School: it’s all about the future, learning skills and gaining knowledge to broaden our horizons.  This forward-looking focus makes education a perfect place to study sustainability, which is all about protecting our environment and supporting social systems for present and, importantly, future generations.  You’d think that schools would be right on board with the sustainability agenda, but that hasn’t necessarily been the case.  That’s what Mark Orlowski found when he started examining how green and socially responsible college and universities are.  He’s head of the Sustainable Endowments Institute, which issues an annual College Sustainability Report Card.  That’s right, he grades schools!

Orlowski was visiting the region last year before the most recent report card came out, in October, so Sea Change Co-Host Bill Baue invited him into the WMUA studio for a chat, which touched on a range of issues including the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, among many other things.

WMUA is housed in the Campus Center at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst — so we can take an up-close look at how UMass is implementing sustainability.  UMass Amherst earned a C+ in the latest College Sustainability Report Card — with A’s in many campus initiatives counterbalanced by a couple of Fs on the investment side, in endowment transparency and shareholder engagement.

The month before, in September 2009, UMass Amherst hired a recent graduate, Josh Stoffel, as its new Sustainability Coordinator.  For her Sustainable Valley segment on radio station WRSI, Sea Change Co-Host Kelsey Flynn recently interviewed Josh, who described the university’s Energy Conservation Project, which is saving the school over $6 million a year, and its co-generation power plant.  He also discussed the university’s Green Portal.

Kelsey then talks with Montserrat Archbald, a Peer Tutoring Program Staff Assistant at Greenfield Community College.  Along with some of her peers at GCC five years ago, she helped form the Green Campus Committee.  The group is committed to promoting environmental awareness on campus, pursuing sustainable energy and energy saving measures and advocating for green curricula.  Monty (as she’s called) also described the school’s new Renewable Energy/Energy Efficiency degree program.

Finally, on a trip to Columbus, Ohio last year, Bill spoke with Neil Drobny, who teaches sustainability in business at the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University.  He explained how he helped introduce sustainability into the curriculum at OSU, and reflected on the challenges of integrating sustainability into existing MBA programs.

If you found this post interesting, you might want to explore these topics also:
Renewable Energy, sustainable education, sustainable endowments institute

Related Posts

• Village to Reinvent the World – Creating a Sustainable Community (0)
• ViewPoint: Jim Motavalli on Cars and Carbon (0)
• The Transition — to Sustainability (0)
• The Next Generation in Green Jobs and Energy Efficiency (2)
• The Mindful Path to Sustainability (2)

Trolley in Western Massachusetts

In this edition of the Sea Change Radio series Back To The Future, Francesca Rheannon talks with historian Kerry Buckley about the heyday of the trolley system in Massachusetts; rail trail promoter Craig Della Penna talks about how rail trails came about and where they are going; and anthropologist Cathy Stanton talks about how we could reinvent the relationship between cars and other lower carbon means of transportation, like bikes and light rail.

Once upon a time, trains were the main way freight and people got around New England. With peak oil and climate change forcing us to consider alternatives to trucks and cars, rail may be coming into its own again. President Obama is planning to give $8 billion in federal grants  to states for high-speed rail infrastructure. But what about low speed, or light rail, like the network that used to criss-cross Massachusetts and other states until it went down under the twin assaults of the last Great Depression and the advent of the automobile?

Plans are in the works in eastern Massachusetts to develop new commuter rail lines connecting Fall River and New Bedford to Boston and linking Boston to towns in Rhode Island and New Hampshire. But western Massachusetts used to have a vibrant network of its own, as historian Kerry Buckley tells us. He’s director of Historic Northampton Museum and Education Center and a Research Associate in American Studies at Smith College. He says, “legend has it you could get on the trolley in New York for a nickel and go to Boston, just by transferring from one line to the other.”

Around the turn of the nineteenth century and into the early years of the twentieth, the bicycle became an important means of individual transportation. In so doing, it had no small part to play in the development of the automobile. For one thing, it required better roads than the dirt ones horse drawn carriages drove over. And the invention of the pneumatic tire also helped, first being put on bicycles, then on the new invention, the car. The bicycle in America, unlike in other countries, became more of a recreational vehicle than a primary means of transportation. But Craig Della Penna thinks that is beginning to change.

He is a prime mover behind the rail to trails movement in New England. As the region’s field representative for Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, a post he held for eight years, he helped create well over a 1000 miles of rail trails in almost 80 projects around New England.

