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Obama, States Take Lead On Climate Change

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While there has been disappointing news from Copenhagen, and Congress drags out climate change legislation, President Obama has been working to address climate change reform in federal regulatory programs:

The Obama administration is quietly and methodically inserting ambitious climate-change and renewable-energy requirements into a vast array of federal regulatory programs. At the White House's direction, federal regulators are grappling with such diverse problems as how to respond to drought-induced water shortages, whether to require publicly traded corporations to disclose financial risks linked to global warming, and how to anticipate the national security problems that may well be triggered if rising sea levels devastate densely populated developing countries.

Not content to merely integrate awareness of climate change into countless government projects, the administration is also actively working to shrink the nation's carbon footprint. The Environmental Protection Agency is joining forces with the Transportation and the Housing and Urban Development departments, for example, to encourage the creation of communities so self-sufficient that residents drive less....

The states are also moving forward with climate change reforms to reduce emissions and the cumulative impact will take the U.S. "almost half the distance to the 2020 reduction of 17 percent below 2005 levels Congress is contemplating."

Some of the U.S. states taking steps or making commitments to reduce emissions are comparable to other countries. California has the world's 8th-largest economy and its "comprehensive climate law" is "as aggressive as any in the world." The wind energy capacity in Texas ranks 6th in the world.

A report released this month stated that half of the reductions from states are derived from "adopted legally enforceable caps" and the rest is based on "renewable energy standards already adopted by 29 states, energy efficiency mandates adopted in 22 states, state and federal standards for appliances and cleaner cars, updated building energy efficiency codes, as well as other measures that are part of two dozen comprehensive state climate plans adopted since 2003."

However, Climate reality: Voluntary efforts not enough:

Around the world, countries and capitalism are already working to curb global warming on their own, with or without a global treaty.

In Brazil more rainforests are being saved, and in Chicago there's a voluntary carbon pollution trading system. People recycle, buy smaller and newer cars, and change lightbulbs.

But the impact of such piecemeal, voluntary efforts is small. Experts say it will never be enough without the kind of strong global agreement that eluded negotiators at the U.N. summit this past week in Copenhagen.

Emissions of greenhouse gases keep rising and so do global temperatures.

Of course, we still need to deal with the deniers that delay and confuse the public.

Was the "Blizzard of 2009" a "global warming type" of record snowfall — or an opportunity for the media to blow the extreme weather story (again)?

…American conservatives continued their assault on reason when it comes to climate science. All through the week, right-wingers from Rush Limbaugh to Fox News highlighted the fact that Copenhagen, the site of the international climate negotiations, received snow at Christmastime, which they falsely characterized as a “blizzard.” Now the Drudge Report and others are highlighting the real blizzard sweeping up the East Coast as a supposed contrast to “global warming.”

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COPENHAGEN ACCORD: PROVISIONS INCLUDED AND THOSE ISSUES EXCLUDED

• Provisions of Copenhagen Accord.

  1. A commitment by developed nations to invest $30 billion over the next three years to help developing nations adapt to climate change and pursue clean energy development.

  2. A provisional commitment by developed nation to develop a long-term $100 billion global fund by 2020 to assist developing nations respond to climate change and become part of the clean energy economic transition.

  3. Establishing a goal to pursue emissions reductions that are sufficient to keep the rise in global temperatures below 2 degrees Celsius.

  4. Pledges by nations to commit to concrete emissions reductions, though the specific levels of reduction were not set.

  5. A general goal to subject participating countries to international review of their progress under the accord.

  6. Providing diplomatic space for the United States and China to work together to solve climate change.

  7. A commitment to complete an assessment of the effectiveness of the accord in reducing emissions by the end of 2015.

• What's missing from Copenhagen Accord?
  

  Some key things. Firstly there is no mention of any long term global emissions cut targets – although the 50% reduction by 2050, which was dropped at the last minute, is what would be needed to meet the 2C temperature cap still referred to in the deal. There is no target, either, for the long term cuts developed countries must make.

  Perhaps more significant, though, is the absence of any timescale for when or even if the deal could be turned into a legally-binding treaty.

  And a series of other agreements which would have formed part of the deal, such as one on how to tackle deforestation, have been shelved until the next conference.

See also, What was agreed at Copenhagen – and what was left out.

• Acid oceans, the 'evil twin' of climate change, overlooked in climate talks. ( NOAA Coral Reef Watch shows effects of increasing CO2 and temperature on coral reefs.)
  

  Nothing in the treaty negotiations specifically addresses the effects of carbon absorption in the oceans on marine life, which studies show is damaging key creatures' hard shells or skeletons.

  Oceans absorb about 25 percent of the world's greenhouse gases pumped into the atmosphere from human activities each year, says a new U.N. report released at the Copenhagen talks this week. That helps slow global warming in the atmosphere, the focus of the Copenhagen talks.

LEGAL EFFECT OF ACCORD

• Climate Agreement Not Accepted, but Copenhagen Conference Makes it "Operational".

  Seven countries, led by the tiny Pacific island nation of Tuvalu, this morning declined to accept the Copenhagen Accord that was reached late last night. But in a procedural move designed to put the agreement into effect, the conference decided to "take note" of the accord instead of formally approving it.

  NGO experts explained that the decision by the other nations who are parties to the conference to "take note" enables the accord to become what the United States and other supporting nations call "operational," even though it has not gained formal United Nations approval.

See also, No legally binding agreement, Obama unsure whether signatures required.

And, Attention turns to 2010, as negotiators close in on final Copenhagen deal , meeting to discuss legality of accord.

And, Accord is weaker than legally binding treaty and political deal.

CLIMATE CHANGE

• Global Warming Hike May Be Steeper: New study shows calculations for man-made global warming may be underestimated by between 30 and 50 percent.
• Public Opinion Stunner: WashPost-ABC Poll Finds Strong Support for Global Warming Reductions Despite Relentless Big Oil and Anti-Science Attacks: Poll conducted at height of "climategate" finds 65% support regulation of greenhouse gases from power plants, cars and factories; 29% oppose.

WATER & NATURAL RESOURCES

• Amazon Losing "Flying Rivers," Ability to Curb Warming.

  The Amazon's "flying rivers"—humid air currents that deliver water to the vast rain forest—may be ebbing, which could have dire consequences for the region's ability to help curb global warming… .

  Rising temperatures in the Amazon region, in large part due to climate change, are creating more arid savannas, which disrupt the water cycle vital to Brazil's farming and energy industries.

  Deforestation also plays a role. As more of Brazil's rain forests fall to logging and agriculture, there are fewer trees to release the water vapor that creates these flying rivers.

• India's wettest place 'lacks water': Average rainfall dropped by 20% in last 5 years due to longer summers and shorter winters.

WILDLIFE & ENDANGERED SPECIES

• Earth on track for epic die-off, scientists say.

  If the course of human history is any model, then the wheels are already turning on Earth's sixth mass extinction, thanks to habitat destruction, pollution and now global warming, a scientific analysis of millions of years of data revealed Friday.

• Climate Change Could Wipe Out African Leaf-Eating Primates.
  

  Monkey species will become ‘increasingly at risk of extinction’ because of global warming, according to new research. It reveals that populations of monkeys and apes in Africa that depend largely on a diet of leaves may be wiped out by a rise in annual temperatures of two degrees Celsius.

Bill McKibben thinks about where we go from here: