Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Solar power brings light to Bangladesh villages
With state-owned and private sector fossil-fuel power plants only capable of delivering up to 3,800 megawatts of electricity a day against a demand of 5,500 megawatts, solar energy systems offer some relief to millions of villagers in Bangladesh."Life has become much easier now," said Kulsum Begum, a mother of four whose husband and son work abroad and who lives in Pritomoddi, some 60 km (40 miles) southeast of the capital Dhaka.Begum installed a 40-watt solar system on the roof of her house. The system powers four light bulbs, one television and also recharges her lifeline: the mobile phone."Whenever I need something, I call my husband or son on the cell phone. I am so happy now," she said.The solar energy systems offered to Bangladesh villagers are heavily subsidized by the World Bank and run by the state-owned Infrastructure and Development Company Limited (IDCOL).Prices of a solar system span from 9,500 taka ($135) to 68,000 taka ($970) depending on capacity but the villagers usually pay in installments. Prices are also set to fall after the government lifted import duties on solar panels last month.Grameen Shakti, a non-profit organization linked to the Nobel Prize winning micro credit agency Grameen Bank, works with the World Bank and IDCOL to spread the technology throughout the impoverished country."Right now 2.5 million people are benefiting from solar energy and we have a plan to reach 10 million people by the end of 2012," said Dipal Chandra Barua, Managing Director of Grameen Shakti.Since June, Grameen Shakti has installed more than 250,000 solar home systems, accounting for some 66 per cent of the total of solar-powered households. Barua said around 10,000 new solar home systems are being fitted every month.
Youths from 110 countries inspire climate action
The biggest-ever youth conference on climate change began Monday, as 800 young environmental activists from 110 countries gathered in the central South Korean city of Daejeon.The week-long conference is aimed at giving young people a chance to demand action on global warming ahead of the pivotal UN climate change conference in Copenhagen in December.The youth climate conference "is a gathering of the generation that will inherit the outcome of the decisions taken in December and beyond,” said Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) which is organizing the event.The 800 participants aged between 10 and 24 years were chosen from thousands of applicants due to their outstanding green projects, the UN body said.Among these are a rap video by two Canadian teenagers on how people can reduce their environmental footprint, a drive to distribute 500 low-energy light bulbs in Nepal, a car pooling initiative in Samoa, a recycling project in Sierra Leone and a river clean-up in Russia.
Ocean temperature breaks the record
Once again, the world sets new temperature records. According to an analysis by NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, USA, the planet’s ocean surface temperature in July has broken the previous high mark from 1998. The global ocean surface temperature for July was 0.59 degrees C (1.06 degrees F) above the 20th century average of 16.4 degrees C (61.5 degrees F). All in all, the planet was warmer than normal, though July ranked “only” fifth-warmest since world-wide records began in 1880. The combined average global land and ocean surface temperature for July 2009 ends at 0.57 degrees C (1.03 degrees F) above the 20th century average of 15.8 degrees C (60.4 degrees F). According to the federal scientists, it was hotter than usual in Europe, Northern Africa and a large part of Western North America. Across these regions, temperatures were about 2-4 degrees C (4-7 degrees F) above average. However, Southern South America, Central Canada, the Eastern United States and parts of Western and Eastern Asia experienced cooler than average conditions, where region-wide temperatures were nearly 2-4 degrees C (4-7 degrees F) below average
Monday, August 17, 2009
Native species will become climate refugees: Report
A new report suggests that global warming isn't just going to endanger many of Australia's animals and plants - it's going to force many of those that do survive to migrate.It's Australia's first national assessment of the effects of climate change on the country's biodiversity.The result of two years' scientific work, it warns that some native species will become "climate refugees" as they're forced to move and adapt to rising temperatures.Dina Rosendorff reports.DINA ROSENDORFF: Cassowaries are found in north-eastern Australia, Kingfishers return south when it becomes a little warmer and Australian Bass spawn in estuaries in the cooler months. They're truisms of Australian biology but that may soon change. In fact a new report says Australia's native plants and animals have already started changing their behaviours and patterns to cope with climate change.Professor Will Steffen is the executive director of the Climate Institute at the Australian National University and the report's lead author.WILL STEFFEN: We're starting to see parrots that are basically coastal birds are now over wintering in Canberra because it's warm enough now for them to over winter there. So you're going to see particularly movements of birds into new areas like that.DINA ROSENDORFF: Professor Steffen says climate change is altering the biodiversity of such natural features as the Great Barrier Reef, the