UN Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico

Carbon Taxes Will Go Directly to the World Bank, Not to Developing Countries to Lower Carbon Emissions or Alleviate Poverty

Dominique Strauss-Kahn (head of the IMF) and George Soros (billionaire money-lender) call for a giant international slush fund to bankroll the infrastructure needed to implement global carbon taxes, which they need in order to tax all humans, countries and industries for emitting carbon dioxide, the very gas we exhale. The creation of revenue streams to bankroll the structure of global governance that will oversee the implementation of a “green world order” will again be up for discussion at a series of new Copenhagen process negotiations set to take place in April, May and June... Leaked policy documents reveal that the United Nations plans to create a “green world order” by 2012 which will be enforced by a structure of global governance and funded by a gargantuan $45 trillion transfer of wealth from richer countries, as the globalists’ insidious plan to centralize power and crush sovereignty while devastating the economy is exposed once again. [Paul Joseph Watson, IMF Head Calls For Huge Global Warming Slush Fund, Prison Planet.com, March 8, 2010]

As was uncovered during the Copenhagen summit, the program of “global redistribution of wealth” and transaction taxes largely centers around looting the wealth of the middle classes in richer countries and then using that money to bankroll the establishment of world government. As the leaked “Danish text” revealed, the money generated from consumption taxes will go directly to the World Bank, not to developing countries to lower carbon emissions or alleviate poverty. Under the terms of this proposal, poorer countries will not simply be handed the money pillaged from richer nations; instead, they will be forced to accept “green loans” in the name of combating climate change, a policy that would land the already financially devastated third world with even more debt, payable to globalist institutions such as the IMF. Even if you accept that global institutions, which have proven to be completely corrupt time and time again, should be empowered to steal from the rich and give to the poor, these proposals don’t even do that. This is all about bankrolling the expansion of world government and creating a giant slush fund that will be used to coerce smaller countries into allowing themselves to be ruled and regulated by a global bureaucracy funded by increasingly destitute taxpayers in the West. [Paul Joseph Watson, Globalists Plan to Dismantle Middle Class With UN Tax, Infowars.com, September 19, 2010

Climate Talks Fix Sights on $100 BILLION Annual Fund

December 5, 2010

Arizona Daily Star - The slow-moving U.N. talks on combating global warming took a step forward Saturday with revised proposals for a $100 billion-a-year climate aid fund and other issues for debate by the world's environment ministers this week.

Despite that advance, the chairwoman of key closed-door negotiations warned the open conference that obstacles remain to what delegates hope will be a package of decisions next Friday on financial and other side matters under the U.N. climate treaty.

"Progress has been made in some areas," Zimbabwe's Margaret Mukahanana-Sangarwe said. But she said the talks were "going backwards" on important issues. "We need to redouble our efforts."

Environment ministers began flying in Saturday for the final days of the annual two-week climate conference, hoping to put new life in the U.N. talks.

Last week, under Mukahanana-Sangarwe's leadership, a working group from among the 193 treaty nations sought to whittle down the contested texts of proposed decisions.

In one sign of the work facing them, only 170 words had been undisputed among the 1,300 on two pages of a key text on the "shared vision" of what the treaty nations want to accomplish. The disputed language was options proposed by various parties and placed within brackets.

Some parties, for example, want the world to reduce emissions of global warming gases so that temperatures don't rise more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above preindustrial levels, beyond which scientists say serious damage from climate change would set in. Others want to aim even lower, at 2.7 F above preindustrial levels - a position favored by island states and others most threatened by warming's impacts, such as sea-level rise.

The Zimbabwean's revised text eliminated the lower option, drawing an immediate protest from the Bolivian delegation at Saturday's open meeting, a sign of the contentiousness sure to mark the coming days.

At last year's climate summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, richer nations promised $100 billion a year by 2020 to help poorer nations reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change by, for example, building coastline protection and shifting crops to cope with new precipitation patterns.

Firmly establishing a green fund at Cancun is a priority for developing-world delegations.

The issue of reducing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases emitted by industry, vehicles and agriculture is the core dispute of the long-running climate talks, and will not be fully resolved at Cancun.

China Buoys Climate Talks with 'Binding' Target

December 7, 2010

Reuters - China on Monday offered for the first time to submit its voluntary carbon emissions target to a binding U.N. resolution, buoying climate talks where Bolivia accused rich world policies of causing "genocide."

China's target would still be voluntary, stressed China's chief negotiator Xie Zhenhua, a distinction from developed nation targets under Kyoto:

"Developing countries can ... make their own voluntary emissions commitments and these should be under the Convention."

The November 29-December 10 talks in Mexico's Cancun beach resort are split over how to harden existing pledges made at last year's Copenhagen summit, which ended in a brief, non-binding agreement.

