Climate Talks

In a surprise turn on Saturday, the 194 countries attending the U.N. climate talks in Durban, South Africa, agreed on a new process that could result in legally binding measures to control global warming. The agreement, which came 36 hours after the conference was scheduled to end, lifted a conference otherwise marked by the absence of a clear road map forward. The agreement kicked off a “process to develop a protocol, another legal instrument, or outcome with legal force under the Convention applicable to all Parties.” In other words, a non-binding agreement to re-commit to a binding agreement.

More than 17,000 people have converged on the Qatari capital for the latest U.N. climate talks, but the most influential presence may be Sandy. The superstorm that ravaged the U.S. Northeast a month ago seared into the American consciousness an apocalyptic vision of what climate change could look like. On the heels of devastating wildfires, droughts and floods this year, Sandy's destructive power snapped Americans to the reality that rising temperatures are a risk to their own well-being, not just a concern for distant lowlands.

More than 17,000 people have converged on the Qatari capital for the latest U.N. climate talks, but the most influential presence may be Sandy. The superstorm that ravaged the U.S. Northeast a month ago seared into the American consciousness an apocalyptic vision of what climate change could look like. On the heels of devastating wildfires, droughts and floods this year, Sandy's destructive power snapped Americans to the reality that rising temperatures are a risk to their own well-being, not just a concern for distant lowlands.

MEXICO CITY -- Mexican President Felipe Calderon will head to Harvard in Cambridge, Mass., after his six-year term ends Saturday. He will be a teaching and research fellow in 2013, the university and the president's office said in statements Wednesday. The announcement put to rest one of the most pressing questions in Mexico's political chatterbox: What's the next post or destination for Calderon, who declared a military-led campaign against drug cartels that left scores of civilians dead or missing across the country?

Negotiations between representatives of the world's largest economies appeared stalled Thursday on a particularly touchy aspect of attacking global warming: how to make sure countries actually do what they pledge to do to combat climate change. The challenge of ensuring that promises come true looms even larger than such issues as reducing greenhouse gas emissions and providing financial aid for developing countries, diplomats and environmentalists said. "Among the major emitters, this seems to be the biggest issue," said Melinda Kimble, a former U.S. climate negotiator who is a senior vice president at the United Nations Foundation and closely engaged in the talks.

We've been reserving judgment on last week's United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen because we're still trying to figure out what, exactly, happened. An acrimonious two-week negotiations marathon ended Saturday with a raucous final session in which delegates "noted" (but didn't exactly approve) an agreement seemingly thrown together at the last minute by representatives of the United States and four other big greenhouse-gas emitters. The pact, if you can call it that, has no binding targets, monitoring mechanisms or legal force.

With the United States offering greater cuts than originally proposed in emissions of "greenhouse gases," negotiations on an accord to curb global warming pushed into their final rounds today after a grueling all-night session.

With developing countries offering more emission cuts than anticipated and richer nations in many cases offering fewer, global climate negotiators wrapped up lackluster talks Friday that U.N. officials said nonetheless kept the world on the path toward a new treaty by next December. In the final day of talks, delegates agreed on principles of financing for a fund to help the poorest nations cope with the effects of climate change.

In an effort to jump-start a stalled summit on global warming, U.S. Vice President Al Gore jetted to Japan today to say the United States would be more flexible in treaty talks aimed at slowing climate change. The meeting had hit a snag over how much industrialized countries should reduce greenhouse gas emissions, how soon they should do it and who will pay for it.

After two weeks of often rancorous negotiations here that resulted in a last-minute compromise to appease the United States, United Nations climate talks unexpectedly dissolved into turmoil today, reflecting the disarray in the global community about how to deal with rising temperatures caused by greenhouse gases. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived early today to help resolve the last-minute snags, which pushed the summit into an extended session.

The Justice Department is helping British authorities in an investigation into the hacking of climate scientists' emails, which caused an uproar among skeptics of global warming when they were released two years ago. Ten days ago, the Justice Department contacted San Francisco web development company Automattic, asking it to preserve records of three climate skeptic bloggers in the U.S., Canada and Britain who recently received another batch of...

