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Luis Hestres — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:46:01 +0000

If you live in the DC metro area (and assuming we don't suffer yet another Snowmageddon next week), here's a great climate-related event you can attend. The International Forum on Globalization (IFG) is hosting a free public event on Tuesday, February 16 at 7pm to share international perspectives on the outcomes of the December 2009 meeting of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Copenhagen, a.k.a. COP-15.

There is an urgent need to set the record straight on the actual results of the Copenhagen summit, to reinforce the reasons why a UN-based climate process (and agreement) is so critical, and to point to some possible ways forward to a successful UNFCCC outcome in Cancun by the end of 2010. The event’s aim is to bolster support in the United States to ensure that the United Nations remains the main multilateral mechanism for responsible U.S. global engagement on climate change.

The event will be held at the Jewish Community Center Theatre (here's a Google map) and is co-sponsored by International Forum on Globalization, Institute for Policy Studies, Action Aid USA, Oil Change International, Friends of the Earth, and Movement Generation.

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Alex Bea — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:53:33 +0000

-- By Dr. John Stanley, editor for A Buddhist Response to the Climate Emergency and website director at Ecological Buddhism.

In late-2008, the Dalai Lama sent us at Ecobuddhism.org his letter endorsing a safe climate target for atmospheric carbon dioxide: 350 parts per million. This target has since been accepted as sound by Al Gore, Rajendra Pachauri and Nicholas Stern. At Copenhagen, it was promoted by the Association of Small Island States and the African nations.

The 350 target asks us to phase out carbon gas emissions on a strict timetable and also remove a great quantity of CO2 already present in the atmosphere. It signals a heroic long-term effort by defining the upper limit of a safe-climate zone for human civilization. It rules out the risk of a “civilizational collapse” through runaway global warming. Just how much do we care about our children and grandchildren, the great ecosystems, and the many species with whom we share our biological home?

The choice at Copenhagen has been described as one between heroism and collective suicide. And this choice has become increasingly pointed after Copenhagen. Across the world, majority public opinion wants a real climate protection treaty. We first need the U.S. Senate to pass a climate and energy bill for a binding international climate treaty to become a reality.

We are at a social tipping point. When governments fail to act in the face of both science and public opinion, they have been “institutionally captured” by fossil-fuel corporations, through social engineering (PR, advertising, control of televised and print media) and direct political manipulation. Institutional capture was behind the global rescue of large banking corporations, whereby their huge debts were transferred onto the backs of the public. Less than half of that “welfare check for capitalism” would have established us on a worldwide fast-track to clean, efficiently delivered renewable energy, while saving our forest and ocean ecosystems from their current pathway to collapse.

I feel it is our obligation as a global community to act with increasing coherence against the corporate interests that are 'externalizing' the true cost of their endless carbon pollution by destroying our climate. Corporations must be held accountable for their negligent actions in order to protect the livelihoods of the 6.8 billion people inhabiting the Earth.

A sustainable global economy will require a swift transition to renewable energy and away from fossil fuels that are limiting our capacity to thrive and prosper, and are putting the lives of future generations at risk. This means working even harder in the New Year to achieve our goals of significantly limiting the impact of fossil fuel corporations on our lives, reducing carbon pollution to below 350 parts per million, and creating a binding international climate treaty that reflects the need to protect all of Earth’s inhabitants from the dangerous grasp of institutional greed.

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Luis Hestres — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:08:46 +0000

-- By Jon Isham, a professor of economics and environmental studies at Middlebury College.

Just off the plane from Copenhagen, little sleep under my belt, I’m full of ideas for how to ratchet up the climate movement, big time. Over a late-night beer this week, Jessy Tolkan, coordinator of Energy Action, perfectly captured what we have to do. For the moment, I’m calling it 10X.

A quote from Jessy -- shared below -- explains the name; let me first share some background.

As the COP15 negotiations intensified during their second week, civil society leaders took words and action to a new level. And it wasn’t just the familiar rituals (on cue: ‘This is what democracy looks like!’) that have characterized every official U.N. climate negotiation since who knows when. The mainstream press documented some of that good stuff and way too much bad stuff: billy clubs + street protests = story that writes itself.

Not only did too many bigwig reporters fall back on that tired storyline. They seemed blind to something new that was afoot, something that’s hard to convey: how alive, how diverse, how forceful and beautiful really the world’s citizens can be when they assemble—particularly those dedicated to our grand fight against global warming

Walking through the U.N.’s Bella Center and the sprawling scene in Copenhagen, this is what I bore witness to (check out these photos too.) Tens of thousands of citizens, in traditional clothing and formalwear (a 350 tie brought status!), armed with drums and laptops, connecting by passing out business cards and texting, becoming instant allies. Collectively they had a presence that was transcendent. In every available corner of the city, they strategized and organized flash mobs, sang hymns and delivered petitions, cried and got really pissed off and found time to laugh. As Paul Hawken so keenly documents in Blessed Unrest, civil society of the 21^st century is a Gaia-like organism. In Copenhagen, connected by both wireless and trust -- and despite the callous incompetence of the COP organizers, it blossomed.

Now the stage is set for Jessy. Early in COP15’s second week, she and another ten distinguished leaders -- this decade’s Diane Nashes and John Lewises -- arranged a meeting with a high-level member of the U.S. delegation. By their account, it was highly-charged, emotional, and as frustrating as any 30 minutes they have ever experienced. Behind closed doors, they witnessed what Bill McKibben and 350.org -- incomparable leaders -- were to discover so strikingly two days later; COP negotiators knew all along that their draft plan was nowhere near a trajectory to get to 350. And as the meeting ended, the official seemed to twist the knife when he looked at them and declared: “You haven’t done enough. You haven’t built the popular support that we need to get behind something like a 350 trajectory."

But after some outrage and some tears, these inspiring leaders did what they have always done since the climate movement began to coalesce seven years ago. They vowed to work even harder, as hard as humanly possible, testing new ideas and mobilizing new resources, to win this fight of the ages.

Here’s Jesse’s money quote later that night, as a handful of us debriefed: “Never again am I going to sit in the room with an elected official and be told that our movement isn’t strong enough. I’m going to go home and do my part to make it ten times as big.” In other words, it’s time for 10X.

As I wrote this, listening live to the last proclamations coming out of COP15’s exhausted plenary (the Algerian minister noted that he hasn’t slept for 52 hours!), I wasn't smart enough to know if the UNFCCC has produced a ‘good‘ Copenhagen Accord. (Many NGOs, as the closing gavel now comes down, believe that it’s a disaster.) And I certainly don’t have a clue as to what transformative international arrangements will be needed, ASAP, to help us to really ‘begin the world anew.’ All that is for another day.

But I do know two things. I like the idea announced by Al Gore early in the week that we set Earth Day 2010 as the deadline for bold action on climate change in the U.S. For even the frailest international intention will vanish if the U.S. Congress doesn’t act. (And Obama, I still love you, but you’ve gotta lead on this one. The lame pending health care bill shows what happens if you don’t go all FDR-after-Pearl-Harbor.) And I know that Jessy in right: it’s time for 10X. If you are a U.S.-based climate warrior, do nothing but work you butt off over the next 125 days to get a world-changing bill

And indeed, that’s what I felt coming to life in the last hours of COP15, among our own particularly American civic Gaia, the globally-wired but U.S.-based warriors here for over a fortnight: green groups in their war room; 1Sky, Energy Action, and Focus the Nation; Climate Project volunteers; hip new app-driven groups like the Alliance for Climate Education and Kids vs. Global Warming; foundation heads.

And yet these and other American leaders now boarding flights out of Denmark are not the most important players in all of this over the next 125 days. Who must lead an unstoppable groundswell, in all fifty states, to force our elected leaders to follow game-changing precedents like the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965? Americans. Americans in their churches, synagogues and mosques; in girl scout groups and small-town business groups; in informal social networks that bless our daily lives. It is the hearts and hard work of those who have been home all along that must comprise an unstoppable groundswell, in all fifty states, the District of Columbia, and the Territories.

And again, this is why the Earth Day analogy is good. In creative and crazy and app-driven ways that leaders are cooking up right now, we must spark not only a multi-million person celebration of who we are and what we do: we must make our leaders understand that this too is a transcendent moment. Indeed, listen up: over the next few weeks, every time an inside-the-beltway type nods sagely that global warming legislation may have to be delayed due to the legislative calendar (blah blah blah), we’d better be able to say to them: “No. This is our time. This one can’t wait. This is what Americans want, now.” Mentally bookmark the conversation that Jessy and her colleagues had earlier in the week: this is what we must be able to say.

So pour more coffee. Gather friends and family in the kitchen. Work the iPhone. Fire up your block associations and classrooms. Schmooze your influential old friend. Write a letter a day to your local paper; call your senators’ and rep’s offices once a day. Find respected local political players in your state who are on our side and ask ‘How can I help?’ And enjoy this exhilarating four-month ride.

Until April 22, go 10X.

