Warsaw cop19

<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">truth squad</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 18.59px;"><strong><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">November 19, 2013</font></strong></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 18.59px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Craig Rucker attended <span class="caps">COP</span> 19 in <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Warsaw, </span>Poland with the <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/committee-constructive-tomorrow" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Committee For a Constructive Tomorrow</a>'s <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/marc-morano" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Marc Morano</a> and <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/walter-cunningham" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Walt Cunningham</a>. </span>Rucker stated that “one of the things [<span class="caps">CFACT</span> is] concerned about is that these climate policies do harm people,” and that decarbonization was having a “devastasting effect on poor people around the globe,” noting that <span class="caps">CFACT </span>“sleeps well at night” because their policies “help, not hurt people.” <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/craig-rucker#s11" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">[11]</a></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference</a></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">tHE </font><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><b style="">United Nations Climate Change Conference</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><b style="">COP19</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">or</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><b style="">CMP9</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">was held in</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw" title="Warsaw" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Warsaw</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poland" title="Poland" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Poland</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">from 11 to 23 November 2013. This is the 19th yearly session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 19) to the 1992</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Framework_Convention_on_Climate_Change" title="United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">(UNFCCC) and the 9th session of the Meeting of the Parties (CMP 9) to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.</span><sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#cite_note-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[1]</a></sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The conference delegates continue the negotiations towards a global climate agreement. UNFCCC's Executive Secretary</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christiana_Figueres" title="Christiana Figueres" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Christiana Figueres</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">and</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Environment(Poland)" title="Ministry of Environment (Poland)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Poland's Minister</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">of the Environment</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcin_Korolec" title="Marcin Korolec" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Marcin Korolec</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">led the negotiations.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The conference led to an agreement that all states would start cutting emissions as soon as possible, but preferably by the first quarter of 2015. The term <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intended_Nationally_Determined_Contributions" class="mw-redirect" title="Intended Nationally Determined Contributions" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Intended Nationally Determined Contributions</a> was coined in Warsaw upon a proposal from Singapore. The <b>Warsaw International Mechanism</b> was also proposed.</font></p><div id="toc" class="toc" role="navigation" aria-labelledby="mw-toc-heading" style="border: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); padding: 7px; display: table;"><ul style="list-style: none; margin: 0.3em 0px; padding: 0px;"><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#Background" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;"><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Background</span></span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#Location_and_participation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">2</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Location and participation</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#Negotiations" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">3</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Negotiations</span></font></a><ul style="list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#Walkouts" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">3.1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Walkouts</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#Conclusion" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">3.2</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Conclusion</span></font></a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#Criticism" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">4</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Criticism</span></font></a><ul style="list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-7" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#Organisers" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">4.1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Organisers</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-8" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#Industrialised_countries" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">4.2</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Industrialised countries</span></font></a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-9" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#See_also" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">5</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">See also</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-10" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#References" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">6</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">References</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-11" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#External_links" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">7</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">External links</span></font></a></li></ul></div><h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Background">Background</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; unicode-bidi: isolate; margin-right: 0px;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: Background" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; white-space: nowrap;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0.25em;">]</span></span></font></h2><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Several preliminary and actual agreements were at the forefront of the talks, including: unused credits from phase one of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto_Protocol" title="Kyoto Protocol" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Kyoto Protocol</a>, improvements to several UNFCCC action mechanisms, and a refinement of the measurement, reporting, and verification of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_gas_emissions" title="Greenhouse gas emissions" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">greenhouse gas emissions</a> (GHGs).<sup id="cite_ref-ICT_2-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#cite_note-ICT-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[2]</a></sup> Delegates are to focus on the potential conditions of a final global <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change" title="Climate change" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">climate change</a> agreement expected to be ratified in 2015 at the Paris Conference.<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#cite_note-3" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[3]</a></sup></font></p><h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Location_and_participation">Location and participation</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; unicode-bidi: isolate; margin-right: 0px;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: Location and participation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; white-space: nowrap;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0.25em;">]</span></span></font></h2><div class="thumb tright" style="clear: right; float: right; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px 1.3em 1.4em;"><div class="thumbinner" style="min-width: 100px; padding: 3px; text-align: center; overflow: hidden; border: 1px solid rgb(200, 204, 209); background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); width: 222px;">
<div class="thumbcaption" style="text-align: left; line-height: 1.4em; padding: 3px; border: 0px;"><div class="magnify" style="float: right; margin-left: 3px; margin-right: 0px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stadion_Narodowy_w_Warszawie_20120422.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /></div><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stadion_Narodowy_w_Warszawie_20120422.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The </font></a><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Stadium,_Warsaw" class="mw-redirect" title="National Stadium, Warsaw" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">National Stadium</a> in Warsaw, the main venue of the conference</font></div></div></div><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The location of UNFCCC talks are rotated by regions throughout <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations" title="United Nations" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">United Nations</a> countries. In 2013 Warsaw, the capital and largest city in Poland, was chosen to represent the Eastern European Group in the COP 19 Presidency.<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#cite_note-4" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[4]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The choice of Poland has been criticised by environmental organizations, including <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenpeace" title="Greenpeace" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Greenpeace</a>, because of the country's lack of commitment to reduce its use of fossil fuels and increase use of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy" title="Renewable energy" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">renewable energy</a>. As of 2013, 88% of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_Poland" title="Energy in Poland" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Poland's electricity</a> is sourced from coal, as compared to the global average of 68% electricity from fossil fuels.<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#cite_note-5" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[5]</a></sup> Its officials have been blocking EU proposals to more effectively act against global warming. Standing alone against the other <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Member_state_of_the_European_Union" title="Member state of the European Union" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">EU member states</a>, in 2011 Poland blocked the proposed emission targets for 2050, and its environment minister <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcin_Korolec" title="Marcin Korolec" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Marcin Korolec</a> (president of the conference) declared himself sceptical about the EU's strategy of leading by example.<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#cite_note-6" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[6]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Over 10,000 participants from 189 countries registered to attend the conference, but only 134 ministers announced participation. Four countries that are among the most <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_vulnerability" title="Climate change vulnerability" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">vulnerable to climate change</a> were represented by their president or prime minister: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuvalu" title="Tuvalu" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Tuvalu</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nauru" title="Nauru" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Nauru</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopia" title="Ethiopia" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Ethiopia</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanzania" title="Tanzania" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Tanzania</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#cite_note-7" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[7]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#cite_note-8" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[8]</a></sup> Polish Prime Minister <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Tusk" title="Donald Tusk" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Donald Tusk</a> dismissed Korolec in preference for a politician who would be better able to deliver a "radical acceleration of shale gas operations" in the country. However, he said that Korolec would remain the government's plenipotentiary for the conference.<sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#cite_note-9" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[9]</a></sup></font></p><h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Negotiations">Negotiations</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; unicode-bidi: isolate; margin-right: 0px;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: Negotiations" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; white-space: nowrap;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0.25em;">]</span></span></font></h2><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The overarching goal of the conference is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) to limit the global temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius above current levels.<sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#cite_note-10" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[10]</a></sup> According to the Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christiana_Figueres" title="Christiana Figueres" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Christiana Figueres</a>,</font></p><dl style="margin-top: 0.2em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><dd style="margin-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-right: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Global greenhouse gas emissions need to peak this decade, and get to zero net emissions by the second half of this century... National governments need to act to minimize impacts to their populations and ensure sustainable development over generations. The private sector needs to act to minimize <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_risk" title="Climate risk" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">climate risk</a> and capture opportunity. And the international process must push forward now to build the foundation for an ambitious universal climate change agreement in 2015,”<sup id="cite_ref-auto_11-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#cite_note-auto-11" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[11]</a></sup></font></dd></dl><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Clean energy, and specifically the financing and technology transfer of renewables in developing countries, will be of main importance during the conference. The Indian Minister of the Environment stated before the talks that “the most important milestone would be climate finance and capitalisation of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Climate_Fund" title="Green Climate Fund" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Green Climate Fund</a> (GCF), which has not happened at all... Developed countries that made a commitment earlier have now started talking of alternative sources of funding - whereas in our view these are commitments of the parties to the COP.”<sup id="cite_ref-ICT_2-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#cite_note-ICT-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[2]</a></sup> Agreements in the Copenhagen round ostensibly formalized $US 100 billion to the Clean Energy Fund by 2020 to assist developing countries in energy development, whereas only $US 7.5 million had been committed as of June 2013.<sup id="cite_ref-ICT_2-2" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#cite_note-ICT-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[2]</a></sup> Australia has support from Britain and others to head off demands for compensation payments to countries hit by damage they blame on climate change, sparking anger at a global summit meant to strike a deal this weekend. Acting on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Abbott" title="Tony Abbott" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Tony Abbott</a>’s edict to avoid any new financial commitments, Australian negotiators have held out against calls to support the “loss and damage” payments sought by poorer countries</font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Technology transfer and sharing of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property" title="Intellectual property" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">intellectual property</a> between industrialised and developing countries will be a major concern in the Warsaw talks.<sup id="cite_ref-auto_11-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#cite_note-auto-11" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[11]</a></sup> Historically, these discussions have been stalled due to disagreements over the price and sharing mechanisms surrounding intellectual property, and thus new approaches are expected in the Warsaw conference.