Here in Paris, at the negotiations for the next global climate change agreement, delegates from 195 countries are discussing, and arguably deciding, the fate of our future. Following on the commitments those countries made when they joined the 1992 United Nations climate change treaty, they are now trying to create a way forward through 2020 … Read More.
By Stacey Morales and Geffen Kozikaro, Early Warning System Interns As world leaders prepare for the 2015 UN Climate Conference in Paris in late November, the international community must recognize that women—who are the majority of the world’s poor—are among those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. At the same time, we must … Read More.
By Muriel Moody Korol, CIEL Senior Attorney & Melissa Shapiro, Legal Intern The Adani Abbot Point Terminal Pty Ltd (Abbot Point), a coal export terminal near the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, was the case studied in (Mis)Calculated Risk, which illustrated how rating agencies are failing to incorporate a dynamic change trajectory and thus … Read More.
By Muriel Moody Korol, CIEL Senior Attorney & Melissa Shapiro, Legal Intern With COP21 on the horizon, countries are kicking their commitments to reduce carbon emissions into high gear. Despite these national commitments, many financial actors are carrying on as though it’s business as usual—in other words, financing projects under the presumption that the current … Read More.
By Muriel Moody Korol, Senior Attorney, Climate & Energy Program This is part 3 of a 3 part blog series about recent analyses on climate change and finance: Citi’s ENERGY DARWINISM II: Why a Low Carbon Future Doesn’t Have to Cost the Earth, Economist Intelligence Unit’s The cost of inaction: Recognising the value at risk … Read More.
By Alyssa Johl, Senior Attorney, CIEL Climate & Energy Program Reprinted with permission from the Business and Human Rights Resource Center. This summer, we celebrated a big win for the climate. In a lawsuit brought by Urgenda and nearly 900 co-plaintiffs against the Dutch government (Urgenda Foundation et al. v. The Netherlands), the District Court … Read More.
By Muriel Moody Korol, Senior Attorney, Climate & Energy Program As I wrote about in Part 1 of this blog series, three recent analyses ENERGY DARWINISM II: Why a Low Carbon Future Doesn’t Have to Cost the Earth, The cost of inaction: Recognising the value at risk from climate change and Investing in a Time … Read More.
By Muriel Moody Korol, Senior Attorney, Climate & Energy Program With the recent tumble in world stock markets, prices for fossil fuels have continued their year-plus collapse. Prices for coal and oil are currently low and volatile and now look to be firmly entrenched in systemic oversupply – not a great status quo for an … Read More.
By David Marín Cortéz, Legal Intern There was a lot of expectation around Pope Francis’ encyclical on the environment entitled “Laudato Si’” or “Praise Be to You.” The papal encyclical deals with current environmental issues, with a special focus on climate change. Undoubtedly, such a document is going to have a meaningful impact on the … Read More.
By Giulia Carlini, Geneve-based intern In October, the Special Rapporteur on Right to Food Ms. Hilal Elver will present her report to the Human Rights Council, just a couple of months before the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), or CoP21, whose aim is to reach a legally binding agreement … Read More.
By Allison Silverman, Staff Attorney Climate & Energy Program In one of my last posts, I noted that for years, Parties, civil society, and indigenous groups have been working out how to simultaneously protect forests and combat climate change, and that the June 2015 climate negotiations would provide a great opportunity to ensure that rights … Read More.
By Allison Silverman, Staff Attorney Climate & Energy Program How can REDD+ be implemented without intensifying existing inequalities for women? Given that REDD+ is an international climate initiative with required social, environmental safeguards, how can advocates and community members use international law to advance women’s tenure rights in REDD+? Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest … Read More.
By Allison Silverman, Staff Attorney Climate & Energy Program Let’s seize the opportunities to advance rights related to forests and land in Bonn! Here’s how. Forests play a vital role in supporting the lives and livelihoods of indigenous peoples and local communities, protecting biodiversity, and, yes, mitigating climate change. For years, Parties, civil society and … Read More.
By Allison Silverman, Staff Attorney Climate & Energy Program The land sector accounts for almost one-third of global carbon emissions. Including agriculture, forests, and other land uses, the land sector acts as both a creator and a remover of emissions. Land is central to food production, livelihoods, cultural integrity, and biodiversity. Thus, the sector is … Read More.