Australian Alps and the Kakadu Wetlands.WILL STEFFEN: Australians will need to I think readjust our view of what biodiversity is and how, and the roles it plays and how valuable it is. For example most of us are used to seeing ecosystems in certain places. It's one of the reasons that we have national parks. We're preserving species and ecosystems where they are. But this is shifting already and it's going to shift even more. So species will move, will move out of a region that they're in. New species will move in.DINA ROSENDORFF: And he says rising temperatures will turn some of our most loved native species into climate refugees.WILL STEFFEN: One of the really intriguing questions I think is when does a native species become invasive because we're used to thinking of exotics as invasive species; like feral cats, like foxes, like cane toads and so on. But as our native species try to shift some of them will have to move reasonably long distances to keep within their environmental envelope. As they move they may actually be unwelcome entrants into existing ecosystems or existing areas.DINA ROSENDORFF: Another of the report's authors professor Patricia Werner says rising temperatures are already having major genetic effects on some animal species.PATRICIA WERNER: One of the most interesting ones right now has to do with bird size. We've known for a long, long time that within a species of bird that they're actually closer to the poles and smaller away from the poles. It's called the Bergman Rule.But we're discovering now that that's actually happening even over the last 100 years looking at museum specimens and comparing the sizes of birds from then to now and they're actually getting smaller, which is what you would expect in response to warmer temperatures.DINA ROSENDORFF: Professor Werner says while some species will learn to adapt to climate change, many won't. And she says some of Australia's most iconic species are the most vulnerable.PATRICIA WERNER: The changes are happening so quickly that it's going to be beyond the ability of some of these species to change very quickly. We need to manage in ways that make space and opportunities to allow species to change either disperse or genetic changes to allow communities to reorganise and to allow ecosystems to continue to function to give us vital services that they do.DINA ROSENDORFF: The report commissioned by the Federal Government is the first national assessment of Australia's biodiversity. It's been launched at the 10th International Congress of Ecology in Brisbane today.It makes five recommendations including the need for an national body to oversee biodiversity management.Professor Werner explains.PATRICIA WERNER: For example there's a flying fox, a grey headed flying fox in Queensland that is moving southward toward the pole and there's a black flying fox in New South Wales that is being pressured a little bit by this grey one. When it comes to policy if you're sitting in Queensland it looks like you've got a bat, or a flying fox in trouble. But actually they're doing a natural translocation southward.If you're sitting in New South Wales it looks like you've got an invasive species and actually the poor things are just trying to, you know, adjust.So we talk about a national approach. We mostly lay it out there as a question that needs to be answered I think by Government and governments.DINA ROSENDORFF: The Environment Minister Peter Garrett says the Federal Government is already adjusting its environmental focus to meet some of the demands listed in the report.PETER GARRETT: There's a challenge there for governments at the Federal, the State and the local level and that is to make sure that in their planning, in their decision making and in their support of environmental policies we look at the whole of Australia's environment. That's what this report tells us. It's something we're acting on.DINA ROSENDORFF: The Opposition's climate change spokesman Greg Hunt says he won't comment until he's seen the report.
Plan to cope with climate change on Reef
A new strategy has been launched to cope with the single biggest threat to the Great Barrier Reef - climate change - - - and protect Australia's $5 billion reef tourism industry.
The strategy was unveiled today at the Tourism Futures Conference on the Gold Coast.
It has been compiled by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Queensland Tourism Industry Council and Association of Marine Park Tourism Operators.
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority chairman Russell Reichelt said climate change is the single biggest threat facing the reef.
"One of the key features is that it was developed by industry, but with the marine park authority as a combined effort," he said.
The plan covers raising awareness among operators and tourists, reducing the carbon footprint of tourism operators and improving their energy efficiency, monitoring and reporting changes, improving the resilience of the reef itself, and integrating climate change with business operations and planning.
Dr Reichelt said the operators of Lady Elliot Island have shown how positively embracing change can not only reduce the impact on a pristine environment, but also cut costs.
Managing director of Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort Peter Gash said one of the challenges he faced was operating a tourist business in a pristine environment.
"Lady Elliot is unique in that it is a coral cay out at sea so we have to produce everything ourselves," Mr Gash said.