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Jason Kowalski — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:35:38 +0000

We're Not Done Yet: Although a last minute deal did emerge from the Copenhagen climate talks, it lacks targets and timetables for reducing global warming pollution and it is certainly not the kind of "real deal" that global grassroots have been clamoring for. We will now look at the best roads forward. Part of that includes working within the Congressional timeline, which has seen significant updates as far as both health care and financial regulatory reform.

1. Copenhagen Wraps up

The "Copenhagen Accord" our leaders agreed to falls far short of the fair, ambitious, and binding deal we need to deal with climate change. Even President Obama himself described the Copenhagen Accord as "not enough" to tackle global warming. Failure in Copenhagen highlights more than ever the importance of our work here in the U.S. pressuring our leaders.

By the middle of last week, NGOs and negotiators were expressing their frustration with the lack of transparency and progress in the negotiations. COP President Connie Hedegaard was replaced by Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, a new Danish text was floated that looked to circumvent the negotiations up until that point, and two major international NGOs, Avaaz and Friends of the Earth, had been kicked out of the conference all together.

In response, international youth organized a sit-in where they read the names of the more than 11 million people worldwide who had signed a petition calling for a fair, ambitious, and binding global agreement.

Last Thursday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced the willingness of the United States to contribute to a $100 billion dollar annual fund by 2020 for developing nations.

A day prior, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, announced that the U.S. would contribute $1 billion dollars to a $3.5 joint fund from 2010-2012 "as initial public finance towards slowing, halting and eventually reversing deforestation in developing countries".

2. Copenhagen Reaction Pieces

1Sky: World Leaders Fail to Deliver a Critically Needed Deal to Tackle Global Warming

1Sky Talking Points on Response to Copenhagen

Center for American Progress: Why the newly inked Copenhagen Accord boosts the odds for Senate passage of bipartisan climate and clean energy jobs legislation
Grist: Copenhagen outcome: a real climate catastrophe
NRDC: Key Countries Agreed to Copenhagen Accord to Address Global Warming
CQ: Nonbinding Climate Deal May Aid Senate Bill
Time: Lessons From the Copenhagen Climate Talks
NYT Editorial: Copenhagen, and Beyond

3. What comes Next?

The "Copenhagen Accord" is designed to be a precursor to a more firm agreement to be finalized at the next conference of parties to be held in Mexico City in 2010. A date has yet to be set, but conventional wisdom suggests that this convention will be most successful if it falls after passage of U.S. climate legislation, scheduled to be taken up in early spring of 2010.

One interesting development at Copenhagen is that the final accord reached by world leaders sidestepped much of the formal UN process. Some argue that direct negotiation between major economies (i.e., the US, India, and China) is more efficient, while others argue that ditching the UN process disenfranchises smaller economies that have the most to lose from a weaker deal.

4. Senator Lisa Murkowski Seeks To Block EPA Endangerment Finding

Last week Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) filed for a resolution of disapproval seeking to overturn the finding that greenhouse gasses are harmful to human health and welfare. This resolution flies in the face of the latest science, climate impacts, and a Supreme Court decision that mandates action by the EPA to reduce carbon pollution. The endangerment finding filed by the EPA means that one way or another, the U.S. will reduce carbon pollution. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has made it very clear that she is supportive of Senate climate legislation that reduces climate pollution, but she is also moving forward with some of the more effective Clean Air Act performance standards for automobiles and big polluters, like coal plants and oil refineries.

Murkowski's resolution would have to pass both houses to take effect, but a filibuster-proof vote could potentially come up in the Senate within the next couple months.

5. Second Stimulus, or "Jobs Bill" passes the House

Last week the House passed a "jobs bill" that will invest unused TARP (i.e., "bailout") money in "shovel ready" projects, much like the recovery act that was passed early this year. Unfortunately, not much of the jobs bill will go to fund projects that will create clean energy jobs, like the "cash for caulkers," or "Home Star" program proposed by President Obama.

6. Health Care and Financial Regulatory Reform

In a last-minute compromise, Democratic Senator Ben Nelson from Nebraska (a climate swing as well) left the fence and became the crucial 60th vote needed to pass healthcare reform this weekend. The Senate will continue to stay in session as late as Christmas eve, to defend against procedural maneuvers used by the opposition to try and stop the reforms.

Financial reform has legislation has passed the House, but is still caught in a slow-moving process within the Banking Committee, where Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) has asked Senators to work on different sections of the bill in "bipartisan pairs."