By Alyssa Johl, Senior Attorney, Climate & Energy Program In a landmark case (Urgenda v. Netherlands), the Dutch advocacy group Urgenda will argue today that the Dutch government’s emissions reduction target is not adequate to prevent dangerous climate change and, as a result, poses a threat to human rights in the Netherlands and in countries … Read More.
Climate Change threatens to destroy the ecological balance of our world… and our pocketbooks? For those who have invested money in fossil fuels, it’s time to be concerned. By Blanche Helbling, Communications Intern Two of the largest fossil fuel companies in the world, BP and Shell, each recently received shareholder resolutions asking them to divulge … Read More.
By Allison Silverman, Staff Attorney Climate & Energy Program Mexico is on a roll in demonstrating its commitment to address climate change. This week, it was the first developing country to submit its official contribution to the United Nations to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions as part of a new international climate agreement. This contribution … Read More.
By Blanche Helbling, Communications Intern According to some of the most active and experienced environmental journalists in the United States, 2015 stands to bring a series of environmental face-offs, which will culminate in what one speaker timingly nicknamed the ‘Super Bowl of Climate Change’ in Paris this upcoming November. The Woodrow Wilson Center hosted its … Read More.
By Muriel Moody Korol, Senior Attorney, Climate & Energy Program Last month, 295 Stanford professors asked that the university divest from coal. They wrote that to limit global warming to 2°C (the currently-agreed international goal), the global community: “must cap carbon dioxide emissions at 565 gigatons. Because companies currently own fossil-fuel holdings sufficient to produce … Read More.
Under pressure from the global community (including CIEL), Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global has divested from some companies in the fossil fuel industry and is considering divesting from more. The Fund announced this week that during 2014 it divested from more than 20 companies with operations in coal mining, oil sands, and coal-fired power production. … Read More.
By Niranjali Amerasinghe Director, Climate & Energy Program Last month, the Board of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) met in Barbados for its 8th session. What’s the GCF? It’s a financial institution that is expected to channel billions of dollars to developing countries to help them in their efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate … Read More.
By Allison Silverman, Staff Attorney Climate & Energy Program Dearest Friends, Colleagues, It is hard to believe that a year has passed since we formed the Tri-Caucus to improve coordination between those who focus specifically on rights related to REDD+. As we finalize last-minute logistics for the upcoming UN climate negotiations – the Conference of … Read More.
By Allison Silverman, Staff Attorney Climate & Energy Program In the world of UN climate negotiations, in which 194 official parties, as well as hundreds of observers and representatives from civil society and indigenous groups, have different and complex agendas and priorities, meaningful progress to reduce emissions is a challenging feat. Ensuring that progress respects … Read More.
By Muriel Moody Korol, Senior Attorney, Climate & Energy Program UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Climate Summit on September 23, 2014 is expected to “serve as a public platform for leaders at the highest level – all UN Member States, as well as finance, business, civil society and local leaders from public and private sectors – to catalyze … Read More.
Travelling from India on behalf of the Association for the Struggle for Fishworkers’ Rights or Machimar Adhikar Sangharsh Sangathan (MASS), Dr. Bharat Patel presented how the World Bank Group-funded Tata Mundra Power Plant has affected the community of Gujarat during the World Bank’s annual Spring Meetings. His contributions at the Bank’s meeting of Executive Directors … Read More.
For twenty five years, CIEL has used the power of law to protect the environment, promote human rights, and ensure a just and sustainable society. One of the most critical issues we work on is climate change. Day in and day out, we work on designing and strengthening the laws and policies to combat climate … Read More.
By Jocelyn Medallo, Senior Attorney Each Spring, thousands of government finance ministers, economists, civil society representatives, and community members from around the world convene in Washington, DC, for the World Bank and International Monetary Fund Spring Meetings. It is often a hectic week of seminars, press conferences, civil society events, and side-line meetings. This year, … Read More.
We’re reporting back from Bali, Indonesia, where the February meeting of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) Board took place, and excited to share an update on the progress we made and the challenges we face ahead! The GCF was created by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2010 to serve as the primary … Read More.
By Niranjali Amerasinghe, Director Climate & Energy Program Today, the Green Climate Fund (GCF) meets for its 5th board meeting in Paris, France. Established by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2010, the GCF promised to be the main vehicle for channeling billions of dollars pledged by developed counties to support … Read More.
By Baskut Tuncak, Senior Attorney Environmental Health Program As negotiators prepare for the next round of negotiations between the U.S. and EU on a new trade agreement, an ‘investor’ has filed a lawsuit against Canada under an old one. Lone Pine Resources filed suit under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) seeking $250 million … Read More.
