Prior to last year's climate talks in Copenhagen, we served as Special Envoys of the United Nations Secretary-General, seeking to bring the nations of the world together around those negotiations. Like most people involved in the process, we sensed that a comprehensive agreement would elude our grasp, despite our best hopes.
Unfortunately, we were right. Despite the need for progress against a threat that grows more ominous the longer the world waits to act, Copenhagen did not give us the comprehensive agreement we wished for. However, important principles were laid down in the Copenhagen Accord, including agreement on:
Now, a year later, negotiators will gather once again, this time in Cancún, to resume the climate talks and see what progress can be made. As much as we would like to see a new global deal, we believe that the world is still not politically ready for it. Negotiators in Cancún should aim at building the pillars of a future comprehensive agreement, through an approach that seeks to build on the progress achieved in and after Copenhagen and encourages strong national action.
The worsening climate news cries out for action to reduce emissions. The year to date is the second hottest on record. The devastating floods in Pakistan, Russia's drought-stricken wheat fields burning -- these extreme weather events are consistent with the predicted pattern of a warming globe.
Yet these harbingers of a climate-constrained future have not brought a clamor for action in international climate change negotiations. Even so, there are encouraging signs of concrete national action. For example:
These countries recognize that the world inevitably will have to shift to low- and no-carbon energy technologies, and they are acting now to establish leadership positions for the 21st century economy. They also recognize that investments in energy "productivity" -- making better use of every kilowatt-hour generated -- make just as much sense as reducing waste in any other area of business.
In Cancún the negotiators should recognize what countries are saying with their national actions and encourage the shift to a greener energy economy on a global basis. New decisions on energy efficiency and renewable energy, alongside pending agreements on avoided deforestation and land use and on technology development and cooperation, would have immediate impacts on global warming emissions. These steps would also do much to rebuild confidence in the negotiations and set a course toward a broader agreement.
We believe that it is possible to agree on provisions for monitoring, reporting and verification of the implementation of targets and actions. Countries don't hide their progress on clean energy technologies -- they boast about it -- and energy consumption and intensity, the energy consumed per unit of GDP, can be indirectly estimated in a number of ways.
In the transition to a low-carbon economy, a global registry of national targets for renewable energy and energy efficiency could lead to a "race to the top" -- a race that Denmark and the Maldives could win just as easily as their bigger neighbors. As the price of oil rises and the cost of renewable fuels and electricity falls, the best performers will see direct benefit to their economies. But the real winners of such a race will be all of us and our children, who depend upon the climate to live upon this Earth.
Gro Brundtland is the former Prime Minister of Norway. Ricardo Lagos is the former President of Chile.
humans, and to some degree I still do. Now I wonder if people promoting
carbon credits which can be sold and bought is more of a threat. Maybe
there is a growing threat that money and power will take over food and water,
as in who can grow food, and who gets the water, and those mega companies
can continue to pollute due to carbon credits.
An 11 year sunspot cycle has begun. NASA estimates that any one of four anticipated “extreme” solar storms could cause New York, Washington , D.C., Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle and most of the Eastern U.S., as well as many other metropolitan areas to lose grid electricity, possibly for weeks.
On-site renewable energy has become a wise insurance policy - as well as a practical way for disruptive technologies to start to replace fossil fuel!
See: www.aesopinstitute.org for an overview - and an outline of possible actions.
Three huge Coronal Mass ejections (CME) have been born so far this year. One came very close last month. Should a strong CME strike Earth's geomagnetic field, NASA estimates wide areas might suffer lengthy collapse of the power grid.
Imagine massive blackouts all across the globe lasting for days or weeks.
More than 500 sunspots that could produce a CME are anticipate d. NOAA estimates four such “extreme” events are likely during the current 11 year cycle.
In the U.S., NASA estimates a strong geomagnetic storm could cause 130 million people to suffer a long-term shortage of electricity. The cost is estimated to be $1-2 trillion the first year. Roughly the combined price tag, to date, of the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan!
Since this threatens catastrophe all across the planet, acceleration of decentralized energy and especially less expensive green energy is now urgent. Who will lead the way?
See Running on Water and Moving Beyond Oil on the Aesop Institute website.
www.aesopinstitute.org
A remarkable new energy source, fractional Hydrogen, allows a barrel of ordinary water to become the energy equivalent of 200 barrels of oil.
There is evidence that the Hydrogen atoms of water can release an enormous amount of energy without the negative effects of a nuclear reaction.
As astounding as it sounds, promising hybrid engine technology is under development aimed at driving a car 1,000 miles on a gallon of water.
BlackLight Power Inc. has issued a news release mentioning a system they call Catalyst Induced Hydrino Transition - CIHT. They state it will eventually allow an electric car, the size and weight of a Prius, to travel more than 5,000 miles on a gallon of water. No engine required.
Elsewhere on their website, they claim it will have the astonishingly low capital cost of about $25/kW. Even 20 times that or $500/kW would be less than the capital cost of coal, natural gas, or any other existing source of energy!
A car with a hybrid engine, fueled by a one gallon of water per thousand miles of driving, can become a power plant when suitably parked, selling electricity to the local utility. No wires required.
See Electric Surprises on the Aesop Institute website for more about inexpensive renewable energy.
If the difficult happens immediately, the "impossible" will take only a little bit longer.