Della Penna’s own life embodies the transition from rails to trails. He used to work for the railroad, marketing the moving of freight.  But as de-industrialization hit the region, rail began to fall on hard times. Della Penna says the rail lines died and had to be reborn as something else: bicycle trails that could revive neighborhoods and provide a healthy, sustainable means of getting around.

Craig della Penna is the author of four books on rail trails, including GREAT RAIL TRAILS OF THE NORTHEAST and a book about his hometown, Holyoke, MA.He lives right next to the Norwottuck Rail Trail, which links Florence, Massachusetts with Belchertown.

Cathy Stanton is interested in how Americans can move away from a car-dependent culture. An anthropologist among historians, she studies tourism to historical sites; she thinks such sites can give their visitors an idea of a greener way to live. She says train travel as recreation is beginning to come back and that it is opening a way to more interurban light transit for utilitarian purposes.

Stanton teaches at Tufts University. She’s the author of The Lowell Experiment: Public History in a Postindustrial City, among other works.

Back to the Future is a Sea Change Radio series looking at what the past can teach us as we transition to a more sustainable, lower carbon future. The series is funded in part by Mass Humanities, which receives support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and is an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

If you found this post interesting, you might want to explore these topics also:
back to the future, cathy stanton, commuter rail lines, craig della penna, francesca rheannon, kerry buckley, light rail, mass humanities, northampton museum, radio series, rail trails, trolley system, western massachusetts

Related Posts

• Back To The Future: To Market, To Market (0)
• Back to the Future: Reduce, Reuse, Retrofit (2)
• Sea Change Member Thanks (0)
• Back To the Future: Pasture, Local Wheat and Water Power (1)

Caulk and insulation — Bill hadn’t quite realized what a key role these play in helping solve the climate crisis until he edited a report for Ceres late last year on energy efficiency and real estate investors.  At about the same time, he heard about Energia, a new energy efficiency company with a twist: it’s a for-profit, founded by two nonprofits and a consumer cooperative.  And it’s filling in the gap between big companies doing big energy efficiency projects, and smaller companies focusing on single-family homes.  In the middle are multi-family units and smaller businesses that are underserved in the current marketplace for energy efficiency retrofits.

Bill happens to know the new CEO, Tom Rossmassler, who was in his communications course last year at the Marlboro Sustainability MBA program in Vermont.  So he invited Tom to join him and Co-Host Kelsey Flynn for an interview at the WMUA studios in Amherst.  Tom described how Energia fits into the world of energy service companies (or ESCOs), which are most often associated with big outfits like Siemens, Honeywell, or Johnson Controls, which often enter into energy savings performance contracts with big institutions, companies, or municipalities.

Kelsey Flynn also recently profiled the Roots Up Green Jobs program from Nuestras Raices and Co-op Power that Tom mentioned in the interview on her Sustainable Valley segment on WRSI.  Roots Up is a program for low-income students just finishing their GED, who are paid to go to school to learn about energy conservation, energy efficiency, and how to install solar hot water systems.  As part of a larger Holyoke/Springfield grant, Pathways Out of Poverty, the program has received funds to expand the work to include youth from the Springfield area. The program particularly targets youth who have little education or work experience, and few options for getting onto a successful career ladder.

Yamil Brillos and Josh Vargas

Kelsey spoke with Co-op Power founder Lynn Benander, as well as Roots Up participants Yamil Brillos and Josh Vargas.

If you found this post interesting, you might want to explore these topics also:
energy efficiency, energy savings performance contracts, energy service companies, Green Jobs, retrofits, triple bottom line

Related Posts

• ViewPoint: Van Jones–First Victim of Far Right Fight Against Climate Policy? (0)
• Urban Agriculture: Sprouting Farms on Rooftops and Empty Lots (2)
• The Transition — to Sustainability (0)
• The Power of Unreasonable People: John Elkington on Social Entrepreneurs (0)
• The Next Generation in Green Jobs and Energy Efficiency (ReBroadcast) (0)

As this past holiday season was winding down, Bill got a welcome gift in his mailbox: an advance copy of this year’s State of the World Report from the Worldwatch Institute.  When he opened the envelope, he was pleasantly surprised to see the subtitle announcing this year’s theme: transforming cultures from consumerism to sustainability.