<sup id="cite_ref-ICT_2-3" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#cite_note-ICT-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[2]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A stalemate surrounding the talks has been the insistence of the United States delegates on China and India conforming to binding reduction commitments - whereas Chinese and Indian delegates argue that funding from industrialised countries is needed before such emissions cuts can be executed without impacting <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GDP" class="mw-redirect" title="GDP" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">GDP</a> growth rates.<sup id="cite_ref-ICT_2-4" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#cite_note-ICT-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[2]</a></sup> India and Saudi Arabia blocked an agreement which could prevent the release of up to 100 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions by 2050. A key paragraph in a draft resolution that would have accelerated international cooperation under the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Protocol" title="Montreal Protocol" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Montreal Protocol</a> was reportedly deleted at the last minute.<sup id="cite_ref-12" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#cite_note-12" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[12]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The deaths, injuries and destruction caused by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Haiyan" title="Typhoon Haiyan" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Typhoon Haiyan</a> were brought to attention during the opening day talks. In response to the typhoon and to climate change damage in general, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Naderev_Sa%C3%B1o&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Naderev Saño (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Naderev "Yeb" Saño</a>, the lead negotiator of the Philippines delegation, received a standing ovation for announcing:</font></p><blockquote class="templatequote" style="overflow: hidden; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px 40px; border-left: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In solidarity with my countrymen who are struggling to find food back home, I will now commence a voluntary fasting for the climate, this means I will voluntarily refrain from eating food during this COP, until a meaningful outcome is in sight.</font></p><div class="templatequotecite" style="margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-left: 1.6em; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— <cite style="font-style: inherit;">Naderev Saño, speaking at the 2013 United Nations Climate Change Conference<sup id="cite_ref-13" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#cite_note-13" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[13]</a></sup></cite></font></div></blockquote><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On 21 November, the first Cities and Sub-national Dialogue took place. This consisted of selected ministers, mayors and sub-national leaders and civil society representatives discussing mitigation and adaptation at a local scale.<sup id="cite_ref-14" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#cite_note-14" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[14]</a></sup></font></p><h3 style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 1.6; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Walkouts">Walkouts</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; unicode-bidi: isolate; margin-right: 0px;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span></span></font></h3><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The G77 and China bloc led 132 poor countries in a walk out during talks about “loss and damage” compensation for the consequences of global warming. Poor countries have demanded that the developed world give them $100 billion annually by 2020. Activists and poor countries accused Australian diplomats of not taking the talks seriously. The country did not send high-ranking officials to the UN summit, saying that they would be busy repealing the country's contentious carbon tax. The carbon tax is bad for the economy and it doesn’t do any good for the environment, Prime Minister Tony Abbott told The Washington Post. Despite a carbon tax of $37 a ton by 2020, Australia’s domestic emissions were going up, not down. The carbon tax was basically socialism masquerading as environmentalism, and that’s why it’s going to get abolished.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On the last day of the conference <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Fund_for_Nature" title="World Wide Fund for Nature" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">WWF</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxfam" title="Oxfam" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Oxfam</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ActionAid" title="ActionAid" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">ActionAid</a>, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Trade_Union_Confederation" title="International Trade Union Confederation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">International Trade Union Confederation</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friends_of_the_Earth" title="Friends of the Earth" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Friends of the Earth</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenpeace" title="Greenpeace" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Greenpeace</a> walked out of the conference. Greenpeace spokesman Gregor Kessler, however, said that they would not leave the city but would "follow the discussions from the outside. We will not be part of the internal discussions." Oxfam' Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said: "[Governments] must...come back in 2014 ready for meaningful discussions on how they will deliver their share of the emissions reductions which scientists say are needed and their share of the money needed to help the poorest and most vulnerable countries adapt." All six issued a statement that read: "Organisations and movements representing people from every corner of the Earth have decided that the best use of our time is to voluntarily withdraw from the Warsaw climate talks. The Warsaw climate conference, which should have been an important step in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_transition" title="Just transition" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">just transition</a> to a sustainable future, is on track to deliver virtually nothing."<sup id="cite_ref-15" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#cite_note-15" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[15]</a></sup></font></p><h3 style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 1.6; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Conclusion">Conclusion</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; unicode-bidi: isolate; margin-right: 0px;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span></span></font></h3><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The conference ran beyond the scheduled end date of 22 November by a day<sup id="cite_ref-16" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#cite_note-16" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[16]</a></sup> before some consensus was reached. Member states agreed to work towards curbing emissions as soon as possible, with an idea date targeted at the first quarter of 2015.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Talk however continued on the aid that developed countries would pay to help emissions cuts by developing countries. </b>Having previously promised US$100 billion a year after 2020 from the US$10 billion a year between 2010 and 2012, they resisted calls to set targets for the rest of the decade. The draft resolution of the conference, though, only mentioned setting "increasing levels" of aid. Further the <b>Warsaw Mechanism</b> was proposed, which would provide expertise, and possibly aid, to developing nations to cope with loss and damage from such natural extremities as heatwaves, droughts and floods and threats such as rising sea levels and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desertification" title="Desertification" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">desertification</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-17" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#cite_note-17" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[17]</a></sup></font></p><h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Criticism">Criticism</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; unicode-bidi: isolate; margin-right: 0px;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span></span></font></h2><h3 style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 1.6; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Organisers">Organisers</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; unicode-bidi: isolate; margin-right: 0px;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span></span></font></h3><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The organizers of COP19 were strongly criticised for posting comments in an online blog in the lead-up to the conference about the purported advantages of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_in_the_Arctic" title="Climate change in the Arctic" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">ice melting in the Arctic</a>, stating that "we may build new drilling platforms and retrieve natural resources hidden below the sea bed", as well as "chasing the pirates, terrorists and ecologists that will come to hang around"</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. The bloggers subsequently responded: "Our recent entry on north-west passage was widely discussed but unfortunately misunderstood. The readers considered the forthcoming, bitter, but unfortunately possible scenario as [an] option we like. We do not. But how to react to the featured situation? Should we be silent? We are glad, that the topic caused so much interest and discussion, because the matter is really very serious."</span><sup id="cite_ref-18" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#cite_note-18" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[18]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Organizers from the Ministry of the Economy in Poland were also strongly criticised for<b> co-hosting an event with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Coal_Association" title="World Coal Association" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">World Coal Association</a> </b>alongside the UNFCCC talks. This has been seen as a provocation against changing the energy source mix in Poland</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span><sup id="cite_ref-19" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#cite_note-19" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[19]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The dismissal of the conference president Marcin Korolec from his cabinet position as minister of environmental during the negotiations has been seen by delegates as a further sign of Poland's lack of commitment to progress global action on global warming. Prime minister <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Tusk" title="Donald Tusk" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Donald Tusk</a> stated that the dismissal had to do with the need for "radical acceleration of shale gas operations".<sup id="cite_ref-20" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#cite_note-20" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[20]</a></sup></font></p><h3 style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 1.6; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Industrialised_countries">Industrialised countries</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; unicode-bidi: isolate; margin-right: 0px;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span></span></font></h3><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Energy_Agency" title="International Energy Agency" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">International Energy Agency</a> has continually urged industrialised countries to reduce <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_fuel_subsidies" title="Fossil fuel subsidies" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">fossil fuel subsidies</a>. It is expected that these subsidy actions will not be addressed.<sup id="cite_ref-21" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#cite_note-21" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[21]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Several countries attending the COP 19 have been criticised for poor performance on stated environmental pollution targets. While the United States reduced its emissions of CO<span style="line-height: 1; vertical-align: -0.35em;">2</span> in 2012 by 11.8 percent compared to 2005, the largest reduction of any country, others have not done so well.<sup id="cite_ref-22" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#cite_note-22" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[22]</a></sup></font></p><h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="See_also">See also</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; unicode-bidi: isolate; margin-right: 0px;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span></span></font></h2><div role="navigation" aria-label="Portals" class="noprint plainlist portalbox portalborder tright" style="clear: right; float: right; margin: 0.5em 0px 0.5em 1em; padding: 0px; border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><ul style="list-style: none none; margin: 0px; padding: 0.1em; line-height: 13.09px; display: table; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: 175px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; background: rgb(249, 249, 249);"><li style="margin-bottom: 0px; display: table-row;"><span style="display: table-cell; padding: 0.2em; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Change_in_Average_Temperature.svg" class="image" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><img alt="icon" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/88/Change_in_Average_Temperature.svg/32px-Change_in_Average_Temperature.svg.png" decoding="async" width="32" height="27" class="noviewer" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/88/Change_in_Average_Temperature.svg/48px-Change_in_Average_Temperature.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/88/Change_in_Average_Temperature.svg/64px-Change_in_Average_Temperature.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="960" data-file-height="816" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: middle;" /></font></a></span><span style="display: table-cell; padding: 0.2em 0.2em 0.2em 0.3em; vertical-align: middle;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Global_warming" class="mw-redirect" title="Portal:Global warming" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Global warming portal</font></a></span></li></ul></div><ul style="list-style-image: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" common="common" images="images" bullet-icon.svg="bullet-icon.svg" d4515="d4515" margin="margin" em="em" px="px" padding="padding" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post%E2%80%93Kyoto_Protocol_negotiations_on_greenhouse_gas_emissions" title="Post–Kyoto Protocol negotiations on greenhouse gas emissions" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Post–Kyoto Protocol negotiations on greenhouse gas emissions</font></a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_global_warming" class="mw-redirect" title="Politics of global warming" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Politics of global warming</font></a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPCC_Fifth_Assessment_Report" title="IPCC Fifth Assessment Report" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">IPCC Fifth Assessment Report</font></a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Landscapes_Forum#Warsaw_2013" title="Global Landscapes Forum" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Global Landscapes Forum: Warsaw 2013</font></a></li></ul><h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="mw-headline" id="References"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ReferenceS</font></span></h2><div><span class="mw-headline"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></span></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; widows: auto;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">20 2013: COP 19/CMP 9, Warsaw, Poland</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; widows: auto;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; widows: auto;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">At COP 19, the Corporate Europe Observatory reported [4] that the conference was sponsored by “major car manufacturers, oil companies, steel manufacturers and coal firms.” In addition “the Polish Ministry of Economy has teamed up with the World Coal Association to put on a parallel ‘International Coal & Climate Summit,’ also in Warsaw... Chris Williams, long-time environmental activist and eco-socialist reports [8] they were stopped at the border, even though the EU has open borders, met by SWAT teams at the train station and quickly saw the corporate-insignia dominated COP 19 as unwelcoming to activists.  ...</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; widows: auto;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">; 132 countries walked out [10], orchestrated by the G77 and the China bloc of 132 countries.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; widows: auto;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; widows: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; widows: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Amy Goodman reported [11] that this walkout was followed by hundreds of environmental activists also leaving over the absence of a binding agreement. In an interview with Goodman, Kumi Naidoo, the head of Greenpeace International said the “COP is a complete betrayal to the sense of urgency that is needed . . .</font></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">==</font></font></font></p><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong>This year’s Colossal Fossil goes to Australia</strong>.

