Could France and the UK score a climate win today?
Posted January 30 2014
The embattled leaders of two of Europe’s powerhouses are sitting down today. With current headlines dominated by scandals and political tit-for-tats, they each need something big and bold to help them emerge from this meeting with positive momentum for the months ahead, and a new alliance to pull Europe’s climate ambitions up by the bootstraps could be just the tonic.
British PM Cameron and French President Hollande are facing stiff opposition at home and flagging legacies. President Hollande has been embroiled in an affair scandal and has the lowest approval rating of any French president ever. And the UK PM is trying to fend off rebellions from his own party on immigration and other tricky issues. They’re also both suffering from climate change in action -- meteorologists have just said it’s the wettest January for 100 years in the UK, and large swathes of France and the UK have been underwater for weeks.
Both leaders, and many of their voters, understand the scientific evidence which points to an accelerating climate crisis. Last week, over 220,000 Avaaz members from the UK, France and elsewhere in Europe sent personal messages to Commission President Barroso, calling for an ambitious European climate plan, including a carbon reduction target of 50%, binding renewable energy targets, and new energy efficiency goals. The aim was to influence Europe’s climate ambitions from now until 2030.
Unfortunately the Commission published a white paper with just a 40% target. This number, the product of political jockeying in Brussels, and is even below what the Commission’s own analysis suggested would be the economically optimal goal for unleashing a wave of green technology and job creation.
But the Commission doesn't have the last word -- it’s now up to European governments to lock the EU’s climate commitments in the next eight weeks. Our best hope is that the three major players -- the UK, France and Germany -- treat the Commission’s proposal as a floor not a ceiling. So today’s meeting is a vital first step to securing that leadership, and Germany and France then meet on February 19th.
The UK and France have successfully worked together before -- the Channel Tunnel is a great example of what they can achieve when they put their minds to it -- and now it’s time to do so again. If we’re going to leave a world to our children and grandchildren without increasingly violent storms, disruption to food (and wine!) supply and rising sea levels, we need an ambitious agreement next time the world negotiates a global climate treaty, which just happens to be in Paris 2015. Today, if Cameron and Hollande seize their meeting to agree on 50% cuts for Europe, they can score a big climate win and set Paris up for success.
Setting the bar at 350
Posted: April 22nd 2008
It seems somewhat fitting to use Earth Day as a moment to plug a new climate movement. My friends over at Step it Up have recently launched a new endeavour: 350.org
So what’s it all about? A couple of weeks ago, the godfather of climate science James Hansen, released a new paper stating that we’ve grossly underestimated the “safe” level for concentrations of Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Previously, we’d been working with levels identified in the IPCC’s fourth assessment report that figure was 450 parts per million (the percentage out of a million). It varies depending on who you speak to, but generally we’re aiming to keep the rate of warming below 2 degrees Celsius. This means limiting the concentration of Carbon between 450ppm and 550ppm. Hansen’s paper blows this out of the water, finding that this figure is actually more like 350ppm. The ramifications of this are clear, given that the current level is about 385ppm and most governments are struggling to meet any targets at all.
While most have spent the last couple of weeks debating over whether this target is possible, the good folks of Step It Up have embraced Hansen’s findings to launch an all new global movement, the aptly named 350.org. You see, while many doubt that the target is an achievable advocacy ask, 350.org are pushing ahead and using this number as a rallying call for people around the world. As Bill McKibben puts it:
"We’re planning an international campaign to unite the world around the number 350, and we need your help. We need to make sure that the solutions the world proposes to climate change are to scale with the level of crisis that this number represents. Everyone on earth, from the smallest village to the cushiest corner office, needs to know what 350 means. The movement to spread that number needs to be beautiful, creative, and unstoppable.
What we need most right now are on-the-ground examples for how to take the number 350 and drive it home: in art, in music, in political demonstrations, in any other way you can imagine. We hope this project will grow tremendously in the months to come, and it helps all the more if people can see the great things others are doing already. We will connect actions all around the world and make them add up to more than the sum of their parts-but we don’t have all the ideas and all the inspiration. We need you to act on yours".
They’ve set themselves a high bar. However, if anyone can do it they can. People were fairly critical of the targets they advocated for Step It Up 2007, and now those targets are firmly in the political mainstream thanks to the fact that Step It Up mobilised thousands of Americans to act at the grassroots level. They may not have the budget of Al Gore--who has pledged $300 million on a multi media advocacy campaign--but they have an uncanny knack for motivating large numbers of people in a sustained way that Earth Days and Live Earths cannot.I wish them the best of luck and will be following their progress closely.
UPDATE: Click here to watch 350.org's outstanding video on why the world needs to know about the number 350.
Taking Climate off the shelf
Posted: March 26th, 2008
So it's been a while since my last post, due to an incredibly busy month at Avaaz: campaigning on biofuels, winning awards, and breaking online petition records. However, today's news that the Wilkins Ice sheet is dangerously close collapse compelled me to take a minute to reflect on what this discovery means.
Ever since the IPCC published its Fourth Assessment Report, we’ve known that evidence for anthropogenic climate change is unequivocal and the need for combative action is immediate. Yet, over a year after the scientific section of this paper was published, there is still a gap between what the scientists say needs to be done and the political response. Not even the European Union, who have played a very active role in international climate politics, has got it right.
