U.N. climate talks move into decisive phase

UN climate talks move into decisive phase
CANCUN, Mexico - U.N. climate talks moved into their decisive week Monday with the agenda dominated by future cuts in Carbon Emissions and keeping countries honest about their actions to control Global Warming. Government ministers arrived in force to begin applying political muscle to negotiations that in the past week have narrowed some disputes, but which are likely to leave the toughest decisions for the final hours of the 193-nation conference on Friday. Delegates were feeling pressur...

Cancun climate talks surmount key stumbling block
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon headed to Cancun to offer a personal push in the Final Four days of the 194-nation conference.CANCUN, Mexico -- Talks in Mexico on a global climate agreement appeared Tuesday to get past a key stumbling block after China showed flexibility on allowing international verification of its efforts. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon headed to the beach resort of Cancun to offer a personal push in the Final Four days of the 194-nation conference, where a positive atm...

More Nations May Pledge Carbon Limits at UN Talks
CANCUN, Mexico -- More countries are expected this week to pledge specific actions to limit Carbon Emissions over the next decade, in what would be very good news for arduous negotiations on a climate-change agreement, host country Mexico said. As the talks began their second and final week Monday, delegates said the 193-nation conference was moving toward decisions on practical steps to help countries fight Global Warming, especially developing nations under severe threat from changing climate ...

More nations may pledge carbon limits at UN talks
** CORRECTS NATURE OF THE EVENT ** Members of the group World Wildlife Fund stand around a map made of candles during an event to make a call for a strong deal to leaders joined at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico, Sunday, Dec. 5, 2010. The slow-moving U.N. talks on combating Global Warming took a step forward with revised for a $100-billion-a-year climate aid fund and other issues for debate by the world's environment ministers this week. More countries are expect...

More Nations May Pledge Carbon Limits at U.N. Climate Talks
Monday, December 06, 2010 By Arthur Max, Associated Press Cancun, Mexico (AP) - More countries are expected this week to pledge specific actions to limit Carbon Emissions over the next decade, in what would be "very good news" for arduous negotiations on a Climate Change agreement, says host country Mexico. On Monday, newly arrived government ministers begin applying political weight to talks being held in Cancun, as the 193-nation U.N. Climate Conference moves into its decisive final week....

Experts: Glacier melt speeds up, risking lives
CANCUN, Mexico — The lives and livelihoods of people in South Asia are at "high risk" as Global Warming melts Glaciers in the Himalayas, sending floods crashing down from overloaded mountain lakes and depriving farmers of steady water sources, U.N. and other international experts reported. Worldwide, "since the beginning of the 1980s, the rate of ice loss has increased substantially in many regions, concurrent with an increase in global mean air temperatures," the U.N. Environment Program ...

Guarded hope at U.N. climate talks
CANCUN, Mexico -- Negotiators on Climate Change were raising their hopes Sunday after signs of modest progress in Mexico, but a dispute over the future of the Kyoto Protocol threatened to derail momentum. The 194-nation talks at the Caribbean resort city of Cancun were trying to finalize a general statement on the world's long-term action against Climate Change as envoys arrived for the main thrust of talks starting Tuesday. But with few expecting a full-fledged climate treaty anytime soon, the ...

Political Climate Cant Stop Climate Change Initiatives
       AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council Director Bob Baugh is a member of a global union delegation led by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) attending the new round of United Nations Climate Change negotiations in Cancun, Mexico. This is the second of a series of blogs on the talks. Read the first blog here. Congress’s failure to pass Climate Change Legislation and the election of a conservative majority in the next House have led many delegates from o

Cancun climate talks: Island states plead for survival
Among the delegates from 190 nations wrestling over international climate agreements in Cancun this week, there is nary a hint of the skepticism over Global Warming that has surfaced in the U.S. Congress, where oil, coal and other industrial interests have battled Climate Legislation to a standstill. Floods in Pakistan, fires in Russia, typhoons in Vietnam, drought in Mexico -- every nation seems to have a tale of climate-related woe.  The most vulnerable nations include the small island s...

Experts: Glacier melt speeds up, risking lives
CANCUN, Mexico (AP) - United Nations and other international experts say the lives and livelihoods of people in South Asia are at "high risk" as Global Warming melts Glaciers in the Himalayas. The glacier melt is sending floods crashing down from overloaded mountain lakes and depriving farmers of steady sources of water. The U.N. Environment Program says that worldwide, "since the beginning of the 1980s, the rate of ice loss has increased substantially in many regions, concurrent with an increa...

If Cancun Climate Talks Falter, Blame the US
The most recent round of United Nations-led Climate Change negotiations began this week in Cancun, and although international expectations are muted this year, the stakes are still high. As Mother Jones‘ Kate Sheppard explains,"The 2010 meeting could make or break the future of global negotiations.” This is the sixteenth Conference of the Parties, convened by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). After the tepid results of last year’s conferen...

Bolivia Alleges U.S 'Blackmail' At Climate Change Negotiations
Should the rights over water resources be returned to the S'gor state govt? Cancun, Mexico, 7 DECEMBER, 2010: Bolivia alleged that the United States was using "Blackmail" tactics at Climate Change negotiations to force other countries to accept its position. "We are not sold to anyone. We are not bought. We are not scared," Bolivia's Ambassador to the United Nations Pablo Solon told reporters at a press briefing here. Solon said that the integrity of the negotiations at the current Cancun 16th U...

China buoys climate talks with "binding" target
By Chris Buckley and Russell Blinch Cancun, Mexico | Mon Dec 6, 2010 7:45pm EST Cancun, Mexico (Reuters) - China on Monday offered for the first time to submit its voluntary Carbon Emissions target to a binding U.N. resolution, buoying climate talks where Bolivia accused rich world policies of causing "Genocide." China's target would still be voluntary, stressed China's chief negotiator Xie Zhenhua, a distinction from developed nation targets under Kyoto: "Developing Countries can ... make th...

