Monday, May 4, 2009

World Summit on Climate Change – what will they achieve?

Today and tomorrow in Barcelona, delegates from all over the world debate about how to combat Climate Change. They do this within the United Nations Framework Commission on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The question that everybody is curious about: How will the negotiations be influenced by the change in the White House? Marius Petter Styczen, the representative of the Obama Administration, proposes several deep changes in the American system that would probably not be feasible within the existing legal system in the US. We hear from Obama that he is planning a Carbon Emission Trade Scheme similar to the established European one. What is behind these words?

The delegates meet in three committees: Clean Development Mechanism, Mitigation and Adaptation. Looking at who is chairing these committees offers a good impression on how power in the international system is shifting from the “old” industrialised 1st world countries to formerly weaker players: Papua New Guinea (Richard Spreng), South Africa (Stephanie Pratsch) and China (Johannes Dupsch) take the lead in these committee sessions.

We will be reporting constantly. Check out about the progress of the negotiations.

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