In a surprise turn on Saturday, the 194 countries attending the U.N. climate talks in Durban, South Africa, agreed on a new process that could result in legally binding measures to control global warming. The agreement, which came 36 hours after the conference was scheduled to end, lifted a conference otherwise marked by the absence of a clear road map forward. The agreement kicked off a “process to develop a protocol, another legal instrument, or outcome with legal force under the Convention applicable to all Parties.” In other words, a non-binding agreement to re-commit to a binding agreement.

  When an energized U.S. delegation arrived in Copenhagen for world climate talks two years ago, environmentalists were encouraged by its willingness to tackle global warming. In the months before Copenhagen, the House of Representatives had passed climate change legislation, and the new Obama administration had crafted an agreement with the auto industry to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the main contributor to global warming. But now, halfway through a two-week round of climate talks in Durban, South Africa, that excitement has disappeared.

Governments and human rights activists in Europe praised the Norwegian Nobel Committee's decision to award its prestigious peace price to Chinese dissident Liu Xiabao on Friday, their voices reflecting a deepening concern on the continent about Beijing's domestic political repression. Many European governments had muted their criticism of China's human rights record over the last decade as they chased growing trade and business opportunities in the emerging economic giant. But an underlying current of unease has been stirring in the last two years, prompted by negative impressions of China's crackdown on ethnic dissent before the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and what was seen as its obstructionist tactics that helped scuttle last year's climate change negotiations.

We've been reserving judgment on last week's United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen because we're still trying to figure out what, exactly, happened. An acrimonious two-week negotiations marathon ended Saturday with a raucous final session in which delegates "noted" (but didn't exactly approve) an agreement seemingly thrown together at the last minute by representatives of the United States and four other big greenhouse-gas emitters. The pact, if you can call it that, has no binding targets, monitoring mechanisms or legal force.

Copenhagen by the numbers 193 Countries sending delegates to the climate talks. 119 Heads of state attending the talks Friday. 1st Where this summit ranks, in terms of the number of heads of state attending, among U.N. conferences held outside New York. 40,000 metric tons Estimated amount of greenhouse gas emissions generated by the conference, including emissions produced by airplanes carrying delegates to Copenhagen.

The Bush administration stands immovably opposed to an international plan to combat global warming, U.S. officials reiterated Thursday, but all other countries key to its success touted encouraging progress toward a treaty that will parcel out targets for reducing "greenhouse gases." The first day of high-level talks among 185 countries in the U.N. Convention on Climate Change reflected both increasing U.S.

From the legions of environmental Cassandras gathered here for international climate negotiations, an unlikely batch of advocates has emerged to champion a new global warming agreement: businesspeople. Corporate leaders, the rarest of commodities at the first climate talks nearly two decades ago, have staked a claim to the title of biggest player in Copenhagen aside from the official negotiators. They have blanketed the host Bella Center with company logos and glossy brochures touting business efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Key concessions from the United States and China jolted climate negotiations Thursday in Copenhagen, providing optimism a day before President Obama joins other world leaders seeking a new international agreement on controlling greenhouse gases. But success hinged on two issues that have vexed diplomats throughout the two-week summit: an agreement between America and China on how to ensure that fast-developing nations follow through with their pledges to limit emissions; and whether poor nations will accept smaller emission cuts than they would like from wealthy countries in exchange for hundreds of billions of dollars in financial assistance.

President Obama leaves for stalemated climate talks in Copenhagen today facing global expectations that he can salvage an agreement on greenhouse gases as well as heavy domestic pressure not to sign a deal that could kill American jobs. Obama will join more than 110 world leaders, who, barring a major breakthrough, will convene Friday with many of their core issues apparently unresolved and persistent rifts between wealthy nations and the developing world. Chaotic scenes from the summit, where police and protesters clashed in the streets Wednesday, belie the glacial pace of the negotiations that began last week.