The Climate Exchange: WTO and UNEP Team Up to Launch Climate Report

June 29, 2009 - For the first time, the World Trade Organization (WTO) teamed up with the united nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) to release a report outlining the relationship between trade and climate change. The report describes the multitude of ways in which climate change and trade intersect. Using current scientific knowledge as well as current literature and a survey of national policies, the two organizations worked together to create a report that summarizes concerns regarding existing and projected climate change, impacts of climate change, and on possible responses, through adaptation and mitigation, to the challenges posed by climate change. The report states that climate change is “unequivocal.” The evidence, gathered through a review of thousands of scientific publications, is compelling, and describes that human activities are “very likely” the cause of such global warming. The biggest concern that the report denotes is that; barring major changes in policy, law, action, and attitude, global greenhouse gas emissions are expected to increase over the coming decades, with emissions increasing anywhere from 25 to 90 percent by 2030. It is also anticipated that a greater proportion of greenhouse gases will be emitted from developing countries. Read more of this story »

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UPDATE: United Nations Urges Honduras to Reinstate Zelaya

Just days after being ousted from the presidential palace by a military coup, Honduran President Manuel Zelaya pleaded his case to the united nations, where he found the support he was looking for. “After an extended closed-door session that lasted close to dawn, the Organization of American States on Wednesday gave Honduras three days to restore [...]

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(PDF) The Impact of Free Trade on Climate Change

On Friday, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the united nations Environment Program (UNEP) published a report that indicates increased economic activity could result in a rise in carbon dioxide emissions. However, the report also stipulates that increased ease of trade can also help combat climate change through delivering energy efficient and renewable energy technologies to more markets. Although these findings align with the existing beliefs of numerous business managers and policy makers, the conclusions issued in the report are significant because this is the first time the WTO and UNEP have collaborated to examine the connections between trade and climate change. These types of multilateral cooperation and findings are critical measures to ensure the success of the upcoming UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen (December 2009). In summary, the report illustrates that it is within the scope of WTO rules to enact trade policies that address climate change at the national level, but that the efficacy of these policies are determined by the design of the policies and the implementation conditions in the local regions. Although the report does not highlight specific examples, it does assert that the energy intensive sectors of our global economy (agriculture, forestry, fisheries, tourism and transport) can reduce their contribution to GHG emissions if we increase the diffusion of mitigation technologies through free trade policies. In support of this notion, WTO Director General Pascal Lamy and UNEP’s Executive Director Achim Steiner are urging nations to adopt policies that open up trading for environmental goods and services as a means of reducing GHG emissions. Specifically, Lamy and Steiner issued a joint news release, urging the international community to finalize the stalled Doha trade talks that began in 2001 in hopes of and opening trade reducing barriers for innovative products and services that support cleantech economies. The comprehensive, 161-page report examines the relationship between trade and global climate change through four perspectives: 1) climate change science 2) National and international economics 3) Multilateral efforts to combat climate change 4) The implications of national climate change policies on trade. The report provides an overview of the traditional regulatory instruments, economic incentives and other financial measures that have been used worldwide to increase energy efficiency and to reduce emissions. More in-depth coverage of the mainstream pricing mechanisms (carbon tax and emissions trading) provide insight into how to prevent emissions leakage through off-shoring production and how to protect competitiveness across markets. A common concern among policy makers is that new taxes and tariffs could be put in place, which protect domestic industries and exclude products and services that are made available through countries with weaker environmental standards. The new report indicates that these types of border adjustment measures would become trade barriers that negatively impact the shared international goals of increasing income and reducing harmful impacts to the environment. Environmentalists, economists, business leaders and policy makers may differ in their beliefs regarding the potential for free trade policies to successfully address increasing global GHG emissions. However, the consensus seems to be that climate change and free trade are intricately linked and that there is a critical need to address both arenas when shaping a new, clean energy economy. Download PDF Report : http://www.wto.org/english/res_e/booksp_e/trade_climate_change_e.pdf [triplepundit]

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A Brief Reminder that Models Aren't Always Right

Physicist and occasional Reason contributor Russell Seitz has an interesting letter to the editor on climate models in the current issue of Foreign Affairs. Seitz' letter reminds Foreign Affairs readers and editors that in recent decades they... ...have seen the nuclear winter melt down, the energy crisis metastasize into an oil glut, and the population bomb implode. This breathtaking string of global systems modeling fiascos leaves some analysts asking why climate models are deemed sacrosanct when variables as critical as the sensitivity of the climate to the doubling of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have failed to converge on uncontroversial values. Climate sensitivity refers to the equilibrium temperature increase expected to result from doubling the atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide. The united nations' Intergovernmental Panel on climate change's (IPCC) fourth assessment report (4AR) finds that climate sensitivity is "likely to be in the range 2 to 4.5 degrees Celsius with a best estimate of 3 degrees, and is very unlikely to be less than 1.5 degrees. Values substantially higher than 4.5 degrees Celsius cannot be excluded." What does Seitz mean by "fail to converage on uncontroversial values"? One example might be a recent talk in Washington, DC. by Massachusetts Institute of Technology climatologist Richard Lindzen who argued that new data suggests that climate sensitivity is around 0.5 degrees centigrade (see slides 18 through 22) which is far below the IPCC figures. See Seitz' Foreign Affairs letter here. In addition, you might want to take a look at Seitz' Reason article on the implications of carbon prohibition.

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Canada, U.S. join call to reinstate Honduran president

Canada and the united states joined a list of leftist Latin American countries on Tuesday in sponsoring a united nations resolution that calls for the reinstatement of ousted Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales

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UNITED NATIONS : Ban Ki-moon urges Burma to release political prisoners

UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon has urged Burma to free all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, the country's jailed democracy leader. Ban is set to arrive in the military-ruled nation on Friday for a two-day visit.

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U.N. nuclear watchdog agency elects new head

The united nations nuclear watchdog agency elected Yukiya Amano as its new director general Thursday, it announced.

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13 new sites added to World Heritage list

Intrepid travelers have a few more destinations to add to their list of must-sees after the annual update of The united nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage list.

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U.N. nuclear watchdog elects new head

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UN probe into slaying of Bhutto begins

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