UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hosted a meeting in New York on global food security and strategies to combat ongoing food shortages in the wake of the global financial crisis. Speaking at UN headquarters on Monday, Mr. Ban called the global food crisis “an issue that affects all […]
Paul Krugman had a couple of columns, today and Friday, with some complementary posts at his blog, “The Conscience of a Liberal,” on the economics of cap-and-trade as well as the dire situation in which we find ourselves relative to warming and its impacts. To refute some of the nonsensical – and false – claims […]
For decades now, speculators in oil have justified their bidding up oil futures with the concept of peak oil: to wit, we have discovered all the major fields that there are and soon there will be no new oil, and this will lead to wars and exorbitantly high prices, and so although not now, but […]
This year’s annual World Leadership Forum from the Foreign Policy Association was keynoted by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. He gave a fascinating speech calling on the US to resume its leadership in the world and to be supported in this by “…a new ‘driving centre’ of global politics and the global economy – a […]
Scrapping fossil fuel subsidies is the idea here. The caption is from today’s lead editorial in the “Financial Times.” Among its many felicitous effects, is the fact that “If effective in promoting efficient consumption, elimination would reduce the risk of runaway global warming.” The Third Assessment Report (2001) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change […]
I mentioned this new film on climate change this past Friday. For more, see this review from my FPA sister blog, Global Film Review. Sean Murphy is bringing a lot of insight to movies important to a better understanding of international affairs.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon organized a truly historic event today: the Summit on Climate Change. President Obama was among the many speakers. Carol Browner, Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change, and one of the critical voices within the Obama Administration for a robust and progressive approach to meeting the challenge of climate […]
So while presidents, premiers and prime ministers were over at Ban Ki-moon’s Summit on Climate Change today saving the world, some pretty extraordinary innovators were elsewhere on Manhattan Island talking about green building. I went to the Green Buildings Expo back in June and visited a lot of folks at their booths and talked with […]
Does the US care enough about Pakistan to face the long haul? Does Pakistan? The New York Times reported Sunday that the Obama administration is trying to decide what economic assistance to offer Pakistan, given the level of corruption and waste. American officials said the need to assist the Pakistani economy directly became alarmingly clear […]
In yet another in a seemingly endless series of gems of reporting on climate change, energy and sustainability, the “Financial Times” has this today. The report looks at critical developments from sub-national governments from California to Sao Paulo to London and many points in between. There are also interesting ads from TckTckTck and UNDP. There’s […]
Here’s a succinct and hopeful message from UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer on where we are on the international politics. We will know more this week after the UN Climate Summit and the G20 meetings.
I’ve written about nuclear power here a number of times. To be upfront with you: I’ve been an opponent for almost 40 years, since long before Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. I have seen very little along the way to change my views. In the light of the specter of climate change, I’ve tried to […]
On the first anniversary of the financial crash, I have been thinking of the role oil played. Most pundits cite re-setting mortgage rates as the precipitate cause, but I believe the sudden spike in energy prices earlier that summer — and the resulting inflation in food and other prices — acted as the tipping point […]
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. […]
In the past couple of weeks, the International Crisis Group, which monitors and comments on conflict situations around the world, has been focusing on the African country of Chad. Chad is neighbor to Sudan and starting point of what had been one of the most anticipated oil pipelines in history. ICG’s recommendations ask Chad’s government […]