This perspective reinforced the conclusions arrived at in a panel discussion entitled Future Scenarios: Energy and Economy that Sea Change Media produced and moderated in September 2009 for Audubon which Shell sponsored.  Two of the panelists identified the key role of cultural change in achieving sustainability as their big takeaway from the event:

“We do need that behavior change, but first comes a mindset change,” said Libby Cheney, Shell’s top executive for sustainability in the Americas.  ”It’s not all about the science, it’s not all about the technology. You have to join art and science together to come up with some of these solutions.”

“I truly believe that we a culture shift,” said Chris Martenson, a Post Carbon Institute Fellow and an economic analyst who created the Crash Course.  ”It requires a vision to be laid out.  We need solutions that go up and down, not left and right.  But I haven’t heard those kinds of statements coming out of the upper levels of our leadership.  The key question is, how do we effect culture change?”

Their sentiments were shared by others, including Audubon Connecticut Executive Director Tom Baptist, who helped host the event in Greenwich.

“It’s nice that you have focused on, among other things, the need for cultural change.”

Choosing cultural change as the focal theme of a State of the World report is very significant, as the choice of theme is no light matter.  Bill has some first-hand perspective on this, as he contributed a chapter on sustainable investing to the 2008 State of the World report, which focused on sustainable economies.  He also came to realize the incredibly broad influence of the State of the World report, as it’s published globally and used in college classrooms around the world.

Before the official unveiling of the book on Tuesday, January 12, Bill and Kelsey spoke with Erik Assoudarian and Gary Gardner. Kelsey began in radio a few years ago when she heard that Rachel Maddow was leaving a local radio station, WRSI, to join Air America – Kelsey immediately applied and filled the slot vacated by Maddow. Now, Kelsey hosts and produces Sustainable Valley on WRSI, focusing on many of the same issues we cover here on Sea Change – so it’s a natural fit for her to step in as Francesca Rheannon steps back to focus on her Writer’s Voice program, while continuing to produce the Back to the Future series for Sea Change.

If you found this post interesting, you might want to explore these topics also:
Audubon, chris martenson, consumerism, culture shift, Erik Assadourian, worldwatch institute

Related Posts

• Market Meltdown (0)
• Lester Brown’s Plan B 3.0 for Mobilizing to Save Civilization (0)
• Economic, Environmental, and Energy Hockey Sticks (0)
• Chris Martenson on Decoupling Growth from Prosperity (Part Two) (0)
• Attend Free Audubon Panel on Energy & Economy (0)

So, what’s the connection between investing and genocide in the first place??  I’m no expert on the ethics of investing but I was intrigued by recent news that TIAA-CREF, the huge retirement fund for teachers and academics, divested its holdings in companies considered complicit with genocide.  Following up on its March 2009 commitment, TIAA-CREF sold all of its holdings in four Asian state-owned oil companies. Its research showed continued complicity in Sudanese genocide at PetroChina, CNPC Hong Kong, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and Sinopec. Financial analysis also showed that divestment would have an insignificant impact on the performance of retirees’ portfolios.

Investors Against Genocide is a non-profit which advocates for investors to divest shares in companies linked to genocide.  IAG successfully campaigned to convince TIAA-CREF to set an example, leading the way to genocide-free investing. The intention is to sever the ties between genocidal regimes and mutual fund portfolios with the goal of drying up the streams of funding that support this abuse of basic human rights.

IAG’s intentions are clear but how realistic are the ultimate goals that the Government of Sudan end its deadly genocide in Darfur and that investment firms avoid investing in genocide? How much of a difference can divestment really make in upholding humanitarian causes??

Share your thoughts in the comments section below, or on our Facebook fan page.

For the Sea Change NewsAnalysis, I’m Tania Haldar Hart.

If you found this post interesting, you might want to explore these topics also:
human rights, Investors Against Genocide, NewsAnalysis, tiaa cref

Related Posts

• ViewPoint: The Looting of Equatorial Guinea (1)
• ViewPoint: EFCA – A Human Rights Imperative (0)
• ViewPoint: Communities Going Sweat-Free (0)
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights Turns 60 (0)
• Trends: Wikis for Human Rights (0)

Oceans cover 71 percent of the Earth’s surface, and contain 97 percent of the planet’s water.  Despite this prevalence, oceans were under-represented in the negotiations at COP15, according to Badenhausen.  While deforestation and carbon capture and storage dominated the sessions, negotiators paid scant attention to the impacts of ocean acidification and the effects of future lost fisheries, Badenhausen said.  Oceans Day sought to address this oversight by gathering fishery and aquaculture scientists from all over the world on December 14 at the European Environment Agency, which helped organize the event.  The event was also organized by the Government of Indonesia, which hosted the World Ocean Conference in May 2009 in Manando.  That meeting produced the Manado Oceans Declaration, signed by 76 governments, which stresses the importance of having oceans on the climate change agenda at COP15 and beyond.

