Tuesday, 1st February 2011

The Terminator Takes on Climate Change

Posted on 21. Nov, 2010 by astark in U.S.A.

image: http://gov.ca.gov/press-release/16497/

California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger launched a new nonprofit organization called the R20 on Tuesday at the close of his third and final climate summit as governor. The nonprofit coalition meeting included nearly two dozen sub-national leaders from Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas, who agreed to work to harness private capital investments to combat climate change. Schwarzenegger stated that “action is needed at the national and international levels to reduce the effects of global warming, but California has shown that state and regional governments can also institute policies on their own that will see real environmental improvements and grow green jobs. R20 will continue that subnational leadership around the world by recognizing that meeting the challenges of climate change requires an unprecedented level of cooperation and collaboration through all levels of government.”

The coalition will work to fast track the results of the Copenhagen Accord, where developed countries agreed to provide $30 billion in fast start finance by 2012 from public sources, and $100 billion per year by 2020 from a combination of public, private and other innovative sources of finance for mitigation and adaptation efforts for developing countries. The agreement was an important step in the right direction, but is significantly impeded by the fact that the international community essentially punted the issue, since the specific sources of long-term finances were unspecified. In a climate of global economic recession and government rhetoric about “belt-tightening” and budget cutbacks, a significant increase in public finance seems unlikely. Similarly, without the right policy signals and incentives it may prove difficult to mobilize large amounts of private finance.

Ban Ki-moon’s ad hoc group known as the AGF recently released a report giving several concrete ideas for the mysterious “innovative sources of finance,” including a carbon tax, a currency transactions tax and removing fossil fuel subsidies. While each option stands to raise considerable amounts of cash, each will probably be impeded in implementation by corporate or other special interests (oil companies certainly won’t be pleased to see their subsidies go). Furthermore, these measures will have to be implemented in an ad hoc way by national governments, most of which will be reluctant to move forward without assurances that other countries are doing the same. The U.S. Congress’ inability to pass cap and trade legislation shows just how difficult this task would be.

The R20 coalition is an important sign of hope in all of this bad news. It shows that even while national governments may be shirking their duties, people on the ground are rolling up their sleeves and getting to work. It also shows that clean energy and climate finance are a win-win, that will not only be good for the planet, but create green jobs and increased investment opportunities.

In California, politicians aren’t the only ones who are getting to work- everyday citizens won a huge victory on election day as they defeated Prop. 23 and beat back special interests that don’t want to see climate change legislation move forward.

These kinds of on-the-ground actions won’t solve the climate challenge on their own, but they do provide important pieces of the solution. And they can play an important role in urging national delegations to do their part at the UNFCCC negotiations, by compromising to reach a fair, inclusive and ambitious deal on finance in Cancun.

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Negotiator Tracker - Alex Stark


Alex Stark

Alex Stark joins the project from Washington DC, where she's focused on legislation addressing drivers of violent conflict around the world, including the effects of climate change. Tracking the US negotiators and getting the word out about action inside the UNFCCC combine her passions for activism, sustainable development, conflict prevention and US foreign policy. read more»


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