Today’s bombshell then, should have everyone worried. Essentially, the rate at which this ice shelf is breaking up is 50% faster than what scientists had predicted and, given that the IPCC is towards the more conservative end of scientific projections, this news suggests that we should be extremely worried about the impact timetables upon which we have based most of our calls to action. But, I wonder--can some good come out of this? Perhaps it will take an event like the collapse of the Wilkins Ice sheet for politicians to finally realise the urgency with which we must tackle this problem. I’m not convinced that this event will kick start the world’s politicians into action. However, what it may well do is announce to the world’s people that global warming has arrived. We already know that public concern over climate change is high, but this melting of a giant ice sheet could spur a critical mass of public concern which will no longer provide politicians with excuses for inaction.
Precision Politics from Palau
Posted: February 27th, 2007
Two weeks ago, at a UN General Assembly special meeting on climate change, the small Pacific island state of Palau announced its intention to formally request the UN Security Council’s protection from climate change and rising sea-levels. Specifically, in the form of a Security Council Resolution calling for mandatory emissions reduction targets.
It’s an incredibly smart move. The UNSC’s mandate is to maintain international peace and security, both of which will be under intense pressure as climatic impacts become more pronounced. Most of Palau lies barely above sea level (its highest point is slightly over 200m) making climate change a direct threat to this small nations physical and cultural existence. Could there be a clearer purpose for the UNSC than to protect the smaller nations of this world from annihilation?
The Palauan UN Ambassador, Mr. Beck addressed the meeting: “It is the obligation of the Security Council to prevent an aggravation of the situation … Larger countries can build dikes, and move to higher ground. This is not feasible for the small island states who must simply stand by and watch their cultures vanish.” Fearing that the Resolution may get rejected the first time around, he went on to urge other countries, “whose very existence is threatened, to utilize Article 34 of the Charter, which empowers each Member State to bring to the attention of the Security Council any issue which might lead to international friction.” He finished: “I think we can all agree that international friction is a mild term to describe the terrible plight in which the island nations now find themselves.” See the full text here.
The reality is that it is probably already too late for the 20,000 citizens of Palau and the other Pacific islands--as their governments stand before the world’s most powerful countries pleading for help, the wheels of devastating climate change are already in motion. However, Palau’s UN mission is demonstrating a lesson in principles: how long can the world sit idly by as entire cultures vanish? Moreover, Palau is giving all small countries a course in precision politics: if you want to change the world; aim high.
With luck, Palau’s call to action will trigger other low lying countries to take up the cause. It seems that their only hope is for global citizens and other low lying countries like Bangladesh and the Netherlands to join their call for a resolution. They certainly have my support.
Things are looking up
DownUnder
Posted: February 15th 2007
I have to say it: Australia is rapidly moving up in my estimations. The nation that brought us Neighbours has accomplished some amazing things in the past 2 months--and I for one am impressed!
Back in December, the new PM Kevin Rudd announced his first task in office would be to ratify Kyoto; signaling a major shift in the geopolitical landscape of climate change. Granted, this symbolic gesture was not followed up with bold action--the Australian delegation to the UN climate negotiations in Bali was eerily silent throughout the conference's 2 week duration. In fairness though, the new administration only had about 3 weeks to prepare.
Then yesterday, the PM made an official apology to the “Stolen Generations”, victims of a government policy from 1910 to 1970 that took mixed-race children--mostly of Aboriginal mothers and European fathers--to orphanages, church missions or foster homes to be raised separately from their families and culture. Many claim the ultimate purpose was the extinction of Aborigines as a distinct race. It is unbelievable to think that such a policy operated in a democratic country until 1970. The apology is well overdue, but kudos to Mr. Rudd I can think of few politicians who have the guts to apologies for the atrocities of governments past, or present. As Getup! said in their recent email: “one small word; one giant leap forward”. I couldn’t agree more.
So that’s two enormous gold stars for Australia. Yet, there’s something else that inspired me to sing Australia’s praises, something that will probably go unnoticed in the rest of the world.
On recent trip to Oz I noticed an advert for Cooper’s beer (see image). Many companies are currently jumping on the green marketing bandwagon. Yet to date, climate conscious marketing tends to be either exclusive or head bashing; not targeting the masses, or activities thereof. What struck me about this ad was its simple and wholesome message--walking to the pub and drinking domestic beer not only reduces emissions; but decreases drink driving incidents, offsets extra calories from those couple of beers, and supports the domestic beer industry (**note: this is more appealing in a country like Australia that actually has good domestic beers).
Now, I don't think I would be going out on a limb to suggest that beer swigging males represent a pretty large section of society and that they are also a pretty carbon-intensive bunch. Simple advertising like this serves as a reminder to the climate movement that we needn't over complicate messaging. The best way to tackle this problem is to engage the masses with messages that have a point of common resonance, and what could be more homogeneous than beer? I’d love to see the numbers, but I suspect that a worldwide Ad campaign encouraging beer drinkers to walk to the pub and drink domestic brews, would result in a measurable emissions reductions.I'm not saying that we can avert a climate nightmare by drinking, but that mainstream marketing has to be the next step in public mobilisation. It's a lesson that Greenpeace seems to agree with and Cooper's has so effectively demonstrated.
So Australia, in two months you have re-joined global efforts to tackle climate change and apologised for the human rights abuses you inflicted upon your indigenous people. You have showed the world that political will and socially creative marketing can be a positive force for change and for that, I will raise my next pint to you.
UK and France