[News] from [guardian.co.uk]
[Environment > Climate change]
China announces pledge to curb carbon emissions
President Hu Jintao vows to greatly decrease intensity from country's economy and invest in green energy
Julian Borger and Suzanne Goldenberg in New York
guardian.co.uk, Monday 23 February 2009 01.50 GMT Article history
The world inched closer to an elusive deal to combat climate change yesterday, when China, the world's biggest polluter, made its most substantial commitment yet to curb its carbon emissions and invest in clean energy.
The proposals, delivered by Hu Jintao, the Chinese president, on the first day of the UN general assembly meeting, included the promise of a "notable" decrease in the carbon intensity of China's economy, the amount of emissions for each unit of economic output, by 2020.
"At stake in the fight against climate change are the common interests of the entire world," Hu said. "Out of a sense of responsibility to its own people and people across the world, China fully appreciates the importance and urgency of addressing climate change."
Hu's words about a common cause resonated with leaders of the industrialised world who described a new sense of a "grand bargain" on climate change.
Hu's speech fell short of expectations that he would name the target for China's carbon intensity, and observers suggested China was keeping its cards close to its chest until the climate change summit in Copenhagen in December.
But the speech, coming soon after a change of rhetoric by India's government, raised hopes that a meaningful agreement can still be secured in Copenhagen.
Last night, Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, said the day-long meeting had rescued the Copenhagen negotiations from near certain disaster.
"One thing I am absolutely sure of, without today's summit the world would not have crossed over the finish line in Copenhagen," he said.
"Finally, we are seeing a fall in some of the frozen positions that have prevented governments from moving forward."
John Sauven, the executive director of Greenpeace, said: "This is the first time China has said publicly that it will intensify efforts to reduce emissions, but without firm targets or a detailed action plan today's announcement is too vague to be the major breakthrough we hoped for."
Hu said yesterday that his country would plant forests across an area the size of Norway, and generate 15% of its energy needs from renewables within a decade.
Ed Miliband, the climate change secretary, said China deserved praise for announcing any change, despite the lack of specifics. "I think it's still a tough battle, but for a Chinese president to come to the UN to announce a change in domestic policy in terms of targeting carbon intensity is quite a big deal" he said. The official US reaction was more muted. Todd Stern, Barack Obama's special envoy for climate change, said that Hu's pledge was welcome, but added: "It depends on what the number is."
Another potentially important step forward yesterday came from Japan's prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, who pledged more financial and technical aid for poor countries to adapt to climate change.
Like Hu, the Japanese leader gave no further details on how much cash his country would provide.
Obama also delivered strong rhetoric at the general assembly yesterday: "No nation … can escape the impact of climate change.
"The security and stability of each nation and all peoples – our prosperity, our health, and our safety – are in jeopardy. And the time we have to reverse this tide is running out."
Gordon Brown will echo Obama's words in his speech to the general assembly today. "This is the moment now to limit and reverse climate change we are inflicting on future generations," he will say. "Not later at another conference, in another decade, after we have lost 10 years to delay and inaction."
Brown will also this week try to persuade other leaders to agree to go to the Copenhagen negotiations. The Danish prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said a number of leaders had signalled they would go to Copenhagen.
"It is obvious this issue is so complex it can't be solved by environment ministers alone or ministers of finance," he said. "In order to come to agreement, we must have heads of government."
Environmental groups criticised Obama for failing to make any new concrete proposals in yesterday's speech. "Obama's speech … was a huge missed opportunity which does nothing to break the logjam in international climate negotiations," said Friends of the Earth's Asad Rehman.
[Environment > Copenhagen climate change summit 2009]
Climate Week kicks off with warning from hoax New York Post
Politicians, activists, academics and celebrities descend on New York to build momentum for Copenhagen negotiations
Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 22 September 2009 11.02 BST Article history
If today's UN conclave on climate change does not push world leaders to act, maybe the banner headline "we're screwed" on fake copies of a New York tabloid will.