Guarded hope at UN climate talks
Negotiators on Climate Change were raising their hopes Monday after signs of modest progress in Mexico, but a dispute over the future of the Kyoto Protocol threatened to derail momentum. The 194-nation talks at the Caribbean resort city of Cancun were trying to finalize a general statement on the world's long-term action against Climate Change as envoys arrived for the main thrust of talks starting Tuesday. But with few expecting a full-fledged climate treaty anytime soon, the UN-led negotiation...

Cancun Climate Talks Enter Stretch Run
What is this? Political theater is best practiced on a sunny, sandy stage. Sierra Club Activists bearing the flags of more than 20 countries bury their heads in Cancun, Mexico's, sandy beach Friday to symbolize their view of how United Nations climate talks are progressing. The second week of negotiations kicked off Monday, with participants from 193 countries seeking to reach a deal that failed to materialize at last year's Copenhagen summit. "We cannot leave Cancun empty-handed," Connie Hedega...

US is committed to climate goals: govt
President Barack Obama is determined to meet US commitments to cut down on Carbon Emissions despite an election rout at home, his energy secretary told climate negotiations on Monday. Obama pledged at last year's Copenhagen conference that the United States will reduce the emissions blamed for Global Warming by 17 per cent by 2020 from 2005 levels. But a bill to require carbon cuts died in the Senate. "President Obama has said the United States will meet our Copenhagen commitments," Energy Secre...

Compromise spirit at climate talks in last days
CANCUN, Mexico (AP) - It may not last, but a spirit of Compromise seems to have settled over the annual U.N. Climate Conference as negotiators enter its final days looking for agreements on secondary tools for coping with Global Warming. The open sniping between the U.S. and China that marked periodic talks earlier this year was not in evidence Monday as the second week of the two-week meeting got under way. "There were heated discussions at Copenhagen. Here the atmosphere is relatively mild,"...

More nations may pledge carbon limits at UN talks
Cancun, Mexico — More countries are expected this week to pledge specific actions to limit Carbon Emissions over the next decade, in what would be "very good news" for arduous negotiations on a Climate Change agreement, says host country Mexico. On Monday, newly arrived government ministers begin applying political weight to talks being held in Cancun, as the 193-nation U.N. Climate Conference moves into its decisive final week. The meeting hopes to restore credibility to the talks after ...

Kyoto squabbling turns up the heat at climate talks
CANCUN: World climate talks in Cancun are entering their final stretch beset by fears of a repeat of the failures that nearly wrecked the December 2009 Copenhagen summit. Environment ministers began arriving in the Mexican resort city at the weekend to find themselves plunged into a mood soured by a row over the Kyoto Protocol and a logjam of inter-connected, unresolved issues. After more talks among senior officials, the ministers will get down to a four-day haggle tomorrow. The outcome of the ...

Climate summit in Cancun intent on progress
Cancun, MEXICO - The U.N.-sponsored climate talks, which began here a week ago, entered a new phase Monday, as delegates and high-ranking ministers from nearly 200 countries settled into vast, sunless meeting rooms, intent on restoring the credibility of a process aimed at slowing Global Warming. While last year's climate talks in Copenhagen produced little despite attracting more than 100 heads of state, some experts suggested this wonkish two-week meeting in a resort better known for colleg...

Britain 'needs 20,000 more wind turbines to stick to green targets'
Dramatic plans to erect up to 20,000 wind turbines and put millions of Electric Cars on the roads were unveiled yesterday by the Government’s climate experts. Business guru Lord Turner, chairman of the Committee on Climate Change, said the UK had to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 60 per cent by 2030 to help tackle Global Warming. The costs of switching to green power and transport would be covered by new environmental taxes and higher fuel bills. Experts say the plans will cost around ...

Japan to drop CO2 pledge if no broader climate deal
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan threatened on Friday to drop a pledge to cut greenhouse emissions by 25 percent by 2020 if the Kyoto Protocol is extended without setting emission reduction goals for the United States and China. Developed and developing nations, gathered at a December 7-18 U.N. Climate Conference in Copenhagen, remain deeply divided on emissions cuts and legal details in talks to agree the outline of a pact to extend or replace the existing Kyoto Protocol. Many rich nations, including Ja...

World Bank makes a play for climate finance role
By CAP’s Richard Caperton. Yesterday, a group of multilateral development banks - including the World Bank Group - made the case for their role in managing climate finance.  These banks clearly have the appropriate tools to move the significant amounts of capital called for in the Copenhagen Accord, but there are still questions about their ability to direct that capital to Climate Change mitigation and adaptation. Multilateral development banks - or “MDB’s”

Guarded hope at UN climate talks
The United Nations has pointed to progress in one track of negotiations on Climate Change, but questions persisted on whether the talks in Mexico can take concrete steps toward a new treaty. The 194-nation talks at the Caribbean resort city of Cancun were trying to finalize a general statement on the world's long-term action against climate change as envoys arrived for the main thrust of talks starting Tuesday. But with few expecting a full-fledged climate treaty anytime soon, the UN-led negotia...

Global Warming Stopped...15 Years Ago
How inconvenient: A year ago tomorrow, just before the opening of the UN Copenhagen world climate summit, the British Meteorological Office issued a confident prediction. The mean world temperature for 2010, it announced, 'is expected to be 14.58C, the warmest on record' - a deeply worrying 0.58C above the 19611990 average. World temperatures, it went on, were locked inexorably into an everrising trend: 'Our experimental decadal forecast confirms previous indications that about half the years ...