Early in the day, Scripps Institution of Oceanography Director Tony Haymet provided an overview of the impacts of climate change on oceans, coasts, and small island developing states (or SIDS).  The panel he introduced covered ocean warming, sea level rise, extreme weather events, ocean acidification, coastal erosion, polar changes, impacts on fisheries and aquaculture and impacts on marine biodiversity.

Next Susan Avery, Director and President of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, provided an overview of ocean science.  She introduced the notion of an ecosystem approach, a recurring theme throughout the day.

For the Impacts on Fisheries and Aquaculture panel, UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Fisheries Officer Cassandra De Young presented research from this UN organization’s recent report, Climate change implications for fisheries and aquaculture.

Next on this panel, WorldFish Center Policy Director Edward Allison analyzed the economic implications of climate change impacts on oceans.

The Day’s second panel addressed Ocean Acidification, The “Other CO2 Problem.” Scott Doney from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution presented its research on the consequences of ocean acidification on US fisheries valuation, focusing particularly on mollusk aquaculture.

Oceans Day ended with Perspectives from World Leaders – including NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco.  She announced the publication of the Interim Framework for Effective Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning.

Juxtaposing this rosy view on US action to address climate change was European Commission Deputy Director-general of Environment, Karl Falkenberg, who advanced a different angle of US obstructionism in climate negotiations.  Regular listeners will recognize the voice of Falkenberg, as Badenhausen interviewed him in our COP15 wrap-up show.  Here, he presents his view on the significance of oceans in climate negotiations.

Thanks to our COP15 Series Sponsor The Cloud Institute, as well as financial support from The ManKind Project and the Institute for Nature and Leadership, as well as other individuals.

If you found this post interesting, you might want to explore these topics also:
Climate Change, COP15, ecosystem approach, NOAA, ocean acidification, Oceans Day, WHOI

Related Posts

• NewsAnalysis: Obama’s Funny Numbers for Carbon Reductions (1)
• How Everyday Folks World Wide View Climate Change (0)
• Hell Breaks Loose at COP15: “Ambitious Legal Treaty Now!” (0)
• COP15 Wrap-Up: Climate Deniers, Drowning Islands, and Hope after Copenhagen (1)
• COP15 Update: Triple Helix of Climate Solutions (0)

If you found this post interesting, you might want to explore these topics also:
environmental justice, nobel laureate, peace, wangari maathai

Related Posts

• StoryLine: Wangari Maathai and the Fig Tree (0)
• Peace and Environmental Justice Taking Root (1)

The UN Climate Conference, or COP15, ended in the wee hours of Saturday, December 19, resulting in a Copenhagen Accord brokered by a “limited group” of countries.  Critics have slammed the deal for falling short of the commitments needed to curb catastrophic climate change, not to mention its disregard for the legitimate negotiation process by ignoring the voices of those most affected by climate change, such as small island nations.  While many blame US President Barack Obama,  climate journalist Mark Lynas published an eyewitness account of the late-night negotiations in the Guardian in the UK that places blame squarely on China for scuttling the more ambitious elements of the agreement.

Our survey starts at the far right with the deniers and skeptics – in this case, a contingent of six Republicans from the US House of Representatives, who convened a press conference on the last day of the conference.  They led off by citing what’s known as “Climategate,” or the publishing of hacked emails and data from computers at the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in the UK, widely considered the epicenter of climate research.   We hear from Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), senior ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee; Rep. John Sullivan (R-OK); Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), ranking Republican on the House Energy and Environment Sub-Committee; Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), a member of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.

Sea Change Climate Correspondent Cimbria Badenhausen asked the Representatives to go on the record with their stance on the cause of climate change — and its impacts on those most vulnerable.

