Posted on 01/29/2010 3:40:29 PM PST by NormsRevenge
PARIS (AFP) After the near-train wreck of last month's Copenhagen climate summit, what lies ahead for efforts to beat back global warming?
Next week may yield the first clues.
Countries are being asked to say by Sunday whether they will endorse an 11th-hour deal, the "Copenhagen Accord," which saved the marathon meeting from collapse but sparked accusations of failure and betrayal.
By week's end, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will have a picture of the response, its officials say.
What emerges will be a litmus test of the Accord's credibility and whether a comprehensive and binding climate pact can be reached by year's end.
And, from there, flow more complex questions. Can the United Nations be revived as the forum for a climate treaty? Or will it play second fiddle to a smaller group of nations led by major carbon polluters?
The Copenhagen Accord calls for limiting warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), the threshold set by many climate scientists.
The agreement also commits rich countries to paying out around 30 billion dollars in total over the next three years, and 100 billion dollars annually by 2020, to help poor nations fight climate change and cope with its consequences.
The 194 UNFCCC signatories have the option of specifying what actions -- voluntary or otherwise -- they envisage for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Osama bin Laden's foray into climate change has sparked a lively guessing
game on Twitter as to what subject the Al-Qaeda chief, seen here in this
undated file photo, may choose to address on his next tape. (AFP/File)
US President Barack Obama speaks during a town hall meeting in Elyria, Ohio on January 22. Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden lectured the US and other industrial nations on climate change, and urged a dollar boycott in response to American "slavery," in a fresh verbal assault. (AFP/File/Saul Loeb)
Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, covers his eyes as he attends a news conference at the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 in Copenhagen in this December 19, 2009 file photo. So far, wind turbines are not Sputnik. But one day they could be. The global race to develop clean technology is not just about who can build the best solar parks or wind farms. It is also shaping up as a contest between Chinese-style capitalism and the more market-oriented approach fancied by the United States and Europe. To match special report DAVOS/GREEN REUTERS/Ints Kalnins/Files (DENMARK - Tags: POLITICS ENVIRONMENT BUSINESS ENERGY)
It’s dead, Jim...let it go.
“what lies ahead for efforts to beat back global warming”
Marlowe must live in a cave.
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