7. DC Blizzard

DC was blanketed with almost two feet of snow this weekend. Enough to close schools, shot down airports and public transportation, and embolden global warming deniers.

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Gillian Caldwell — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:46:10 +0000

As you've probably already heard, our world leaders failed to deliver a critically needed deal to tackle global warming in Copenhagen. Their failure highlights more than ever the importance of our work together at 1Sky.

I just returned from a grueling two weeks in Copenhagen, where I filed video reports daily on the progress of the talks, and worked relentlessly with dozens of 1Sky allies to leverage our power here in the United States to push the Obama administration to help advance the negotiations.

Before the conference, you helped us push President Obama to join more than 100 other heads of state in Copenhagen when many people told us he wouldn't go -- and he stepped up to the plate and attended. Unfortunately, the proposals offered by the Obama Administration fell far short of what was required to secure the fair, ambitious and binding treaty the world so desperately needed after years and years of talk.

The hopes of grassroots advocates and civil society leaders worldwide for a treaty defining clear targets and timetables for dramatically reducing global warming pollution in Copenhagen were dashed, largely due to the fact that U.S. has yet to take bold action to tackle the climate challenge.

During the course of the negotiations in Copenhagen, you helped us drive thousands of communications to the White House and the Senate, insisting that the U.S. needed to redirect fossil fuel subsidies towards helping developing countries adapt to a rapidly warming world. And you helped us urge the Administration to increase its weak proposed emissions reduction of 4% below 1990 levels by 2020.

Thanks to strong advocacy from you and hundreds of thousands of people around the world, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the U.S. would join others in securing a $100 billion annual fund by 2020 to help developing countries cope with climate change. Even more is needed, but it was a step forward.

Unfortunately, President Obama did not commit to do better when it came to our weak targets for reducing global warming pollution. And he pointed to Senate inaction on global warming as the reason.

So, our work is clearly not done yet. The science calls for much more urgent action than what we've seen to date, and President Obama acknowledged that in Copenhagen. Delay only benefits the fossil fuel industries that are reaping record profits while destroying our future. The longer we wait, the worse it gets: The International Energy Agency tells us that every year of delay in action to tackle global warming costs $500 billion.

We are currently analyzing the landscape and designing new strategies and tactics to redouble our efforts to press President Obama and the Senate to take bold action in early 2010. With your help, we'll continue to pressure Senators throughout the country, and we'll continue to pressure President Obama, who must step up to the challenge and join us in rallying the American public behind bold climate legislation if we are to secure a strong bill from the U.S. Senate early next year.

The silver lining in the Copenhagen cloud is that it is abundantly clear that the global community is awake and pushing their leaders hard to tackle climate change. More than 12 million people across the world, including 600,000 in the U.S., raised their voices for strong action leading up to the negotiations. It is now not a question of "if" we will act, it is a question of "when" -- and whether it will be in time to stave off the worst effects of global warming.

The 1Sky team stands united and more determined than ever to work with you in the coming year to secure strong U.S. climate legislation and a fair, ambitious and binding global treaty.

This rapidly growing global grassroots movement won't be denied. And we won't stop short of the real solutions that science and justice demand.

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Gillian Caldwell — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:01:38 +0000

This will be my last blog from Copenhagen. I fly out at 7am tomorrow and I can’t wait to see my family after a very long and intense two weeks.

Everyone around me who is locked out of the negotiations and watching the speeches continuing inside the Bella Center seems exhausted, tense, frustrated, and depressed. Many faces -- including my own -- are tear-stained.

We are together, but sadly there appeared to be no “we” prevailing in the negotiations. Rumors have it that there will be a heads of state declaration today (negotiations are continuing behind closed doors) but that we won’t see final text of an agreement before tomorrow -- and that it won't be the fair, ambitious and binding deal millions of people around the world have called for.

Many negotiators are staying until Saturday and Sunday. Meanwhile, Venezuela, Bolivia and many other developing countries are reportedly frustrated due to the “heavy-handed” approach of industrialized countries like the United States. President Obama is staying longer than anticipated. Things are very tense.

Here’s a feel for the day in video:

David Turnbell from the Climate Action Network International, on behalf of environmental groups worldwide:

Juan Carlos Soriano from Peru representing global youth:

And from U.S. youth, looking ahead and trying to decide what’s next, here's Anthony Baratta, a student at DePauw University in Indiana:

Rhiya Trivedi, former 1Sky policy intern and currently attending Middlebury College in Vermont:

And protesters holding world leaders accountable for "climate shame:"

I’ll be back with more as the details of the agreement emerge but this much is clear: we are NOT DONE YET.

