenhagen Accord was reached during a meeting among Obama, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Brazilian President Luiz Lula da Silva and South African President Jacob Zuma. This however is not a legal binding treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012 and was the original aim of the talks at COP15. Instead, it is framework that will be voted on tomorrow as a first step. I have attached the most recent draft of the accord. Please have a look.



The following is text extracted from a draft of an Accord among Leaders at Copenhagen titled 'Copenhagen Accord'.

It you want the official copy of the most current draft that will hopefully be signed tomorrow, December 19th, please have a look at this link.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/science/earth/20091218_CLIMATE_TEXT.pdf

Otherwise, I have provided an extracted piece from a draft of the Accord among Leaders at Copenhagen. The link this came from was http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20091218/climate-change-copenhagen-draft-text.htm

This is the video with Barack Obama speaking with the press right before he left Copenhagen on late Friday night.



For commentary, analysis, and articles on this Accord, I have listed the following links for you.

1. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/copenhagen/article6961367.ece
2. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/19/science/earth/19climate.html?_r=2&hp
3. http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20091218/copenhagen-climate-change-global-warming-obama.htm

Here is Youtube video of protesters several kilometers away from the Bella Center on Friday angered by the results of the negotiations.




Best Regards,

Kevin Osborne

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