E&E tracks work on a post-Kyoto agreement for curbing emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases -- from 2007 U.N. talks in Bali to the December 2009 summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, and beyond.
E&E tracks efforts on Capitol Hill to pass cap-and-trade legislation, as well as the prospect of U.S. EPA greenhouse gas regulations. Click here to view the report.
Alstom's McNaughton discusses prospects for emissions regulation in U.S. (OnPoint, 02/24/2010)
State Department's Jonathan Pershing discusses path forward on international climate agreement. (Event Coverage, 01/14/2010)
World Resources Institute's Robert Bradley discusses the year ahead for international climate talks. (OnPoint, 01/07/2010)
SALT LAKE CITY -- Policymakers should abandon the notion that a binding international agreement will be the primary tool for curbing greenhouse gas emissions, a former New York Times climate reporter told an environmental law conference here yesterday.
Andrew Revkin, who left the Times last year and is now a fellow at Pace University's Academy for Applied Environmental Studies, said regulations probably aren't the best way to address global warming. But he cautioned that he was not advocating tearing up the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Current international treaties are not adequately equipped to govern large-scale climate geoengineering efforts, like sprinkling the atmosphere with aerosols or installing giant mirrors in space, the head of the British Parliament's Science and Technology Committee told his U.S. counterpart yesterday.
"International agreements are not always easy for non-controversial issues. Climate change, which is a controversial issue because of the impact that mitigation efforts might have on our economies, has proven very difficult to get international agreement on," said Phil Willis, chairman of the U.K. Parliament Science and Technology Committee. "I cannot see how geoengineering would be any easier. But that should not be a reason to back off."
Climate change's melting effect on Arctic sea ice is creating new opportunities for the United States and its northern neighbors as access to the region's vast energy reserves grows, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said yesterday. More oil and gas tankers will one day be able to regularly navigate the Arctic Ocean, cutting time and fuel from their current routes through the pirate-exposed Gulf of Aden between Somalia and Yemen, Murkowski told a group of elected officials from the world's Arctic nations.
BARENDRECHT, Netherlands -- Everything seemed set for the first large Dutch experiment in carbon capture and storage (CCS) last year. The engineering seemed simple enough, piping 800,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from a Royal Dutch Shell PLC oil refinery in Rotterdam 15 miles to this middle-class suburb (population 50,000). Here, it would be pumped deep underground into an empty natural gas reservoir.
| The meandering road to a global climate deal | |
| Year, Location | Event |
| 1992, Rio de Janeiro | Negotiations start with completion of U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Countries agree to voluntarily reduce emissions with "common but differentiated responsibilities." |
| 1995, Berlin | The first annual Conference of the Parties to the framework, known as a "COP." Sets up a two-year negotiation schedule. U.S. agrees to exempt developing countries from binding obligations. |
| 1997, Kyoto | COP-3 diplomats approve the Kyoto Protocol. Mandates developed countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions. U.S. is required to cut total emissions 7 percent below 1990 levels. |
| 1998, Buenos Aires | COP-4 sets two-year plan for Kyoto implementation in 2000. |
| 2000, The Hague | Outgoing Clinton administration and Europeans differ on some COP-6 terms. Talks collapse. |
| 2001, Bonn | An extended session of the COP-6 talks sets up terms for compliance and adaptation, but the Bush administration rejects a treaty, claiming it is "flawed." |
| 2004, Buenos Aires | U.S. blocks formal negotiations on post-Kyoto treaty. COP-10 diplomats try informal talks. |
| 2007, Bali | COP-13 diplomats approve schedule for post-Kyoto negotiations to end in 2009. This time, as presidential candidates warm to the subject of climate change, U.S. agrees. |
| 2009, Copenhagen | President Obama and small group of world leaders produce the Copenhagen Accord, where countries will make promises to cut carbon emission but with key decisions still remaining on how they will follow through. Also calls for the immediate launch of a forest carbon market and a "mechanism" to help countries develop and deploy clean energy technology. And launches new flow of money -- $100 billion annually by 2020 -- never before mobilized for poor countries to cope with climate disasters and develop clean-energy economies. |
| Timeline by Darren Samuelsohn and John Fialka. Last updated Jan. 12, 2010. | |
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