The Republican Representatives seem to advance a self-contradictory stance.  They vehemently protested the science underlying the conclusion that human-genarated carbon emissions cause climate change, undermining actions such as the Waxman-Markey Climate Bill or the Copenhagen Climate Conference that intended to reduce these emissions.  Then they embrace the idea of carbon reductions that align with their economic visions.  So which is it?  If you can make sense of this, please comment below or on the Sea Change Radio Facebook Fan Page.

Also on the last day of COP15, Tuvalu Prime Minister Apisai Ielemia held a press conference that started with a video documenting the impact of sea level rise on Tuvalu already.  The Prime Minister then gave a scorching assessment of the conference.  Despite that fact that the Copenhagen Accord had not yet been released, he could read the writing on the wall of the proceedings being co-opted by those with more political power.

Finally, Sea Change Climate Correspondent Cimbria Badenhausen spoke with Karl Falkenberg, Deputy Director-general of Environment for the European Commission.  She started by asking him about his ability to speak for those less empowered, and the conversation ended talking about the need to de-carbonize the global economy.

Thanks to our COP15 Series Sponsor The Cloud Institute, as well as financial support from The ManKind Project and the Institute for Nature and Leadership, as well as other individuals.

If you found this post interesting, you might want to explore these topics also:
ACES, Barack Obama, Climate Change, COP15, global warming, Waxman-Markey Climate Bill

Related Posts

• Forecasting Climate Change (1)
• Will Nuclear Power Save Us from Global Warming? (0)
• ViewPoint: Jim Motavalli on Cars and Carbon (0)
• Raj Patel on the Global Food Crisis (0)
• Policy and Business Solutions to Global Warming (0)

Listen to his take on REDD (reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries) and REDD+, as well as on the corporate presence at COP15.  You can also hear a funny story of him standing in line next to Environmental Defense Fund President Fred Krupp outside COP15, and meeting him by tweeting a picture he snapped from his cellphone, thereby connecting electronically.  Unfortunately, we didn’t discuss the carbon footprint of this method, compared to just introducing himself in person!

Thanks to our COP15 Series Sponsor The Cloud Institute, as well as financial support from The ManKind Project and the Institute for Nature and Leadership, as well as other individuals.

If you found this post interesting, you might want to explore these topics also:
carbon footprint, COP15, Don Carli

Related Posts

• Support Sea Change Radio to Cover COP15 (0)
• NewsAnalysis: Obama’s Funny Numbers for Carbon Reductions (1)
• NewsAnalysis: A Tale of Two Treaties? (0)
• NewsAnalysis: Obama Is Showing Up in Copenhagen — But Will He Step Up to Climate Leadership? (0)
• How Everyday Folks World Wide View Climate Change (0)

Welcome to the third episode in our Sea Change series, Back to the Future.  Green architect Betsy Pettit talks about retrofits and what older building methods can teach us about saving energy. And John Grossman of ReStore tells us about re-using salvaged building materials.

Each month, our six-part series looks at what we can learn from the past, when we used far less fossil fuels than we do today. We explore practices we can adapt as we move toward a lower carbon future. Last month, we looked at the revival of a locally based food system in western Massachusetts. This month we look at using old style Yankee frugality in building homes — and adapting existing houses — to save energy and reduce our carbon footprint.

In the U.S., buildings are responsible for between 48 and 80 percent of all carbon emissions, depending on what you include in the numbers. Single-family homes account for a significant portion today — but they used to use a lot less energy. Green architect Betsy Pettit says homes built in the early years of the last century can teach us a lot about using less energy for cooling and lighting — and even heating. She retrofitted her circa 1916 Sears Kit house to make its carbon footprint tiny — nearly zero net energy.

Pettit plies her trade with Building Science Corporation in Boston. She’ll be chairing this year’s Building Energy Conference put on by the NorthEast Sustainable Energy Association, or NESEA.

The ReStore in Springfield was founded eight years ago by the Center for Ecological Technology in Northampton, MA.. It takes salvaged materials and surplus stock from the building industry and sells them to the public at low prices, thereby keeping good used stuff out of landfills. The ReStore crew will take a house apart, piece by piece, including one from the 1700s, that used to sit in Rutland, Massachusetts.

When you go to the ReStore, you’ll find everything from claw foot tubs to spas, doors, windows, heaps of old lumber, radiators of various vintages, tub surrounds and marble countertops outside. Inside, you can find entire kitchen cabinet sets, including a cherry one on the day Sea Change host Francesca Rheannon visited that looked like it had been pulled from a 1940s mansion. There are lamps hanging from every inch of ceiling space, and everything else for the home from drawer pulls to wiring.  Manager John Grossman took Sea Change on a tour.

