I got a good comment from a post on the Statesboro Herald Community Blogs from Charles and Angie Howell (but, not Angie...she doesn't blog anymore because of the troll geists according to Charles). The post is below:
Charles_and_Angie_Howell commented on Wednesday, Nov 17, 2010 at 11:51 AM
So what exactly are the goals of the conference?
What do you hope to accomplish?
How will you accomplish it?
Since this is apparently a global effort, what strategies would you recommend to ensure compliance by all?
So what exactly are the goals of the UNFCCC's COP16 in Cancun?
The what!?! is the logical answer to that question. The UNFCCC stands for the United Nations Framework Conventions on Climate Change and the COP16 refers to the 16th Conference of Parties that has occurred annually for 16 years. The UNFCCC is a treaty stating that the world should achieve ""stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmospher at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system." This was signed by 194 countries in 1992. Since 1995 (the first Conference of Parties), countries have been meeting annually at the COP to discuss how exactly this was to be done. So, then, the purpose of the UNFCCC is to get the world to cooperate on the long-term implementation of climate change solutions.
To learn more about the UNFCCC, you could check out their official website here: http://unfccc.int/2860.php or you could take a look at the About section of the COP16's website here: http://cc2010.mx/en/. The latter is the better one.
What do you hope to accomplish?And, writes Chales, how will you accomplish it?
My primary goal is to collaborate with other youth to demand a fair, ambitious, binding climate deal for the good of our generation and the generations to come. International youth will be present at all of the official negotiating sessions and side events put on by governments, businesses, and NGOs and we're all going to be saying: hey, this deal affects our generation, not yours, so you had better make it good.
Another thing I hope to accomplish is to inform more people about the international negotiations process and offer them ways to contribute at home. SustainUS will have a Rapid Response network where we link up specific policy being negotiated with calls to the elected officials or bureaucratic offices to promote a specific policy. Here is a link with more information about the Rapid Response Network: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dDNOVEgwcktCREp1X0haVkVTdVQ1U3c6MQ.
Another thing we do is hold the negotiator's feet to the fire when they need it. If you think Washington is bad, imagine politicians from all over the world converging at one place at the same time. The absurdity that escapes from some of these leaders is...well, it's something. So we call them out on it and publicize it and often times it causes them to change their ways.
What do you hope to accomplish?
How will you accomplish it?
Since this is apparently a global effort, what strategies would you recommend to ensure compliance by all?
So what exactly are the goals of the UNFCCC's COP16 in Cancun?
The what!?! is the logical answer to that question. The UNFCCC stands for the United Nations Framework Conventions on Climate Change and the COP16 refers to the 16th Conference of Parties that has occurred annually for 16 years. The UNFCCC is a treaty stating that the world should achieve ""stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmospher at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system." This was signed by 194 countries in 1992. Since 1995 (the first Conference of Parties), countries have been meeting annually at the COP to discuss how exactly this was to be done. So, then, the purpose of the UNFCCC is to get the world to cooperate on the long-term implementation of climate change solutions.
To learn more about the UNFCCC, you could check out their official website here: http://unfccc.int/2860.php or you could take a look at the About section of the COP16's website here: http://cc2010.mx/en/. The latter is the better one.
What do you hope to accomplish?And, writes Chales, how will you accomplish it?
My primary goal is to collaborate with other youth to demand a fair, ambitious, binding climate deal for the good of our generation and the generations to come. International youth will be present at all of the official negotiating sessions and side events put on by governments, businesses, and NGOs and we're all going to be saying: hey, this deal affects our generation, not yours, so you had better make it good.
Another thing I hope to accomplish is to inform more people about the international negotiations process and offer them ways to contribute at home. SustainUS will have a Rapid Response network where we link up specific policy being negotiated with calls to the elected officials or bureaucratic offices to promote a specific policy. Here is a link with more information about the Rapid Response Network: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dDNOVEgwcktCREp1X0haVkVTdVQ1U3c6MQ.
Another thing we do is hold the negotiator's feet to the fire when they need it. If you think Washington is bad, imagine politicians from all over the world converging at one place at the same time. The absurdity that escapes from some of these leaders is...well, it's something. So we call them out on it and publicize it and often times it causes them to change their ways.
We also create a media buzz though youth demonstrations, talk to reporters, and attend U.S. State Department briefings. We're all ambitious, well-educated young people from all over the U.S. and we're not so vested in any one way of thinking just yet, so when we say, "hey, we're here to talk about not passing the climate buck to our generation" then we get at least some attention.
I personally will be trying to keep a record of what is happening and engage with people at home through my writing and any other means I can. Ah, and besides being concerned about climate change and the future of my generation and learning more about international climate policy, I am also just really curious to see what it is like to have representatives from all over the world walking around the same area trying to come to an agreement about something.
Since this is an apparently global effort, what strategies would you recommend to ensure compliance by all?
That is a big cahuna of a question and one that has been debated for years at these UNFCCC climate change negotiations.
We young people want, as I stated above, a fair, ambitious, binding climate deal. Specifically, that means limiting CO2 to 350 parts per million in the atmosphere through legally binding commitments by all nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions. We're already over 350 parts per million now (somewhere around 380 ppm), but that is the scientific standard that would keep temperatures from rising no more than 4 degrees centigrade (edit..it's actually 2 degrees centigrade, or around 4 degrees Fahrenheit), which in turn would prevent what scientists call "catastrophic" damage to our planet. So, according to our best knowledge, my generation is headed towards a future with catastrophic ecological damage unless we (like big WE, the whole world WE) change how we are doing things.
Binding is also a key word. Right now there are no binding agreements, but countries have made pledges to reduce their CO2 emissions. Most people think that pledges are pretty useless and that binding goals backed up by international law are necessary. We were pretty close to a binding agreement in Copenhagen last year (the COP15), but then everybody started to argue and we came out with the Copenhagen Accord, which is a bunch of pledges that we hope to make binding. One key strategy to ensure compliance to binding agreements is international CO2 monitoring. China, the world's number one polluter (don't worry, we're still no.1 per capita, which forms the basis of the total emissions vs. per capita emissions arguments) was at one point willing to agree to binding agreements but refused to be monitored, which, in the opinion of the U.S. State Department, wouldn't work.
The five key areas of debate include are
- Forest and Indigenous Policy: figuring out how we should manage our forests and help indigenous people adapt to climate change
- Finance: the international finance of climate solutions
- Mitigation: mitigating climate change with CO2 emissions technology
- Adaptation: adapting to a world with climate change through infrastructure investments
- Technology Transfer: allowing affordable access to mitigation and adaptation technologies to countries while respecting intellectual property laws.
One final note: it is not likely that any binding agreements will come out of the COP16, but there can still be significant progress made in trying to solve these problems.
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