Like many of us around the world, I am keenly watching events unfold in Copenhagen.  I keep wondering whether our diplomats will be able to pull themselves together to come out of Copenhagen with a strong, binding agreement that truly reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

Today’s big news focused on developing countries walking out of the talks due to concerns about developed countries abandoning the binding targets of the Kyoto Protocol.  This reminds me of the famous WTO negotiations in Seattle ten years ago.  At those negotiations, developing countries brought down the talks because they saw too much back-room dealing.  Oh, and they also saw the incredible protests on the streets calling the entire WTO into question.

Developing countries have every reason to be concerned.  Watching U.S. senators introduce “climate” legislation that allows more offshore oil drilling – such as Senators Kerry, Lieberman, and Graham did last week – does not instill me with confidence that the U.S. can be a leader on climate change issues.  It appears as though we are allowing Senator Imhofe – a notorious climate change denier – to control U.S. legislation and, through it, the outcome of the negotiations in Copenhagen.  We need the U.S. and other developed countries to step up to the plate and commit to significant, binding reductions in emissions.

Developing countries also need to do their part to reduce emissions.  This is why we are helping to build a grassroots environmental movement in China.  Grassroots voices can change China towards a low-carbon path.  We need these voices to speak up loudly and clearly.

I worry that while governments are trying to move forward new language for a treaty – a text from the Danish government was just released that has been roundly criticized by delegates from developing countries – we are losing time to move forward real initiatives that will actually reduce warming.

For example, governments can agree now to take serious action to reduce “short-lived climate forcers.”  These pollutants include black carbon (soot), methane, and tropospheric ozone.  These pollutants are having a large impact on the warming of the Arctic and could be causing the Arctic to warm faster than originally predicted.

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On the first day of climate talks in Copenhagen, I have been thinking a lot about rhetoric vs. reality.  The last few days have been abuzz with rumors that the climate talks will result in a deal.  Obama changed his plans to attend the final day of the conference, befitting his role as a major world leader.  The pressure will be on U.S. negotiators to make sure that Obama’s trip is not in vain.

I hope that they are right and that we will get a real, enforceable, meaningful international agreement that leads to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.  Our planet is crying out for this.  Kudos to the newspapers around the world that banded together to prove that an international agreement is, in fact, possible (at least among newspapers) by printing the same editorial calling for a meaningful agreement:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/dec/06/copenhagen-editorial

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Posted by Doug Norlen

Today, the U.S. Export-Import (Ex-Im) Bank announced its official carbon policy.

Ex-Im Bank’s policy does nothing to curb the agency’s growing overall portfolio of greenhouse gas emissions.  In fact, applications to Ex-Im Bank for greenhouse gas-emitting projects are skyrocketing after the financial crisis, as project sponsors seek public subsidies to prop up economically and ecologically damaging projects.  Ex-Im Bank continues to subsidize fossil fuel-related transactions despite the recent G-20 pledge to phase out fossil fuel subsidies.

Ex-Im Bank touts is support for renewable energy and energy efficiency, yet in recent years its support for these transactions represent less than 2% of its overall energy portfolio.

Ex-Im Bank’s carbon policy perpetuates the approach taken under the Bush Administration and undercuts the Obama Administration’s claim to international leadership on climate change.

Read the story as reported by Environmental Finance here.

PE’s partner in Liaoning province, the Dalian Environment and Resources Center (DERC) and the Dalian Environmental Volunteers Association brought together more than 150 volunteers to participate in the United Nation’s International Day of Actions for Climate Change. Enthusiastic volunteers cleaned up the beach and turned it into a stage for a theatric play that highlighted the threat of Climate Change to Dalian, a coastal city facing the Yellow Sea to the east and the Bohai Sea to the west and south.

Posted by Yang Chu

Yang Chu, China Program Associate at Pacific Environment, sat down with Zhao Zhong, a Pacific Environment partner and Time Environmental Hero of the Year.

Zhao Zhong, tell us about how you became an environmental activist in China, and why you chose Gansu Province as your base.

I’ve always been a mountaineering enthusiast. In my travels I saw beautiful sceneries but also serious environmental problems. I felt I should do something, and started by picking up garbage in my hikes. After graduating from University I moved to Gansu for a position with the Chinese Academy of Sciences. There, I saw declining ecosystems and a lack of NGO presence, so I established Green Camel Bell. Now I am a full time environmentalist.

What are your thoughts on being named a 2009 Hero of the Environment by Time Magazine, and what impact do you foresee this honor having on your cause?

