Today marks the opening of the Cancun talks on Climate Change. They are a follow-up to last year’s Copenhagen discussion which, as everyone knows, did not yield the expected global agreement to effectively reduce greenhouse gases.
A review of media coverage leading up to the Cancun event downplays expectations for any significant breakthroughs during this round. And if nothing substantive comes out of this week-long meeting, it will mark another nail in the coffin of the UN’s attempt to establish a globally binding agreement à la Kyoto Protocol.
The outlook is not improved by the outcome of the US mid-term elections earlier this month, which heralded the arrival in Congress of over 50 new Republican legislators, most of who are deeply skeptical of Climate Change. Given this situation, observers don’t believe any legislative action is possible to regulate US CO2 emissions for at least another 48 months.
However, President Barack Obama’s administration has vowed to use existing regulatory frameworks (mostly centered around the EPA’s authority [Environmental Protection Agency]) to keep pushing for emissions reduction. For now, it seems the Climate Change movements in the US and around the world are pinning their hopes on achieving reductions by focusing on various climate stabilization wedges.
This is where energy poverty alleviation comes into play.
Among the strategies that are likely to be considered to slow global warming are opportunities to reduce black carbon emissions, which, as has been discussed here before, are an important component of global warming and come mostly from the inefficient and incomplete burning of biomass and unimproved diesel engine emissions.
The presence of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves in Cancun is a good indication of the recognition of the role played by inefficient combustion of biomass for domestic energy. You can follow their progress in Cancun on Twitter and Facebook.
We hope that part of the $30 billion so-called “fast-start” funds earmarked for adaptation and emissions reduction in developing countries will find its way to funding clean cookstove, improved charcoal kilns, biochar, and briquette programs in Latin America, Asia, and Africa.
Here is a collection of Cancun-related articles that caught our eyes:
* The New York Times: To Fight Climate Change, Clear the Air
Op-Ed Contributors: VEERABHADRAN RAMANATHAN and DAVID G. VICTOR
Published: November 27, 2010
As the curtain rises tomorrow in Cancún, Mexico, on the next round of international talks on climate change, expectations are low that the delegates will agree on a new treaty to reduce emissions that contribute to global warming. They were unable to do so last year in Copenhagen, and since then the negotiating positions of the biggest countries have grown even further apart. Yet it is still possible to make significant progress. To give these talks their best chance for success, the delegates in Cancún should move beyond their focus on long-term efforts to stop warming and take a few immediate, practical actions that could have a tangible effect on the climate in the coming decades. (Read more. Free, although a subscription is required)
* Financial Times: Climate chiefs warn of limited progress
By Fiona Harvey, Environment Correspondent
Published: November 28 2010 19:57 | Last updated: November 28 2010 19:57
International climate change negotiations resume today at a United Nations meeting in Mexico, but progress is expected to be limited, with ministers hoping merely to “keep the show on the road”.
The UN is hoping to avoid the scenes of chaos and acrimony that marred the end of last year’s climate summit in Copenhagen, in order to keep the negotiating process moving, with the objective of signing a new treaty on global warming next year at a crunch meeting in South Africa.
* Huffington Post: COP 16: Ahead Of Climate Conference In Cancun, Countries Make Individual Efforts To Cut CO2
After last year’s disappointing stalemate in Copenhagen, many feel that international climate change negotiations in Cancun have little chance of yielding a binding agreement. But we prefer to look on the bright side. Participants are hoping for progress on securing aid for developing countries, making technology available to those who need it, and developing a plan to protect forests.
Even with the death of the climate bill here in the U.S. and the European Union’s hemming and hawing on lowering its carbon target, all over the world there are signs of sanity. Even here, with prospects dim for a hostile congress passing climate legislation, there is hope in the form of the EPA.
From stemming deforestation in Brazil, to early bedtimes in Japan, check out what countries are doing to reduce their impact on the environment.
English 
French 