If you found this post interesting, you might want to explore these topics also:
back to the future, carbon emissions, carbon footprint, mass humanities, northeast sustainable energy association, retrofits, zero net energy

Related Posts

• Back To The Future: To Market, To Market (0)
• Back To The Future: Getting Around On Rails and Trails (0)
• The Next Generation in Green Jobs and Energy Efficiency (ReBroadcast) (0)
• NewsAnalysis: A Tale of Two Treaties? (0)
• Hell Breaks Loose at COP15: “Ambitious Legal Treaty Now!” (0)

“All countries have a responsibility but the historically responsible countries are the ones we focus on,” Gregoire told Sea Change Radio Climate Correspondent Cimbria Badenhausen. “The developed countries have not met their responsibilities.” Another goal of the amendments is to create a treaty that will keep the small island states from drowning beneath rising sea levels due to climate change. Already, island populations are becoming climate refugees; for example, Tuvalu residents consider migration to Australia, and Maldivians are moving to islands at higher elevation, according to Gregoire.  Another problem for island nations is fisheries moving to warmer waters. Gregoire stated that AOSIS felt “emphatically”  that temperatures must rise no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, “no warmer than 1.5 because our corals will all disappear. Two degrees, our corals are dead.”

Cimbria asked Gregoire about what it means for heads of state to attend this climate conference. She pointed out that this is the first time heads of state have joined the negotiation, and wanted to know how this will be handled. Gregoire explained, “ultimately the negotiators are working for the policy makers, they get their instructions from the political directories. The fact that the leaders are coming is unprecedented because never before have at the highest level taken so much interest in this. It’s because every single country is affected. The leaders, especially those coming from the developing countries, have come in to be sure that there are commitments, whether they are legally binding or not, but they are commitments, to help them with two things: one, how to adapt, which takes money, and what is the technology commitment that countries who have the technology, are they willing to transfer it, and I think there is a great willingness on the part of the countries with the technology. The question is, how is that technology going to be financed.”

Thanks to our COP15 Series Sponsor The Cloud Institute, as well as financial support from The ManKind Project and the Institute for Nature and Leadership, as well as other individuals.

If you found this post interesting, you might want to explore these topics also:
Climate Change, COP15, kyoto protocol, tuvalu proposal

Related Posts

• NewsAnalysis: Obama’s Funny Numbers for Carbon Reductions (1)
• How Everyday Folks World Wide View Climate Change (0)
• Hell Breaks Loose at COP15: “Ambitious Legal Treaty Now!” (0)
• COP15 Dispatch: Leaked “Danish Text” Exposes Developing Divide in Copenhagen (2)
• The Future of Climate Policy (0)

From the floor of the UN Climate Conference deliberations in Copenhagen, Sea Change Radio Climate Correspondent Cimbria Badenhausen recorded this heated exchange between COP15 President Connie Hedegaard of Denmark and Tuvalu Delegate Ian Fry over whether to immediately consider the Tuvalu Proposal to amend the Kyoto Protocol.  Give it a listen.

Thanks to our COP15 Series Sponsor The Cloud Institute, as well as financial support from The ManKind Project and the Institute for Nature and Leadership, as well as other individuals.

If you found this post interesting, you might want to explore these topics also:
connie hedegaard, COP15, tuvalu proposal

Related Posts

• COP15 Dispatch: Will Developed Countries Pay Their Due? (2)
• Support Sea Change Radio to Cover COP15 (0)
• NewsAnalysis: Obama’s Funny Numbers for Carbon Reductions (1)
• NewsAnalysis: A Tale of Two Treaties? (0)
• NewsAnalysis: Obama Is Showing Up in Copenhagen — But Will He Step Up to Climate Leadership? (0)

The World Wide Web was abuzz with news of the so-called “Danish text” leaked by the Guardian in the UK, drafted in secret by developed countries such as the US, UK, and Denmark.  The text generated significant controversy by proposing carbon emissions limits for people in poor countries almost half of the allowances for rich country residents: 1.44 tonnes for poorer folks, 2.67 tonnes for richer folks.  In a press conference on Wednesday, Lumumba Stanislas Dia Ping, the Sudanese head of the G77 group of developing nations, condemned the draft treaty for being written outside the official protocols of the United Nations Framework Convention of Climate Change, or UNFCCC – among many other affronts.