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Gillian Caldwell — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:46:59 +0000

President Obama reportedly got off Air Force One and moved immediately into a Heads of State meeting. From there, he moved to address the plenary in what appeared to be a serious, determined and frustrated mood (read full text of his speech here or watch the video). He said he did not come to talk - that he came to act. And that we have to come together to address a common threat.

Obama identified three prerequisites to a successful global accord today:

First, all major economies must put forward decisive national actions that will reduce their emissions, and begin to turn the corner on climate change. I'm pleased that many of us have already done so, and I'm confident that America will fulfill the commitments that we have made: cutting our emissions in the range of 17 percent by 2020, and by more than 80 percent by 2050 in line with final legislation.
Second, we must have a mechanism to review whether we are keeping our commitments, and to exchange this information in a transparent manner. These measures need not be intrusive, or infringe upon sovereignty. They must, however, ensure that an accord is credible, and that we are living up to our obligations. For without such accountability, any agreement would be empty words on a page.

Third, we must have financing that helps developing countries adapt, particularly the least-developed and most vulnerable to climate change. America will be a part of fast-start funding that will ramp up to $10 billion in 2012. And, yesterday, Secretary Clinton made it clear that we will engage in a global effort to mobilize $100 billion in financing by 2020, if - and only if - it is part of the broader accord that I have just described.

Mitigation. Transparency. And financing. It is a clear formula - one that embraces the principle of common but differentiated responses and respective capabilities. And it adds up to a significant accord - one that takes us farther than we have ever gone before as an international community."

The biggest disappointment was that he didn't bring anything new to the table - he reiterated the same position that has been outlined by U.S. negotiators all week, including continuing to propose a U.S. target "in the range of 17%" from 2005 levels by 2020. It is particularly maddening that President Obama and others in the administration continually refuse to specify their baseline -- which is to their strategic advantage since everyone else is using the 1990 baseline and the only industrialized country proposing a lower target than the United States is Canada, whose performance has earned them repeated Fossils of the Day throughout the negotiations. His speech was not well received in the plenary, or in the NGO forum where I am watching it. Indeed, he was booed by the global community.

Meanwhile, a draft of the text of the agreement was leaked and picked up by the press. More on that as soon as I have had a chance to analyze it. The New York Times reports the United Nations Secretariat has "reportedly advised negotiators to extend their stays through Sunday night." So we are unlikely to see a conclusion to this today as originally planned.

Here's the video:

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 18, 2009

Remarks of President Barack Obama-As Prepared for Delivery Copenhagen Summit

Copenhagen, Denmark
December 18, 2009

Good morning. It's an honor to for me to join this distinguished group of leaders from nations around the world. We come together here in Copenhagen because climate change poses a grave and growing danger to our people. All of you would not be here unless you, like me, were convinced that this danger is real. This is not fiction, this is science. Unchecked, climate change will pose unacceptable risks to our security, our economies, and our planet. This much we know.

So the question before us is no longer the nature of the challenge. The question is our capacity to meet it. For while the reality of climate change is not in doubt, I have to be honest, I think our ability to take collective action is in doubt right now and it hangs in the balance.

I believe we can act boldly, and decisively, in the face of a common threat. That's why I come here today. Not to talk, but to act.

Now, as the world's largest economy and as the world's second largest emitter, America bears our responsibility to address climate change, and we intend to meet that responsibility. That's why we've renewed our leadership within international climate negotiations. That's why we've worked with other nations to phase out fossil fuel subsidies. That's why we've taken bold action at home by making historic investments in renewable energy; by putting our people to work increasing efficiency in our homes and buildings; by pursuing comprehensive legislation to transform to a clean energy economy.

These mitigation actions are ambitious, and we are taking them not simply to meet global responsibilities. We are convinced as some of you may be convinced that changing the way that we produce and use energy is essential to America's economic future that it will create millions of new jobs, power new industries, keep us competitive, and spark new innovation. We're convinced for our own self-interest that the way we use energy is essential to America's national security, because it will reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and help us deal with some of the dangers posed by climate change.

So I want this plenary session to understand: America is going to continue on this course of action to mitigate our emissions and move toward a clean energy economy. No matter what happens here in Copenhagen, we think it is good for us, as well as good for the world. But we will all be stronger and all be safer and all be more secure if we act together. That is why it is in our mutual interest to achieve a global accord in which we agree to certain steps, and to hold each other accountable to certain commitments.

After months of talk, and two weeks of negotiations, after innumerable side meetings, bilateral meetings, endless hours of discussion among negotiators, I believe that the pieces of that accord should now be clear.

