Monday, December 14, 2009

The Commodore didn't go to Copenhagen

from w
The Commodore didn't go to Copenhagen but instead will do the right thing and stand by the suffering people, cleaning up after Cyclone Mitch. There is lots to do on roads,rivers, buildings, water, and so on.

Certainly the Climate conference is very important and obviously there's a need to get the ethical and moral aspects right, rather than the priority of money-making. things stalled a bit when there was a walkout, but maybe they just have to keep moving on to hear all sides. One of our younger relatives is there, as a protester, and she had a point of view too, being passionate about the desire for a safe, clean world for her children.

Here's a small piece from one of the news items coming out of Copenhagen.

Dispatches from Copenhagen Climate Summit
Posted by: Mark Scott on December 14

The temperature in Denmark may be hovering around freezing, but negotiations at the Copenhagen climate change summit are heating up. On Dec. 14, delegates from African countries shut down proceedings for three hours after they complained the West was trying to shelve the Kyoto Protocol. Under the decade-old agreement, developed countries—with the notable exception of the U.S., which didn’t ratify the treaty—agreed to binding carbon reductions.

It’s not just delegates from the 192 countries that are feeling the pressure. My colleague John Carey caught up with Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, who’s overseeing the Copenhagen negotiations. How is de Boer holding up? “I’m not sure if I’m on a roller coaster ride or in the House of Horrors in a plastic pink elephant,” he said before adding “it’s really important that this conference delivers.”

That’s the message coming from many attending the conference. Gary Locke, U.S. Secretary of the Department of Commerce, sees a lot of enthusiasm coming from businesses to tackle climate change. In an interview with BusinessWeek, Locke reckons companies “want the U.S. to do something. From a business perspective, they want certainty. They want an energy policy and cannot make investments until they know what the rules are.”
etc. etc.

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