3p Contributor: Tom Schueneman
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Avoiding COP15 Burnout with “Expectation Management”
“Climate change and climate policy in Europe and the U.S. – Opportunities and Challenges in the Run-up to the Copenhagen Summit and beyond”
Thus was billed a recent conference I attended last week at the Aspen Wye River Conference center located in rural Maryland along the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay. The two-day conference was yet another step in the Transatlantic Climate Bridge began earlier this year between Germany and the U.S. in hopes of fostering greater understanding and cooperation on energy and climate issues, especially now in the final days before the Copenhagen summit.
The conference brought together journalists from both sides of the pond, along with a select group of advisors, consultants, negotiators, and policy experts on the front line of the issues facing the world next month in Copenhagen. Since the journalists (and blogger) at the conference are subject to the Chatham House rules, I am not able to attribute specific positions to any particular speaker, but the ideas discussed and the perceptions explored in the dialog are worth summarizing – kicking it off with the burning question in the wake of news over the weekend that world leaders have “agreed not to agree” to a fully binding treaty at COP15: Is there any real hope left for “success” in Copenhagen?
In a word, yes. There is not only hope, but a realistic chance for success at Copenhagen. That is, if we can engage in “expectation management” and tailor a definition of success within those expectations – let the qualifications begin.
Barcelona Climate Talks End after a Week of Boycotts- Next Stop: Copenhagen
The final week of climate negotiations in Barcelona have now ended. The last meeting before the main event in Copenhagen next month served to emphasize the lingering stalemate between rich and poor nations, and the equally unmoving impasse between political factions in the United States.
On Tuesday, delegations from 50 African nations boycotted the climate talks in Barcelona, insisting that developed nations must make stronger commitments for short-term emissions reduction targets – specifically in the neighborhood of 40% of 1990 levels by 2020 (in contrast, the Waxman-Markey bill that passed the House last summer, when referenced to 1990 levels, targets only about a 7% reduction in emissions). In Washington, Republicans in the Energy and Public Works Committee (EPW) staged their own boycott, failing to show for a markup session of the Kerry-Boxer climate and energy bill. The reason, they claimed, was because the bill needs more cost analysis from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Democrats countered, saying it was simply a stalling tactic, and that there is already extensive analysis in place. The ranking Republican on the EPW committee is Senator James Inhofe, who is nothing if not a vociferous climate change denier. The ability for the United States to break through their political logjam will directly influence how negotiations play out at the COP15 climate conference next month.
Talks resumed in Barcelona onWednesday, but key issues of mitigation targets and financing remain largely unchanged on Friday from where they started on Monday; the Democrats in the EPW Committee passed the Kerry-Boxer climate bill out of committee on an 11-1 without the Republicans present. Thus the stage is set, for better or worse, and there is but one stop left on the Road to Copenhagen. UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer delivers his closing press briefing in the following video (see also Ben Jervey’s analysis from earlier this week.)
Facing Reality in Copenhagen
The days grow short and with it the time left to lay a foundation that leads to an international climate treaty to which all nations – rich and poor, north and south – can agree.
As Copenhagen braces for an influx of delegates, press, policy experts, and leaders from all corners of the globe this December, many begin to brace for a new definition of what will constitute success at the COP15 climate talks. A definition based less on the “do-or-die” high expectations of a signed treaty by the end of the year and more on the reality of the work left to accomplish a deal and the time available to accomplish it.
It may be too much to hope that delegates negotiate a final resolution to the issues that carve a persistently wide gulf between developed and developing nations. Momentum for real progress has been slow going (though it’s building as a sense of urgency mounts).
Rich nations still squabble amongst themselves and developing nations aren’t too keen on forsaking their expanding fossil-fueled wealth, just when it really gets going–especially when nations already fat and happy on coal and oil seem unwilling to pull their own weight.
The situation isn’t likely to change much, at least not by December. Is COP15 therefore destined to fail? Not necessarily – even with the intractable issues before it.
Highlights From “Unfinished Business” Report on Energy and Climate
At a press briefing this morning, the Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs from leading U.S. companies, discussed key points from their just-released report entitled Unfinished Business: The Missing Elements of a Sustainable Energy and Climate Policy (pdf).
