MEM in Paris , The two-day Major Economies Meetings (MEM), talks among major carbon emitting nations, took place last week. The economies of these 16 countries account for around four-fifths of global output of greenhouse gases. The meetings aim to put these countries into some sort of unified trajectory as the world heads toward coming to an agreement, over the next year and a half, on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. See this from the AFP (courtesy of Yahoo News). One theme in this and other international meetings recently has been the need for assistance to the developing world on meeting the challenge of adaptation to climate change. The article says "A South African assessment found that between 30 and 60 billion dollars was needed annually as of now to help poor countries cope with the impact of climate change."
Governors on Climate Change , There was another meeting last week, of 20 US governors, Democratic and Republican, who met at Yale to advance the cause of meeting the climate change crisis. See Governors Call for Federal-State Climate Change Partnership from the Environment News Service. They signed a declaration that is founded on three principles: (1) a federal-state partnership is critical, (2) state-based climate action plans and programs have worked and should continue, and (3) rewarding and encouraging meaningful and mandatory federal and state climate action is key. Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell said " today my fellow governors and I memorialized our commitment to stop global warming while calling on our federal partners to join us in establishing a national policy on climate change." The governors were joined at the conference by two Canadian provincial premiers and by IPCC Chair Rajendra Pachauri. For more on the conference see this from the host, Yale University, and the declaration itself.
Stern Warning , The lead author of the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change said in a speech in London last week "We badly underestimated the degree of damages and the risks of climate change. All of the links in the chain are on average worse than we thought a couple of years ago." See this from "The Independent" and this from "The Guardian," including this audio interview with the author of "The Guardian" article.
Vietnam , Finally, one of the burgeoning Asian economies, Vietnam, has announced its commitment to dealing with climate change. In this story, we learn that Denmark and the UNDP are joining with Vietnam to create "pilot projects coping with climate change." UNDP has been doing a lot of work in the area of adaptation.
Have Some Fun , These five cartoons from NPR are informative and fun. That's a can't miss combination where I come from.