This week the leaders of the seventeen of the worlds largest economies will meet in L’Aquila,
Italy at the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF). While some commentators have already called this “the meeting of the millennium” the outcome of this meeting is set to dictate the results of the Copenhagen Conference in December 09.
Obama and Brown have thrown down the gauntlet to the other leaders and arrive with clear policy positions already outlined. We will see if they will have the power to win over the other members of the group.
Despite the fact that the Italian organisation is reported to have been close to chaotic this
meeting will be significant in setting the global policy for energy and climate change for the next four years and beyond.
The stage is set for the world to see President Obama’s commitment to fighting climate change and how far he will be willing to push fellow world leaders to reduce their emissions. As President of one of the world’s biggest polluting countries Obama will have a job to do in showing the US commitment and real action on the ground in fighting climate change.
This is the key to influencing both the G8 set of countries and developing countries. At a recent speech to the Fabian Society Ed Miliband, highlighted the fact that gone is the day when the G8 or developed countries can tell developing countries to lower their emissions while not leading by action.
Obama will be keeping an eye on the domestic audience as the Markey-Waxman Bill heads the Senate. Should the 100-seat Senate pass the bill, ACES would be signed into law. The main criticism of the bill is the fear that the bill's stricter emissions standards would spike prices and weaken cap-and-trade impacted companies. In recent months the lobbying against the bill has intensified with the battle lines been drawn.
Republicans claim the bill has no chance of making it past the Senate. In addition to carbon trading, ACES would develop green buildings, requiring residential and commercial buildings to follow a green code.
Gordon Brown arrives to the summit calling for rich nations to establish a $100bn fund to help poor countries deal with climate change; the understanding is that the figures on the table so far at the G8 are very much lower than this.
On Monday Tony Blair called on the G8 to invest in ‘new technologies that will create employment and fight climate change. Blairs’ Climate Group NGO has produced a new report which champions green technologies, arguing that they offer the chance of "substantial job creation and growth".
The report also says that the technologies needed to meet emissions reduction goals set for 2020 are "already proven, available now and the policies needed to implement them are known”.
Finally a group of the worlds leading scientists have called for the world leaders to “recognise the impact of existing climate change in climate are primarily due to past emissions by developed nations, and that unless the burden of poverty in developing nations is alleviatedby significant financial investment, the ability for developing countries to pursue sustainable development” is greatly reduced.
So the heat is being turned up on the G8 leaders to come up with a solution.
Italy at the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF). While some commentators have already called this “the meeting of the millennium” the outcome of this meeting is set to dictate the results of the Copenhagen Conference in December 09.
Obama and Brown have thrown down the gauntlet to the other leaders and arrive with clear policy positions already outlined. We will see if they will have the power to win over the other members of the group.
Despite the fact that the Italian organisation is reported to have been close to chaotic this
meeting will be significant in setting the global policy for energy and climate change for the next four years and beyond.
The stage is set for the world to see President Obama’s commitment to fighting climate change and how far he will be willing to push fellow world leaders to reduce their emissions. As President of one of the world’s biggest polluting countries Obama will have a job to do in showing the US commitment and real action on the ground in fighting climate change.
This is the key to influencing both the G8 set of countries and developing countries. At a recent speech to the Fabian Society Ed Miliband, highlighted the fact that gone is the day when the G8 or developed countries can tell developing countries to lower their emissions while not leading by action.
Obama will be keeping an eye on the domestic audience as the Markey-Waxman Bill heads the Senate. Should the 100-seat Senate pass the bill, ACES would be signed into law. The main criticism of the bill is the fear that the bill's stricter emissions standards would spike prices and weaken cap-and-trade impacted companies. In recent months the lobbying against the bill has intensified with the battle lines been drawn.
Republicans claim the bill has no chance of making it past the Senate. In addition to carbon trading, ACES would develop green buildings, requiring residential and commercial buildings to follow a green code.
Gordon Brown arrives to the summit calling for rich nations to establish a $100bn fund to help poor countries deal with climate change; the understanding is that the figures on the table so far at the G8 are very much lower than this.
On Monday Tony Blair called on the G8 to invest in ‘new technologies that will create employment and fight climate change. Blairs’ Climate Group NGO has produced a new report which champions green technologies, arguing that they offer the chance of "substantial job creation and growth".
The report also says that the technologies needed to meet emissions reduction goals set for 2020 are "already proven, available now and the policies needed to implement them are known”.
Finally a group of the worlds leading scientists have called for the world leaders to “recognise the impact of existing climate change in climate are primarily due to past emissions by developed nations, and that unless the burden of poverty in developing nations is alleviatedby significant financial investment, the ability for developing countries to pursue sustainable development” is greatly reduced.
So the heat is being turned up on the G8 leaders to come up with a solution.
