So 80 heads of state, plus international celebrities like Al Gore and Arnold Schwarzenegger all came to the United Nations today. Great! What did they accomplish? Well, if you are looking for a single document committing UN member states to combat climate change, you are looking in the wrong place. Rather, the significance of today's meetings needs to be understood in the longer term.
Al Gore may have just burnt his bridges with Hollywood. The former Vice President receieved a nice ovation for urging us to turn our attention away from Anna Nicole Smith, OJ Simpson and Paris Hilton, and instead focus on the important climate change meeting in Bali in December.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy is now speaking. If my translation is correct ( and fair warning: my French is far from flawless) he seems to have affirmed French support for "25 by 25"--that's a pledge to make 25% of his country's energy supply come from renewable sources by 2025.
By Olav Kjorven, Assistant Administrator and Director, Bureau of Development Policy, UNDP, and member of the UN Secretary General's climate team
Today at the United Nations, the world is coming together, at the request of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, to address a truly global challenge. Climate change is the kind of issue that the UN was created to deal with. Today, we'll address the climate challenge with words. Of course, it's going to take much, much more than that to ensure a sustainable future for our kids, their kids, and beyond, but if today’s discussions inject energy, purpose, and will into the global response to climate change, as the Secretary-General and indeed, we all hope they will, then they will have served a valuable purpose.
As promised, UN Dispatch is coming to you live from the UN. The place is buzzing as heads of state and foreign ministers are starting to gather for the High Level Meeting on Climate Change. The head of one state, Governor Schwarzenegger of California, is poised to speak at General Assembly in a few moments.
Today's meeting was convened by Secretary General Ban Ki moon, who is making climate change a signature issue of his. In that, he and Governor Schwarzenegger have something in common. In June, Ban traveled to the San Francisco area where he met Schwarzenegger for a tour of Silicon Valley businesses that are on the cutting edge of the green technology revolution. (Fun fact: Ban also stopped by the home of a ninety year old woman who hosted him when he participated in a foreign exchange student in 1967).
Check back to UN Dispatch for frequent updates throughout the day.
UN Dispatch will be on scene at the United Nations next Monday to cover the much anticipated High Level Meeting on Climate Change in which foreign ministers and heads of state will converge on First Avenue to discuss climate change issues. UN Dispatch, in partnership with the United Nations Foundation, is hosting a number of bloggers on site. This is the first-ever event designed solely for bloggers, enabling us to report on the United Nations. We are very excited.
The climate change meeting kicks off an action packed week at the United Nations. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the 62nd General Assembly officially opens for business, meaning every head of state is invited to address the UN. This always makes for some interesting moments. Be sure to check our "Live From the UN" mini-site next week for frequent updates.
By James K. Boyce, Director of the Political Economy Research Institute's program on Development, Peacebuilding, and the Environment and Professor, Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts
To combat global warming we must confront two tragedies of open access. The first used to be called the "tragedy of the commons," a misnomer since societies often devise rules to manage common property sustainably. The problem is that when there is open access to a scarce resource, individuals have no incentive to conserve it and instead will overexploit it, even to the point of collapse. In this case the scarce resource is the limited capacity of the Earth's biosphere to absorb and recycle our emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
To mark the International Day of Peace, some 100 Afghan children flew kites decorated with doves and olive branches in Kabul.
Today’s event, on Nader Khan hill, was one of many around the country in the final days of a two-month campaign launched by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the global campaign group Peace One Day. Kite flying was banned under the brutal Taliban regime which was ousted in 2001.More
By Representative Tom Udall (D-NM)
As Congress takes its initial steps to address the global warming crisis, I am learning a lesson that is as true in public policy as it is in sky diving: the first step is always the hardest. Thanks to the work of activists from Al Gore to the Union of Concerned Scientists, people from all walks of life finally have begun to pay attention to global warming. Large majorities in countries around the world now acknowledge that global warming constitutes a serious and immediate threat to the world’s ecology and economy. Yet strong Congressional action to address the problem often has seemed a distant hope.