By Alyssa Johl, Senior Attorney, Climate & Energy Program Today, CIEL and other environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the US Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im Bank) challenging the federal government’s financing for coal exports from the United States. In 2012, the Ex-Im Bank ─ a federal agency that has been funneling billions of US tax dollars … Read More.
By Katja Bratrschovsky, Louis B. Sohn Fellow In June 2013, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) around the world gathered at Vienna for the 20th anniversary of the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights and its Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action. The CSOs held a two-day conference to precede the Vienna+20 Advancing the Protection of Human … Read More.
Alyssa Johl (CIEL), Abby Rubinson (Earthjustice) and Weni Bagama (Ngabe activist from Kiad community in Panama) co-authored the following post for Climate Action Network’s ECO publication. After this weekend’s CDM reform workshop, ECO has new hope for the CDM’s ability to address human rights. For the first time in the history of the CDM, Parties … Read More.
This week and next, CIEL’s Climate & Energy Team is in Bonn, Germany to participate in the UN Climate Change Conference. This conference is an interim meeting between the main negotiations where decisions are made (referred to as the COP) that take place every December. Bonn has become a second home to the Climate & … Read More.
Now that the dust from Doha has settled and 2013 is off and running, we’ve had a chance to reflect on how the UN climate talks have, once again, left us asking… What have we achieved? How have we advanced the debate? Where do we go from here? Like many other civil society groups, our … Read More.
By Alyssa Johl and John Crump* This week, community leaders from two small villages in very different parts of the world will meet on Bougainville Island in Papua New Guinea (PNG) to discuss a common problem: their need to relocate as a result of climate change. The communities of Newtok, Alaska, and the Carteret Islands, … Read More.
By Marcos Orellana, Rio de Janeiro On June 20, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) officially started in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Conference opened with a documentary, Welcome to the Anthropocene, which was introduced by the UN’s Secretary-General. The documentary visually portrays the alteration in Earth’s natural cycles induced by human activities. … Read More.
By Amanda Rude, former CIEL legal intern As several CIEL attorneys and alumni head south to participate in the much-anticipated Rio+20 Conference, I wanted to share some of my insights as the “greenest” (i.e. youngest) member of the CIEL delegation…
CIEL and Earthjustice, working closely with Maldives, Costa Rica and Switzerland, obtained from the UN Human Rights Council a resolution on Human Rights & Environment that establishes an Independent Expert on Human Rights and the Environment.
By Amanda Kistler, Communications Manager On Thursday, January 12th, 2012 CIEL scientist Matt Finer presented as part of Amazon Watch’s GreenBag Lunch series with this auspicious title, riffing off Stephen Colbert’s rhetorical question he poses to anyone that might not agree with his hyperbolic categorization. However, even Colbert would find few, if any, who would … Read More.
By Niranjali Amerasinghe, Director Climate & Energy Program Following the UN climate talks in Durban can be a tedious business. Even for a conference junkie like me. There are times when the discussions get so mired in petty political bargaining that it’s hard to keep the bigger picture in mind. People seem to forget why … Read More.
By Kristen Hite, Director, Climate Change Program In recent years we’ve seen global predictions on climate change becoming increasingly dire. In recent weeks it’s gone from bad to worse: The International Energy Association, often criticized for how its future projections of energy production rely too heavily on fossil fuels and nuclear energy just issued a … Read More.
By Hana Heineken, Law Fellow My very first COP experience, the 10th Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention in Cartagena, Colombia, was hailed by delegates, observers, and the UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner as the most successful Basel COP in the history of the Basel Convention. I was fortunate to have joined CIEL’s … Read More.
After six days and 322 arrests (and counting), the Tar Sands Action is in full effect. This two-week long protest is being staged on the sidewalk in front of the White House in Washington, DC, plainly visible to government employees, diplomats and tourists alike. Concerned citizens have travelled from all 50 states and Canada to … Read More.
By Baskut Tuncak, Senior Attorney Environmental Health Program The global food system is broken. Worldwide, 925 million are undernourished. The Asia-Pacific region ranks highest in terms of number of people that are hungry and sub-Saharan Africa leads on a percentage basis. In Niger, for example, one in two children suffers from malnutrition and one in … Read More.
By Alyssa Johl and Hana Heineken At the end of Wednesday’s Security Council open debate on the security implications of climate change, Council members reached consensus on a Presidential Statement recognizing the link between security and climate change (see our July 19 blog for background on this issue). While this statement fails to call for … Read More.
