Chinese premier: Will honor climate commitments

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has defended his country's climate commitments at the U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen, saying "we will honor our word with real action."
Wen says China's voluntary targets of reducing its carbon intensity by 40 to 45 percent will require "tremendous efforts."
He spoke after a meeting with President Barack Obama and 19 other world leaders.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091218/ap_on_sc/climate

Zenawi's African Group statement to COP15

Allow me to first of all thank our gracious hosts, the people and government of Denmark for the warm reception we have enjoyed since our arrival and for the excellent facilities put at our disposal. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our overworked and under appreciated experts and ministers who have, through their dedication and hard work, kept the hope of a global treaty on climate change alive.
Global warming is happening. The rise of catastrophic climate change is very real. The science is as clear as it could ever be as to what the causes of such change are. It is no exaggeration to say that this is our best and perhaps our last chance to save our planet from destructive and unpredictable change. This is a test as to whether we as a global community are able to rise over our parochial interests to protect our common destiny.
http://www.africaclimatesolution.org/news.php?id=6133

Copenhagen summit: Fighting for survival

Does the human race deserve to survive? It has been a tempting question to ask this week, as the talks designed to prevent the rise in the planet's temperature developing into a life-threatening fever ground to a standstill over what were – on the face of it – arcane procedural issues. The middle of the final week of the Copenhagen conference was characterised by blame games rather than dialogue, as negotiators engaged in a stale standoff about the rules for writing the first draft of the text to haggle over. By yesterday morning almost all hopes of a deal had been scuppered, but by the afternoon – as ever more leaders arrived – meaningful conversations were once again taking place.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/dec/18/copenhagen-summit-climate-change

Copenhagen - final day live blog

On the final day of the summit world leaders are still trying to thrash out a last minute compromise climate deal, but will it be worth it? The emissions cuts offered so far would still lead to a 3C rise in global temperatures, according to leaked UN analysis.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2009/dec/18/copenhagen-climate-change-summit-liveblog

Leadership needed

Copenhagen offers the prospect of a robust political deal, endorsed by the world’s leaders and witnessed by the world’s people, that sets out clear targets and a timeline for translating it into law. To be a truly historic achievement, such a deal must do two things. First, it must lay the basis for a global regime and subsequent agreements that limit global temperature rise in accordance with the scientific evidence. Second, it must provide clarity on the mobilization and volume of financial resources to support developing countries to adapt to climate change. The stakes are enormous. Economic growth has been achieved at great environmental and social cost, aggravating inequality and human vulnerability.
http://www.businessdayonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6647:leadership-needed&catid=138:commentary&Itemid=358

Copenhagen: World leaders 'face public fury' if agreement proves impossible

World leaders arriving at the Copenhagen climate change summit today and tomorrow face public "fury" if they fail to inject crucial new momentum into the talks, according to climate secretary Ed Miliband.
Talks resumed late last night following many hours of delay as negotiators wrangled over the form a treaty to fight global warming should take. "People will find it extraordinary that this conference is being stalled on points of order," said Miliband. "People will be rightly furious if agreement is not possible."
The row centres on the draft treaty texts the Danish presidency of the summit must produce for leaders to finalise and whether they end the existing Kyoto protocol, signed in 1997. Rich nations want a new treaty to reflect a much-changed world economic order, while poorer nations insist the legal demands Kyoto makes on industrialised polluters must be preserved.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/17/copenhagen-climate-change-ed-miliband

Africa not prepared to accept empty words in Copenhagen: Ethiopian PM

Africa is not prepared to accept empty words and agreements that undermine its fundamental interest, state media reported Wednesday, citing Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
"Africa loses more than most if there is no agreement on climate change," the official Ethiopian News Agency quoted Meles as saying at the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit.
"We are determined to make sure that in Copenhagen we will have an agreement that all of us, Africa included, are happy with," he declared.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/17/content_12658854.htm

Odds against Africa’s united bid for carbon justice

Only a day before the curtains fall on the two-week UN climate talks in Copenhagen, Africa seems certain to come out empty-handed.

