Jake Schmidt's Blog
Beginning of International Climate School
August 26, 2008
Posted by Jake Schmidt in Solving Global Warming
In my comments before the international global warming negotiations in Ghana, I highlighted that the true test of whether this meeting could be viewed as a success on the “road to Copenhagen” was whether we could start to get specific proposals put forward by countries and whether countries would use these proposals to start to outline their positions…after all, the clock is ticking on getting an agreement in Copenhagen. Did countries do their homework? Did they start to answer some key questions?
Clearly, some countries did their homework. They were told by the school master—Yvo de Boer, the Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention—to start moving ideas to proposals. Some parties took this seriously and did their homework, including proposals from:- Norway (using auction revenues from emissions trading systems), Switzerland, Mexico (creation of a Global Fund), and the group of developing countries (the “G77 and China”) on financial incentives to assist developing countries in enhanced actions
- EU and the African countries on adaptation
- China, South Korea, India, the EU, Mexico, and Japan on sectoral approaches
- Coalition for Rainforest Nations, Tuvalu, and Brazil on incentives for reducing deforestation and forest degradation emissions
- a number of countries on how forests in developed countries should be handled to ensure that they don’t lead to increased global warming emissions
- South Korea and South Africa about what types of emissions reduction efforts they can undertake.
The bell is about to ring for new US leadership. So, I hope that they are doing their homework and getting prepared to answer key questions well in advance of the final exam in Copenhagen.
So, some significant progress in getting clarity on key elements of the Copenhagen agreement. There is a lot more work to do before we have an effective international agreement to global warming.
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- Jake Schmidt
- International Climate Policy Director
- Washington, DC
- I'm the international climate policy director at Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). I recently joined...
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Comments
Bridget — Aug 28 2008 03:48 AM
Jake, I am in the process of educating myself on global warming. My kids are going to be taught about it in school and I want to make sure they are taught both sides of the issue. I see you are of the opinion that global warming is very serious and can hurt us if we are not good stewards of our earth. I strongly believe, and teach my children, that we have been blessed by God with a beautiful planet to live on and he has given us resources to use and live off of, yet we need to be responsible. We hunt,we eat what we kill, we reuse plastic water bottles many times, we try not to waste water, the list goes on. But your views seem a bit extreme. I am not sure how else to contact you. Would you be so kind as to email me if you see my comment here - 576signup@cox.net
Jake Schmidt — Aug 29 2008 10:36 AM
Hi Bridget,
Thanks for the comment. A number of the things that you are doing with your kids are right on track. So, I'm confused why you think my views are "extreme". I have two children, and frankly, I really worry about the planet that we are leaving them.
As you can tell, I think that global warming is the preeminent challenge of this generation (and a number of future ones). The science on this issue is clear—as the leading scientists around the world have continually reconfirmed. This can leave us with two choices—(1) ignore and continue as if nothing has changed; or (2) confront the challenge and find ways to address it. I choose the later and I think that is the track record of the US (you just have to look at history to see many examples).