By Erica Woodruff, Legal Intern Tomorrow, the UN Security Council will host an open debate on the international peace and security implications of climate change. CIEL’s Hana Heineken will be attending and tweeting live from the debate (follow Hana’s updates @ciel_tweets). While most people think of global warming as an environmental issue, the climate crisis … Read More.
By Marin Tharin, Legal Intern BASEL, CITES, CBD, CMS? Remembering the acronyms of Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) is challenging enough, much less trying to recall their technical details. Thankfully, the MEA Information and Knowledge Management Initiative, facilitated by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), just launched a user-friendly information portal called InforMEA to help navigate the … Read More.
By the CIEL Climate Team Despite growing evidence that the effects of climate change are occurring earlier and more dramatically than foreseen just a few years ago, the UNFCCC negotiations continue to demonstrate how difficult it is to reach agreement on a broad-based binding framework for collective international action on climate change. The two weeks … Read More.
By the CIEL Climate Team Climate negotiations resume in Bonn, Germany this week with a full agenda and against a backdrop of reports that last year’s global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were at record levels despite the global economic downturn. While the meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) in Cancun, Mexico last December … Read More.
By Niranjali Amerasinghe, Director Climate & Energy Program Last time I blogged, I wrote about how coal-based power projects are not as cheap as they seem. This is because coal projects have a number of hidden social and environmental costs or externalities that are either under-valued or excluded from the typical economic costs calculus. Today, … Read More.
By Niranjali Amerasinghe, Director Climate & Energy Program On March 1, 2011, activists will hold rallies in cities around the world to mark a Day of Action, calling on the World Bank to phase out lending for fossil fuel generated power. For those who can’t attend in person, there will be virtual actions on the … Read More.
It is beautiful. Ten days ago, a NASA satellite took this image, a reminder that we are blessed to live on a planet rich with water and green with abundant life. Seen from 440 miles above the Arctic Circle, the earth seems peaceful, perfect and unchanging. Yet, there are other, hidden stories in this image—important … Read More.
On Tuesday, the US Dept. of Energy announced it was distributing $575 million USD in grants to 22 projects in 15 states, in an effort to deploy Carbon Capture and Storage / Sequestration (CCS) technology within the next 10 years. The money was allocated under the Economic Stimulus package (ARRA 2009). The Washington Post reports … Read More.
Government energy ministers gathering in Washington, D.C., today launched 11 energy-efficiency and renewable energy initiatives around the world, which they claim will avoid the need to build 500 midsize power plants during the next 20 years. via www.nytimes.com Of particular note is that “the United States and a dozen other nations will create what is … Read More.
The test is meant to see if the trees, eucalyptuses with a foreign gene meant to help them withstand cold weather, can become a new source of wood for pulp and paper, and for biofuels, in the Southern timber belt. Eucalyptus trees generally cannot now be grown north of Florida because of occasional freezing spells. … Read More.
The first set of 2010 climate change negotiations under the UNFCCC concluded in Bonn, Germany (April 9-11th) with no progress apparent on the Technology Mechanism referenced in Paragraph 11 of the 2009 Copenhagen Accord. In fact, the only real outcome of the meeting appears to be an agreement to hold two additional meetings for both … Read More.
Heard of the Yes Men? They are the incredibly straight-faced and gutsy duo that dare to go on the BBC TV and Radio, claiming to be from Dow Chemicals and announcing that Dow will compensate the victims of the Bhopal, India catastrophe with $12 billion from selling all assets related to Union Carbide Corp. Dow … Read More.
With the debate around patents and climate change-related technologies at Copenhagen last December, it became easy to forget that there are many low-cost and clean renewable energy technologies available in the public domain. A recent UN meeting highlighted how these technologies can revolutionize the way of life for rural communities Over 90% of rural Africa … Read More.
The World Bank, along with two other NGOs, held a panel discussion today on the trade implications of the ongoing climate negotiations. The final presentation, on Technology Transfer and Climate Change was the most substantive, as detailed below. The presentations did not address either labeling schemes, standards, border carbon adjustments, or subsidies. For an in … Read More.
The October 23rd issue of Science has an interesting study, “Fixing a Critical Climate Accounting Error,” in which the authors contend that across-the-board exemption of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from bioenergy — the use of plant materials known as biomass for the production of renewable fuels — is improper in greenhouse gas regulations, if emissions … Read More.