The new Australian Government has won its first major international

award – the Colossal Fossil. The delegation came here with legislation

in its back pocket to repeal the carbon price, failed to take

independent advice to increase its carbon pollution reduction target and

has been blocking progress in the loss and damage negotiations. Aussie

Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi!</font></font></font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">

</font></font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong>Canada is dishonored with a special Lifetime Unachievement Fossil Award</strong>

for its long-standing efforts preventing this process from making a

sufficient contribution to the fight against climate change. As long as

Canada and the Harper Government puts their addiction to the tar sands

first, Canada will continue to be a Fossil champion.</font></font></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Canada’s record is in indeed unsurpassed – it is the only country in

the world to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol. And it did not event meet

its pitifully lowered emissions reduction target announced in the

lead-up to the Copenhagen COP. Canada’s stance is also rubbing off on

other countries at the negotiations. Following Canada’s Kyoto “lead,”

Japan abandoned its own 2020 target, and when Australia proposed to cut

its carbon price, Canada cheered instead of staging an intervention.

Canada you truly are a climate laggard... again... and again.</font>

<strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"><u><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Singapore slinks to first Fossil for stingy stance on 2015 deal</font></u></strong>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;">The first place Fossil of the Day goes to Singapore</strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">

for strongly opposing the inclusion of the clear elements of a roadmap

to the comprehensive global climate action planned that needs to be

agreed in 2015. The island city-state is blocking the development of

framework to fairly divide climate action between countries.

Furthermore, Singapore is promoting weak language in the text on the

post-2020 carbon pollution reduction commitments, preventing national

actions being integrated in a rules-based multilateral system. Despite

being a member of AOSIS, Singapore is blocking progress towards the 2015

deal because of their unwillingness accept they must contribute to the

solution.</span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong>Second place Fossil goes to U.S.A.</strong> We have been

hearing that the Americans came here with a mandate to play a

constructive role in the negotiations, which is not currently being

reflected. They are blocking progress on a Long Term Finance pathway as

well as an agreement on the relationship between the COP and the Green

Climate Fund (GCF), which are critical issues for developing countries.

The U.S. is also being difficult around the establishment of an

international mechanism on loss and damage, which was agreed at COP 18

last year. This is complete backtracking and a betrayal to the millions

of poor and vulnerable people around the world.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;">Saudi Arabia wins the third place Fossil of the Day</strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">.

Saudi Arabia wants to introduce the issue of “Response Measures” into

the 2015 agreement. Response Measures is the about how countries like

Saudi Arabia would be compensated for any loss in oil sales if the world

decides to reduce the use of fossils fuels to solve climate change. It

would be surprising to many to see Saudi Arabia asking governments for

financial compensation when they have one the highest GDPs in the world

for selling the substance that caused climate change in the first

place. </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">But Saudi

Arabia is not interested in financial compensation. They just want to

poison the negotiations. They are not fooling anybody.</span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;">Ray of the Day goes to Chile.</strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">

The Alliance of Independent Latin American and Caribbean States (AILAC)

has proven itself to be the gold standard in civil society engagement,

moral integrity and simple logic by championing youth in the ADP and

putting forward Intergenerational Equity. </span></font></p>

</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-2 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Tags: </font></font></font></div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.climatenetwork.org/category/wordpress-tag/saudi-arabia-0"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">saudi arabia</font></a></font></font></div><div class="field-item odd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.climatenetwork.org/category/tags/chile"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Chile</font></a></font></font></div><div class="field-item even"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.climatenetwork.org/category/tags/singapore"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Singapore</font></a></font></font></div><div class="field-item odd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.climatenetwork.org/category/wordpress-tag/fossil-day"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Fossil of the Day</font></a></font></font></div><div class="field-item even"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.climatenetwork.org/category/tags/ray-ray"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Ray of the Ray</font></a></font></font></div><div class="field-item odd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.climatenetwork.org/category/tags/colossal-fossil"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">colossal fossil</font></a></font></font></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-7 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Region: </font></font></font></div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.climatenetwork.org/category/region/australia"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Australia</font></a></font></font></div><div class="field-item odd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.climatenetwork.org/category/region/canada"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Canada</font></a></font></font></div><div class="field-item even"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.climatenetwork.org/category/region/latin-america"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Latin America</font></a></font></font></div><div class="field-item odd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.climatenetwork.org/category/region/usa"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">USA</font></a></font></font></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-4 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Organization: </font></font></font></div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.climatenetwork.org/category/organization/climate-action-network"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Climate Action Network </font></a></font></font></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-event field-type-node-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Related Event: </font></font></font></div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.climatenetwork.org/event/warsaw-climate-change-conference-november-2013"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Warsaw Climate Change Conference - November 2013</font></a></font></font></div></div></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">===
</font></font></font></p><p dir="ltr"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">What stood out most about the United States’ role in the

United Nations climate talks that just wrapped in Warsaw, Poland, was

how little the United States stood out.</font></font></font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">

</font></font><p dir="ltr"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">While the U.S. is used to being the bad guy — or at least

one of them — in the international climate arena, this year the

Americans seemed perfectly happy to keep their heads down, quietly do

their business, and let other big polluters take the punches.</font></font></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It doesn’t usually work this way. For the nearly two

decades that the U.N.’s annual climate talks have been held — and

especially for the past 12 years, since the U.S. backed out of the Kyoto

Protocol that it had helped design — the world’s largest historical

greenhouse gas polluter has taken most of the blame from environmental

groups and poor countries for essentially causing the problem and doing

squat to solve it.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This year, though, American negotiators are heading home

relatively unscathed, if severely sleep deprived from the marathon,

36-hour session that was needed to wrap up the talks with something

resembling an agreement. (You can read all about the outcomes in <a href="http://grist.org/news/as-warsaw-climate-talks-end-scraps-of-good-news-in-a-mess-of-bad/" target="_blank">John Upton’s somewhat-less-than-disheartening wrap-up</a>.)</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It’s impossible to know if this was a guiding strategy

going into the talks, but the U.S. managed to offer just enough to avoid

smelling as bad as a host of other <a href="http://grist.org/news/u-n-climate-talks-four-countries-behaving-badly/" target="_blank">countries whose behavior was downright putrid</a>.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Consider this comment by Tim Gore of Oxfam, who was talking

specifically about some positions on climate finance (or how rich

countries will help poor ones deal with climate change), but who might

as well have been talking about the whole UNFCCC process: “Ironically,

this is even making the U.S. look good. Not because they’ve actually

done anything here, but because other countries are going backwards.”</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Indeed, <b>Australia, during the two-week negotiations, Canada, and Japan</b> all took turns officially <em>weakening</em>

their emissions pledges. Others wavered and flagged on issues of equity

and how quickly to get cash to poor countries that are already

suffering through climate impacts. Host nation Poland even <a href="http://grist.org/climate-energy/no-world-coal-association-even-your-fancy-new-power-plants-arent-climate-friendly-with-charts/">scheduled a coal conference</a> on the sidelines of the U.N. meetings, ensuring that the world’s greatest carbon threat would be well represented at the talks.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This race to the bottom made our country’s relatively weak

offers look almost, not quite, halfway decent. (And here it has to be

said that the official U.S. commitments for emissions reductions — which

they won’t actually call commitments, just “pledges” — are worlds away

from what the science tells us is necessary to keep global temperature

from rising 2 degrees Celsius, which the U.S. supposedly agreed to back

in Copenhagen.)</font>

<strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A new polluter class</font></strong>

<strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Helping to shade the U.S. from critical

view is the ever-growing specter of pollution from the developing world,

which undermines the longstanding argument that the developed world

should bear the economic burden of addressing climate change <em>since we caused the problem in the first place</em>.</font></strong>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">China’s emissions have already topped the U.S.’s on a

yearly basis, and it won’t be long until the Chinese have emitted more

greenhouse gases cumulatively than have Americans. With that

inconvenient truth, there’s a growing rift amongst the developing

nations over who should be required to cut emissions. China and India

and other emerging economies don’t want to have to make the same

commitments as rich countries that have spent centuries spewing

greenhouse gases.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“There’s all sorts of divisions emerging that weren’t there before,” <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-11-24/pollution-pact-from-china-to-india-shows-rift#p1" target="_blank">said Alden Meyer</a> of

the Union of Concerned Scientists, who knows as much about the UNFCCC

process as anyone. “If you’re a small island nation, you don’t care if

it’s emissions from the U.S. or China causing your country to go under

water. You want action.”</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Complicating things is a recent study, cited by U.S.

climate envoy Todd Stern in a press conference, that by 2020 — the year

that this prospective climate treaty will go into force —  the

cumulative emissions of greenhouse gases from developing countries will

be greater than those from developed countries.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">China and India have grown more and more vocal in their

opposition to binding commitments, and, fair or not, the U.S. can pretty

easily hide behind their outcries and let the quickly-industrializing

giants take lumps from their former allies in the developing world.</font>

<strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Examining the fossil records</font></strong>

<strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">To the utter shock of longtime players in

these climate talks, the U.S. almost escaped the entire two weeks

without receiving the ignoble <a href="http://www.climatenetwork.org/fossil-of-the-day" target="_blank">“Fossil of the Day” award</a>

handed out by the Climate Action Network to the counties doing the most

to submarine the chances of a deal. It’s been over a decade since the

U.S. walked away from a COP fossil-free.</font></strong>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">When the Americans were awarded a “Fossil” in the very last

ceremony — just a second place fossil, no less! — it wasn’t even for a

specifically offensive act, but for a relative lack of ambition and for

being “difficult” in certain tracks of the negotiations. It was kind of

like Derek Jeter making the MLB All-Star Team (or the inverse

thereof) late in his career — not because he’s still good, but because

everyone just thinks he should be there.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">For sake of contrast, the Aussies racked up no fewer than

five “Fossil” awards, landing the shameful, final “Colossal Fossil”

awarded for being the most destructive force in the talks. (I call it

shameful, but their team probably carried it home to their newly

elected, climate-denying government like a trophy or a “mission

accomplished” banner.)</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">If you want to look at the Fossil awards as a reasonably

good metric for analyzing the true “bad guys” in these climate talks —

and, really, it’s the best tool I can think of — then the U.S. wasn’t

even in the bottom five. Among the countries with worse Fossil showings:

Australia, Poland, Canada, Japan, India, Saudi Arabia, and China.</font>

<strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A couple rays of light</font></strong>

<strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">While avoiding most of the criticism for

what turned out to be some pretty ineffectual negotiations, the U.S.

actually managed to garner a few bits of praise.</font></strong>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">On the hot-button subject of loss and damage — a <a href="http://grist.org/news/u-s-says-poor-countries-calls-for-climate-compensation-could-screw-up-climate-treaty-process/" target="_blank">fundamental issue in the talks</a>

 – the U.S. actually gave quite a bit more than was expected in the

final hours in order to secure a deal. “The United States showed good

will by moving beyond their red lines to compromise with developing

countries in the loss and damage discussions,” said Meyer, who is

typically pretty critical of the American positions in the talks.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Earlier in the week, the U.S. was “even playing a

productive role mediating between the E.U. and the G77 [a group of 130

developing nations]” on the issue of climate finance, according to Gore.

Though he continued, “this says something not about the strength of the

U.S. position, but about lack of leadership from the E.U.” So, again:

Hey, we’re not as bad as them!</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">And here’s a real kicker: In a <a href="http://climateactiontracker.org/news/151/In-talks-for-a-new-climate-treaty-a-race-to-the-bottom.html" target="_blank">report released at the talks</a>,

the folks at Climate Action Tracker held up the U.S. as an example of a

positive factor in their annual calculations of projected future

warming. President Obama’s Climate Action Plan, they said, had moved the

needle a bit on America’s contribution to future warming.</font>

<strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Back in the blame game?</font></strong>

<strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It probably has more to do with this last point than

anything else that the U.S. got a bit of a free ride at this year’s

COP. The rest of the world seems to be looking hopefully (if

impatiently) to America to translate some modest domestic gains on

climate to bigger, bolder leadership positions in the international

realm. A few years ago, in Bali and Poznan and Copenhagen and Cancun,

there was a palpable contempt for the U.S. role in the talks. This year,

delegates and campaigners seem cautiously hopeful that the U.S. has at

least turned in the right direction.</font></strong>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">That said, this will no doubt be the last free pass granted to the

country that grew into the world’s dominant economic force by burning

more fossil fuels than anyone else. From Ban Ki-Moon’s climate summit in

New York in September through COP 20 next year in Lima, Peru, and on to

Paris in 2015 — where the goal is an overarching comprehensive climate

treaty — if America brings anything to the table that tastes like weak

sauce, it’s going to be pilloried with renewed vigor.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of reason to believe that the U.S.

will be bringing any numbers — for emissions cuts or climate finance

cash — that will be anywhere close to what the rest of the world (and,

well, science) insists is necessary. So the State Department should

probably start clearing some space on its already cluttered shelves for

more Fossil awards.</font></p>

<section class="author-bio clear margin-bottom-x4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Ben Jervey is a