Despite a rare show of force and unity in any global negotiations, Africa, together with other developing countries, is at the precipice of seeing her efforts evaporate into thin air.
Over 45,000 delegates have converged in the Danish capital, hoping to strike a new deal to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol which comes to an end in 2012, but so far the talks have been an anti-climax.
Developed countries are doing everything to prematurely end the Kyoto Protocol which requires 37 of them, excluding the US, to cut down on their carbon emissions while sparing the developing nations such a requirement.
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/824086/-/vo4cdm/-/

I'm Laughing Not to Cry, Says Brazil's Lula After Failed Last-Minute COP-15 Meeting

I'm laughing to keep from crying," was the reaction of Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva after leaving the meeting with major stakeholders in the carrying out of a climate agreement at the COP-15, the UN Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen.
Asked by reporters what had happened during the meeting he merely responded: "I will not talk about it now."
The so-called COP-15's "rescue operation" was interrupted this Friday, December 18, around 1:40 am local time and the heads of state taking part in the encounter went to their hotels to have a little sleep.
http://www.brazzilmag.com/content/view/11583/1/

CLIMATE CHANGE DOUBTERS ARE DISHONEST SAYS BROWN

GORDON BROWN yesterday branded global warming doubters “dishonest” in a desperate attempt to stop the collapse of climate change talks in Copenhagen.
In a rallying cry to the United Nations summit, the Prime Minister called for “a new alliance for the preservation of our planet”.
But his plea for cooperation appeared to make little impression as world leaders struggled to reach an agreement.

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/146662/Climate-change-doubters-are-dishonest-says-Brown

Efficiency the key to ‘greening’ Kenya

Green energy should be viewed as an economic necessity for Kenya, not an effort to appease Copenhagen.
As long as Kenya remains a net importer of oil with a huge fraction of electricity generation based on fuel, and as long as this imported oil remains expensive, Kenya has an economic incentive to emphasize measures that reduce its oil intake.
This can come about through conversion to non-petroleum energy and through efficiency measures that reduce oil intake.
The lead times for the planned green electricity projects (Geothermal, etc) are said to be long and we are likely to remain incrementally dependent on oil generated electricity for a long time to come.
http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Opinion%20&%20Analysis/-/539548/818944/-/sxgm76z/-/index.html

Despite its challenges, climate change opens a window for economic growth

As leaders from around the world continue their deliberations in Copenhagen, they do so against the background of one of the most profound economic crises of our times.
What we have been experiencing is a fundamental reset of the global economy and the dismantling of an economic model that has been proven to be unsustainable.
What seems incredible to many people is the fact that the intensity of this crisis was not widely foreseen or predicted. ‘Hindsight is indeed a great master’.
http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Opinion%20&%20Analysis/-/539548/824504/-/swwxswz/-/index.html

Forests are part of the solution

Many delegates at the Copenhagen Climate Change conference hope that reforestation, reduced deforestation and forest degradation (popularly known as REDD +) will be incorporated into the agreement that comes out of Copenhagen and help restore, conserve and protect forests of the world.
Forests are important because science informs that almost 17- 20 per cent of greenhouse gases (ghs) especially CO2, come from deforestation and forest degradation.
Delegates hope that they can agree that temperatures should not be allowed to rise by more than 1.5 C.
There seems to be a consensus that forests be part of the solutions to climate change.
But forests are important to us for many other reasons besides carbon.
For example, forests generate essential environmental goods and services such as water, food, fuel, income and medicine.
In Africa, poverty is one of the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation.
http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Opinion%20&%20Analysis/-/539548/823860/-/swxkmiz/-/

Thugs in Copenhagen

One of the reasons some Americans become wary of the United Nations is that it gives a platform to obnoxious bores, several of whom have taken the podium this week at the UN climate-change conference in Copenhagen . Among them was Hugo Chavez , who paraphrased Marx in assigning blame for climate change: "A ghost is stalking the streets of Copenhagen...it's capitalism, capitalism is that ghost." That's from the leader of a country whose economy is based largely on the export of particularly dirty oil. Awkward.
"The destructive model of capitalism is the eradication of life," Chavez also said. Tell that to the millions of Chinese that Mao killed in the fight against capitalism, or the millions more recently pulled out of poverty because of market-liberalizing reforms.
Even worse was the performance of Zimbabwean strongman Robert Mugabe. "When these capitalist gods of carbon burp and belch their dangerous emissions, it's we, the lesser mortals of the developing sphere who gasp and sink and eventually die." Zimbabwe, of course, used to be one of the most developed countries in Africa -- until Mugabe's thugs pillaged the economy and tortured the population.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2009/12/thugs_in_copenhagen.html

Copenhagen: Desperately seeking a strong deal

Will Friday be the day that politicians in Copenhagen save humanity, an Africa delegate asked on Thursday night. At the beginning of the last day of climate-change talks in Copenhagen, analysts at the conference believed a strong deal at this stage was merely pie in the sky and a new Climategate questioned the political will of leaders.On Thursday there were signs of progress, although this was smaller than baby steps. Many delegates were still holding out for a strong political agreement in the absence of a legally binding one, but there were fears that the world could end up with a "greenwashed" deal.
http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-12-18-copenhagen-desperately-seeking-a-strong-deal