US-China showdown looms over climate talks

By JOHN HEILPRIN (AP)

COPENHAGEN — A showdown between the world’s two largest polluters loomed over the U.N. climate talks Tuesday as China accused the United States and other rich nations of backsliding on their commitments to fight global warming.

Trying to ease the tension, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said rich and poor countries must “stop pointing fingers” and should increase their pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions to salvage the faltering talks on a climate pact.

Ban’s warning in an interview with The Associated Press came as world leaders started arriving in Copenhagen, kicking the two-week conference into high gear in its quest to deliver a deal to curb emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases that cause global warming.

Key issues remain, however, and the conference so far has been marked by sharp disagreements between China and the United States and deep divisions between rich and poor nations.

China and other developing countries are resisting U.S.-led attempts to make their cuts in emissions growth binding and open to international scrutiny rather than voluntary.

China, the world’s largest polluter, is grouped with developing nations at the talks. But the U.S. doesn’t consider China a nation in need of climate change aid.

In Beijing, China accused developed countries Tuesday of trying to escape their obligations to help poor nations fight climate change.

“We still maintain that developed countries have the obligation to provide financial support,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said, adding that was “the key condition for the success of the Copenhagen conference.”

President Barack Obama and Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao are among more than 110 world leaders expected in Copenhagen this week.

Ban said he remains cautiously optimistic about a successful outcome at Copenhagen, but warned that negotiators must work out their differences and not leave major problems for world leaders to resolve.

“This is a time where they should exercise the leadership,” Ban said. “And this is a time to stop pointing fingers, and this is a time to start looking in the mirror and offering what they can do more, both the developed and the developing countries.”

He said all nations “must do more” to keep carbon emissions below dangerous levels and rich countries should step up commitments to provide a steady flow of money for poor countries to combat climate-linked economic disruptions such as rising seas, drought and floods.

Speaking to The AP at a hotel in Copenhagen, Ban said if negotiators cannot resolve those problems before the world leaders arrive “the outcome will be either a weak one, or there will be no agreement.”

“This will be a serious mistake on the part of the negotiators and the leaders if they go back empty-handed,” he said.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe was among the first heads of state to touch down in the Danish capital, avoiding a travel ban imposed by Western nations because he was attending to a U.N. conference. Mugabe was to address the conference on Wednesday.

“The meeting may be taking place on Danish soil but we’re playing by U.N. rules and these rules mean that all the world leaders can meet,” Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen told reporters.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was also expected later Tuesday — a day earlier than planned to help push the talks forward.

The U.N. conference’s working groups were finishing up two years of work Tuesday and drawing up their final recommendations on such issues as deforestation, technology transfers and the registration of plans by developing countries to control their emissions.

Drafts on those issues showed some narrowing of gaps but left many disputes to be decided by environment ministers, which ultimately may go up to the heads of state and leaders.

Conference President Connie Hedegaard said environment ministers already in Copenhagen had been working late into the night Monday to resolve outstanding issues.

“Ministers have to be very clear and focused over the next 48 hours if we are to make it,” she said.

Talks on a global climate deal hit a snag Monday when developing countries walked away temporarily from the negotiations, fearing industrial countries were backpedaling in their promises to cut greenhouse gases.

The issues concern the details of a final treaty to be negotiated over the next six to 12 months and may not even be included in the political deal reached in Copenhagen.

“The options take us closer to the final agreement, not just the political declaration,” said Gustavo Silva-Chavez of the Environmental Defense Fund.

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, who was having lunch Tuesday with the U.N. chief, told the conference on Monday that new data suggests a 75 percent chance the entire Arctic polar ice cap may disappear in the summer as soon as five to seven years from now.

Scientists say global warming will create rising sea levels, increasing drought, more extreme weather and the extinction of some species.

___

Associated Press Writer Cara Anna contributed from Beijing.

EDITOR’S NOTE _ Find behind-the-scenes information, blog posts and discussion about the Copenhagen climate conference at http://www.facebook.com/theclimatepool, a Facebook page run by AP and an array of international news agencies. Follow coverage and blogging of the event on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/AP_ClimatePool

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Livestock and Climate Change

Abstract

by Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang

Livestock and Climate Change: What if the key actors in climate change are…cows, pigs, and chickens?

The environmental impact of the lifecycle and supply chain of animals raised for food has been vastly underestimated, and in fact accounts for at least half of all human-caused greenhouse gases (GHGs), according to Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang, co-authors of “Livestock and Climate Change”.

A widely cited 2006 report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Livestock’s Long Shadow, estimates that 18 percent of annual worldwide GHG emissions are attributable to cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats, camels, pigs, and poultry. But recent analysis by Goodland and Anhang finds that livestock and their byproducts actually account for at least 32.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year, or 51 percent of annual worldwide GHG emissions.

Read “Livestock and Climate Change,” World Watch Magazine [FREE PDF]

Download PDF versi bahasa Indonesia di : http://www.perubahaniklim.net/worldwatch.htm

Join the Discussion! Read and post comments on the article at our Dateline Copenhagen blog.

http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6294

The BBC’s Tom Burridge dines out at a Swedish fast-food chain that is trying to discourage people from eating too much meat by publishing the carbon footprint of each item on its menu.

As soon as I am through the door of the brightly lit Max Burger restaurant in central Stockholm, spokesman Par Larshans insists I eat not one, but two of their fast-food snacks.