China's offer to make its existing, domestic pledge to slow growth in carbon emissions binding under a U.N. resolution is a compromise it hopes will encourage developed countries to continue the existing Kyoto Protocol.

"We can create a resolution and that resolution can be binding on China," said Huang Huikang, the Chinese Foreign Ministry's envoy for climate change talks.

"Under the (U.N. Climate) Convention, we can even have a legally binding decision. We can discuss the specific form. We can make our efforts a part of international efforts."

"We're willing to compromise, we're willing to play a positive and constructive role, but on this issue (Kyoto) there's no room for compromise."

Developing nations want to continue the first, 2008-2012 round of Kyoto, which binds the emissions of nearly 40 developed countries, while industrialized backers including Japan, Russia and Canada want a separate agreement regulating all nations.

Analysts were positive about China's proposal:

"This is a gamechanger," said Jennifer Morgan from the Washington-based World Resources Institute.

"The devil is in the details but this is a promising development," said Alden Meyer from the U.S.-based Union of Concerned Scientists . . .

Call for Climate Treaty Without U.S.

December 6, 2010

Hindustan Times - The EU should proceed with a global climate treaty without the US, a German Green Party MP told GLOBE, an association of legislators from developed and developing countries, which together emit most of the world’s greenhouse gases. The US was not represented.

“We don’t see President Obama signing a domestic law, even if he is re-elected, for ten years,” Dr Hermann E. Ott, also the Climate Policy Spokesman of his party. “Can we all wait till then? There is no chance of the US being part of an international agreement, as we have seen from the mid-term elections in that country.”

This is the first time that such an appeal has been made on a platform where MPs of most European countries, China, Canada, Japan and the host country, Mexico, were present. It has revealed what most 130 G77 countries and China have been saying privately in corridors at Cancun.

In Germany, the opposition Green and Left parties strongly support an extension of the Kyoto Protocol, the first phase of which ends in 2012. This protocol is opposed by the US, Japan, Australia and Canada because it imposes limits on emissions of polluting gases and penalties for exceeding them. The Christian Democrat and Liberal parties are also not opposed to a continuation of this protocol.

Recently, the German Parliament passed a resolution, calling for a 30 per cent cut in its emissions by 2020, using 1990 as the base year. The German government has offered to cut by 20 per cent, rising to 30 per cent if the US was party to the agreement.

“Copenhagen was a wake-up call,” Dr Ott said during a two-day GLOBE meeting, midway through the Cancun climate summit.

U.S., Poor Nations Criticize New UN Climate Text

December 4, 2010

Reuters - The United States and some developing nations criticized on Saturday a new U.N. draft text seeking to break a deadlock at U.N. climate talks in Mexico on a modest package to help slow global warming.

The 33-page text, outlining options for a possible deal at the halfway mark of the November 29 to December 10 meeting, underscored deep rifts between rich and poor about future curbs in greenhouse gas emissions and aid to help the poor.

"It's not complete in some key areas," U.S. deputy climate envoy Jonathan Pershing told delegates at the talks in the Caribbean resort of Cancun.

It defines goals, including a new fund to help developing nations and ways to protect tropical forests and share clean technologies. A treaty is out of reach after world leaders failed to reach a binding deal last year in Copenhagen.

Pershing said the text did not do enough, for instance, to ensure that developing nations would carry out promises to slow the growth of their carbon emissions. China has overtaken the United States as the top emitter.

Some developing nations said the text, which outlines a goal of limiting global warming to a maximum average global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F) above pre-industrial times, implied too weak action by the rich.

AMBITION

"This paper lacks sufficient ambition for the urgent protection of islands and of the world in the context of the threat of climate change," said Dessima Williams of Grenada, which heads the Alliance of Small Island States.

Bolivia and Venezuela also slammed the text as too weak to avoid more droughts, floods, desertification and rising sea levels. Others including the European Union, reserved judgment on the text. Some praised it as a basis for talks.

Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa urged delegates to compromise and said they had made progress on some areas in the first week. "I call upon you to act with a renewed sense of urgency," she said.

Espinosa said she would brief about 60 environment ministers on Sunday about the state of the talks after a welcome dinner on Saturday night in Cancun.

The new text leaves two options for solving a bitter dispute about the future of the Kyoto Protocol, which now obliges about 40 developed nations to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 5.2 percent below 1990 levels during the 2008-2012 period.

One allows an extension and another simply leaves its future unclear.

Kyoto backers Japan, Mexico and Canada have insisted they will not extend Kyoto and want a new treaty to include emerging economies such as China and India. Poor nations say they will only do more if Kyoto backers lead by extending the 1997 deal.

"The draft text provides a good basis for negotiation," said Gordon Shepherd, of the WWF International environment group.

The text also includes two options for future aid to the poor -- one is $100 billion a year from 2020 as favored by rich nations, the other demands 1.5 percent of rich nations' gross domestic product, or a far higher sum.

