[GWSG] Agreement in Paris; near-consensus; key points; disappointments; pulling down C; Gleick on Cruz

[Tilley, Al]

1.  Negotiators from early 200 countries have agreed to the Paris climate agreement.  For the first time, the nations of the world are committed to a process of transition away from fossil fuels, and have resolved to avoid severe risk of catastrophic climate change.  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/12/paris-climate-deal-200-nations-sign-finish-fossil-fuel-era  An account of the final moments of the conference, and a link to the agreement:  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/planet-oz/2015/dec/12/paris-agreement-a-victory-for-climate-science-and-ultimate-defeat-for-fossil-fuels


2.  Following the role of a small number of nations in blocking consensus at the Copenhagen conference in 2009 the United Nations adopted a looser form of consensus in which the foreign minister of the host nation can declare consensus even if some undetermined but small number of nations object.  Such a process was used at Paris.  http://www.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-summit-rules-idUSKBN0TT2Q920151210?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews#8jk5IpkViIUIEjYq.97


3.  The key points of the Paris agreement include a goal of 1.5C warming, a commitment to revisit the agreement at five-year intervals, a way to support vulnerable countries as they suffer climate impacts, and a provision for support of less developed nations in their energy transitions.   http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/12/paris-climate-deal-key-points


4.  George Monbiot finds the Paris agreement disastrous (because it does not limit production of fossil fuels, and because it lacks a firm time table for limiting emissions) and yet miraculous, compared to what it could have been.  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/georgemonbiot/2015/dec/12/paris-climate-deal-governments-fossil-fuels?   James Hansen holds that the talks failed in that they did not set a price on carbon.  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/12/james-hansen-climate-change-paris-talks-fraud  I see no reason to doubt that the agreement can be used to lead us where we need to go.  A price on carbon may yet be necessary, and the agreement allows for that scale of revision.


5.  Several companies are piloting technologies for pulling carbon out of the atmosphere, which will be necessary if we are to achieve a low risk of climate catastrophe.  http://e360.yale.edu/feature/can_pulling_carbon_from_air_make_a_difference_on_climate/2938/


6.  Pacific Institute's Peter Gleick has annotated an NPR interview with Ted Cruz, with links to further information on Cruz's bogus claims and fallacies.  Ted Cruz is Donald Trump's current top competitor for the Republican nomination, but my main reason for running this is that I took such pleasure in getting to read Gleick slowing down the bullshit long enough to get in responses.  http://climatecrocks.com/2015/12/12/ted-cruz-everything-he-knows-is-wrong/

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.unf.edu/pipermail/gwsg/attachments/20151212/7c43342b/attachment.html