A group of pranksters called the Yes Men, who first struck a few years ago with bogus copies of the New York Times proclaiming an end to the Iraq war, yesterday distributed phoney copies of the New York Post, with headlines warning: "Global warming kills" and "World leaders slip on UN summit slope".
The action – part of New York's Climate Week – saw hundreds of volunteers handing out copies near UN headquarters and the main train stations. It was among dozens of events this week meant to keep world leaders focused on reaching an agreement to stop global warming.
On Thursday, even the Empire State building is going to go green – although the special illuminations are actually for the 70th anniversary, or Emerald Gala, of the Wizard of Oz movie.
The official start to Climate Week got under way around midday yesterday, with the UN chief, Yvo de Boer, Tony Blair, and other dignitaries issuing a call for action. "Remember, we cannot press the undo button if the climate gets out of hand," Connie Hedegaard, Denmark's minister for climate and energy, said.
A few hours later, leaders from small island states came together to demand the developed world step up at Copenhagen with a far more ambitious deal than has been on the table: 45% emissions cut by 2020.
"Climate change is already delivering damage not of our making," the Maldives president, Mohamed Nasheed, told leaders. "Should we, leaders of the most vulnerable and exposed countries, be asking our people to sign on to significantly greater degrees of misery and livelihood insecurity, essentially becoming climate change guinea pigs?"
Blair said climate change was the most difficult negotiations he had ever encountered.
Gisele Bundchen, the Brazilian supermodel who has just been named goodwill ambassador for the UN environmental programme, was also in town. She immediately called her home country to account, telling reporters that Brazil needed to do more to preserve its rainforests.
Monday night also saw the world premiere of the Age of Stupid, which was held in a blue-lit tent near the site of the former World Trade Centre. The film was simultaneously broadcast to more than 700 cinemas and private screenings around the world.
Today's UN summit and a two-day meeting of the G20 in Pittsburgh on Thursday and Friday make this week one of the most heavily concentrated on climate change before the Copenhagen negotiations in December. Politicial leaders, environmental activists, academics, and celebrities have descended on New York to try to build momentum for the Copenhagen negotiations.
If not, the fake New York Post warned, the world faces "Flopenhagen".
[Environment > Climate change]
China announces pledge to curb carbon emissions
President Hu Jintao vows to greatly decrease intensity from country's economy and invest in green energy
Julian Borger and Suzanne Goldenberg in New York
guardian.co.uk, Monday 23 February 2009 01.50 GMT Article history
The world inched closer to an elusive deal to combat climate change yesterday, when China, the world's biggest polluter, made its most substantial commitment yet to curb its carbon emissions and invest in clean energy.
The proposals, delivered by Hu Jintao, the Chinese president, on the first day of the UN general assembly meeting, included the promise of a "notable" decrease in the carbon intensity of China's economy, the amount of emissions for each unit of economic output, by 2020.
"At stake in the fight against climate change are the common interests of the entire world," Hu said. "Out of a sense of responsibility to its own people and people across the world, China fully appreciates the importance and urgency of addressing climate change."
Hu's words about a common cause resonated with leaders of the industrialised world who described a new sense of a "grand bargain" on climate change.
Hu's speech fell short of expectations that he would name the target for China's carbon intensity, and observers suggested China was keeping its cards close to its chest until the climate change summit in Copenhagen in December.
But the speech, coming soon after a change of rhetoric by India's government, raised hopes that a meaningful agreement can still be secured in Copenhagen.
Last night, Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, said the day-long meeting had rescued the Copenhagen negotiations from near certain disaster.
"One thing I am absolutely sure of, without today's summit the world would not have crossed over the finish line in Copenhagen," he said.
"Finally, we are seeing a fall in some of the frozen positions that have prevented governments from moving forward."
John Sauven, the executive director of Greenpeace, said: "This is the first time China has said publicly that it will intensify efforts to reduce emissions, but without firm targets or a detailed action plan today's announcement is too vague to be the major breakthrough we hoped for."
Hu said yesterday that his country would plant forests across an area the size of Norway, and generate 15% of its energy needs from renewables within a decade.
