Climate Change: Merkel and Hollande pledge action on climate change

The leaders of France and Germany have said more needs to be done if the world is to achieve its goal of limiting global warming to two degrees.

The pair held a meeting with environment ministers from 35 nations in Berlin for the so called “Petersberger Climate Dialogue.”

Here they set ambitious goals for a UN climate conference in Paris at the end of the year.

The German Chancellor Angela Merkel said: “We will announce at the conference in Paris that the global long-term goal is a reduction of at least 60 percent greenhouse gases compared to 2010. That would mean a global reduction of 50 percent compared to 1990. Yes, it is very ambitious. But we believe if we join forces we will be able to manage that.”

Merkel also says industrialised nations should contribute more funds to developing countries to encourage them to back the plans and help them deal with the side effects of climate change.
Meanwhile France’s President Francois Hollande said it is crucial to make drastic changes immediately.

Read more: Merkel and Hollande pledge action on climate change | euronews, world news

The Environment - Doha: Is Qatar Going To Be The Place Where International Agreements Go To Die? - by Rebecca Lefton and Andrew Light

This year’s UN climate negotiations have once again deadlocked.  Negotiators and observers in the hall are concerned that this meeting could end with no outcome, much like the long-stalled Doha trade negotiations.

Parties were wrapping up their discussion on the Durban Platform text.  While there is still some fine-tuning to do, it looks like most parties agree to it, and it will go forward to the full body for approval.  While it would be much better to see recommendation of more concrete steps moving forward, especially under the second work-stream, the current outcome is predictable given the very limited discussion of measures to increase ambition that were made in this body since Durban.

At this point, predictions are that the endgame in Doha will likely go well into tomorrow afternoon local time. 

Read more: Deadlock In Doha: Is Qatar Going To Be The Place Where International Agreements Go To Die? | The Energy Collective

SanDiego.com: Poland : Solar car completes 1st ever round-the-world trip - by Vanessa Gera

For the complete report from Sandiego.com click on this link

Poland : Solar car completes 1st ever round-the-world trip - by Vanessa Gera

The first solar-powered car to travel around the world ended its journey at the U.N. climate talks Thursday, arriving with the message that clean technologies are available now to stop global warming. The small two-seater, hauling a trailer of solar cells and carrying chief U.N. climate official Yvo de Boer, glided up to a building in Poznan, Poland, where delegates from some 190 nations are working toward a new treaty to control climate change. "This is the first time in history that a solar-powered car has traveled all the way around the world without using a single drop of petrol," said Louis Palmer, the 36-year-old Swiss schoolteacher and adventurer who made the trip.Palmer's appearance at the conference marked the end of a 32,000-mile (52,000-kilometer) journey that began 17 months ago in Lucerne, Switzerland and took him through 38 countries.

He calls his vehicle, which was developed by scientists at Swiss universities, a "solar taxi" because he has given rides to about 1,000 people – officials and regular folk alike – to convince them of the technology's viability. Passengers have included New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Delegates in Poznan are seeking an ambitious new climate treaty that would replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012 and has required that 37 countries slash emissions of heat-trapping gases by an average 5 percent from 1990 levels. The goal is for the new treaty to be finalized at the next U.N. climate meeting in December 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

"Here at the conference, we are talking about reducing emissions by 10 or 20 percent," Palmer said. "I want to show that we can reduce emissions by 100 percent – and that's what we need for the future."

EU-Digest: BALI- Watered Down UN Climate Deal Victory for US but Loss to the World

US the largest polluter of the world

Special EU-Digest report on the UN Bali Climate Conference

BALI-Watered Down UN Climate Deal Victory for US but Loss to the World

The head of the U.S. delegation -- Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky -- was booed Saturday afternoon when she announced that the United States was rejecting the plan as then written because they were "not prepared to accept this formulation." She said developing countries needed to carry more of the responsibility. While rhetoric at such conferences is often just words, a short speech by a delegate from the small developing country of Papua New Guinea appeared to carry weight with the Americans. The delegate challenged the United States to "either lead, follow or get out of the way." Just five minutes later, when it appeared the conference was on the brink of collapse, Dobriansky took to the floor again to announce the United States was willing to accept the arrangement. The EU wanted an agreement to require developed countries to cut their emissions by 25 to 40 percent of 1990 levels by 2020. The United States opposes those targets, along with Japan and Canada. The latest draft of the agreement removes the specific figures and instead, in a footnote, references the scientific study that supports them. The talks have agreed to a watered down road-map for two-year negotiations on a new climate regime. The decision includes a clear agenda for the key issues to be negotiated up to 2009, including action for adapting to the negative consequences of climate change, such as droughts and floods; ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and ways to widely deploy climate-friendly technologies and financing both adaptation and mitigation measures. Concluding negotiations in 2009 will ensure that the new deal can enter into force by 2013, following the expiry of the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol, the UNFCCC said in a press release. The planned treaty would take effect at the end of 2012 when the current phase of the Kyoto Protocol expires. The Kyoto Protocol, which binds 36 industrialized countries to reduce emissions by an average 5 percent below the 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012.

"The U.S. has been humbled by the overwhelming message by developing countries that they are ready to be engaged with the problem, and it's been humiliated by the world community. I've never seen such a flip-flop in an environmental treaty context ever," said Bill Hare of Greenpeace. The European Union, which dropped earlier objections to the draft text, said it was pleased with the deal. "At the end of the day, we got an extremely weak agreement," said Sunita Narain, head of the Centre for Science and the Environment in New Delhi. "It's obvious the U.S. is not learning to be alive to world opinion.

Unfortunately the actions of the US delegation during the Bali conference once again exposed the US Government's true colors on the issue, which is not the green of the environment, but rather the green of the dollar.