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881. "Bringing in the Americans?" – Assessing EU And U.S. Post-Kyoto Policies Options towards a Copenhagen Protocol in 2009

Author:
Christian Hald-Mortensen
Publication Date:
08-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
Bringing in the Americans is the first task for the UN-COP-15 for the Danish government along with its EU partners. The key contents of the EU's climate leadership towards the climate conference are assessed, such as the-20% by 2020 reduction target, the effort sharing agreement and reforms of the European Trading Scheme. EU climate leadership is both based on strong public support and economic features such as a lower energy intensity of production than the U.S. The EU and Danish strategy converge in promoting the concept of a "low-carbon economy", based on first-mover advantage exports in renewables technology, such as wind power. The contents of the "Danish example" are assessed; decoupling economic growth and emissions within a "lowcarbon economy"-storyline.
Topic:
Climate Change, Environment, Treaties and Agreements, and United Nations
Political Geography:
United States, America, and Europe

882. Columbia University and the Global Sustainability Challenge

Author:
Rohit T. Aggarwala, Kelly Kleinert, Klaus S. Lackner, and Lionel McIntyre
Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Columbia University World Leaders Forum
Abstract:
President Lee C. Bollinger hosts this World Leaders Forum program featuring a panel discussion on environmental stewardship through Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's PlaNYC initiative, Columbia's contributions to the City's sustainable future, and what role New Yorkers play in the global effort. The program will be followed by a question and answer session with the audience.
Topic:
Climate Change, Education, Environment, and Health
Political Geography:
New York

883. Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen of Denmark

Author:
Anders Fogh Rasmussen
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Columbia University World Leaders Forum
Abstract:
A keynote address by Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen of Denmark, followed by a question and answer session with the audience.
Topic:
Climate Change, Energy Policy, and Oil
Political Geography:
Europe and Denmark

884. President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson of Iceland

Author:
Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Columbia University World Leaders Forum
Abstract:
Clean Energy and Human Capital: Iceland- The Laboratory Small States in Global Development. A keynote address by President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson of Iceland, followed by a question and answer session with the audience.
Topic:
Civil Society, Climate Change, Democratization, and Energy Policy
Political Geography:
Europe and Iceland

885. Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World

Publication Date:
11-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
The international system—as constructed following the Second World War—will be almost unrecognizable by 2025 owing to the rise of emerging powers, a globalizing economy, an historic transfer of relative wealth and economic power from West to East, and the growing influence of nonstate actors. By 2025, the international system will be a global multipolar one with gaps in national power continuing to narrow between developed and developing countries. Concurrent with the shift in power among nation-states, the relative power of various nonstate actors—including businesses, tribes, religious organizations, and criminal networks—is increasing. The players are changing, but so too are the scope and breadth of transnational issues important for continued global prosperity. Potentially slowing global economic growth; aging populations in the developed world; growing energy, food, and water constraints; and worries about climate change will limit and diminish what will still be an historically unprecedented age of prosperity.
Topic:
Climate Change and War

886. Adapting to climate change: What's needed in poor countries, and who should pay

Publication Date:
05-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
There is a deep injustice in the impacts of climate change. Rich countries have caused the problem with many decades of greenhouse-gas emissions (and in the process have grown riche r). But poor countries will be worst affected, facing greater droughts, floods, hunger, and disease.
Topic:
Climate Change, Environment, and International Cooperation

887. Two degrees, one chance: The urgent need to curb global warming

Publication Date:
06-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Today, the observed impacts of global warming are becoming increasingly and rapidly obvious. They take the form of changing seasons, abnormal weather, heat waves, droughts, floods, marked changes in the behaviour of animals and plants. The world's poorest people living in places where the climate is already at its most extreme – such as the Inuit in the Arctic, pastoralist people in northern Kenya and across the Sahel, indigenous people and settlers in the Western Amazon – are already feeling serious impacts upon their lives and livelihoods. These are the communities least responsible for greenhouse gas emissions and who, because of poverty, isolation and political marginalisation, are too often those least equipped to adapt. This is all happening when global average temperatures have not yet exceeded 1°C. Whilst not all of these changes can yet be rigorously attributed to human-induced climate change, they are consistent with what is expected and compel us to take them as warning signs of the first order.
Topic:
Climate Change and Environment

888. Up in smoke? Asia and the Pacific: The threat from climate change to human development and the environment

Publication Date:
11-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
The human drama of climate change will largely be played out in Asia, where over 60 per cent of the world's population, around four billion people, live. Over half of those live near the coast, making them directly vulnerable to sea-level rise. Disruption to the region's water cycle caused by climate change also threatens the security and productivity of the food systems upon which they depend. In acknowledgement, both of the key meetings in 2007 and 2008 to secure a global climate agreement will be in Asia.
Topic:
Climate Change and Environment
Political Geography:
Asia

889. Climate Alarm: Disasters increase as climate change bites

Author:
John Magrath
Publication Date:
11-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Climatic disasters are on the increase as the Earth warms up – in line with scientific observations and computer simulations that model future climate. 2007 has been a year of climatic crises, especially floods, often of an unprecedented nature. They included Africa's worst floods in three decades, unprecedented flooding in Mexico, massive floods in South Asia and heat waves and forest fires in Europe, Australia, and California. By mid November the United Nations had launched 15 'flash appeals', the greatest ever number in one year. All but one were in response to climatic disasters.
Topic:
Climate Change, Development, and Humanitarian Aid
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, California, and Australia

890. Financing adaptation: Why the UN's Bali Climate Conference must mandate the search for new funds

Author:
Charlotte L. Sterrett
Publication Date:
11-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Oxfam estimates that adapting to climate change in developing countries is likely to cost at least $50bn each year, and far more if global greenhouse-gas emissions are not cut fast enough. Yet international funding efforts to date have been woeful. In the year that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued its direst warnings to date of the impacts of climate change on vulnerable developing countries, the rich and high-polluting countries increased their contribution to the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) for urgent adaptation needs by a mere $43m. This brings the total pledged to $163m – less than half of what the UK is investing in cooling the London Underground. Worse, only $67m has actually been delivered to the Fund – that's less than what people in the USA spend on suntan lotion in one month.
Topic:
Climate Change, Environment, and United Nations
Political Geography:
United Kingdom