"We manufacture our power ourselves with generators, we desalinate our water and we treat our own sewage."
He said when he took over the island about 500 litres of diesel was being used each day to power the resort.
"We've manufactured a large hybrid solar power structure which is now producing enough power to reduce our diesel consumption by about 400 litres a day," Mr Gash said.
"If you multiply that by a year that's an awful lot of fuel and an awful lot of carbon reduction."
The strategy was unveiled today at the Tourism Futures Conference on the Gold Coast.
It has been compiled by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Queensland Tourism Industry Council and Association of Marine Park Tourism Operators.
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority chairman Russell Reichelt said climate change is the single biggest threat facing the reef.
"One of the key features is that it was developed by industry, but with the marine park authority as a combined effort," he said.
The plan covers raising awareness among operators and tourists, reducing the carbon footprint of tourism operators and improving their energy efficiency, monitoring and reporting changes, improving the resilience of the reef itself, and integrating climate change with business operations and planning.
Dr Reichelt said the operators of Lady Elliot Island have shown how positively embracing change can not only reduce the impact on a pristine environment, but also cut costs.
Managing director of Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort Peter Gash said one of the challenges he faced was operating a tourist business in a pristine environment.
"Lady Elliot is unique in that it is a coral cay out at sea so we have to produce everything ourselves," Mr Gash said.
"We manufacture our power ourselves with generators, we desalinate our water and we treat our own sewage."
He said when he took over the island about 500 litres of diesel was being used each day to power the resort.
"We've manufactured a large hybrid solar power structure which is now producing enough power to reduce our diesel consumption by about 400 litres a day," Mr Gash said.
"If you multiply that by a year that's an awful lot of fuel and an awful lot of carbon reduction."
FACTBOX: China climate change report sets out options
A new study by some of China's top climate change policy advisers has urged the government to set firm targets to curb greenhouse gas emissions so they peak around 2030.
Following are some of the key proposals of that study, "2050 China Energy and C02 Emissions Report."
SETTING GREENHOUSE GAS TARGETS
The study proposes setting relative and then absolute targets for limiting China's emissions of the greenhouse gases from human activities that are stoking global warming. The "relative" targets could involve carbon intensity goals, curbing the amount of emissions needed to create each unit of economic worth.
Later, it says, the government could apply absolute caps on emissions, also allowing for the emergence of a "cap-and-trade" market so companies could buy and sell emissions rights, domestically and internationally.
Movement to such a carbon-trading market should be cautious, the study says. "Once allocation of pollution rights is handed to the government, that may create room for rent-seeking, so ultimately it becomes impossible to effectively allocate rights."
CARBON TAXES
The report devotes a chapter to the potential benefits and costs of a "carbon tax." Such a tax, applied to fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil, "would play a clear role in curtailing our country's future carbon dioxide emissions."
A tax of 100 yuan ($14.6) on every metric ton of carbon from 2010, which would rise to 200 yuan on every metric ton in 2030, could by 2030 reduce emissions by up 24 percent less than they would have been under a "business as usual" scenario.
ENERGY MARKET AND FINANCIAL REFORMS
The study examines proposals to deepen market reforms of the energy sector and force coal-users to pay more for the estimated environmental costs. It also encourages reforms to encourage more investment and private capital in clean energy.
EMISSIONS SCENARIOS
In the study, Jiang Kejun of the Energy Research Institute says that if China continues a "business as usual" approach focused on economic growth and does little to curb emissions, its carbon dioxide output from fossil fuel alone could peak at the equivalent of 3.5 billion metric tons of pure carbon a year by 2040. That does not include greenhouse gas emissions from other sources, such as livestock and land-use changes.
If China adopts policies to promote "low-carbon development," emissions could reach 2.4 billion metric tons of carbon a year by 2050.
Under an "enhanced low carbon scenario" of even more stringent steps, they could reach a maximum of 2.2 billion metric tons a year in 2030 and fall to 1.4 billion metric tons in 2050.
"An enhanced low-carbon growth strategy would be difficult but doable," Jiang told Reuters.
The U.S. Oak Ridge National Laboratory has estimated China emitted 1.8 billion metric tons of carbon from burning fossil fuels in 2007, compared with 1.6 billion metric tons from the United States. (Emissions are also measured in CO2, with each metric ton of carbon equal to 3.67 metric tons of CO2).
