U.S. single track proposal sounds a lot like WTO ‘single undertaking’
By Jesse Swanhuyser -- One in a series of posts from the UCLA delegation at COP 15, Copenhagen It appears the global North is once again seeking a compromise deal with the South, based on a promise that they can deliver political support at home. The developing world is bringing experience from WTO negotiations into the climate arena and are thus far resolute that the North prove their commitment by acting first. During WTO negotiations in the early 1990s, the U.S. ...
CONTINUE READINGCalifornia publishes new report on adapting to climate change impacts; is anyone paying attention?
All eyes are on the COP-15 proceedings in Copenhagen, and specifically on the prospects for greenhouse gas reductions emerging from the meeting. At the same time, we need to plan to adapt to some measure of climate change impacts, some of which are unavoidable regardless of our success at reducing GHG emissions, and to build resilience to those impacts. This aspect of the problem and solution is getting comparatively little attention from the media or from advocate...
CONTINUE READINGUCLA Sustainable Technology Policy Program Receives Grant for Alternatives Assessment
The Sustainable Technology Policy Program, an interdisciplinary project of UCLA School of Law and the UCLA School of Public Health, has received a research grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Public Health Law Research Program to study safer alternatives to the use of lead in industrial and consumer products and processes. The grant, in the amount of $400,000, will fund the 2 ½ year study "Deploying Safer Alternatives through Public Health Law." UCLA School ...
CONTINUE READINGA Rift Appears Within the G77 + China, Derailing the COP & CMP – But Not the Real Work
by Dustin Maghamfar, UCLA Law delegation — one in a series of posts from COP 15 in Copenhagen: Before preparing for this trip to Copenhagen, I conceived of UN international negotiations as massive plenary sessions where countries debate various proposals in an open forum. While I think this is a somewhat commonly held perception, the reality differs significantly – but not always. At a typical plenary session, party delegates give prepared statements (called “...
CONTINUE READINGOp-ed on local renewable energy production
Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) and I authored an op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle today that outlines steps California can take to boost significant renewable energy production, such as from wind and solar resources, from our large rooftops, highway land, aqueduct infrastructure, and other big spaces close to consumers. These recommendations were informed by a UCLA/UC Berkeley/Attorney General's Office workshop that we held at Berkeley in June (I blogged ...
CONTINUE READINGEarly endangerment finding fallout
As Dan discussed here, on Monday EPA finalized its finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health and welfare. The new rule won't be effective until 30 days after its publication in the Federal Register, but it is already generating spin and promises of litigation. Even before the final finding was issued, the Center for Biological Diversity had petitioned EPA to set a National Ambient Air Quality Standard for CO2 at 350 ppm. CBD has also posted a working...
CONTINUE READING“Oil and politics mix well, but I’m not sure if oil and science mix well”
By Alexa Engelman, UCLA Law delegation -- one in a series of posts from COP 15 in Copenhagen: "Oil and politics mix well, but I'm not sure if oil and science mix well." So stated IPPC Chair Rajendra Pachauri when asked by reporters in a session at the Bella Center Tuesday morning about the hacked emails from climate scientists at the University of East Anglia. With the worldwide media frenzy around the so-called “ClimateGate,” many (including those on legal ...
CONTINUE READINGAn Important New Working Paper Series
The Energy and Resources Group (ERG) at UC Berkeley has begun a new series of working papers. The series will feature new research on energy, sustainability, and social justice. The first paper to be posted is "Measuring Emissions Against An Alternative Future: Fundamental Flaws in the Structure of the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism." The author, Barbara Haya, is a Ph.D student at ERG. She marshalls the evidence that CDM is fatally flawed and sugge...
CONTINUE READINGClimategate: Did the Russians do it?
The "Climategate" story gets even weirder. New Scientist reports (picking up the story from The Independent) that anonymous sources in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change think the Russian secret service is responsible for hacking into e-mail at the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit. The reported evidence? [T]he hacked data apparently surfaced on the server of a Russian internet security company based in the Siberian city of Tomsk, where the FSB...
CONTINUE READINGGlobal cooling? Not!
Climate change deniers (I can't bring myself to write "denialists," which is not a word recognized by my dictionary) have made a lot of the fact that 1998 was warmer than the years that immediately followed, as if a warming trend could only be real if every year was warmer than the next. Of course that's not the case; a trend super-imposed on a noisy system (like the weather) can be quite real even if some years are above or below the trend line. Now the World Meteoro...
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