Ed Miliband, the climate change secretary, said China deserved praise for announcing any change, despite the lack of specifics. "I think it's still a tough battle, but for a Chinese president to come to the UN to announce a change in domestic policy in terms of targeting carbon intensity is quite a big deal" he said. The official US reaction was more muted. Todd Stern, Barack Obama's special envoy for climate change, said that Hu's pledge was welcome, but added: "It depends on what the number is."
Another potentially important step forward yesterday came from Japan's prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, who pledged more financial and technical aid for poor countries to adapt to climate change.
Like Hu, the Japanese leader gave no further details on how much cash his country would provide.
Obama also delivered strong rhetoric at the general assembly yesterday: "No nation … can escape the impact of climate change.
"The security and stability of each nation and all peoples – our prosperity, our health, and our safety – are in jeopardy. And the time we have to reverse this tide is running out."
Gordon Brown will echo Obama's words in his speech to the general assembly today. "This is the moment now to limit and reverse climate change we are inflicting on future generations," he will say. "Not later at another conference, in another decade, after we have lost 10 years to delay and inaction."
Brown will also this week try to persuade other leaders to agree to go to the Copenhagen negotiations. The Danish prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said a number of leaders had signalled they would go to Copenhagen.
"It is obvious this issue is so complex it can't be solved by environment ministers alone or ministers of finance," he said. "In order to come to agreement, we must have heads of government."
Environmental groups criticised Obama for failing to make any new concrete proposals in yesterday's speech. "Obama's speech … was a huge missed opportunity which does nothing to break the logjam in international climate negotiations," said Friends of the Earth's Asad Rehman.
[Environment > Copenhagen climate change summit 2009]
Climate Week kicks off with warning from hoax New York Post
Politicians, activists, academics and celebrities descend on New York to build momentum for Copenhagen negotiations
Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 22 September 2009 11.02 BST Article history
If today's UN conclave on climate change does not push world leaders to act, maybe the banner headline "we're screwed" on fake copies of a New York tabloid will.
A group of pranksters called the Yes Men, who first struck a few years ago with bogus copies of the New York Times proclaiming an end to the Iraq war, yesterday distributed phoney copies of the New York Post, with headlines warning: "Global warming kills" and "World leaders slip on UN summit slope".
The action – part of New York's Climate Week – saw hundreds of volunteers handing out copies near UN headquarters and the main train stations. It was among dozens of events this week meant to keep world leaders focused on reaching an agreement to stop global warming.
On Thursday, even the Empire State building is going to go green – although the special illuminations are actually for the 70th anniversary, or Emerald Gala, of the Wizard of Oz movie.
The official start to Climate Week got under way around midday yesterday, with the UN chief, Yvo de Boer, Tony Blair, and other dignitaries issuing a call for action. "Remember, we cannot press the undo button if the climate gets out of hand," Connie Hedegaard, Denmark's minister for climate and energy, said.
A few hours later, leaders from small island states came together to demand the developed world step up at Copenhagen with a far more ambitious deal than has been on the table: 45% emissions cut by 2020.
"Climate change is already delivering damage not of our making," the Maldives president, Mohamed Nasheed, told leaders. "Should we, leaders of the most vulnerable and exposed countries, be asking our people to sign on to significantly greater degrees of misery and livelihood insecurity, essentially becoming climate change guinea pigs?"
Blair said climate change was the most difficult negotiations he had ever encountered.
Gisele Bundchen, the Brazilian supermodel who has just been named goodwill ambassador for the UN environmental programme, was also in town. She immediately called her home country to account, telling reporters that Brazil needed to do more to preserve its rainforests.
Monday night also saw the world premiere of the Age of Stupid, which was held in a blue-lit tent near the site of the former World Trade Centre. The film was simultaneously broadcast to more than 700 cinemas and private screenings around the world.
Today's UN summit and a two-day meeting of the G20 in Pittsburgh on Thursday and Friday make this week one of the most heavily concentrated on climate change before the Copenhagen negotiations in December. Politicial leaders, environmental activists, academics, and celebrities have descended on New York to try to build momentum for the Copenhagen negotiations.
If not, the fake New York Post warned, the world faces "Flopenhagen".
