The development of the "Green Fund"

Mexico will host in November of this year an annual UN climate meeting. This is one of the meetings scheduled as a result of the minimalist accord reached in Copenhagen which stated that deep cuts in global emissions will be required to maintain global temperatures below 2 degrees centigrate. The Copenhagen Accord stated that countries would take action in reducing their emmissions, but did not provide any teeth to enforce such cuts. On September 3rd, 50 countries started moving towards the development of a "Green Fund" to finance activities within developing countries to fight the impacts of global warming. Estimates of financing circle around $100 billion a year from 2020 onwards;  however as European countries tackle austerity programmes, the sums pledged are far smaller and there seems to be a move away from speaking about public funding, and instead address the issue through private funding via selling bonds in global capital markets. the International Monetary Fund has been involved in presenting proposals for the development of such a fund.

EU Climate Change commissioner proposes a Carbon Tax

Commissioner Connie Hedegaard proposed a tax on what you burn and threw her weight behind an EU carbon tax. This approach is spelled out in the EU's Energy Taxation Directive. This approach will colour Europe's efforts to stay ahead of the game in international climate negotiations.

On 26 May 2010, Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard presented a communication analysing the options for increasing the EU's emissions reduction target from 20% from 1990 levels by 2020 to 30%. It concluded that the recession had brought down the cost of reducing emissions significantly, and meeting a 30% target would cost just €11bn more than the estimate for 20% envisaged two years ago (EurActiv 27/05/10).

Hedegaard was speaking in a session dedicated to climate change. Hedegaard thinks that energy taxation can provide a lot of positive results. The commissioner argued that a shift from taxing labour to taxing energy would encourage people to stay longer in the job market and find ways to finance Europe's "relatively expensive welfare societies". For instance, this tax could encourage the agriculture sector to explore possibilities like biogas.

Words from the Rev. Tofiga Falan from Tuvalu

Adrian Shaw, Climate Change Officer at the Church and Society Council was kind enough to provide us with the following link to an interview given by the Reverend Tofiga Falan explaining the situation as his country tries to cope with the effects of climate change. Rev. Falan also speaks of his disspointment at results of the Copenhaguen conference.

Please follow the link to read the full length article.

Christianity and Climate Change Lecture

Professor Michael Northcott will give a public lecture on Christianity and climate change at New College on The Mound tomorrow the 13th of October at 5:15pm. His talk marks his recent appointment to a personal chair as professor of ethics. One of his books, "The moral climate: the Ethics of Climate Change" has been reviewed extensively. Marck Dowd on his essay on Climate and Creation published on the Operation Noah's website also makes explicit reference to Prof. Northcott's book.



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