After adopting the Kyoto Protocol in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997, it was assumed that each national representative would return its respective legislative body and advocate for the ratification the terms of the Protocol. Over the next seven years, 184 nations ratified the terms and the Kyoto Protocol was entered into force in 2005. However, the United States, a leader in international governance and the wealthiest nation in the world, has yet to ratify the terms of the Kyoto Protocol. Because the United States is a leader in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, many nations look to the US before determining their own vote. Unfortunately, environmental global governance and particularly climate change is a highly politicized issue in the US Congress. The article below from the Los Angeles Time shows Congress finally taking action on this issue to give the United States some credibility at the Conference of the Parties in Copenhagen.
Courtesy of the Los Angeles Times: Meeting of the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee in Washington, which Republicans boycotted.
Senate Committee Approves Climate Change Bill
Tags: Climate Change Bill, United States Congress, United States Senate
If a tree falls in the middle of a forest and no one is around to hear it does it make a sound? Well the international community is certainly not there to hear the falling of a tree from deforestation. Many transnational corporations, governments, and local consumers demand many resources from tropical forests, but no one is around to hear it. Except maybe for indigenous populations who are sometimes displaced from their lands by developers and ranchers. The conversion of forests into agricultural land by slash and burn agriculture is the largest contributor to deforestation. Brazil and Indonesia are the countries with the largest amounts of deforestation as is shown below. 
Compromises can and need to be reached to stop this destruction. For example, social and ecological objectives have been joined in the past to form nature reserves in Brazil. However, there needs to be beter management practices in place in all of these countries. Fortunately, there is an opportunity to achieve green house gas emissions reductions through deforestation reductions. These are detailed in the Eliasch Review. The conference in Copenhagen in December is a critical juncture where deforestation prevention and reduction could be incorporated into international law. Unfortunatley, it has not recieved enough attension and needs to play a larger role in the process.
An Opportunity:
In October, a memorandum was drafted to the federal governments of Brazil, Indonesia, and the United States to commit to prioritizing deforestation in the Kyoto 2 conference in Copenhagen in December. The New York Times article, Leaders from Indonesia, Brazil Join 3 U.S. States in Deforestation Accord outlines how the agreement focuses on trying to increase financial mechanisms towards deforestation reduction and developing forestry programs in all three countries. This is an important initiative that needs to receive more attention within the US. There needs for more forest managment within these two countries, because they clearly are the largest global contributers to tropical deforestation as pictured above.
Will the international community and the governments of these countries be present to hear the sound? Will they be around to stop the trees from falling?
Tags: deforestation, developing countries, LULUCF, Philip Rothrock
Sounds hard to believe but the small Danish island of Samsø has achieved this remarkable feat. It achieves this primarily through wind power, but also has solar and other types of renewables. According to Mr. Jesper Kjems in the video, most types of renewables available in Denmark can be found on Samsø. It came about through local cooperation from the community, which strongly believes in renewable resources. It’s fitting that the country hosting the upcoming COP15 is a leader in renewable resources. The viability of doing everywhere can be called into question, of course. Denmark’s circumstances are politically and economically speaking, ideal for this type of project. Even so, hopefully this example will spread to other places. I would love to see more of this in the United States in the future.
Brazil’s Climate Change position for the Kyoto 2 Conference in Copenhagen has been one that has consistently supported the idea of common but differentiated responsibilities. This places the burden largely on developed countries to reduce their emission levels, because their historical emissions are much larger than those of developing countries. Brazil has consistently been opposed to supporting Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) mechanisms as a way for developed countries to buy carbon emission allowances in exchange for protecting forests in developing nations. The position of the country was outlined in the article Brazil opposes forest Carbon trading. The protection of the forests by other countries could limit Brazil’s ability to industrialize and use forest resources to improve economic growth and GDP. This has the potential for Brazil to lose its soverienty over its land to binding international agreements of conservation and deforestation avoidance.
In the last few months, the current administration may have flip flopped its policy position as is outlined in the Brazil speeds up its Copenhagen homework article. Politically the support by Brazil for the REDD program may be a critical endorsement to help make the program more potential impact and awareness. This is because Brazil contains huge swathes of forests that could be potentially protected by other countries for carbon credits. However, it is difficult to tell whether Brazil’s support may be too limited to effectively prevent unsustainable deforestation and degradation practices in the Amazon. Brazil’s plan may be unsustainable and promote unsustainable practices as is described in Brazil’s National Plan on Climate Change on the Amazon Fund.
Tags: Carbon Sequestration, climate change, COP15 Resources, LULUCF, Philip Rothrock, REDD
As a fast growing developing country, China relies heavily on the use of coal that it counts for 70 percent of China’s energy resource. It is estimated that the carbon dioxide emissions coming from the use of coal will double by the year of 2030. Carbon dioxide is the main contributor to the world climate change, but abandoning the use of coal completely will greatly hurt China’s economy. Facing such dilemma, China has found a way out – carbon capture and storage. The process involves separating the carbon dioxide emitted from different energy resources, collecting it, and putting it deeply into the ground. There are mainly three kinds of geologies that are suitable for carbon storage, oil and gas field, non-hydrocarbon field, and deep saline aquifer, and China has abundant areas that those. China has already set a city, Chongqing, with great oil and gas field as its experimental base, and experts there are going to do research related to carbon capture and storage.
It is reported that China’s vast underground areas will be able to store more than a century’s worth of carbon dioxide from using the coal. It might be costly in many ways, but there are good geologic reservoirs near most of the big CO2 emitting industries. The carbon capture and storage seem promising, and this is a way for China to combat the climate change.
Study Says China Is Ripe for Carbon Storage
A Guide to Carbon Capture and Storage
Tags: Carbon Capture and Storage, China
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