freelance reporter who covers energy, environment, and climate change

from his home in Vermont or wherever the story takes him.</font></section><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</font></p><div class="print-content"><div id="node-928003" class="node node-story view-mode-print clearfix" about="/activism/lesson-cop-19-corruption-spurring-global-climate-revolt" typeof="sioc:Item foaf:Document" style="position: relative;"><div class="byline activism"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="field field-name-field-sources field-type-node-reference field-label-hidden"><span class="field-items"><span class="field-item even"><a href="http://alternet.org/">AlterNet</a> <span class="print-footnote">[1]</span></span></span></span> / By <a href="http://www.alternet.org/authors/kevin-zeese-and-margaret-flowers" style="">Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers</a> <span class="print-footnote" style="">[2]</span></font></div><div class="headline"><h1 property="dc:title" datatype="" class="node-title"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Rich Countries' Attempts to Ignore Climate Change Should Make You Explode in Anger -- and Take Change-Making into Your Own Hands</font></h1></div><div class="the_body body_activism clearfix"><div class="story-date"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="field field-name-field-date field-type-date field-label-hidden" style=""><span class="field-items" style=""><span class="field-item even" style=""><span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2013-11-22T12:56:00-08:00" style="">November 22, 2013</span></span></span></span>  |  </font></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The world has been rapidly approaching a crossroads not only on climate change but also on mass extinction, destruction of the oceans, poisoning of the air, land and water and deteriorating food quality and security. A global revolt has been building and after this week in Poland, another reason to explode against the world’s richest governments has been provided. It is time for a world-wide environmental justice revolt. </font></p><p><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Corrupt Climate Summit Falls Apart as Nations “Do Nothing”</font></strong></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The United Nations COP 19 climate summit has fallen apart because it is rooted in deep corruption. The overt domination by polluting industries is highlighted by <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/a-climate-change-fueled-revolution/">Michael Klare who wrote</a> <span class="print-footnote">[3]</span> in Tom Dispatch this week: “few governments are as yet prepared to launch the sorts of efforts that might even begin to effectively address the peril of climate change, they will increasingly be seen as obstacles to essential action and so as entities that need to be removed. In short, climate rebellion.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">At COP 19, <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/the-carbon-pollution-profiteers-have-taken-over-the-climate-summit/">the Corporate Europe Observatory reported</a> <span class="print-footnote">[4]</span> that the conference was <b>sponsored by “major car manufacturers, oil companies, steel manufacturers and coal firms.” In addition “the Polish Ministry of Economy has teamed up with the World Coal Association to</b><b> put on a parallel ‘International Coal & Climate Summit,</b>’ also in Warsaw.” In other words, the people profiting from industries that create the climate crisis took control of the climate summit. The <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/coal-industry-tries-to-crash-warsaw-climate-talks-gets-spanked/">coal industry pushed all sorts of nonsensical</a> <span class="print-footnote">[5]</span> clean coal schemes to claim we can mitigate climate change and burn coal.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">People were forced to protest as the only means of trying to shape the debate. Their question was: “<a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/who-rules-the-world-fossil-fuel-industry-or-the-people/">Who rules the world, the fossil fuel industry or the people?</a> <span class="print-footnote">[6]</span>”  Amy Goodman whose Democracy Now! has been doing excellent reporting on COP 19 asked UN representatives about the sponsorship of corporate polluters, and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon defended the practice saying everyone has to be at the table.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Goodman pointed out there were corporate logos all over COP 19 and the message seemed to be corporations are welcome, civil society is not. She asked about <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/un-defends-banning-three-activists-fossil-fuel-firms-sponsoring-climate-talks/">the banning of three protesters</a> <span class="print-footnote">[7]</span> who merely held up signs in support of the Philippines whose chief climate negotiator, Naderev “Yeb” Saño, was on a hunger strike to protest the inaction of the world on climate. Saño had just made an emotional plea to the delegates for action, and the young protesters held up a banner behind him at a press conference that read: “2012, Bopha, 1,067; 2013, Haiyan, 10,000-plus? How many more have to die?” Christiana Figueres, the executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, defended the ban saying they had not told security they were going to protest.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In fact climate justice activists were harassed from the outset. <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/warsaw-climate-talks-go-up-in-smoke/">Chris Williams, long-time environmental activist and eco-socialist reports</a> <span class="print-footnote">[8]</span> t<b>hey were stopped at the border, even though the EU has open borders, met by SWAT teams at the train station and quickly saw the corporate-insignia dominated COP 19 as unwelcoming to activists</b>.  He describes the “pervasive smell of inaction seeped like a suffocating gas throughout the inside of the conference, outside, the choking effects of coal smoke waft from all corners of a country that obtains 90 percent of its electricity from coal and whose government has pledged to keep it that way until 2060.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><em>The Hindu</em> reported on <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/leaked-documents-us-opposes-helping-poor-countries-re-climate-change/">leaked US State Department documents</a> <span class="print-footnote">[9]</span> which instructed US diplomats across the world to essentially do nothing on climate and say the US is doing enough.  In particular, the leaked documents showed that the US refused to help poor countries adversely impacted by climate change and urged private corporations to finance such assistance; and they wanted no country to be forced to take higher emission reduction pledges then already had been volunteered.  While urging “do nothing” they also hypocritically told diplomats to claim that President Obama and Secretary Kerry have climate change as a high priority.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The obstinacy of the United States and other developed countries to recognize that they are the primary cause of the climate crisis and therefore have a responsibility to pay for the “loss and damage” caused the conference to fall apart. Developing countries see this as a red line issue but were blocked from making any progress on it; <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/poor-countries-walk-out-of-un-climate-talks/">132 countries walked out</a> <span class="print-footnote">[10]</span>, orchestrated by the G77 and the China bloc of 132 countries.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/nature-does-not-negotiate-environmentalists-walk-out-of-un-climate-summit/">Amy Goodman reported</a> <span class="print-footnote">[11]</span> that this walkout was followed by hundreds of environmental activists also leaving over the absence of a binding agreement. In an interview with Goodman, Kumi Naidoo, the head of Greenpeace International said the “COP is a complete betrayal to the sense of urgency that is needed . . . we are walking out, and we are committing ourselves to mobilize the largest number of people in every single country in the world . . .  our message to our political leaders: Understand that nature does not negotiate. You cannot change the science.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/governments-fail-on-climate-change-again/">Dennis Trainor, Jr. sums up</a> <span class="print-footnote">[12]</span> the lesson of the COP 19 on ACROYNM TV: “the Giant Pink Elephant in the room is that our world leaders can’t seem to deal with the reality of climate change because it is not profitable in short term profits for the global elite and the bottom line of transnational corporations.”</font></p><p><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Beyond the Climate Summit, Government and Energy Profiteers Continue Destruction</font></strong></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The corruption of the climate summit is one example of many of how the fossil fuel industry, in cahoots with corrupt government, continues its destruction of the planet.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/five-times-more-government-funding/">Oil Change International issued a report</a> <span class="print-footnote">[13]</span> which showed that developed countries are providing five times more in public support for fossil fuel production and consumption than they have so far pledged in climate finance. They urge countries to phase out fossil fuel subsidies by 2015.  Governments also relax rules or ease the way for fossil fuels. For example, the <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/coast-guard-to-approve-barging-hazardous-fracking-waste-on-major-rivers/">Coast Guard is moving forward</a> <span class="print-footnote">[14]</span> with a proposal that would allow barges to transport large amounts of hazardous and radioactive wastewater from fracking operations on America’s major rivers. (See link to see how you can oppose this.) Whether it’s the Republican “drill baby drill” or the Democratic “all of the above energy strategy,” the bi-partisans in Washington are willing to destroy the planet for fossil fuels.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">At the same time, an oil and gas investors report indicates that the <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/oil-industry-not-done-raping-the-planet/">fossil fuel industries are not done raping the planet</a> <span class="print-footnote">[15]</span>.  The investors see huge fortunes to be made in extreme extraction of oil and gas through mass investments in sub-sea infrastructure that will put the already fragile ocean at further risk, fracking old wells to get more fuel from them, the global shale oil boom, new technology to find oil and gas to frack, and mass expansion of pipelines. If there ever was an industry that put their profits ahead of the planet and people, it is the oil and gas industry that is heavily subsidized by tax dollars.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">And, these industries buy politicians, the media and advocacy groups. Investigative reporter <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/fracking-industry-buying-political-power-politics-media-think-tanks/">Steve Horn wrote</a> <span class="print-footnote">[16]</span> at DeSmog Blog this week that gas industry tax returns show they are investing heavily in movies, media firms like the one owned by Obama’s campaign operative, David Axelrod, as well as Senator Dick Durbin’s (D-IL) nephew’s firm, firms run by Clinton Administration officials, and media outlets like Bloomberg as well as MSNBC’s new website which bizarrely claims to be a progressive hub.  They are also donating to environmental groups like the Environmental Defense Fund to promote “responsible regulation” rather than bans on fracking.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This is occurring despite the fact that more people are experiencing the negative impacts of extreme extraction. Recently <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/texas-town-evacuated-after-chevron-pipeline-explosion/">a pipeline operated by Chevron Corp exploded</a> <span class="print-footnote">[17]</span> in rural Milford, Texas forcing the town to be evacuated.  This is one of the many regularly-occurring environmental catastrophes caused by oil leaks, explosions and train accidents. </font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">And, this week <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/report-construction-problems-of-kxl-pipeline-put-safety-in-doubt/">Public Citizen issued a report</a> <span class="print-footnote">[18]</span> stating that we should expect more leaks from the Keystone Pipeline. The report documents construction problems and apparent engineering code violations along the Texas portion of KXL, including pipe being installed with excessive bending or sagging, and peeling patches of field coating applied to cover damage on pipes about to be placed into the ground.</font></p><p><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Stopping a threat to the people and planet, the Trans-Pacific Partnership</font></strong></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">One of greatest threats to the environment is the global corporate coup known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership.  There was a major shift in momentum this week on the TPP as the protest <a href="http://www.flushthetpp.org/call-to-action-december-3-international-day-of-action-against-toxic-trade-agreements/">movement continues to build to a global day of action on December 3rd</a> <span class="print-footnote">[19]</span>.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This week protesters ‘welcomed’ the TPP negotiators who were meeting in Salt Lake City, UT.  If the Office of the US Trade Rep thought they could avoid protesters by going to Salt Lake City, they were wrong.  <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/trade-talks-open-in-utah-secrecy-spurs-protests/">On the first day</a><span class="print-footnote">[20]</span>, a hundred protesters including labor activists, environmentalists, climate change activists and those seeking social and economic justice participated. <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/protestors-disrupt-second-day-of-tpp-negotiations-with-noise-brigade/">On the second day</a> <span class="print-footnote">[21]</span> they created a noisy TPP Welcoming Committee that brought drums, pots and pans and noise makers to multiple entrances of the building where negotiations were occurring.  On the <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/high-flying-protest-puts-message-before-tpp-negotiators/">third day they flew weather balloons</a> <span class="print-footnote">[22]</span> to lift a giant banner outside the hotel which said: “Psst TPP what are you hiding?” and “Flush the TPP.org” while holding a funeral for our freedoms which will be destroyed by the TPP.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Momentum for the TPP has shifted over the past year as it has become exposed as a global corporate coup. More people are speaking out and mobilizing against it. In fact, 180 Members of the House, including three-quarters of the 200 Democrats came out publicly against Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority.  Without Fast Track President Obama would be unable to pass the TPP or the Atlantic version, TAFTA.  Two advocates of the TPP, Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) and Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) told the media Fast Track will not be considered in 2013. That puts them into the do-nothing election year of 2014. When these and other problems are added up, it becomes evident that <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/the-people-can-defeat-the-trans-pacific-partnership/">the people can defeat the TPP</a> <span class="print-footnote">[23]</span> and stop this transnational corporate power grab.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Much of the building opposition became more public last week when Wikileaks released the intellectual property chapter of the text which showed the Obama administration trying to strong arm other nations into a trade agreement for the transnational corporations.  In fact, <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/the-people-are-defeating-the-tpp/">the Washington Post</a> <span class="print-footnote">[24]</span>, normally a very pro-trade agreement newspaper, wrote this week about the Wikileaks disclosure that “it is obvious why the USTR and the Obama administration have insisted on secrecy. From this text it appears that the U.S. administration is negotiating for intellectual property provisions that it knows it could not achieve through an open democratic process.”  And, the pro-corporate trade <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-18/obama-s-secrecy-is-hurting-free-trade-talks.html">Bloomberg News editorialized</a> <span class="print-footnote">[25]</span> that Obama’s secrecy is destroying the trade agreement.