For the afternoon sessions, UNFCCC officials called for the negotiations to continue behind closed doors, allowing only delegates and official observers in, and barring all others – including press. A guard allowed our Climate Correspondent back in to retrieve her belongings, where she recorded the official explanation by COP15 President Connie Hedegaard of Denmark.  She explained that that the UNFCCC was not at that time accepting the Tuvalu Proposal.

As this news filtered out of the meeting rooms, tensions erupted in the halls, where 350.org members and developing nation supporters rallied behind the Tuvalu Proposal.  Protesters shouted slogans:

• “They all exist,” referring to those living in developing countries;
• “350,” the number representing the upper limit of acceptable atmospheric carbon concentration, according to an increasing scientific consensus;
• “Survival – Tu-va-lu,” a rallying cry for the fate of island nations with unchecked climate change leading to sea level rise;
• “Annex One Stand Up,” urging the 37 industrialized countries to set significant emissions reductions goals;
• “Open Plenary,” calling for an end to closed-door negotiations;
• And “Ambitious Legal Treaty Now,” a cry of support for the Tuvalu Proposal.

However, not all developing countries support the Tuvalu Proposal.  The biggest – and richest – of these countries oppose the measure.  This divide within developing countries is not altogether new.  In negotiations earlier in the day on carbon capture and storage – or the practice of trapping carbon dioxide and sequestering it underground and elsewhere – developing countries split on their support for CCS.  At the session, Brazil, Granada, and Jamaica all spoke out against CCS, while Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and Nigeria all favor CCS, in allegiance with developed countries such as Australia and Japan.  The show includes the blow-by-blow account.  But don’t let the dry UN tone fool you – this is high drama, with the fate of our climate hanging in the balance.

After these deliberations – and before the protests erupted – Cimbria and Bill got a chance to chat about developments up until the middle of Wednesday.  The day before, much attention had been paid to REDD, or “reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries.”  According to delegates from Bangladesh, Brazil, the Philippines, and Sierra Leone, forests store more than carbon; they also hold historical, cultural, and biological value, as well as ownership and tenure rights.  These delegates focused on the importance of indigenous peoples’ voices informing the development of REDD policies, as well as in deliberations on many other issues, according to Cimbria.

Sea Change Media, the nonprofit that produces Sea Change Radio, just launched its own separate website.  Sea Change Media recently produced a panel discussion entitled Future Scenarios: Energy & Economy that Audubon hosted and Shell sponsored.  These discussions focused extensively on COP15  To watch the videos of the presentations and hear the fascinating question and answer session, check out the Audubon page on SeaChangeMedia.org.

Thanks to our COP15 Series Sponsor The Cloud Institute, as well as financial support from The ManKind Project and the Institute for Nature and Leadership, as well as other individuals.

If you found this post interesting, you might want to explore these topics also:
350.org, carbon emissions, Climate Change, COP15, danish text, developing nations, kyoto protocol, United Nations

Related Posts

• COP15 Dispatch: Leaked “Danish Text” Exposes Developing Divide in Copenhagen (2)
• NewsAnalysis: Obama’s Funny Numbers for Carbon Reductions (1)
• NewsAnalysis: A Tale of Two Treaties? (0)
• How Everyday Folks World Wide View Climate Change (0)
• COP15 Dispatch: Will Developed Countries Pay Their Due? (2)

The Guardian leak of the so-called “Danish text” threw the UN Climate Conference (COP15) into “disarray,” with developing countries “furious” at developed countries such as the US, UK, and Denmark for secretly drafting a framework agreement dated November 27. Among other affronts, the draft document would allow developed countries to emit almost twice as much carbon per person (2.67 tonnes) than developing countries (1.44 tonnes). Sudan’s Lumumba Stanislas Dia Ping, head of the G77 group of developing countries, said the Danish text is a “serious violation that threatens the success of the Copenhagen negotiating process.

“The G77 members will not walk out of this negotiation at this late hour because we can’t afford a failure in Copenhagen,” he added, referring to the Barcelona Climate Conference in early November when over 50 African nations walked out of negotiations over low carbon cut commitments from developing nations. “However, we will not sign an unequitable deal. We can’t accept a deal that condemns 80 percent of the world population to further suffering and injustice.”

