In our latest web poll here on Green Blog we asked if you thought the Bali Climate Conference would be a success. Here are the results:

A majority of the people said yes. They thought that the climate conference would be a success but that the result probably wouldn’t be enough.

Around 25% of you thought that the conference would be a failure. But on the same time you wished it would turn out to be a success.

13% hadn’t really any idea how the outcome would be. And just as many thought that world leaders would fail once again making the climate conference a total failure.

None of you thought that world leaders would come together and “do the right thing”.

Our new web poll question: Is nuclear energy “green”?

Cast your votes!

Watch a video (summary) of Al Gore’s rather passionate speech at the United Nations climate change conference in Bali.

“You can make a path that goes around that blank spot…”

Video after the jump. (more…)

It started as a big balloon that was constantly being filled with hot air. Everyone seemed to agree that strong guidelines and goals had to be decided to be able to slow down the effects of climate change and possibly stop global temperatures from rising above the 2 degrees threshold and into a future of death and climate chaos. You could constantly hear that this was the only chance we had, and if we didn’t fully grab this opportunity we wouldn’t have a second chance.

Over 15000 people from all over the world attended the climate conference in Bali. Every respectable news media had someone reporting from the meetings. Environment organisations, trade unions and even fossil fuel companies where there to influence the end result.

So how did it all end? Well, at least they agreed on something. That’s better than nothing, right? But the agreement is far from enough. It’s not even close.

(more…)

On a per capita basis and including our fossil fuel exports, Australia is the developed country with the highest greenhouse gas pollution. Thus 2004 data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) reveal that “annual per capita fossil fuel-derived CO2 pollution” in tonnes CO2/person is 19.2 (for Australia; 40 if you include Australia’s coal exports), 19.7 (the US), 18.4 (Canada), 9.9 (Japan), 4.2 (the World), 3.6 (China), 1.0 ( India) and 0.25 (for Bangladesh).

The Rudd Labor commitment to “20% renewables by 2020″, “60% reduction on 2000 greenhouse gas pollution by 2050″ and no constraint on fossil fuel extraction for export ACTUALLY means (based on EIA data, assuming current constant coal, gas and CO2 pollution growth rates, constant population and including Australia’s fossil fuel EXPORTS) “annual per capita fossil fuel-derived CO2 emission in tonnes per person per year” of 43 (2007), 56 (2020) and 65 (2050).

(more…)

As feared the negotiations on Bali are going slow. This is mostly because of the fact that USA, Japan and Canada are trying to block 2020 targets for emission reductions. If you don’t like that these three countries will wreck the Bali climate conference you can sign a petition over at Avaaz.org calling for these countries to stop messing around.

Climate negotiations in Bali are in crisis. Things were looking good till now: near-consensus on a delicate deal, including 2020 targets for rich countries, in return for which China and the developing world would do their part over time. IPCC scientists have said such targets are needed to prevent catastrophe. But Japan, the US and Canada are banding together to wreck the deal, and the rest of the world is starting to waver…

We can’t let three stubborn governments throw away the planet’s future. We have until the end of Friday to do everything we can. Please sign our emergency global petition below — we’ll deliver it through stunts at the summit, a full-page ad in the Jakarta Post in Asia, and directly to country delegates to stiffen their nerve against any bad compromise. Add your name to the campaign below now!

68,599 have signed in 12 hours.
Update: 169,399 have signed in 45 hours

http://www.avaaz.org/en/bali_emergency/5.php?cl=42366443&signup=1

Interested in the currently ongoing climate conference in Bali? Sure you are, and luckily you don’t need to travel to Bali to get firsthand information about what is happening at the meeting. Just watch UN’s live webcast over at http://www.un.org/webcast/unfccc

Please note that you need RealPlayer to be able to see the webcast. If you don’t have RealPlayer you can download it for free here.

Image credit: David Steven. Image licensed under a
Creative-Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works license.

Tomorrow UN’s climate meeting starts on Bali in Indonesia. During the eleven days the meeting is held the world’s leaders will try to agree on how to properly combat climate change. This is the only chance we got to unite globally against climate change and its doomsday effects, so we (they) better not screw it up. But you shouldn’t have to high hopes on the results as there are many strong and greedy powers that will try to diminish the meeting and the end result.

But hopefully reason and science will prevail. Here are five reasons why you should be a little optimistic about the Bali meeting:

(more…)

The Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change has finally released the last of its 2007 Fourth Assessment Reports together with a “Summary for Policymakers of the Synthesis Report of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) ” (see: http://www.ipcc.ch).

You will no doubt have heard, read or viewed media reports about the latest shocking IPCC report e.g. see the Science news summary of the summary of the Synthesis report.

What follows below is a convenient and succinct SUMMARY of this Summary for Policymakers of the Synthesis Report of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report.

(more…)