Can There Be A Deal?

Image via Wikipedia

Last night, representatives at the Copenhagen Climate Conference had to struggle through the night to salvage the talks, which for sometime now have been thrown into some bit of "chaos". It is reported that a group of African nations walked out of the conference and withdrew their co-operation, accusing the developed countries of bias in their approach to the talks. The group, which received a backing from the G77 countries (comprising 130 developing countries),  staged this walkout yesterday morning to register their displeasure with the lack of progress at the talks and also against what they describe as an attempt by the developed world to "ditch" the Kyoto Protocol. And this was enough to bring the talks into a temporary suspension.

According to Penny Wong, the Australian climate change minister, the walkout was "regrettable", insisting that it was "a walkout over process and form, not a walkout over substance". "This is not the time for people to play procedural games. We need to resolve the process issues and get onto the substance," she added.

Contrary to this, the Algerian chief negotiator for the African group, Mr. Kamel Djemouai,  told reporters that rich nations' opposition to a continuation of Kyoto meant they were willing "to accept the death of the only one legally binding instrument that exists now" to cut emissions.

On the BBC 08:00 GMT today he had two main questions to ask; "If there is a new treaty, when will the treaty be ratified and who will ensure that it is indeed ratified?".

With only a few days to the end of the summit, we ask ourselves whether there can actually be a deal by way of a legally binding outcome, amidst the many major issues that still need to be resolved.

Time will tell.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Developing Nations Walk Out Of Climate Talks (news.sky.com)
• Climate negotiations 'suspended' (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Climate Change Talks in Copenhagen Enter a Deep Freeze (time.com)
• Copenhagen Talks Collapse, Developing Countries Walk Out? (news.firedoglake.com)
• Copenhagen climate summit: African walkout threatens talks (telegraph.co.uk)
• Developing countries end Copenhagen boycott (one.org)
• African anger over climate talks (news.bbc.co.uk)
• China accuses developed countries on climate (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Copenhagen (Day 11) (benpeek.livejournal.com)

 copenhagen climate talks

Where Does Africa Stand?

Image via Wikipedia

Vietnam exports 25% of its rice to Africa. The major importers are Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Senegal.

Due to climate change, hot weather conditions are causing sea levels to rice in Vietnam. Vietnam's rice farms are being affected by salty waters from the sea. What will happen if this trend continues? A possible revenue loss for Vienam? Loss of livelihood for rice farmers? An imminent food shortage in Africa and Vietnam? Hunger? Deaths?

Time is up for a change. Nature is life. The environment is our life. Protect Nature, Protect the Environment, Protect our Lives. Green is the word - The last stop must be Copenhagen!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Copenhagen climate summit: Africa can and must be part of the solution to climate change (telegraph.co.uk)
• Climate Change Could Kill 250,000 Children Next Year (takepart.com)
• Green Brother (news.bbc.co.uk)

Green - The New Global Big Deal

As I listened to the 08:00 BBC news yesterday morning, I was saddened by a comment passed by a man who was being interviewed about what he thinks concerning the Climate Talks in Copenhagen.

He said "I kind of like it when it's hot, so I really think nothing should be done about the environment". Huh, what have I got to say, I just think otherwise, like many of you do, I hope. I believe the time is up – the deadline is Copenhagen and failure is not an option.

To the world leaders, I hope you will put aside all
interests and push for a politically binding agreement on
emission cuts.

Posterity is watching us.

How green is your tomorrow?

After a long sleep I am awake to the call of Blog Action Day ‘09, which is focused on Climate Change. So what am I gonna do....talk about some green technology news that I have been following so far.

In one of the very few posts I have made, I talked about the importance of jatropha and the fact that Ghana, and its government, and maybe Africa, is not

taking this seriously. Can you believe that even the airlines are taking this order?

In January this year, Continental Airlines, the fourth largest United States-based airline, used a fuel blend made from algae and the jatropha plant to power an unmodified, twin-engine Boeing 737-800 jet.

A statement from Continental Airlines said that the test flight, which took off without incident around 12:15 p.m. (Houston time) on January 7, 2009, at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, lasted about 90 minutes. And what is their mission? “To have member-carriers use 10% alternative fuels by 2017 to reduce global warming.” Sweeeeet ! Read more? Barely a year ago, Air New Zealand, the flag-carrier airline of New Zealand and the country’s biggest airline, flew a Boeing 747-400 plane that used a 50-50 blend of oil derived from the jatropha plant and conventional fuel in one of the jumbo jet’s four engines. How does that sound?

And what’s the good news for Africa? Jatropha is limited to warm climates only (according to a 2009 research by Boeing). I rest my case.

How about Ecocho.com? Imagine searching the web and saving the planet at the same time. Ecocho is a free service, and it's one of the easiest ways people can change everyday behaviour to make a positive impact on the environment.

When you search on ecocho.com, the company is able to raise enough money (through ads) to buy carbon offsets which are then used to plant trees to offset carbon pollution emissions.

Wondering how this works?. The company says that for every 1000 searches, monies that are raised from adverts on the returned pages are used to purchase carbon offsets capable of planting two trees. Within a year, two trees have the capacity to suck out 1 ton of CO₂ from the atmosphere. And you don’t have to worry about the quality of search because it is based on Yahoo!’s search technology. I think you could do something too........

To wrap up, and like I said earlier on, today is Blog Action Day, an annual event held every October 15 that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance. This year was dedicated to climate change, and how awesome that was.

So there you go. This is the little piece I could do for mother earth today. What about you? How green is your tomorrow? What legacy are you leaving behind? The ball is in your court...take over.....