Building on the organization’s previous reports, More Diverse, More Domestic, More Efficient (pdf) and The Balancing Act (pdf), John Castellani, Business Roundtable president, and Mike Morris, Business Roundtable’s chairman of the Sustainable Growth Initiative and president and CEO of American Electric Power Company, laid out a broad framework they feel Congress needs to address to pave the way toward a sustainable new energy economy.
100 Places to Remember
There are rising CO2 ppm numbers, warming and increasingly acidic oceans, shifting species populations, shrinking arctic sea-ice cover and volume… all manner of facts, figures, and data-crunching computer models to aid scientists in understanding the nature and consequences of climate disruption.
But there’s a more visceral aspect to global warming.
A feeling summoned even in the most cynical soul by a world still full of beauty and wonder, it is a strained thread that connects each human to the Earth and belies the competing economic models, political affiliations, and tribal xenophobias that have plagued humanity throughout time. But our time is different, and the consequences of our actions so enormous that we must be reminded what binds us together in a common global fate.
It is for that connection to the Earth we each share, for better or worse, that inspired Søren Rud to organize 100 Places to Remember Before They Disappear, a photo exhibition recently opened in Copenhagen. Meant as an inspiration for “the common person,” 100 Places is also a call to action for world leaders as they soon converge on the city to negotiate a climate treaty at the COP15 Climate Conference this December (and what inspires this post on Blog Action Day).
Bangkok Talks Conclude with Mixed Metaphors, Unfinished Business
In a statement released at the conclusion of the two-week session of climate talks in Bangkok, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer talked of more clarity on the “bricks and mortar” of the agreed outcome in Copenhagen, but that “long-held differences” persist on coming to terms on mid-term targets and finance.
“A will has emerged in Bangkok to build the architecture to rapidly implement climate action,” said de Boer at a press briefing, “but significant differences remain. In December, citizens everywhere in the world have a right to know exactly what their governments will do to prevent dangerous climate change. What we must do now is step back from self interest and let common interest prevail.”
Using another metaphor, Jake Schmidt, International Policy Director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, spoke of the five principal negotiating elements of a Copenhagen agreement as the main parts of a well-tuned car – and how the “car” is leaving Bangkok with some “dents and rattles.”
What do these metaphors really mean as (to add my own metaphor) the clock ticks down on the road to Copenhagen?
UPS Offers Carbon Offset Program for Shippers
UPS continues as innovators in the small package delivery sector, announcing this week a new program offering its customers the option of offsetting the emissions generated by transporting their packages within the United States.
U.S. customers simply opt to pay a flat rate, covering the cost of calculation, program administration, and the cost of the actual offset. UPS will match offset purchases in 2009-2010, up to $1 million, thus doubling the effectiveness of the program.
The per-package cost for the carbon offset program is five cents for UPS Ground, and twenty cents for UPS Next Day Air, UPS 2nd Day Air, and UPS 3 Day Select services. The service is initially available to the approximately 1 million U.S. customers using UPS Internet Shipping with their UPS account number, with plans to roll the service out to other UPS customers next year.
Exxon’s Tillerson Calls for Carbon Tax – Seriously?
With the Senate releasing their version of climate and energy legislation last week, renewed lobbying efforts from some quarters touting the benefits of more CO2 emissions, and our good friend Senator James Inhofe now saying that CO2 isn’t a “real” pollutant in his ongoing effort to mislead and misinform, I’m not really sure what to make of Exxon chief Rex Tillerson’s recent remarks on climate legislation.
Exxon has been continually linked to funding climate change denial lobby groups, but of course none of that was mentioned when Tillerson gave a speech last week at the Economic Club of Washington D.C. Tillerson talked of the importance of the energy sector, the economic challenges it faces, and how effective policy-making can help bring about the changes needed for the energy economy in a new century.
For Tillerson, the answer to climate change legislation isn’t cap-and-trade, the primary tool in both the House and Senate version, but a carbon tax.
Road to Copenhagen: Bali to Bangkok
The “Road to Copenhagen” began on the Indonesian island of Bali at the COP13 climate conference in December of 2007. COP13 charted the intended course toward Copenhagen, producing the Bali Roadmap (pdf) and the Bali Action Plan, setting forth the negotiating process designed to take the international community “beyond Kyoto” and produce an effective global response to the reality of climate change.
