todd stern Archives | Global Warming is Real

Last Minute Save at COP17: Durban Delegates Set Path to 2020 Emissions Reduction Treaty, Green Climate Fund

Posted on December 13, 2011 by Andrew Burger | 6 Comments

It took three days of non-stop negotiating but UN climate change treaty delegates in Durban in the end managed to agree on the 3 major issues on the agenda. While there’s no shortage of criticism, the last-minute deal does pave the way for a legally binding UN emissions reduction treaty to go into effect in 2020, as well as setting up funding mechanisms and organizational structure for the Copenhagen Green Climate Fund.

The State of Climate Change Negotiations at COP 17

Posted on December 8, 2011 by Richard Matthews | 0 Comments

Although progress seems unlikely at COP 17, failure is not an option. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is warning participants at the deadlocked climate talks about the importance of finding solutions. “It would be difficult to overstate the gravity of this moment,” Ban said “Without exaggeration, we can say: the future of our planet is at stake – people’s lives,…

Climate Negotiators Stake Out Initial Positions in Run-Up to COP17 UN Treaty Talks in Durban, South Africa

Posted on November 22, 2011 by Andrew Burger | 0 Comments

Climate change treaty negotiating teams are staking out initial positions in the run-up to the UN’s climate change talks in Durban next week. The US is setting “a high bar” at the outset, analysts say, by refusing to discuss the legal form of a binding agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and requesting assurances that large, fast industrializing countries would be bound by the same commitments.

Chief U.S. Climate Negotiator Sets Expectations for COP16

Posted on November 26, 2010 by Thomas Schueneman | 0 Comments

On Monday, Todd Stern gave his take for expectations and goals for the COP16 climate conference starting next week in Cancun, Mexico. Stern spoke at a press conference at the Foreign Press Center in Washington, DC. Stern is the U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change. According to recent statements, despite setbacks in climate and energy policy in Congress since last…

U.S. Submits Emissions Target to UN – Other Nations Follow Suit to Meet Copenhagen Accord Deadline

Posted on January 30, 2010 by Thomas Schueneman | 1 Comments

NOTE: See the update below for the latest from the UNFCCC and links to countries officially submitting targets and mitigation plans under the Copenhagen Accord Meeting the January 31st deadline specified in the Copenhagen Accord that president Obama helped negotiate at the COP15 climate conference in Copenhagen, the State Department has formally submitted its emissions reduction target to the UNFCC of…

Todd Stern Explains US Emissions Targets

Posted on December 17, 2009 by Thomas Schueneman | 0 Comments

The United States is often called to task for basing its emissions mitigation targets on 205 levels, instead of 1990 established by the UNFCCC. At a press conference earlier this week, chief US negotiator at the COP15 climate conference focused his comments on how “only in the hermetically sealed world of climate negotiations” is the baseline year of 1990 “sacrosanct.”…

U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change: “We Can’t Rewrite the Last Eight Years”

Posted on June 19, 2009 by Thomas Schueneman | 1 Comments

Todd Stern speaks to ThinkProgress about making up for lost time in forging climate policy and meeting an international agenda to sign a treaty to offset the most catastrophic consequences of climate change.