First, all major economies must put forward decisive national actions that will reduce their emissions, and begin to turn the corner on climate change. I'm pleased that many of us have already done so. Almost all the major economies have ... and I'm confident that America will fulfill the commitments that we have made: cutting our emissions in the range of 17 percent by 2020, and by more than 80 percent by 2050 in line with final legislation.

Number two. We must have a mechanism to review whether we are keeping our commitments, and exchange this information in a transparent manner. These measures need not be intrusive, or infringe upon sovereignty. They must, however, ensure that an accord is credible, and that we are living up to our mutual obligations. Without such accountability, any agreement would be empty words on a page.

I don't know how you have an international agreement where we all are not sharing information and assuring that we are meeting our commitments. That doesn't make sense. It would be a hollow victory.

Number three. We must have financing that helps developing countries adapt, particularly the least-developed and most vulnerable countries to climate change. America will be a part of fast-start funding that will ramp up to $10 billion in 2012. And, yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made it clear that we will engage in a global effort to mobilize $100 billion in financing by 2020, if and only if it is part of a broader accord that I've just described.

Mitigation. Transparency. And financing. It's a clear formula, one that embraces the principle of common but differentiated responses and respective capabilities. And it adds up to a significant accord, one that takes us farther than we have ever gone before as an international community.

I just want to say to this plenary session that we are running short on time. And at this point the question is whether we will move forward together, or split apart. Whether we prefer posturing to action. I'm sure that many consider this an imperfect framework that I just described. No country will get everything that it wants.

There are those developing countries that want aid with no strings attached, and no obligations with respect to transparency. They think that the most advanced nations should pay a higher price. I understand that. There are those advanced nations who think that developing countries either cannot absorb this assistance, or that will not be held accountable effectively, and that the world's fastest-growing emitters should bear a greater share of the burden.

We know the fault lines because we've been imprisoned by them for years. These international discussions have taken place now for almost two decades. And we have little to show for it other than increased acceleration of the climate change phenomenon.

The time for talk is over. Here is the bottom line: We can embrace this accord, take a substantial step forward, and continue to refine it and build upon its foundation. We can do that, and everyone who is in this room will be part of a historic endeavor, one that makes life better for our children and grandchildren.

Or we can choose delay, falling back into the same divisions that have stood in the way of action for years. And we will be back having the same stale arguments month after month, year after year, perhaps decade after decade, all while the danger of climate change grows until it is irreversible.

Ladies and gentlemen, there is no time to waste. America has made our choice. We have charted our course, we have made our commitments, we will do what we say. Now, I believe it's the time for nations and the people of the world to come together behind a common purpose.

We are ready to get this done today but there has to be movement on all sides to recognize that it is better for us to act than to talk. Better for us to choose action over inaction; the future over the past. With courage and faith, I believe that we can meet our responsibilities to our people, and to the planet.

Thank you very much

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Luis Hestres — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:40:13 +0000

-- By 1Sky board member and Climate Solutions Policy Director KC Golden.

The world is aghast. Its fate, it seems, “lies in the hands of a few U.S. Senators,” as Tuvalu negotiator Ian Fry lamented in his plea for a real, science-driven deal here in Copenhagen.

The collective forehead of humanity wrinkles at the prospect. Who are these people? A couple of them from North Dakota, representing 600,000 people (about 9% of the population of Mumbai’s slums), can prevent the world from rising to an emergency? A thought bubble floats above the Bella Center: “U.S. Congress: WTF?”

A Japanese woman grilled me last night in broken but feisty English about the intricacies of the U.S. Congress: How do you elect them? Why do some of them represent so many and some so few? Does it really take 6 months for them to do anything? Where IS North Dakota?

The Obama team has been here in force, with Cabinet Secretaries speaking every day to demonstrate American resolve. Mayors and Governors and NGOs and businesses from the U.S. are all over Copenhagen, showing the world a genuine, engaged face of America. Senator Kerry gave a good speech yesterday, full of resolve.

But the world knows that the U.S. Senate stands in the way. Their eyes say to the Americans in the building “How could you let this go on?”

As frustrated as the world may be about Congress’ failure to deliver a real American commitment here, those of us who worked our butts off to get a bill done before we got here are among the most agitated. We feel like idiots. We are soooo sophisticated about American politics, but we’re sitting here scratching our heads with the rest of the world. And added to the injury of being clueless, we bear the insult of being responsible.

