Guardian on U.N. draft climate agreement: “Long, confusing and contradictory”

Posted on | September 21, 2009 | 1 Comment

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White House Global Climate Change Report. Click on the cover then follow the prompts to download a copy.


MONDAY 9/28/2009: It is a blueprint to save the world. And yet it is long, confusing and contradictory. Negotiators have released a draft version of a new global agreement on climate change, which is widely billed as the last chance to save the planet from the ravages of global warming. Running to some 200 pages, the draft agreement is being discussed for the first time this week as officials from 190 countries gather in Bangkok for the latest round of UN talks. There is only one short meeting after this before they meet in Copenhagen aiming to hammer out a final version. Click here to keep reading Guardian environment correspondent David Adam’s Countdown to Copenhagen

THURSDAY, 9/24/2009: For Time Magazine on our current climate cycle, “The Long Summer,” and the human activity that is forcing the end of a 10,000 year-long temperate era, click here, via Aquafornia.

For Nature magazine’s news special “Planetary Boundaries,” click here.

TUESDAY 9/22/2009: President Barack Obama today addressed a day-long session of the United Nations on the importance of setting international goals for carbon dioxide reduction in advance of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December.

The New York Times and Los Angeles Times have the latest in what continues to be the Obama administration’s sharp reversal from Bush administration policy, which downplayed the notion that global warming was caused by human activity. From the New York Times:

“John F. Kennedy once observed that ‘our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man,’” Mr. Obama said. “It is true that for too many years mankind has been slow to respond to or even recognize the magnitude of the climate threat. It is true of my own country as well; we recognize that.”

From the Los Angeles Times: “We are determined to act. And we will meet our responsibility to future generations.”

Also according to the New York Times, China pledged “to cut carbon dioxide emissions by a ‘notable margin’ by 2020 compared to 2005 levels; massively increase the size of forests; boost nuclear or non-fossil fuels to 15 percent of power by 2020 and work to develop a green economy.”

For a New York Times / Federal News Service transcript of the address by President Hu Jintao of China to the UN General Assembly, click here.

Meanwhile, in California, conservationists from the Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club and others are asking the California Air Resources Board to reject a strange but true proposed rule that could encourage forest clear-cutting as part of California’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  To read their letter, click here. For background, read this article in the Los Angeles Times.

This page has been rewritten and will continue to change as “Climate Week” in New York progresses.

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One Response to “Guardian on U.N. draft climate agreement: “Long, confusing and contradictory””

  1. US Fish and Wildlife Service publishes climate change plan | Chance of Rain
    September 28th, 2009 @ 2:01 pm

    […] For links to a Guardian guide to a draft global agreement on climate change, a Time Magazine article on our “long summer” and a Nature special report, click here. […]

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