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In Salt Lake City, <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/trade-talks-open-in-utah-secrecy-spurs-protests/">when the Tribune reported</a> <span class="print-footnote">[20]</span> on the protests, the USTR showed that panic might be setting in. Carol Guthrie, their senior adviser for media affairs told an obvious lie when she said the treaty had been negotiated with “unprecedented transparency.” Of course, the opposite is true as this is the most secretive trade negotiation in history and the first time a text has been classified as secret. Ms. Guthrie showed the world today that the US Trade Reps office cannot be trusted. Add to that the bogus <a href="http://www.thealliancefordemocracy.org/pdf/AfDJR6108.pdf">interim environmental report</a> <span class="print-footnote">[26]</span> which claims that the TPP will have no “significant adverse impacts in the United States.” The loss of credibility will not help the passage of the TPP.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">And, now protests are starting to infect Obama and Democratic Party fundraisers.  Activists in Los Angeles are <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/tpp-protests-planned-for-obama-pelosi-reid-fundraisers/">planning to protest two Democratic fundraisers on the 25th</a> <span class="print-footnote">[27]</span>.  House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) will be in attendance along with President Obama.  As the movement grows, elected officials are hearing from more constituents that they oppose the TPP and do not want President Obama to be given the authority to negotiate the agreement without congressional involvement throughout the process.</font></p><p><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Global Movement against Environmental Destruction</font></strong></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Recently two videos crossed our screens that highlighted how the movement for environmental justice is worldwide and that people across the globe are in the same struggle against corporate profits at the expense of the planet.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The first was a remarkable short film <em><a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/video-new-film-the-gallok-rebellion/">The Gállok Rebellion</a> <span class="print-footnote">[28]</span></em> about indigenous peoples, the Saami, whose tribal lands are located in parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. Except for the color of their skin, which is white, their story is the same as mistreated indigenous people throughout the world.  The film tells the story of an anti-mining conflict in 2013.  It is an inspiring story as the Saami persistently resist and gradually gain support of non-indigenous people and successfully stop the mining. Their strategy and tactics, as well as the police response, mirrored the conflicts of Idle No More, First Nations and Native Indians in North America. These are the same kinds of tactics used in the blockades of pipelines, hydro-fracking, mountain top removal and other extreme forms of extraction.  It is quite remarkable to see the similarities.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The second film, <em><a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/movie-heritage-fight/">Heritage Fight</a> <span class="print-footnote">[29]</span></em>, is from Australia; it shows a similar conflict that is occurring in the last great wilderness of Australia, Broome in the remote Kimberley Region of Western Australia. Local people, including the indigenous aboriginal Goolaraboloo’s, who see themselves as custodians of the land join, with white Australians fighting to prevent the second largest liquefied natural gas terminal on the planet from being developed in this priceless area. Once again, the same strategy and tactics of both sides can be seen playing out.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Canada</b> has become a hotbed of environmental activism as the Harper government has turned the nation into one of the biggest polluters on the planet.  People are fighting back against the lunge into extreme excavation throughout the nation.  Last weekend <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/tens-of-thousands-in-130-canadian-community-protest-climate-change/">tens of thousands of Canadians demonstrated in 130 communities</a> <span class="print-footnote">[30]</span> against their energy policy.  One sign summarized the change in Canada: “<em>Canada should be leading the Green Revolution not hindering it. What happened Canada?? You used to be cool</em>.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This protest is part of ongoing protests that are often being led by <b>First Nations</b> peoples. One hotbed of conflict has been North of Elsipogtog where <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/tensions-rise-north-pf-elsipogtog-as-rcmp-confronts-mikmaq/">tensions are rising between the Mi’kmaq</a> <span class="print-footnote">[31]</span> and Canadian Mounted Police. The conflicts with First Nations over energy extraction are also bringing up <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/can-fracking-showdown-on-native-land-break-canadas-cycle-of-colonialism/">long simmering disputes</a> <span class="print-footnote">[32]</span> over the <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/un-special-rapporteur-canada-faces-crisis-in-situation-of-indigenous-people/">treatment of the indigenous</a> <span class="print-footnote">[33]</span>, tribal lands and <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/the-often-ignored-facts-about-elsipogtog/">indigenous sovereignty</a> <span class="print-footnote">[34]</span>.  There are <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/canadian-court-rules-against-first-nations-on-fracking-on-native-lands/">court</a> <span class="print-footnote">[35]</span> and <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/victory-for-elsipogtog-on-the-highway/">street</a> <span class="print-footnote">[36]</span>conflicts constantly going on between the indigenous and the <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/feds-pouring-big-money-into-aboriginal-litigation/">Canadian government</a> <span class="print-footnote">[37]</span>. These same kinds of conflicts with native peoples are <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/highway-95s-largest-omegaload-more-again-round-2/">occurring in the United States</a> <span class="print-footnote">[38]</span>, indeed <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/noam-chomsky-indigenous-people-are-in-the-lead/">Noam Chomsky says</a> <span class="print-footnote">[39]</span> that indigenous people are ‘taking the lead.’</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Another area where worldwide protest can be seen has been the case of the Greenpeace Arctic 30 who were arrested by Russia on September 13th in a protest against drilling in the Arctic. <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/263-cities-protest-as-arctic-30-mark-2-months-in-prison/">Protests were held in 263 cities</a> <span class="print-footnote">[40]</span>last Saturday urging the release of the 30 activists. This week some of the group went to court.  While <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/nine-of-greenpeaces-arctic-30-activists-released-on-bail/">nine were released</a> <span class="print-footnote">[41]</span> on bail, one, Australian <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/arctic-30-activist-detained-until-february-by-russian-court/">Colin Russell must remain in jail</a> <span class="print-footnote">[42]</span> until February 24, while the investigation continues.  No doubt, the worldwide protests will also continue on their behalf.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A final area of global concern where there were developments this week is Fukushima.  The crippled nuclear power plant is beginning a long-term, high risk activity moving fuel rods from their perilous position on the fourth floor of reactor four.  Prior to starting, the energy company <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/fukushima-update-tepco-japan-begin-to-face-reality/">TEPCO and Japan finally</a> <span class="print-footnote">[43]</span> acknowledged that the activity was not routine and was risky.  They have to remove more than 1500 fuel rods in a process that could take up to two years; and the chance of a fire developing that would release large amounts of radiation into the air is very real. It is not surprising that <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/cnn-nuclear-propagandist/">CNN showed itself to be a nuclear energy propaganda outlet</a> <span class="print-footnote">[44]</span> that cannot be trusted, first showing a one-sided film with lots of inaccuracies, and then following that with a lopsided panel in which Anderson Cooper embarrassed himself.</font></p><p><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">People Can See the World They Want and Are Building It</font></strong></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In addition to protesting what they do not like, many people are working to put in place the new economy that will move beyond oil, gas, coal and nuclear to a <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/carbon-free-nuclear-free-energy-economy-is-inevitable/">carbon-free, nuclear-free energy economy</a> <span class="print-footnote">[45]</span>.  There is a lot of evidence that this kind of economy is not only possible but inevitable.  The question is how much damage will be done before we get there.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This week a labor group issued a <a>report which found that every dollar spent</a> on gas, water, and sewer infrastructure in Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas generates 156% more employment than the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. Another 2013 report by researchers at Stanford that focused on the state of New York found that by 2030 New York could convert to energy from wind, water and sunlight. Not only is this feasible, but it would also reduce energy costs, create jobs, reduce air and water pollution and improve health. </font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Plans are being made to <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/national-gathering-on-the-new-ecnomy-next-spring/">bring new economy advocates together in Boston</a> <span class="print-footnote">[46]</span> next spring. The planners say that all over the country “people are experimenting with new ways to create sustainable businesses, share knowledge and resources, and build resilient and democratic communities.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In fact, we need to restructure our economy if we want to restore the planet and meet the needs of people. Economist <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/sleepwalking-to-extinction/">Richard Smith writes</a> <span class="print-footnote">[47]</span> we need “global economic democracy, a radical bottom-up political democracy.”  The current financial structure results in ongoing destruction of the environment and mistreatment of workers.  Smith says it this way: “So long as we live under this corporate capitalist system we have little choice but to go along in this destruction” The only way out “overthrow this global economic system.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Like so many who follow these issues closely, <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/a-climate-change-fueled-revolution/">Michael Klare sees the potential</a> <span class="print-footnote">[3]</span>:</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“it is possible to imagine such a green energy revolution erupting in one part of the world and spreading like wildfire to others.  Because climate change is going to inflict increasingly severe harm on human populations, the impulse to rebel is only likely to gain in strength across the planet.  While circumstances may vary, the ultimate goal of these uprisings will be to terminate the reign of fossil fuels while emphasizing investment in and reliance upon renewable forms of energy.  And a success in any one location is bound to invite imitation in others.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/sleepwalking-to-extinction/">Richard Smith</a> <span class="print-footnote">[47]</span> sees this as well, concluding: “Today we are riding a swelling wave of near simultaneous global mass democratic ‘awakening,’ an almost global mass uprising. This global insurrection is still in its infancy, still unsure of its future, but its radical democratic instincts are, I believe, humanity’s last best hope. Let’s make history!”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">An anonymous <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/a-call-for-a-crowdsourced-worldwide-wave-of-action-www/">call for a “crowd sources worldwide wave of action #www”</a> <span class="print-footnote">[48]</span> this spring has been put out and is gaining traction. #www challenges “the corporate controlled state and its paradigm that now preys on the resources and spirits of people” and avers that the “tipping point is near” for the “decentralized movement” that is “raging across the world.” They call for a “Worldwide Wave of Transformation” over a three-month “massive spring offense.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The COP 19 was so open in their corruption and domination by polluters; as well as their mistreatment of developing nations and civil society, that government and big business have once again shown – we have no choice but to revolt.  It is time to create a culture of urgent transformation.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/daily-digest/">Sign up for the daily news digest of Popular Resistance, here.</a> <span class="print-footnote">[49]</span></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This article is produced by <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/" style="">PopularResistance.org</a> <span class="print-footnote" style="">[50]</span> in conjunction with AlterNet.  It is based on <a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/category/newsletter/" style="">PopularResistance.org’s weekly newsletter</a> <span class="print-footnote" style="">[51]</span> reviewing the activities of the resistance movement.</font></p></div><div class="big_story_tools_bottom_container"><div class="talk_box"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="small" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /></font></div></div><div class="story_tools_bottom"><div class="text-size"><div class="story_tools_email"><div class="story_tools_print"><div class="story_tools_share"><div class="story_tools_social_buttons"><div class="tags"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">See more stories tagged with:</font><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/united-nations-cop-19" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">United Nations COP 19</a> <span class="print-footnote">[52]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item odd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/climate-change" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">climate change</a> <span class="print-footnote">[53]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item even"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/corruption-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">corruption</a> <span class="print-footnote">[54]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item odd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/michael-klare" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">michael klare</a> <span class="print-footnote">[55]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item even"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/trans-pacific-partnership" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">trans-pacific partnership</a> <span class="print-footnote">[56]</span>,</font></div><div class="field-item odd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/tpp" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">tpp</a> <span class="print-footnote">[57]</span></font></div></div></div></div><div class="comment_button"><div class="print-footer" style="text-align: center;"><hr class="print-hr" style="text-align: left; border: 0px; height: 1px; width: 1551px;" /><div class="print-source_url" style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong>Source URL:</strong> <a href="http://www.alternet.org/activism/lesson-cop-19-corruption-spurring-global-climate-revolt">http://www.alternet.org/activism/lesson-cop-19-corruption-spurring-global-climate-revolt</a></font></div><div class="print-links"><p /><div style="text-align: left;"><strong style="">Links:</strong></div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">[1] http://alternet.org</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;">[2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/kevin-zeese-and-margaret-flowers</div><div style="text-align: