Climate Diplomacy

Should Environmentalists Oppose Susan Rice for Secretary of State?

My RBC colleague James Wimberley thinks so — and not because of the fake, nothingburger scandal over Benghazi that the Right has cooked up.  Instead, James’ argument centers on climate change. As we all know, NRDC’s OnEarth broke the story a couple of weeks ago that Rice and her husband hold fairly massive investments in fossil fuels in …

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Climate Kabuki in New Delhi — the Shock of Recognition

India’s Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh announced Monday that New Delhi will take the lead on establishing a global carbon budget at the Cancun climate talks.  I think that this is good news, but probably not for the reasons we might initially suspect. We might think that it’s good news because it shows that India is taking …

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Property Rules, Liability Rules, Patents, and Climate Change

I suggested a few weeks ago that India and the United States might try foster climate cooperation by having India agree to use climate-friendly technology and the United States asgree not to pursue any legal actions under the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property treaty. But of course there is a catch: at some point inventors …

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US-India Climate Dialogue Agenda I: A TRIPS Protocol

Long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away — well, no, actually two months ago in Washington, DC, President Obama and Indian Prime Minister Singh inked something called the US-India Climate Dialogue.  It was a pretty transparent attempt to salvage something from the fact that India would never agree to binding emissions cuts (and …

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The Climate “Partnership” with India

At least that’s what the White House is calling it.  (Okay, okay: technically, the White House calls it the “Green Partnership to Address Energy Security, Climate Change, and Food Security.”).  Does it mean anything?  Maybe. Essentially, it provides for some technical assistance to improve governance capacity and scientific knowledge, and some new initiatives to foster …

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India’s New Government and Climate Change: Good News, Bad News

The Congress Party’s unexpected strong victory in the 2009 elections has also brought one of the strongest Cabinets in recent times.  For those interested in the upcoming climate talks, however, it also presents some challenges.  At the end of the day, climate policy will not be a focus of the government, but there are some …

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Passage to India

Just arrived in Hyderabad, India, for the RAND/India School of Business conference on entrepreneurship.  After that, I make my way west to Bombay, and then north to Delhi, where on June 19th, the new Jindal Global Law School will sponsor a major conference on climate. It’s (sometimes) nice going to conferences, but I am also hoping to find …

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