Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged the creation of an international facility that would raise billions of dollars for children’s education in poor and conflict-stricken countries.
Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged the creation of an international facility that would raise billions of dollars for children’s education in poor and conflict-stricken countries.
With apologies to Longfellow, not to mention Paul Revere, I want to recount my recent, close encounters with the British here in New York. As I mentioned in passing here, I was invited to a discussion at the Consulate-General to talk about my thoughts regarding the state of play on climate change; what you, gentle […]
I was a fan of Gordon Brown on climate change. Among other virtues, he was outspoken about the Denialists and he picked up the ball on climate finance and ran with it after Copenhagen. He is leaving No. 10 today and David Cameron will soon be the new Prime Minister. See this from the AP. […]
So now it’s four months after the meetings in Copenhagen. I’m in the group who thinks that more was accomplished than meets the eye and that it was an important way station to achieving more international agreement on stemming the tide of greenhouse gases we confront and adapting to the massive impacts they’ve already caused […]
I’ve been trying to stay out of the thick of the vastly media-inflated controversy over the science. There are folks, in any event, who are much better grounded in the complexities of the arguments than I am. These include the very good minds at RealClimate, Skeptical Science, Stoat and Climate Feedback, among others. I have […]
There was, of course, a lot of coverage from me, and much of the rest of the world it seems, on the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) in Copenhagen in December – before, during and since. One of the critical agreements to come out of the conference was on finance. Pledges were made by […]
I was talking with an old friend last week about how much renewable energy and energy efficiency can do for us. Pretty much everything is my argument. We are making progress along these lines that is sometimes breathtaking. There was a breakthrough announcement on renewable energy last week from the British: They will be deploying […]
If you know me or have been reading this blog with any regularity, you know I’m a skeptic. Not about climate change but about China. I made an analysis several years back that, in retrospect, seems mistaken. I perceived that the economic and political pressures of the liberal democracies would push and pull China toward […]
I am sorry for having been off the air for a week. The “holiday season” has been, as you likely have experienced, in full swing. Among other activities, we entertained on Christmas Eve and Christmas, so there were kids and adults, presents to be wrapped and opened, and lots of cooking and eating. (I specialize […]
I read a really good book by Steve Schlesinger a few years back called Act of Creation. It’s about the San Francisco conference at which the United Nations was born. There was a lot of intrigue and high drama, with plenty at stake. There are stories of heroes, too, like Edward Stettinius, the unsung Secretary […]
If you play poker you know that all the players have to ante up with a stake before each new deal. You have to “feed the kitty” – or you don’t play. Perhaps not coincidentally, parties that have an interest in a particular project, enterprise or, in the case of COP 15, addressing the looming […]
The leaders of Britain’s government have been facing an increasingly skeptical citizenry in terms of the nation’s troop presence in Afghanistan, but they are fighting to keep morale and support for what they still believe is ‘the biggest source of threat to our national security’. Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Foreign Minister David Miliband made […]
I’ve written several times about the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF) convened by President Obama to seriously address the critical international negotiations this year. Most of the governments that contribute 80% of the total GHG emissions have been engaged since April in extensive discussions. The leaders of the MEF countries will be […]