Following are some of the key proposals of that study, "2050 China Energy and C02 Emissions Report."
SETTING GREENHOUSE GAS TARGETS
The study proposes setting relative and then absolute targets for limiting China's emissions of the greenhouse gases from human activities that are stoking global warming. The "relative" targets could involve carbon intensity goals, curbing the amount of emissions needed to create each unit of economic worth.
Later, it says, the government could apply absolute caps on emissions, also allowing for the emergence of a "cap-and-trade" market so companies could buy and sell emissions rights, domestically and internationally.
Movement to such a carbon-trading market should be cautious, the study says. "Once allocation of pollution rights is handed to the government, that may create room for rent-seeking, so ultimately it becomes impossible to effectively allocate rights."
CARBON TAXES
The report devotes a chapter to the potential benefits and costs of a "carbon tax." Such a tax, applied to fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil, "would play a clear role in curtailing our country's future carbon dioxide emissions."
A tax of 100 yuan ($14.6) on every metric ton of carbon from 2010, which would rise to 200 yuan on every metric ton in 2030, could by 2030 reduce emissions by up 24 percent less than they would have been under a "business as usual" scenario.
ENERGY MARKET AND FINANCIAL REFORMS
The study examines proposals to deepen market reforms of the energy sector and force coal-users to pay more for the estimated environmental costs. It also encourages reforms to encourage more investment and private capital in clean energy.
EMISSIONS SCENARIOS
In the study, Jiang Kejun of the Energy Research Institute says that if China continues a "business as usual" approach focused on economic growth and does little to curb emissions, its carbon dioxide output from fossil fuel alone could peak at the equivalent of 3.5 billion metric tons of pure carbon a year by 2040. That does not include greenhouse gas emissions from other sources, such as livestock and land-use changes.
If China adopts policies to promote "low-carbon development," emissions could reach 2.4 billion metric tons of carbon a year by 2050.
Under an "enhanced low carbon scenario" of even more stringent steps, they could reach a maximum of 2.2 billion metric tons a year in 2030 and fall to 1.4 billion metric tons in 2050.
"An enhanced low-carbon growth strategy would be difficult but doable," Jiang told Reuters.
The U.S. Oak Ridge National Laboratory has estimated China emitted 1.8 billion metric tons of carbon from burning fossil fuels in 2007, compared with 1.6 billion metric tons from the United States. (Emissions are also measured in CO2, with each metric ton of carbon equal to 3.67 metric tons of CO2).
Environmentalists hope UN talks tough on climate change
You're probably not thinking about what you would like for Christmas yet. But ask any environmentalist for their ideal gift and you'll get a version of this answer: a binding agreement at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen this December that is strong enough to match the science.
Environmental activism keeps the heat on the UN to deliver at climate talks in December.
The talks are the latest in a line of climate conferences that began in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. This year the focus will be on the details of a new global climate agreement for when the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
The stakes are high.
The representatives of 192 national governments, along with countless lobbyists and special interest groups, will gather between 7-18 December against a backdrop of increasingly gloomy academic papers, all predicting dramatic and catastrophic changes to the world -- unless we act right now.
"The issues at stake are greater than any decisions made in human history," Tom Picken of Friends of the Earth International told CNN. "With unprecedented consequences for the ecosystems of the planet, the well-being of all humanity, the very survival of hundreds of millions, if not billions of people, and the ability of future generations to have and enjoy life on Earth."
According to Kofi Annan's Global Humanitarian Forum, there are already more than 300,000 deaths per year directly attributable to climate change. While hundreds of studies around the world have linked climate change to phenomena including the increased frequency and intensity of hurricanes and other storms, changing rainfall patterns, drought, coastal flooding, changing disease patterns and the migration of human populations.
As a result climate change is no longer just a "green" issue, with organizations now campaigning for action also including trade unions, humanitarian NGOs such as Oxfam, Christian Aid and the Red Cross; even civil groups, like the Women's Institute in the UK, are demanding action.
But, despite this broadening of the issue and what most experts argue is unequivocal scientific proof that we need to act immediately to avoid even more serious consequences, so far activists agree that the necessary changes aren't coming nearly fast enough.
"The political and economic responses to climate change so far are simply tinkering at the edges of what's needed in relation to what's at stake," says Picken.
