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Dickinson to Durban » Entries tagged with "Climate change negotiations"

AOSIS Hopes For The Best

Claire Tighe ‘13 After a few interviews here at the Conference (COP) 17, one in particular with a member of AOSIS (Alliance for Small Island States) who hails from Palau in the Pacific Islands, I’ve gathered a bit of information on the outcomes that the AOSIS bloc is looking for here at COP: 1.) A legally-binding second five-year committment period of the Kyoto Protocol 2.) Passing of the Green Climate Fund, which will fund the small islands mitigation and adaptation efforts. These two issues are amongst the most pertinent for this particular COP. However, other “smaller” topics are also on the negotiating table. These include adaptation concerns, how to make REDD (+) work, and facilitating technology transfer. According to Ambassador Dessima of AOSIS, the bloc will not accept outcomes of the United Nations Framework Convention … Read entire article »

Filed under: Carbon Markets, Climate Change, Consumption, Environmental Justice, Environmental Politics, Featured, Key COP17 Issues, Mosaic Action, Student Research

The Anagram Lover’s Tokyo is at it Again

By Sam Pollan, 14′ The Kyoto commitment period is ending very soon. Upcoming climate negotiations in Durban at the COP 17 conference will address this as one of the primary topics. Unfortunately, many skeptics have publicized their doubt of Durban discussions actually reaching conclusions. Canada, Japan, and the Russian Federation have all mentioned that they will not commit to any new Kyoto document. With those three major emitters absent from future Kyoto agreements, as well as the US being completely nonexistent in Kyoto delegations, the Protocol will be unable to achieve any significant reduction in climate change. While the Kyoto Protocol may be down, it is certainly not out for the count. The EU and neighboring countries are indicating that they plan to continue some form of the 1997 agreement. This miniature … Read entire article »

Filed under: Climate Change, Key COP17 Issues

What to expect in Durban (if anything):

Claire Tighe ’13 The climate change negotiations happening just a few days from now will be covering quite a few topics. According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (which hosts the Conference of the Parties, or “COP”), the conference in Durban (COP17), “will bring together representatives of the world’s governments, international organizations and civil society […] to advance, in a balanced fashion, the implementation of the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol, as well as the Bali Action Plan, agreed at COP 13 in 2007, and the Cancun Agreements, reached at COP 16 last December.” The issues to be discussed at COP17 seem almost endless. Everything from mitigation of greenhouse gases, the future of the Kyoto Protocol, adaptation to climate change and how to finance it, the project of reforestation, … Read entire article »

Filed under: Climate Change, Conservation, Environmental Justice, Environmental Politics, Featured, Key COP17 Issues, Student Research

Is something better than nothing?

The first major paper I completed at Dickinson College was one entitled, “A New Atmosphere for International Relations: Working together to solve a global crisis”. It was an essay written for a 100 level international relations course in which I discussed the COP15 Copenhagen Climate Change Conference. In my response, I held a very pessimistic view that there would not be a significant change in policy as a result of the conference. While what I predicted turned out to be fairly accurate, I can almost promise that my opinion did not have a very strong foundation in background information. I was not even an environmental studies major at the time and to be honest, I’m pretty sure that for a while I thought the acronym COP was in reference to the fact that … Read entire article »

Filed under: Summer Reading Responses