left;">[3] http://www.popularresistance.org/a-climate-change-fueled-revolution/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[4] http://www.popularresistance.org/the-carbon-pollution-profiteers-have-taken-over-the-climate-summit/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[5] http://www.popularresistance.org/coal-industry-tries-to-crash-warsaw-climate-talks-gets-spanked/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[6] http://www.popularresistance.org/who-rules-the-world-fossil-fuel-industry-or-the-people/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[7] http://www.popularresistance.org/un-defends-banning-three-activists-fossil-fuel-firms-sponsoring-climate-talks/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[8] http://www.popularresistance.org/warsaw-climate-talks-go-up-in-smoke/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[9] http://www.popularresistance.org/leaked-documents-us-opposes-helping-poor-countries-re-climate-change/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[10] http://www.popularresistance.org/poor-countries-walk-out-of-un-climate-talks/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[11] http://www.popularresistance.org/nature-does-not-negotiate-environmentalists-walk-out-of-un-climate-summit/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[12] http://www.popularresistance.org/governments-fail-on-climate-change-again/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[13] http://www.popularresistance.org/five-times-more-government-funding/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[14] http://www.popularresistance.org/coast-guard-to-approve-barging-hazardous-fracking-waste-on-major-rivers/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[15] http://www.popularresistance.org/oil-industry-not-done-raping-the-planet/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[16] http://www.popularresistance.org/fracking-industry-buying-political-power-politics-media-think-tanks/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[17] http://www.popularresistance.org/texas-town-evacuated-after-chevron-pipeline-explosion/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[18] http://www.popularresistance.org/report-construction-problems-of-kxl-pipeline-put-safety-in-doubt/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[19] http://www.flushthetpp.org/call-to-action-december-3-international-day-of-action-against-toxic-trade-agreements/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[20] http://www.popularresistance.org/trade-talks-open-in-utah-secrecy-spurs-protests/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[21] http://www.popularresistance.org/protestors-disrupt-second-day-of-tpp-negotiations-with-noise-brigade/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[22] http://www.popularresistance.org/high-flying-protest-puts-message-before-tpp-negotiators/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[23] http://www.popularresistance.org/the-people-can-defeat-the-trans-pacific-partnership/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[24] http://www.popularresistance.org/the-people-are-defeating-the-tpp/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[25] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-18/obama-s-secrecy-is-hurting-free-trade-talks.html</div><div style="text-align: left;">[26] http://www.thealliancefordemocracy.org/pdf/AfDJR6108.pdf</div><div style="text-align: left;">[27] http://www.popularresistance.org/tpp-protests-planned-for-obama-pelosi-reid-fundraisers/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[28] http://www.popularresistance.org/video-new-film-the-gallok-rebellion/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[29] http://www.popularresistance.org/movie-heritage-fight/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[30] http://www.popularresistance.org/tens-of-thousands-in-130-canadian-community-protest-climate-change/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[31] http://www.popularresistance.org/tensions-rise-north-pf-elsipogtog-as-rcmp-confronts-mikmaq/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[32] http://www.popularresistance.org/can-fracking-showdown-on-native-land-break-canadas-cycle-of-colonialism/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[33] http://www.popularresistance.org/un-special-rapporteur-canada-faces-crisis-in-situation-of-indigenous-people/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[34] http://www.popularresistance.org/the-often-ignored-facts-about-elsipogtog/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[35] http://www.popularresistance.org/canadian-court-rules-against-first-nations-on-fracking-on-native-lands/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[36] http://www.popularresistance.org/victory-for-elsipogtog-on-the-highway/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[37] http://www.popularresistance.org/feds-pouring-big-money-into-aboriginal-litigation/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[38] http://www.popularresistance.org/highway-95s-largest-omegaload-more-again-round-2/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[39] http://www.popularresistance.org/noam-chomsky-indigenous-people-are-in-the-lead/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[40] http://www.popularresistance.org/263-cities-protest-as-arctic-30-mark-2-months-in-prison/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[41] http://www.popularresistance.org/nine-of-greenpeaces-arctic-30-activists-released-on-bail/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[42] http://www.popularresistance.org/arctic-30-activist-detained-until-february-by-russian-court/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[43] http://www.popularresistance.org/fukushima-update-tepco-japan-begin-to-face-reality/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[44] http://www.popularresistance.org/cnn-nuclear-propagandist/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[45] http://www.popularresistance.org/carbon-free-nuclear-free-energy-economy-is-inevitable/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[46] http://www.popularresistance.org/national-gathering-on-the-new-ecnomy-next-spring/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[47] http://www.popularresistance.org/sleepwalking-to-extinction/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[48] http://www.popularresistance.org/a-call-for-a-crowdsourced-worldwide-wave-of-action-www/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[49] http://www.popularresistance.org/daily-digest/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[50] http://www.popularresistance.org/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[51] http://www.popularresistance.org/category/newsletter/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[52] http://www.alternet.org/tags/united-nations-cop-19</div><div style="text-align: left;">[53] http://www.alternet.org/tags/climate-change</div><div style="text-align: left;">[54] http://www.alternet.org/tags/corruption-0</div><div style="text-align: left;">[55] http://www.alternet.org/tags/michael-klare</div><div style="text-align: left;">[56] http://www.alternet.org/tags/trans-pacific-partnership</div><div style="text-align: left;">[57] http://www.alternet.org/tags/tpp</div><div style="text-align: left;">[58] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B</div></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></font></p><div style="line-height: 18px;"><h2 style="text-align: left; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; line-height: 22px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Global coal conference targeted by climate activists in Warsaw</font></h2><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As the COP19 UN climate conference entered its second week in Warsaw, Poland on Monday, a global coal conference that kicked off just down the road was met with protest by environmental activists upset with the high-profile presence of the very industry they say is largely driving the global warming crisis.</font></p></div><div style="line-height: 18px;"><div id="node-body"><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As dawn broke over the city, an international team of Greenpeace campaigners representing at least twenty countries took to the roof of the government’s finance ministry building in order to hang a larger banner that read: “Who rules the World? Fossil Industry or the people?” Above the banner, the activists displayed flags from the US, Canada, Germany, Brazil, Australia and many other countries.</font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Hosting a PR event for the coal industry during a climate conference is a slap in the face to all the people suffering from the catastrophic impacts of climate change,” declared Martin Kaiser, Head of the COP19 Delegation for Greenpeace International, in a <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/press/releases/Greenpeace-activists-protest-World-Coal-Summit-hosted-alongside-UN-climate-talks/" style="text-decoration: none;">statement</a>. “New investments in fossil fuels, like coal and oil, need to be stopped and transferred into renewable energy.”</font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Polish members of Greenpeace dropped a second banner in protest of their own government’s decision to allow the coal conference to take place alongside the COP19 summit. Carrying a similar message, their banner read: ““Who rules the Poland? The Coal Industry or the people?” Poland continues to be Europe’s leading consumer of coal despite repeated warnings about its destructive climate impact.</font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Politicians are elected to stand up for the will of the people, not for the financial interests of an aging, dirty coal industry,” said Maciej Muskat, Director of Greenpeace Poland. “Prime Minister Tusk must listen to the people and initiate a shift towards renewable energies.”</font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As the banner dropped, other protesters gathered below calling it a sham to allow coal corporations and other industry lobbyists to continue their push to extract and burn more carbon-based fuels while the planet’s atmosphere and oceans are quickly deteriorating from humanity’s over-consumption of fossil fuels.</font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Agence France-Presse <a href="http://www.france24.com/en/20131118-greenpeace-protests-coal-summit-warsaw-amid-un-climate-talks" style="text-decoration: none;">adds</a>:</font></p><blockquote style="height: 259.172px; clear: both; padding: 1em;"><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Police used a giant fire engine crane to remove the protesters, several of whom used climbing gear to dangle from the facade of the economy ministry.</font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Other anti-coal protestors outside the venue touted a massive set of pumped up plastic lungs.</font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">One of Poland’s most notorious coal problems is smog, especially in the southern tourist city of Krakow, which plans to outlaw coal-burning household stoves this month.</font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The two-day coal conference is being organised by an industry group, the World Coal Association, at the economy ministry. It is just miles from the Warsaw stadium hosting a second week of UN talks on curbing Earth-warming fossil fuels.</font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Environmentalists dressed in colourful traditional Polish costumes also unfurled a huge banner outside the stadium saying: “Stop dirty energy, empower the people”.</font></p></blockquote><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Meanwhile, as Sophie Yeo<a href="http://www.rtcc.org/2013/11/18/coal-industry-must-face-climate-reality-warns-un-chief/" style="text-decoration: none;"> reports</a> for <em>RTCC.org</em>, a coalition of climate and energy scientists released a <a href="http://www.rtcc.org/2013/11/18/coal-industry-must-face-climate-reality-warns-un-chief/" style="text-decoration: none;">joint statement</a> saying that new, more efficient power plants—or “clean coal”—are not a solution to the world’s climate crisis.</font></p></div></div><div id="crp_related" class="crp_related" style="line-height: 18px;"><h3 style="text-align: left; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; line-height: 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Related Posts:</font></h3><ul style="margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px;"><li style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/super-typhoon-haiyan-raises-the-stakes-for-warsaw-climate-talks/" class="crp_title" style="text-decoration: none;">Super Typhoon Haiyan Raises the Stakes for Warsaw Climate Talks</a><span class="crp_date" style="line-height: 13px;"> November 10, 2013</span></font></li><li style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/coal-industry-tries-to-crash-warsaw-climate-talks-gets-spanked/" class="crp_title" style="text-decoration: none;">Coal Industry Tries To Crash Warsaw Climate Talks, Gets Spanked</a><span class="crp_date" style="line-height: 13px;"> November 20, 2013</span></font></li><li style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/nature-does-not-negotiate-environmentalists-walk-out-of-un-climate-summit/" class="crp_title" style="text-decoration: none;">“Nature Does Not Negotiate”: Environmentalists Walk Out of</a><span class="crp_date" style="line-height: 13px;"> November 21, 2013</span></font></li><li style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/the-carbon-pollution-profiteers-have-taken-over-the-climate-summit/" class="crp_title" style="text-decoration: none;">The Carbon Pollution Profiteers Have Taken Over The Climate Summit</a><span class="crp_date" style="line-height: 13px;"> November 18, 2013</span></font></li><li style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.popularresistance.org/activists-blocking-coal-train-in-germany/" class="crp_title" style="text-decoration: none;">Activists Blocking Coal Train In Germany</a><span class="crp_date" style="line-height: 13px;"> September 1, 2013</span></font></li></ul></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">===</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)'s yearly talks have become a "must attend" event for huge numbers of business and industry lobbyists, all eager to promote their preferred "solution" to tackling climate change - solutions which protect their business interests, provide them with new opportunities to profit and most importantly of all, allow them to continue polluting the climate and destroying the environment for everyone.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">False solutions to climate change have been promoted by powerful corporations and business interests for years, from a free market in pollution - a global carbon market that helps rich companies avoid emission cuts at source - to public funding for controversial technologies like carbon capture and storage (CCS), nuclear power and agrofuels which have been shown to harm people and the planet.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This year marks the 19th session of the UNFCCC's Conference of the Parties (COP19), and the climate talks are taking place in the Polish capital of Warsaw, 11-22 November 2013. Poland's government is renowned for its pro-coal, anti-climate stance.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It is now infamous, together with other EU member states, for its blocking of more ambitious EU climate and energy policy, including increasing energy efficiency, renewables and emission reductions targets, and for pushing for the exploitation of shale gas and so called "clean coal".</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">COP19 is taking place against a backdrop of huge numbers of corporate side events, many given an extra boost of importance by official links with the Polish COP's organisers. The Pre-COP, a crucially important moment of the negotiations, included an unprecedented "business day".<b> COP19 is also the first UN climate talks to have corporate sponsorship, with some of the biggest climate crooks as official ‘partners', including ArcelorMittal, Alstom and BMW.</b></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Polish Ministry of Economy has even teamed up with the<b> World Coal Association to put on a parallel "International Coal and Climate Summit", whose joint "Warsaw Communiqué" is simply a blunt call for more coal and CCS, wrapped in the language of sustainable development.</b> Added to that, notorious big business - and anti-climate lobbies - have lined up to attend the Warsaw COP.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">All in all, this year's UN climate talks are set to be the most corporate captured yet, at a time when genuine progress towards real climate action is more vital than ever. COP19 is a critical point on the road to Paris 2015, when a new, binding global climate deal must be reached. But it is at COP19 that countries need to commit to having concrete emissions reduction targets ready by next year's COP in Peru, as well as lay the foundations for the new deal in 2015.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Big business, industry and finance, keen to set the agenda and shape the rules in the interests of their profits - and at the expense of climate justice - have infiltrated COP19.</font>