"Climate science is becoming increasingly clear and [it is] widely agreed that we are on the verge of passing irreversible tipping points, whereby although catastrophic impacts might not be evident for some decades, delay in the atmospheric system could mean a point of no return is passed imminently.
"The best available science indicates we are now at that juncture... This means that political and economic decisions made in Copenhagen are vital if we are to have any reasonable chance of avoiding these tipping points."
Progress being made
On some levels there is no doubt progress has been made. Climate change is now part of the popular lexicon and an important political issue. However, the gulf between what is being done to address the problem, and what pressure groups argue needs to be done is growing wider.
With the clock ticking, Friends of the Earth believe that now is the time for radical change: "What we need to see in Copenhagen is genuine shifts toward making the cuts [in emissions] needed in developed countries, the commitment to the finance needed to support developing countries, and perhaps most of all, an abandonment of failed policies -- or false solutions.
"This boils down to ensuring [industrialized] countries commit to making at least 40 percent cuts by 2020 without recourse to offsetting within this range, mobilize the necessary international finance to support mitigation in developing countries and protect forests without using offset mechanisms to buy up tracks of rainforest at the expense of making real industrial emissions cuts at home." Watch how Japan is struggling to meet its emissions targets »
These are bold demands that will equate to major changes in many aspects of society and business -- with some vested interests obviously reticent to accept them. But Picken believes that acting now will have benefits for our economies as well as our environment.
"[Addressing] climate change could still cost only one to three percent of global Gross Domestic Products now," he says.
"If delayed, our response bill could rise to more than 20 percent of GDP -- there is no alternative. Besides, new investment into real climate solutions, ambitious public investment in renewable energy technology and reducing energy waste will create exciting new business opportunities and tens of thousands of green collar jobs, as well as protect families and businesses from the yo-yoing costs of fossil fuels."
'Greatest threat to humanity'
Hearing that mitigating what both Oxfam and the Red Cross have dubbed "the greatest threat to humanity" may also impact positively on our society and economy must be encouraging. But it is still unclear whether our leaders will accept the environmentalists' vision at Copenhagen.
"It's too early to call," says Picken. "Real change can and must happen, but entrenched vested interests must be excluded to avoid such events turning into talking shops.
"We can expect a combination of a reasonable agreement that moves things in the right direction, but needs much further detail and commitment; a face-saving statement with little substance, essentially stalled negotiations; and an agreement that looks like it addresses the challenges, but is actually based on false-solutions."
Any outcome will of course be versed in the dry language of international legalese. But for inspiration Picken believes we should be looking to some of the most inspirational moments in human history for a glimpse at what our species can achieve.
"We must look not only to past negotiations, but to historic moments that changed the course of history. We must grasp the achievements of abolishing slavery and putting a man on the moon, to remind ourselves what we really could achieve.
"Now is not the time to be cynical -- there is no acceptable alternative to solving climate change. What it clear however is that we cannot solve this problem using the same thinking and systems that caused it.
"[Sir Nicholas] Stern has famously stated that climate change is the greatest failure of the market in history. We must be careful not to fight fire with fire, but instead mobilize the diversity of solutions at our disposal, and dispense with false solutions that detract from this effort.
"This path must of course be grounded in striving for sustainable societies, through a fair allocation of the worlds resources, respecting and valuing the rights of people now and in the future, and supporting the solutions to climate change that we are responsible for achieving for the benefit of all."
The rhetoric is high, but then so are the stakes. The lives and livelihoods of millions will be on the table in Copenhagen -- and so to will our species' ability to imagine a better, fairer future
Environmental activism keeps the heat on the UN to deliver at climate talks in December.
The talks are the latest in a line of climate conferences that began in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. This year the focus will be on the details of a new global climate agreement for when the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
The stakes are high.
The representatives of 192 national governments, along with countless lobbyists and special interest groups, will gather between 7-18 December against a backdrop of increasingly gloomy academic papers, all predicting dramatic and catastrophic changes to the world -- unless we act right now.
"The issues at stake are greater than any decisions made in human history," Tom Picken of Friends of the Earth International told CNN. "With unprecedented consequences for the ecosystems of the planet, the well-being of all humanity, the very survival of hundreds of millions, if not billions of people, and the ability of future generations to have and enjoy life on Earth."