But enough of this wallowing! Lookit, we could waste the next 2 days bemoaning the failings of the U.S. Senate, but we’ll have plenty of time for that. I am as certain of this as I have ever been of anything: It will not be Harry Reid who musters “the fierce urgency of now” to save the world this week.

Blaming the Senate right now diverts attention from the one thing that could salvage a good outcome in Copenhagen and unlock our domestic politics. The Nobel Committee prospectively awarded the Peace Prize last week, so hungry is the world for that one thing. We Americans set the stage for that one thing last November when we responded to a transformational call -- a challenge to rise above our broken politics and do what is right and necessary. We elected Barack Obama. We elected him to lead.

We did this for a very good reason -- our collective instinct that the “game” as we know it is unwinnable, even if we play it very well. We have to change the game. It was this instinct that propelled Obama to the presidency.

Mind you, we weren’t naïve enough to think the game would change overnight, or that the blockade that is the U.S. Senate would part like the Red Sea before Obama. We weren’t just smoking Hope.

But we did believe that when these moments arise -- these big, pivotal, scary moments when the chips are down and the stakes are infinite -- Obama would rise to them, and call us to follow. Tomorrow is such a moment.

Something will come out of Copenhagen, you can be sure of that. 110 Heads of State aren’t going leave here saying “Oh well, maybe next time.” The question is, in the prevailing sloganese, will they just “seal a deal,” any old deal, so they can get out of here celebrating much and delivering little?

Or will it be a “real deal,” one that sets the world on a course toward solutions as big as the problem? To be real, it has to do the two absolutely necessary and interdependent things:

Genuinely embrace the imperative to prevent catastrophic climate disruption, and reduce emissions accordingly.

Open a clean pathway out of poverty for the global South, including major investments from the developed world in adaptation, low-carbon development, and forest protection. ($10 billion per year is NOT “major;” it’s short by two orders of magnitude.)

The U.S. Senate cannot answer these questions, and if it could, it would answer them wrong. Only Obama has a shot at saying Yes We Can and making it stick.

If he does, he could crash through the appallingly low ceiling of Congress’ vision.

His domestic political opponents would squeal. Political insiders in D.C., including his closest advisors, would wring their hands about the prospect of a Kyoto redux -- another deal that the U.S. can’t deliver on. His negotiators have been cowering before that specter all week.

But he would reignite the spirit that got him elected, the hope that maybe we could escape the straightjacket of our dysfunctional politics and face our future squarely, before it’s too late.

Then he would have to push for a domestic climate and energy bill much stronger than the one that’s stalled in the Senate right now.

Instead of whittling the bill down to nothing in the quest for 60 votes, he’d have to build it back up to something real.

Instead of squabbling over details of climate policy design and swallowing our tongues (or bolting) as the Senate administers the death of a thousand cuts to the carbon cap, his supporters could get all the way behind him and push with as much unity and ferocity as his opponents do.

Instead of defusing and disarming ourselves with clever but substantively lethal ploys to get from here to 60 votes, we could stand up and fight for what’s right.

Instead of pushing a jobs package in the short term and deferring action on the climate and energy bill, the Congress could make the climate and energy bill the centerpiece of the jobs push, the engine of economic and political recovery. Americans know that fossil fuel dependence is a dead end street, and they’re ready for leaders to turn sharply and boldly to a clean energy future. The President has demonstrated the winning politics of this: Democratic and Republican rivals called for a gas tax holiday last summer while he called for a bold energy transformation. He won.

I’m not asking the President to come here tomorrow to pick a fight with Congress. We already have the fight and we’re losing. I’m asking him to fight to win. A weak deal in Copenhagen -- constrained by the limits of Congress’ vision -- won’t unlock the politics in the Senate. It will only embolden the opponents, who already smell blood, and deflate public will. It’s just too damned hard to galvanize a movement behind legislation that dices the baby to bits.

We could lose this fight. We need to get over that. Obama needs to get over that. We sure can’t win it if we won’t have it.

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Gillian Caldwell — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:09:15 +0000

This morning began with some breaking news from the stalled negotiations to save life on planet Earth in Copenhagen: thanks to the advocacy of climate activists like you and hundreds of thousands of people around the world, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the United States would join others in securing a $100 billion fund to help developing countries cope with climate change -- provided that an agreement can be reached on a “substantive political accord” that would include transparency in tracking emissions cuts by major developing countries.

We are working hard to clarify the details of the U.S. commitment to the proposed $100 billion fund. It is still far less than what developing countries are rightfully calling for, but we are making progress with our ongoing campaign to push the U.S. government to step up to the plate on providing financial assistance, which is key to securing a desperately needed global deal by tomorrow.

