I wrote last month about some exciting activities coming up, including the Brita Climate Ride.
In Washington this week, the State Department is hosting meetings of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF). (See my posts related to the MEF.) US Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern is leading the US delegation. The press release from State describes the meetings. (More on the outcome tomorrow.)
Next week, the UN Secretary General is hosting the Climate Summit in New York, a critical meeting of the world’s top leaders “…to mobilize the highest level political will needed to reach a fair, effective, and scientifically ambitious global climate deal…” in Copenhagen. Reuters has this “Factbox” on the Summit. See also this background paper on the Summit from the UN.
One big story line is that Hu Jintao “…will present China’s new plans for tackling global warming…” according to this, also from Reuters. “Hu ‘will announce the next policies, measures and actions that China is going to take,’ added Xie, who steers China’s climate policy as vice director of the powerful National Development and Reform Commission.” John Kerry, who is the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair, and who is spearheading the Democratic Party efforts in the Senate on climate change along with Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Barbara Boxer, underscores the importance of China’s role in this story from the Environmental News Network. I mentioned Kerry’s articulate take on China at this post from July.
The UN is sponsoring Global Climate Week and the US Climate Action Network is promoting any number of important events durings its Climate Action Week. They characterize the meetings in Washington, New York, and the G20 meetings in Pittsburgh later in the week as “A Test of Resolve for Obama and The Nation.”
“The Age of Stupid” will have its global premiere on Monday. This pretty highly acclaimed movie is about “…a man living alone in the devastated world of 2055, looking at old footage from 2008 and asking: Why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?” Good question. Maybe we’ll get some good answers this week and next.