According to Kofi Annan's Global Humanitarian Forum, there are already more than 300,000 deaths per year directly attributable to climate change. While hundreds of studies around the world have linked climate change to phenomena including the increased frequency and intensity of hurricanes and other storms, changing rainfall patterns, drought, coastal flooding, changing disease patterns and the migration of human populations.
As a result climate change is no longer just a "green" issue, with organizations now campaigning for action also including trade unions, humanitarian NGOs such as Oxfam, Christian Aid and the Red Cross; even civil groups, like the Women's Institute in the UK, are demanding action.
But, despite this broadening of the issue and what most experts argue is unequivocal scientific proof that we need to act immediately to avoid even more serious consequences, so far activists agree that the necessary changes aren't coming nearly fast enough.
"The political and economic responses to climate change so far are simply tinkering at the edges of what's needed in relation to what's at stake," says Picken.
"Climate science is becoming increasingly clear and [it is] widely agreed that we are on the verge of passing irreversible tipping points, whereby although catastrophic impacts might not be evident for some decades, delay in the atmospheric system could mean a point of no return is passed imminently.
"The best available science indicates we are now at that juncture... This means that political and economic decisions made in Copenhagen are vital if we are to have any reasonable chance of avoiding these tipping points."
Progress being made
On some levels there is no doubt progress has been made. Climate change is now part of the popular lexicon and an important political issue. However, the gulf between what is being done to address the problem, and what pressure groups argue needs to be done is growing wider.
With the clock ticking, Friends of the Earth believe that now is the time for radical change: "What we need to see in Copenhagen is genuine shifts toward making the cuts [in emissions] needed in developed countries, the commitment to the finance needed to support developing countries, and perhaps most of all, an abandonment of failed policies -- or false solutions.
"This boils down to ensuring [industrialized] countries commit to making at least 40 percent cuts by 2020 without recourse to offsetting within this range, mobilize the necessary international finance to support mitigation in developing countries and protect forests without using offset mechanisms to buy up tracks of rainforest at the expense of making real industrial emissions cuts at home." Watch how Japan is struggling to meet its emissions targets »
These are bold demands that will equate to major changes in many aspects of society and business -- with some vested interests obviously reticent to accept them. But Picken believes that acting now will have benefits for our economies as well as our environment.
"[Addressing] climate change could still cost only one to three percent of global Gross Domestic Products now," he says.
"If delayed, our response bill could rise to more than 20 percent of GDP -- there is no alternative. Besides, new investment into real climate solutions, ambitious public investment in renewable energy technology and reducing energy waste will create exciting new business opportunities and tens of thousands of green collar jobs, as well as protect families and businesses from the yo-yoing costs of fossil fuels."
'Greatest threat to humanity'
Hearing that mitigating what both Oxfam and the Red Cross have dubbed "the greatest threat to humanity" may also impact positively on our society and economy must be encouraging. But it is still unclear whether our leaders will accept the environmentalists' vision at Copenhagen.
"It's too early to call," says Picken. "Real change can and must happen, but entrenched vested interests must be excluded to avoid such events turning into talking shops.
"We can expect a combination of a reasonable agreement that moves things in the right direction, but needs much further detail and commitment; a face-saving statement with little substance, essentially stalled negotiations; and an agreement that looks like it addresses the challenges, but is actually based on false-solutions."
Any outcome will of course be versed in the dry language of international legalese. But for inspiration Picken believes we should be looking to some of the most inspirational moments in human history for a glimpse at what our species can achieve.
"We must look not only to past negotiations, but to historic moments that changed the course of history. We must grasp the achievements of abolishing slavery and putting a man on the moon, to remind ourselves what we really could achieve.
"Now is not the time to be cynical -- there is no acceptable alternative to solving climate change. What it clear however is that we cannot solve this problem using the same thinking and systems that caused it.
"[Sir Nicholas] Stern has famously stated that climate change is the greatest failure of the market in history. We must be careful not to fight fire with fire, but instead mobilize the diversity of solutions at our disposal, and dispense with false solutions that detract from this effort.
"This path must of course be grounded in striving for sustainable societies, through a fair allocation of the worlds resources, respecting and valuing the rights of people now and in the future, and supporting the solutions to climate change that we are responsible for achieving for the benefit of all."
The rhetoric is high, but then so are the stakes. The lives and livelihoods of millions will be on the table in Copenhagen -- and so to will our species' ability to imagine a better, fairer future
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