Factbox: U.N. Talks Try to Define Rich, Poor Climate Effort

December 2, 2010

Reuters - Negotiators at U.N. climate talks in Mexico are trying to define the climate actions required of developed and emerging economies, to overcome the main block in sharing the burden of carbon emissions cuts.

Under the U.N.'s existing Kyoto Protocol, only rich countries have to cut their greenhouse gas emissions from 2008 to 2012.

A Copenhagen Accord agreed by most nations last year defined action after 2012, where rich countries would cut their greenhouse gases and developing economies would slow growth in emissions through particular climate actions.

Still stalling progress is the question of how rich and poor countries report their cuts and actions, and whether these should be subject to international review.

Following are three proposals on the table at the November 29-December 10 negotiations in Cancun, on this controversial issue also called Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV).

SITUATION NOW ON REPORTING EMISSIONS

• Only industrialized countries report their greenhouse gas emissions annually to the United Nations.
• The United Nations does not comment on progress toward emissions targets, although a country which misses its Kyoto targets will be penalized under a successor round
• Developing countries do not have to report their emissions regularly, or their efforts to control these. If they do publish, developed countries should pay for the reporting and measurement

1. INDIAN PROPOSAL

• All countries, rich and poor, which contribute more than 1 percent of global greenhouse gases will report to the United Nations every two to three years
• Other countries will report every four to five years
• A U.N. group, comprising experts drawn from around the world, would assess the reports
• Developed countries report their emissions, progress toward emissions cuts, and their contribution to green funds to help poor countries cut emissions and prepare for a hotter world
• Developing countries report their emissions, and progress to their climate actions to slow growth in emissions

2. EU PROPOSAL

For developed countries:

• Annual reporting of greenhouse gas emissions
• A full national report every four years on funding and technology help for developing countries, plus their own greenhouse gas emission projections
• New rules for international review of reports

For developing countries:

• Full national communication every four years, including emissions levels, projections, and mitigation actions planned and implemented and funding and other help received
• The poorest, least developed countries submit national emissions reports at their own discretion

3. U.S. POSITION

All countries:

• "We think there should be more reporting; not just on your inventories (emissions levels), but also on your actions," said Jonathan Pershing, deputy special envoy for climate change
• International review of commitments "could be formalized"

For developed countries:

• Annual reporting of emissions

For developing countries:

• "Our sense is that the bigger you are the more significant your emissions, it might be useful to have more frequent reporting"
• "Perhaps every two years might be acceptable. That's fine"

U.N. Climate Talks Struggle to Overhaul Carbon Trade

December 1, 2010

Reuters - Countries differed sharply on Wednesday on the future of a $20 billion carbon market after 2012, casting doubt on any overhaul of the scheme at U.N. climate talks in Cancun.

The Kyoto Protocol allows rich countries to meet greenhouse gas emissions limits by paying for carbon cuts in developing countries, earning carbon offsets in return. No new emissions limits have been agreed after the first phase of the protocol ends in 2012, stifling investment in the offset scheme, experts told the November 29-December 10 climate talks.

Some market participants and countries want a formal, U.N. decision in Cancun to commit to proceed with the market after 2012, regardless of whether any new targets are agreed.

"We want a clear indication in Cancun, we leave it to the parties to decide how," said Henry Derwent, chief executive of the International Emissions Trading Association, a lobbying group.

"A clear decision would be great. In the absence of that investors will look at intent. The more we hear people saying this must go on, it points in the right direction," he said.

The Kyoto carbon offsetting scheme, called the clean development mechanism (CDM), was worth $20 billion in 2009. The 1997 Kyoto Protocol requires industrialized countries to cut greenhouse gases by about 5 percent by 2012, compared with 1990 levels, but no successor has yet been agreed.

Several countries on Wednesday told the U.N. Cancun conference that the CDM's survival was vital, including Algeria, Brazil, Mexico and Papua New Guinea. But they differed on other issues, including whether to widen the scheme to include new carbon-cutting technologies such as carbon capture and storage (CCS), much favored by oil-exporting countries but opposed by Brazil. CCS involves trapping the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from power plants and pumping it into nearly depleted oil wells. As well as stopping the greenhouse gas from reaching the atmosphere, it also has the advantage that it helps push out the last dregs of oil, a process called enhanced oil recovery.

Japan bemoaned the slow pace of progress to overhaul the CDM, and said that as a result it was pursuing bilateral deals with developing countries to promote low-carbon technologies.

"We find a lot of problems concerning the current CDM system," said Akira Yamada, a senior official at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, referring to the slow pace of project approvals and the narrow scope of technologies.

"We have to address these problems ... However, judging from the current progress of that discussion we cannot expect a timely solution so therefore ... we are also eager to explore bilateral cooperation with certain countries."