<b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Corporate lobby groups are pushing for false solutions to climate change, such as carbon markets, coal and CCS, shale gas, agrofuels, GM and nuclear, all wrapped-up in nice-sounding phrases like "low carbon", "clean", "green economy", "sustainable growth" or "bioeconomy".</font></b>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Big business has become the king of spin, disguising its pro-profit and environmentally exploitative agenda, lobbying for so-called "solutions" that will fail to prevent catastrophic climate change and lock us into a system dependent on fossil fuels.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Their rhetoric hides the fact that these companies are performing activities, and even have core business models, with severe impacts on the climate, local environments and on people, violating human rights and destroying local communities.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But rather than standing up to these powerful and self-serving corporations, the UNFCCC is granting them an ever-more central role in designing the "solution"; when the only real solution is keeping fossil fuels in the ground and making a just transition towards a post-fossil fuel society. As long as these corporations are invited to the table and treated as partners, this will not happen.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The dangerous and damaging steps that the Warsaw COP and its organisers, the Polish government, have taken - by embracing big polluters and climate crooks as official partners, bringing business into the pre-COP and teaming up with coal-lobbies to promote catastrophic climate policies - endanger the whole UNFCCC process, and our future.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Corporate capture on the scale that is exhibited at COP19 runs the risk of rendering the UN climate negotiations not merely ineffective, but counterproductive to tackling climate change.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It is time for the UN and the international community to open its eyes to corporate spin and powerful vested interests, and work towards real alternatives that embody the principles of social, environmental and climate justice. Leave big business polluters and corporate climate crooks out of the negotiating room.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Our<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://corporateeurope.org/sites/default/files/cop19_guide_to_corporate_lobbying-with_references.pdf" target="_blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">COP19 Guide to Corporate Lobbying</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>investigates the web of corporate lobbying and industry capture exposes the eleven official corporate partners of the conference; takes a look at some of the other influential Polish lobbies; and examines an extensive (though non-exhaustive) list of the lobby groups attending the COP according to the sector they represent.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">These sectors include fossil fuels, cross-sectoral big business groups, carbon market and financial players, agribusiness and agrofuels, as well as some of the big polluting industries.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Throughout the lobby guide you'll also find boxes on the false solutions that are being offered up by these corporate lobbies, such as shale gas (extracted through hydraulic fracturing), carbon capture and storage (CCS) and carbon markets. Big business is attempting to disguise its so-called "solutions" as green, when in fact they serve their narrow economic interests whilst jeopardising real, effective and fair climate action.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The real alternatives are clear: we need to keep fossil fuels in the ground, ensure a just transition towards a post-fossil fuel society, based on community-owned decentralised renewable energy, social justice, equity and an end to the exploitation of resources and people.</font>

<span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This article is drawn from <a href="http://corporateeurope.org/sites/default/files/cop19_guide_to_corporate_lobbying-with_references.pdf" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">The COP19 Guide to Corporate Lobbying - Climate crooks and the Polish government's partners in crime</a>, published by<span class="Apple-converted-space" style=""> </span><a href="http://corporateeurope.org/" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Corporate Europe Observatory</a> and the Transnational Institute<span class="Apple-converted-space" style=""> </span><a href="http://www.tni.org/" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">http://www.tni.org</a>/</font></span>

<span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Guide was written by Rachel Tansey, with contributions from Karolina Jankowska, Nina Holland and Belén Balanyá, and thanks to Lyda Fernanda Forero, Pascoe Sabido and Belén Balanyá for comments and feedback.</font></span>

<a href="http://corporateeurope.org/sites/default/files/cop19_guide_to_corporate_lobbying-with_references.pdf"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">http://corporateeurope.org/sites/default/files/cop19_guide_to_corporate_lobbying-with_references.pdf</font></a>

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