So many other environmentalists also deserve this honor, so many have contributed as much or more than me. My own contributions are made possible by the Green Camel Bell team. Perhaps more volunteers will join us now from abroad, and we will receive more attention from researchers and the media. Time Magazine named me a hero for water pollution monitoring, but the work of Green Camel Bell is more than that – I will continue to focus on supporting rural communities and developing NGOs.

What advice do you have for those in China, and the rest of the world, who want to follow in your footsteps and work for environmental protection in their own communities?

Everyone has what it takes to go into environmental protection. Everyone can be a hero of the environment.

What immediate plans do you have for yourself and your organization? Where do you see yourself decades from now, and what will you be doing?

In the immediate future I’ll be completing two projects, from the World Bank and the Ford Foundation, which will have me working in rural communities for much of my time. I’m also improving the operations at Green Camel Bell, to make the organization run more smoothly and sustainably. As for the distant future, it’s hard to see years into the future, everything is changing so fast.

The #1 glacier used to be connected at the mouth. Due to climate change, they no longer do and the gap is widening up every minute.

This is a photo slideshow of our visit to Xinjiang last year. We took a day trip to visit the Hou Valley, located along one of the most scenic highways that leads to the #1 Glacier in China. The valley is not as well known as it should be for its secret industry of lime, coal, cement and electrical transformers.

In early 2000, a series of news stories broke the silence on Hou Valley’s secret engine of industrial pollution. The government of Xinjiang suddenly “realized” that one of the biggest and the only fully state-owned enterprise Huanpeng Limited has turned Xinjiang’s mother river, the Urumqi River, black. As a source of water for the capital city’s 3 million people, this was a big deal. The company then allegedly spent an estimated 50 million RMB (about 7.5 million US dollars) to clean up its operations.

We came here with staff of our local partner Xinjiang Conservation Fund and a teacher from one of Xinjiang’s most prestigious high schools. They have been doing some research and investigation into the Hou Valley’s infamous industry, and its impacts on both the inhabitants and the river. He mentioned one trip he took with a foreign visitor to this valley, who was so horrified by the bad air and dirty water that he refused to have lunch in the town’s restaurants. For many years now, the teacher has also been bringing her students here on environmental projects to learn about the valley and its many challenges. The students were often shocked by the level of pollutions and sadden by the powerlessness of the locals regarding their situation.

As we looked out the window during our bumpy ride, we notice the river was no longer gray. It was better than before, according to our hosts. We noticed several water diversion projects along the road and small dams that have practically caused the river to stop in some sections. When we got out of the van, we smelt various chemicals and walked in a cloud of grayness with no end in sight. The few people who were willing to talk to us were workers of the company and didn’t have much to say about the pollution, but merely that “it’s much better now”.

After the Hou Valley, we visited the Heavenly Mountain Glacial Research and Observatory station en route to the #1 Glacier, the first glacier ever to be studied in China. A young and earnest geologist gave us a tour of the exhibition center. Amidst all the heavily scientific-based graphics and diagrams of the center’s research, one fact caught my eyes. This station was established in 1959 and 45 years after its first documented record, the Number One Glacier had retreated by a remarkable length of 11 meters. It is retreating faster every year, according to our young tour guide.

To see a documentary about the Climate Change’s impacts on glaciers, click here.

This month I joined over 11,000 others at the 14th United Nations Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP-14), in Poznan, Poland.  Reactions from the enormous conference ranged from disappointment at the lack of progress in negotiations to enthusiasm and hope. We’re hoping that the incoming Obama Administration will bring new international leadership and end the eight years of obstructionism that has characterized the Bush Administration’s approach to climate change.

In Poznan, Pacific Environment focused on the funding needed for countries to meet their obligations under the climate change convention (especially for climate change mitigation and adaptation).  Most environmental organizations and developing countries want to see the mechanisms controlling funding remain controlled by the climate change convention’s Conference of Parties, which reflects the wide and more democratic membership of the UN.  However, some developed countries support funds under the control of the World Bank Group, over which they have more control.  This is despite the fact that the World Bank has a record of financing projects that worsen climate change and that otherwise do social and environmental harm.

Pacific Environment participated in two statements on this topic that were released at COP-14:

http://members.foei.org/en/campaigns/climate/kyoto-protocol/world-bank-out-of-climate-change-finance

http://www.ifg.org/events/copenhagen2008/Global_Climate_Fund_Poznan.pdf

Meanwhile, governments world-wide continue to subsidize harmful fossil fuel projects that undermine their own commitments under the climate change convention.  It reminded me that continued grass-roots resistance to these projects by Pacific Environment and its partners, wholly outside of the massive and cumbersome climate change convention processes, is as crucial as ever.