This news amplifies a long-standing tension in climate negotiations between the richer nations of the global north and the poorer southern nations that predates the Kyoto Protocol fixing on market mechanisms such as carbon trading to solve climate change. This divide is palpable at COP15, according to Sea Change Radio Climate Correspondent Cimbria Badenhausen, who is on the ground there.

On Monday’s opening session of the Klimatforum, the alternative to COP15 (akin to the World Social Forum alternative to the World Economic Forum), Via Campesina (International Peasant Movement) General Coordinator Henry Saragih said that its members are angry at agribusiness, increasing poverty, and destroying forests.

The fate of forests is a significant focus at COP15, where “reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries” (REDD) was on the day two agenda. Delegates from Bangladesh, Brazil, the Philippines, and Sierra Leone stressed the importance of indigenous peoples’ voices informing the development of REDD policies, according to Badenhausen. Forests store more than carbon; they also hold historical, cultural, and biological value, as well as ownership and tenure rights. “Now is a crucial moment – we must put in a political framework to enable full participation of indigenous peoples, ensuring traditional knowledge is integrated into monitoring and reporting on REDD,” stated a representative from the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change at COP15.

The Brazilian delegate stressed the need to generate significant financial support for REDD to protect the Amazonian environmental system, which is very sensitive and vulnerable. And there’s the rub: funding. It’s also a sticking point in the Danish text, which floats the amount of $10 billion a year to help poor countries adapt to climate change from 2010 to 2012 – a pittance compared to calls from civil society.

“The Danish proposal falls far short of emissions cuts needed, and remains vague on the climate cash. We need a strong deal that delivers the $200 billion in new money every year that poor countries need to adapt to a changing climate and reduce their emissions and sharp emissions reductions from rich countries,” said Oxfam Climate Advisor Antonio Hill. He also pointed to an alternative draft on the table. “The proposal from China and other emerging economies offers a more balanced vision of a deal – but also needs significant work if it is going to serve the needs of the world’s poorest people and prevent a climate catastrophe.”

Thanks to our COP15 Series Sponsor The Cloud Institute, as well as financial support from The ManKind Project and the Institute for Nature and Leadership, as well as other individuals.

If you found this post interesting, you might want to explore these topics also:
carbon trading, Climate Change, COP15, danish text, kyoto protocol

Related Posts

• Hell Breaks Loose at COP15: “Ambitious Legal Treaty Now!” (0)
• NewsAnalysis: Obama’s Funny Numbers for Carbon Reductions (1)
• How Everyday Folks World Wide View Climate Change (0)
• COP15 Dispatch: Will Developed Countries Pay Their Due? (2)
• The Future of Climate Policy (0)

The US Chamber of Commerce’s controversial position on climate legislation highlights the key role such business intermediaries (or BINGOs in UN-speak – Business and Industry NGOs) play in devising climate policy.  Other BINGOs, such as the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Commission on Environment and Energy, focus on how business and industry can help solve the climate crisis.Recognizing the importance of companies as primary implementers of climate policy, the UN has formalized the process of “interventions” – brief prepared statements that BINGOs such as ICC can deliver on the negotiating floor as input for developing policy at COP15.  These interventions come in two flavors: general business and industry interventions, and interventions geared to specific expertise or agenda items.

“The BINGO process is extremely interesting and an important piece of the puzzle,” UN Environment Programme Special Adviser on Energy & Climate Claire Boasson told Sea Change Radio Climate Correspondent Cimbria Badenhausen.  Indeed, as the distinction between the US and International Chambers of Commerce shows, the influence of BINGOs covers a broad spectrum, from potentially gaming the system to playing a constructive role in achieving an actionable climate agreement.  The next two weeks will spell out which direction the scales tip.

Thanks to our COP15 Series Sponsor The Cloud Institute, as well as financial support from The ManKind Project and the Institute for Nature and Leadership, as well as other individuals.

If you found this post interesting, you might want to explore these topics also:
Climate Change, climate policy, COP15, international chambers of commerce, us chamber of commerce

Related Posts

• The Transition — to Sustainability (0)
• The Future of Climate Policy (0)
• NewsAnalysis: Obama’s Funny Numbers for Carbon Reductions (1)
• How Everyday Folks World Wide View Climate Change (0)
• Hell Breaks Loose at COP15: “Ambitious Legal Treaty Now!” (0)