The Bali Roadmap set a path with numerous waypoints leading toward COP15, where the treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, expiring in 2012, will hopefully be signed. These waypoints have included numerous sessions of the Ad hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA), and the Ad hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex/Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP), and COP14 in Poznań, Poland in December of last year.
This week marks the final push to Copenhagen, with the start of sessions of the AWG-LCA and AWG-KP in Bangkok, Thailand.
Mission Motors Keeps Moving: All-Electric Bike Tops 150MPH
We first introduced TriplePundit readers to San Francisco-based Mission Motors back in February after the quintessential whiz-kid start-up unveiled the Mission One motorcycle at the TED conference in Long Beach (and followed-up this summer after it raced at the TTXGP carbon-free grand prix).
The Mission One is ostensibly a high-performance, all-electric motorcycle, but it really is more than that. Like any great entrepreneurial start-ups, it begins with a vision. As we said back in February, that vision for founders Forrest North, Edward West, and Mason Cabot is to show the world that high-performance and cutting edge design need not be mutually exclusive with sustainability. If you think that you need to putter about town on a scooter in order to have a clean machine, the Mission One is out to prove you wrong.
Don’t get me wrong, like the Tesla (for whom North once worked), it doesn’t come cheap. You’d likely not get a Mission One just to tool about town. But the idea is to push boundaries, break new ground, and blaze a path for others to follow.
And earlier this month the Mission One pushed another boundary on the salt flats of Utah.
Van Jones Forced to Resign
Amid growing “controversy” Van Jones announced late Saturday his resignation as special advisor for green jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
“On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me,” Jones said in a statement released to the press. ”They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide. I have been inundated with calls — from across the political spectrum — urging me to ’stay and fight.’ But I came here to fight for others, not for myself. I cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past. We need all hands on deck, fighting for the future.”
News Break: EPA Draft Ruling Could Shield Small Business From Limits on CO2 Emissions
The EPA today sent a draft ruling to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that would likely limit greenhouse gas emissions regulations only to large industrial sources, thus shielding small business from any forthcoming limits on emissions.
With the expected formal release of an endangerment finding (pdf) from the EPA declaring CO2 a pollutant, the current rule under the Clean Air Act would require that industrial sources emitting more than 250 tons or more a year of a regulated pollutant install the “best available control technologies” to limit emissions.
Today’s submission to the OMB could limit “strict permitting requirement to industrial sources of more than 25,000 ton a year of carbon dioxide equivalent,” says a report just released by GreenWire.com (subscription).
“Putting this rule in place deflates a lot of the political rhetoric about regulating CO2,” said David Bookbinder of the Sierra Club.
For more on the story, see Daniel Kessler’s report on Treehugger.
Forged Letters, the Fossil Fuel Lobby, and the Push Against Change
Triple Pundit recently reported on a series of letters sent to Congressman Tom Perriello of Virginia. The letters were purportedly from constituent community groups urging a no vote on the Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill that was then pending before the house. Fact is, they weren’t from constituents at all but from D.C. ”grassroots” lobbying firm Bonner & Associates - and completely forged, lock, stock, and barrel.
It turns out those first letters sent to Perriello are but the tip of the iceberg. Earlier this month, when the count had risen to 12 forgeries sent to three House Democrats, Ed Markey called for an investigation into the fraud, expressing his dismay about the chilling effect such action has on the legislative process. “This fraud on Congress distorts the legislative process and disserves the American people. It represents a serious breach that needs to be fully understood as to the extent and scope of these wrongful acts,” Markey wrote in a letter to the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), a lobby group for the coal industry.
And the distortion grows. With 5 more fake letters recently uncovered by Markey’s investigation, the total comes to at least 17 forged letters sent and potentially 45 more yet to be verified as legitimate.
Eight U.S. Airlines Sign Deal to Use Alternative Fuels
Rentech Inc, a renewable energy and synthetic fuel manufacturer, has announced a partnership with eight U.S. airlines to use up to 1.5 million gallons a year of synthetic diesel fuel made from plant waste starting in 2012.
The feed stock will come mostly from “woody green waste” such as yard clippings and other urban wood scrap. The fuel will power ground-service vehicles and equipment at Los Angeles International Airport.
On board for the deal is American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Airlines, United Airlines, US Airways, Southwest Airlines, Alaska Airlines, and UPS Airlines.
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