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Dickinson to Durban » Entries tagged with "legally binding agreements"

Roadmap to the Future

By Sam Pollan, ‘14 The expected “Big Deal” coming out of Durban may or may not be the second commitment period to the Kyoto Protocol, but the emerging EU roadmap is looking like a more promising result now that we are nearing the end of the conference. The EU roadmap is essentially a document planning binding emissions targets for 2015 through the post-2020 period and here is the best part: the US is actually supportive. According to British Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne, over 120 countries are already supporting this new agreement including several developing and AOSIS countries that have predominantly been pushing towards the second commitment period. Even Jennifer Morgan, who spoke with our group in DC on behalf of the World Resources Institute, is hopeful here in … Read entire article »

Filed under: Key COP17 Issues

“The U.S. Can’t Do A Damn Thing.”

They can’t, according to COP17 NGO observers we interviewed this morning. The question is, should the rest of the parties move on in the international negotiations without them? The answer is probably yes. Until now, international negotiations haven’t been working very well. How to make them work? Anyone who is willing to take action should do so. Anyone who doesn’t want to, well, they are not included. Waiting for all groups to agree on the same thing is inefficient. Having a small number of countries agree on behalf of everyone else regarding the global problem of climate change (i.e. Big Emittors at COP15 who negotiated behind closed doors) may be efficient, but it is also unfair. Thus, anyone who wants to make a deal can. Anyone who refuses, can move … Read entire article »

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