“And I’ve been from Tucson to Tucumcari Tehachapi to Tonapah… And I’m still willin’ To be movin’.” That’s what COP 15 feels like to me – from 3,500 miles away, admittedly, but like a truckdriver that’s seen it all, and is still willin’. I said yesterday that the lead negotiators would need “poise, intelligence, good […]
I know a Tibetan whose name is Monlam Gyatso. That means Ocean of Prayer. We have an ocean of opportunity before us. What I and others, not the least of whom is McKinsey & Company, see bashing down our doors to bang us on our thick heads is an ocean of GHG abatement opportunities by […]
Here are a couple of updates on progress – or the dearth thereof – at the talks in Copenhagen. The first is from the “LA Times” – Developing nations hold the key to Copenhagen climate agreement. The developed countries have “…ramped up pressure on emerging economies China and India, as well as African and island […]
I read a really good book by Steve Schlesinger a few years back called Act of Creation. It’s about the San Francisco conference at which the United Nations was born. There was a lot of intrigue and high drama, with plenty at stake. There are stories of heroes, too, like Edward Stettinius, the unsung Secretary […]
There’s plenty of sturm und drang coming from COP 15. The “FT” reports this morning that the African states first walked out then returned, having claimed “…that they had won some concessions.” The “Financial Times” front page this morning declared China signals climate funds shift. Apparently, the PRC “… abandoned its demand for funding from […]
I have not been, like most of the rest of the climate change cognoscenti, writing nonstop about Copenhagen this week. I have been working on reviewing thesis work from students in the MS in Global Affairs program at NYU where I teach on climate change. I’ve had one blockbuster thesis on how to make the […]
Most of us stumble through life never knowing how oil or gas or mining works. That’s fine — right up till we’re facing drilling or mining in our own backyard, or we want to take a stand on it. There’s a lot of fear about the process, which is completely justified — a lot can […]
Overview In the past year, global food security has been on the radar of world leaders, who often raised food security issues and brought needed attention to the continuing food crisis and long-term concerns. Policy breakthroughs and substantial action, however, were limited. The challenge was most starkly illustrated by a joint report released by the […]
Socialism and energy have a peculiar relationship to each other. In most countries, no matter who owns the surface land, the subsurface rights to the oil, gas, or (sometimes) minerals, belongs to the national government, and, in theory, the people of the country. The idea did not start with the 20th century: kings and rulers […]
I wrote here recently about what the initial stakes of various big players are for Copenhagen. Lord Nicholas Stern, author of the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, and one of the world’s leading experts on the economics of climate change and energy, says, in this “FT” op-ed piece yesterday, that with what’s […]
As part of the ongoing, comprehensive coverage that the “Financial Times” has been devoting to the issue of climate change, including of the Copenhagen conference, here is a truly terrific and most informative interactive graphic depicting several levels of how carbon dioxide emissions are calculated, by country total and per capita, by individual year and […]
Last spring, I attended an event about the new positive resource contracts of Liberia, held at Revenue Watch, an international NGO which seeks transparency in the finances of governments with natural resources. During the Q & A, a man got up to congratulate a Liberian official there, and to pray that in his own country, […]
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