Was the Durban climate conference a success or failure? As always, the answer depends on one's frame of reference. As compared to the expectations going in, the outcome was more than I think most people thought possible. In a pre-Durban paper entitled "W[h]ither the Kyoto Protocol," I identified three scenarios: (1) business-as-usual, with modest progress in developing the Copenhagen/Cancun framework and...
In the early morning hours of Sunday morning (after two all-night negotiating sessions), climate negotiators at the Durban Conference reached a deal that some are already calling historic. The decisions call for a new commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol together with the launching of a new round of negotiation (with the catchy title, "Durban Platform for Enhanced Action") aimed at...
Durban, South Africa, December 8 - The one silver lining to the slow pace of the climate change negotiations is that it gives one plenty of time to attend "side events" to learn what is going on in the broader world of climate policy. In the past couple of days, I attended side events on innovative climate finance, the "partnership...
Another year, another climate COP. This year's conference of the parties (COP) is in Durban, South Africa. The South Africans have provided a wonderful venue and the meeting has proceeded thus far with few of the histrionics of Copenhagen and Cancun. But a certain weariness has crept into the proceedings, as massive numbers of people gather year after year, with...
Oh, how much difference a year -- and lower expectations -- make! The BBC report on the Cancun meeting declared that "if Copenhagen was the Great Dane that whimpered, Cancun has been the Chihuahua that roared." Never mind that the Great Dane's whimper was about the same decibel level as the Chihuahua's roar. Last year, expectations were sky high for a new legal...
The climate negotiations were cast as a choice last year between Hopenhagen or Nopenhagen, and this year between Can-Cun or Can’t-Cun. John Ashton, the senior negotiator from the UK Foreign Office, told me yesterday that he sees four possible outcomes here: momentum, a lifeline, zombie-hood, or collapse. Since no one wishes to push the negotiations over the brink (on the...
Needless to say, there’s a much warmer atmosphere at this year’s climate conference in Cancun than last year’s conference in Copenhagen. By all accounts, the Mexicans have done a great job both in preparing the diplomatic groundwork for this year’s meeting and in running the conference during its first week. They certainly have learned the lessons of the last war. ...
Many thanks to Peter, Kal and Scott for their very thoughtful comments. As Peter notes, The Art and Craft of International Law focuses more on process and design than on doctrinal issues. Whether or not he is correct that international environmental law lacks common principles or norms that give it substantive coherence, the premise of my book is that it...
How and why do international environmental norms arise? In what ways do they affect behavior? Do they change what states and individuals actually do, and, if so, why? How effective are they in solving international environmental problems? These are some of the questions I examine in my new book, The Art and Craft of International Environmental Law. My decision to write the book...
Although most countries endorsed the Copenhagen Accord, few left Copenhagen in a positive mood. The general lack of enthusiasm about the outcome was exacerbated by the procedural wrangling on the final day about whether to “adopt” or merely “take note of” the Accord, which left delegates in a dispirited mood, both about the prospects for halting climate change and...
[caption id="attachment_10843" align="alignnone" width="300" caption=""][/caption](Cross posted on Smith School of Enterprise and Environment) Copenhagen, December 19 – The Copenhagen conference limped to a finish mid-day Saturday after “working” throughout the night. These all night sessions on the closing day are becoming a COP ritual, with people spending most of their time waiting around the conference room while small huddles...
The UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution last week on "Human Rights and Climate Change," in follow up to the January report by the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights on the Relationship between Climate Change and Human Rights, The Council resolution is significant less for what it says than for the fact of its adoption, which reflects...