Max Burgers’ carbon labels are getting them a lot of publicity

The first is a falafel burger. The second is a half beef/half soya burger. They’re tasty… but I’m a carnivore who is not planning to go vegetarian any time soon.

I watch as burgers are assembled behind the counter by a line of workers and wrapped at an incredible speed.

It’s the illuminated menu, above their heads, that is the real reason for my visit. Max Burger claims to be the first restaurant chain in the world to publish CO2 emissions on its menu.

From the methane produced by the cows, to the machinery used on the farm, through to the emissions produced by the abattoir and the lorries which move the meat around – the weight of CO2 represents the carbon footprint of that meal.

‘Less-meat’ products

Beef production emits high levels of carbon dioxide when compared to other foods. So why on Earth does a restaurant chain that sells mainly beef want to advertise how bad its products are for the planet?

Par Larshans insists they are not “shooting themselves in the foot” and is quick to remind me of the “less-meat products” on the menu.

“We think you need to be honest with the customer. We hope to change the whole of the fast-food industry by this,” he said.

“We want people to eat less meat.”

Max Burgers’ carbon labels are getting them a lot of publicity, which no doubt does them no harm.

They do however also seem to epitomise the country’s enthusiasm for environmental food labelling. A recent survey in Sweden found that 92% of people wanted more information about the “green credentials” of the food they were buying.

Simple benchmark

Customers seem generally positive.

“It’s a very interesting concept,” says one. “We have to start somewhere… I think it will affect what people will order.”

Another questions how accurate the figures are, but she likes the idea that you can “see the impact of what you’re eating, on the environment.”

Her companion is also keen to find out his “energy consumption,” as he puts it, but then asks: “How much is a gram of CO2?”

Carbon labelling on products began four years ago in Britain

This is one of the main problems for the increasing number of food manufacturers who put a carbon footprint on their products.

The figures on the label do not mean a huge amount to most people.

This – and the fact that calculating carbon footprints is a complex and costly process – is why two food organisations in Sweden are now working on a simpler label which they hope people will find easier to understand.

The labels will be called climate labels – not carbon labels – and are designed to set a simple environmental benchmark for food production in Sweden.

Any product reaching certain standards in terms of farming, production, packaging and transportation will carry the new label.

The secret, according to Swedish author Jessica Cederberg Wodmar, who has written a book on the subject, is coming up with a labelling system that is easy to understand and credible.

“The problem is that no-one has come-up with a label that sets a standard that everyone else wants to use,” she said.

If the new Swedish labels are a success, however, she fully expects to see them copied in other countries around the world.

The full report can be seen on World News America on Tuesday 8th December at 7pm ET / 4pm PT and again at 10pm ET/ 7pm PT; BBC WORLD NEWS – Wednesday 9th December at 0000 GMT; BBC NEWS CHANNEL (in the UK) – Wednesday 9th December at 12.30am

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/8395287.stm

The study asks whether emissions are being underestimated ‘Ten years remain’ to cut carbon

Emissions of some greenhouse gases are substantially higher than companies and countries report, say scientists.

The gases in question are much more powerful warming agents than CO2, but make a small contribution to climate change as concentrations are low.

US researchers found that levels of some of them in the air are five times more than indicated by emissions data.

They say it calls into question whether all companies receiving UN funds to curb production are in fact doing so.

However, the UN climate convention says it has no doubt these companies are doing what they say they are doing, because the monitoring system is robust.

Under the UN Kyoto Protocol, rich countries and companies can gain “carbon credits” by paying companies in the developing world to reduce emissions of these gases, most of which are used in industry.

But Ray Weiss from Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, California, said the data suggested not all companies were doing what they claimed.

“When we compare what’s reported with what we see in the atmosphere, it’s easy to see discrepancies,” he told BBC News.

Although he sees most companies as scrupulous, he said: “There could be a few ‘bad actors’, (and) it’s possible there’s a black market in some of these gases.”

Professor Weiss was presenting details of his research at the UN climate convention (UNFCCC) meeting here. The convention is the Kyoto Protocol’s parent body.

Dirty development?

Industrial gases such as sulphur hexafluoride (SF6), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and carbon tetrafluoride (CF4) are the most potent greenhouse gases in the air.

NEWS

Obama: Climate change is a security issue

“Not only scientists and environmental activists call for action on climate change, but also military leaders understand that our common security hangs in the balance,” said President Obama in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech.

Giving the Nobel Peace Prize to US President Barack Obama “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” has been seen as a means of boosting international climate talks.

In his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in Oslo, President Obama stressed the importance of confronting climate change:

“There is little scientific dispute that if we do nothing, we will face more drought, more famine, more mass displacement – all of which will fuel more conflict for decades,” and then he drew attention to the question of security in the climate problem:

“It is not merely scientists and environmental activists who call for swift and forceful action – it’s military leaders in my own country and others who understand that our common security hangs in the balance.”

According to AFP, the Group of 77 seized the opportunity to urge Barack Obama to steer the US back into the Kyoto Protocol and to release 200 billion US dollars to fight climate change:

“That’s the challenge that President Obama needs to rise to. This is what we expect from him as a Nobel Prize winner,” said Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aping of Sudan, representing 130 countries in the G-77 bloc and China. (Photo: Scanpix/Reuters)

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