We have less than two days left in the negotiations, and President Obama is scheduled to address the conference tomorrow. We need your voice urgently right now and it will only take a minute: Please send President Obama an urgent message right now before he leaves for Copenhagen tonight.

Right now, it really doesn’t feel like an exaggeration to say that the fate of the earth lies in his hands. The current U.S. target of reducing global warming pollution -- 4% below 1990 levels by 2020 -- is a complete non-starter in the negotiations. The global community rightfully expects reductions of at least 40% below 1990 levels by 2020. We urgently call on President Obama to commit the United States to ambitious targets that will put us on the path to 350ppm, to survival, and to a fair, ambitious and binding global deal.

Earlier today, I blogged on Huffington Post about my continued hopes for this conference in anticipation of President Obama's arrival tonight. But it's difficult to stay hopeful when something like this lands on your desktop (.pdf): a leaked copy of an internal review prepared by the UNFCC Secretariat of all the expected global warming results after analyzing proposals for reducing global warming pollution that are currently on the table.

Their conclusion is not a surprise, it’s but nevertheless deeply disappointing: the proposals that are now on the table would actually increase the planet's temperature by more than three degrees Celsius, and drive the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere above 550 ppm. If that is Copenhagen's end result, this conference will have been a spectacular failure. It's time for our leaders to get serious about their task here -- so far, their proposals are nothing short of a cruel joke on the planet and on all of us.

After working to get our e-alert out and adapting it for key partners around the U.S., I went to a vigil with speakers reflecting on where we are and where we’re headed. We heard from a woman who is now on her 42nd day of a climate justice hunger fast. She was joined by thousands of others around the world on her 42nd day in drinking water only and in eating nothing. I simply can’t imagine 42 days without food – but apparently she couldn’t either when she began:

And we heard from longtime climate advocate, 1Sky Board member and 350.org founder Bill McKibben:

One of the most interesting reflections that emerged from the speakers at today’s candlelight vigil was that it was the expanding global movement for climate justice and 350 that emboldened leaders from more than 100 of the poorest countries of the world to refuse the pittance they have been offered by the industrialized countries in these negotiations -- both when it comes to targets for reducing global warming pollution and when it comes to financial assistance to navigate a rapidly warming world. I know it feels like cold comfort to say the potentially derailed negotiations are a victory of sorts, but as one speaker said: “It is OK to take small steps -- but it’s not OK to head down the wrong road.”

As we head into the final day of the negotiations, the whole world is watching...and I’ll be back tomorrow with another report.

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Alex Bea — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:48:54 +0000

By Colorado Climate Precinct Captain Amy Guinan.

Hello!

The international unity and shared purpose in Copenhagen has inspired me profoundly. From my conversations, the marches and rallies in the streets, and the discussions and presentations at the People's Summit, I have seen that a powerful unifying theme is emerging in the climate discussion – and that is Climate Justice. The rallying cry is for, and from, the people who will most suffer from climate change -- not for business or economic safeguards, but for justice ("lesser" developed countries are not the ones primarily dumping carbon in the air, yet climate change will hit them the hardest). This is refreshingly different from what I expected in the climate discussion.

Today, like all other days, was jam-packed with opportunities for engagement. From the lectures and presentations in the People's Summit to the daily marches and protests (Saturday's march drew 100,000 people), from the art exhibits around town to the open air discussions in the city square, Copenhagen is buzzing with activity and discussion. I pinch myself in astonishment when I recall that my day was spent listening to speeches by Bill McKibben of 350.org, Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed, and Naomi Klein (under a circus tent in the squatter community of Christiana!).

There is discontent brewing about the lack progress in the Bella Center, and if a binding treaty is not agreed upon in Copenhagen it will merely add more fuel to a fire that is already burning hot. Bill McKibben commented that MIT students are in the Bella Center making parts per million projections based on carbon reduction compromises being negotiated. Today, as the current agreements stand (the U.S. cutting 17% by 2020, EU 40% by 2050, etc.), the carbon in parts per million in the atmosphere in 2100 will be 770 PPM!!! 350 ppm, as we all recall, is the uppermost limit for a life-sustaining planet.

I conclude that the power will have to come from the people to the leaders. Our voices must grow louder and our numbers stronger as we continue to pressure our leaders. On Wednesday, we marched to the Bella Center with the goal of making those inside come outside to meet us, the people they represent, for a REAL discussion. If the march on Saturday is any indicator of the power we can expect, the people united will not be divided.