Tag: USA

US submits views on future climate agreement

Nathan Thanki February 17, 2014 1 Comment
by nathan thanki Since the Durban round of UN climate talks in 2011, governments have been struggling towards an eventual global agreement to address climate change (ideally, some say they're just negotiating the establishment of more markets). The negotiation process, named the "ADP" (the D stands for Durban) is mandated to conclude in Paris in December 2015 with some kind of outcome. The exact...

What do countries think about the Durban Platform for enhanced action?

Nathan Thanki November 23, 2012 0 Comments
by nathan thanki Welcome to the first COP of the rest of your lives. Though Copenhagen will forever remain the most widely observed, undermined, devastated, ruinous UNFCCC meeting, it wasn’t until Durban that the sea change became official. US lead negotiator Todd Stern’s famous “if equity is in, we’re out” sneer epitomised the new paradigm that is being cemented in...

USA v China

Nathan Thanki August 15, 2012 0 Comments
by nathan thanki The USA wants to be treated the same as China when it comes to responsibility for tackling climate change. Many environmental NGOs, in the increasingly panicked calls for climate action now, are also prone to saying things like "well of course the emerged economies of Brazil, India and China must also be obliged to reduce emissions." This plays quite well into...

USA scores own goal by moving the goal posts

Nathan Thanki August 8, 2012 1 Comment
by nathan thanki There was quite a stink created this week when US Special Envoy for Climate Change (the big-shot who shows up late to the UN climate talks and gets interrupted by his constituents for not truly speaking for them) made a "remark" to his old College, Dartmouth. There was widespread condemnation of the apparent u-turn on US climate policy, which had previously agreed...