Climate Progress

The opening plenary was fascinating (video here). Clinton explained how CGI commitments had already avoided 20,000,000 tons of greenhouse gases. Then he tried to get Robert Zoellick, head of the World Bank, to realize that the “Bank can show people options for sustainable development.”

Zoellick, however, was full of little more than platitudes, saying we need to address “questions of adaptation and mitigation,” and noting that there is a sensitivity in the developing world that climate change funds will come at the expense of development — totally missing Clinton’s point that green development is the only winning path (and Gore’s point that global warming, left unchecked, will negate all other efforts aimed at development).

Clinton, however, persisted, especially after H. Lee Scott, CEO of Wal-Mart touted his various successes:

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My wife insisted that I go to the Angelina Jolie press conference — even though AJ was focused on educating one million children affected by conflict, and not global warming. Fortunately, CGI had a wireless feed from all the working sessions, so I was able to get all the camera phone pix of AJ while I didn’t miss the woman I really wanted to hear, Jane Goodall.

I will say this for AJ — she is very serious about her work with refugees. And even with two hundred press crammed into this room for her, and photographers literally crawling over each other for photos — especially whenever she brushed her hair back — she very graciously brought many of the country experts into the Q&A.

Jane Goodall was full of quiet passion, as always. If anyone is a “must hear,” she is (here she is speaking at Google). She has devoted her name and her sober wisdom to Forests Now, whose declaration is “Forests Now in the Fight against Climate Change.”

Jane spoke with great eloquence about global warming and the need to save our tropical forests, not just because of the carbon they contain, but also the biodiversity–”I want children to hear the wonderful voice of chimpanzees” and then she imitated the call of her beloved primate. She pointed out that “orangutans, one of our closest living relatives, are hanging by a thread.” She poignantly quoted a native of the Arctic:

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Don’t miss the World Resources Institute’s most recent comparison of climate legislation in the 100th Congress. Below is the basic image (here’s one larger), but visit the website for details.

Brad turns out to be as serious (on climate) as he is good looking. He came to the first CGI as an observer, not a speaker. But today he announced a major commitment:

Brad Pitt expanded his commitment to New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward today by announcing plans for a new community of homes in the area hardest-hit by the worst natural disaster in American history. He is partnering with Steve Bing in creating the 150 affordable and sustainable homes, which are the first effort of Pitt’s “Make it Right” project.

Pitt announced his plan at today’s meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative, where he challenged attendees to join him and Bing in rebuilding the Lower Ninth Ward. Pitt pledged to match $5 million in contributions to the project. Bing has pledged to match $5 million in contributions as well, for a total of $10,000,000 in matching funds.

Pitt seems genuinely committeed to these issues. He said, it was “nice to be in a room with people who are not still debating climate change.” He has enlisted William McDonough to make sure the housing is as green as possible:
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You can follow along on CGI here.

At the end of their recent climate report, Lehman Brothers has one of the best brief discussions of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) that I have seen. Since the EU ETS is often viewed in this country as a failure, I thought I would reprint their somewhat different perspective in its entirety:

The EU ETS, which came into effect in January 2005, was constructed on the basic premise that setting emission caps and allowing them to be freely traded would enable companies to seek emission reductions wherever and however it was cheapest to do so. It is the world’s most ambitious cap-and-trade scheme to date, covering 25 countries, each with authority to issue emission allowances. The sectors included in Phase I (2005-07) are: power generation; ferrous metal production and processing; chemical processes; mineral industry; and pulp, paper and board. These account for approximately 45% of EU CO2 emissions. In its very first year of operation, the value of allowances issued across the EU reached more than €60bn126.

Phase II (2008-12) expands the scope of the market to cover all greenhouse gases and adds further sectors, including aviation. And Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland will all join, even though they are not EU member states. Some economists have dubbed the EU ETS as “… by far the most significant accomplishment in climate policy to date.”

Has the EU ETS achieved its mission?

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An Inconvenient Truth is so last year! Al Gore’s book may have been #1 in 2006, but the global warming deniers and delayers are outselling everyone this year.

Of course, Bjørn Lomborg’s collection of cherry-picked misinformation, Cool It, is the top-selling book in four categories: Climatology, Climate Changes, Public Policy, and even Conservation.

But who knew that the top book in both Meteorology and Weather was the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming (and Environmentalism) — a book whose title would be accurate if only the word “Politically” were removed?

And the #2 book in both Climate Changes and Weather is coauthored by world-class denier Fred Singer — Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years. Sounds like disaster movie dialogue: “It’s unstoppable, I tell, you, unstoppable.”

And the #4 book in Climate Changes (as of today) is a delightful piece of long-discredited disinformation, The Chilling Stars: The New Theory of Climate Change: “The authors explain their theory that sub-atomic particles from exploded stars have more effect on the climate than manmade CO2.” Not.

And let’s not forget the #1 book in the land — by champion delayer Alan Greenspan — The Age of Turbulence.

I guess I should have gone contrarian, maybe titled my book: Global Warming: A New Heaven on Earth.

The President has a two-day summit of the major greenhouse gas polluters this week. It will no doubt be full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. What are the top 10 clues?

10. Dinner Entree: Grilled Polar Bear.

9. Transportation is by stretch Hummer.

8. The air conditioning is set to 60 degrees.

7. The corporate sponsor is ExxonMobil.

6. The only celebrity you can get is Carrot Top.

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I will be blogging from the Clinton Global Iniative (CGI) this week. So you will get first-hand impressions of the remarks of everyone from Tony Blair to Brad Pitt to Jane Goodall. The full agenda with all the speakers is here — one of the four tracks is climate change.

One reason I’m going to CGI in NY instead of attending Bush’s summit here in DC (aside from the fact that I wasn’t invited) is that the summit will not have any news — nothing will be accomplished. But you can only attend CGI if you’re willing to commit to substantive action.

I’ve never gotten press credentials before, so I really don’t know what this will be like, but I hope to snag some interviews, even if Climate Progress is not exactly national media. I hope to do some (relatively) live blogging Wednesday and Thursday, with wrap-ups in the evenings. If Bush’s climate speech is broadcast on Friday morning, I’ll try to cover that, too.

Here are excerpts from the CGI press release:

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There’s going to be a lot of hype around the Bush climate summit this week. The key buzzwords of the global warming Delayers are “aspirational” and “technology” and “intensity.” The more someone uses those words, the less serious they are about stopping climate change.

The bottom line is that any international global warming agreement must include prompt, binding, and enforceable greenhouse gas reductions by the United States or else the agreement will fail and all nations will suffer the consequences. Some other key points:

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