Denial of Petitions for Reconsideration of the Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings for Greenhouse Gases under Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act

Action

EPA determined in December 2009 that climate change caused by emissions of greenhouse gases threatens the public's health and the environment. Since then, EPA received ten petitions challenging this determination. On July 29, 2010, EPA denied these petitions.

The petitions to reconsider EPA's "Endangerment Finding" claimed that climate science can't be trusted, and asserted a conspiracy that calls into question the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the U.S. National Academy of Sciences , and the U.S. Global Change Research Program. After months of serious consideration of the petitions and of the state of climate change science, EPA found no evidence to support these claims.

The scientific evidence supporting EPA's finding is robust, voluminous, and compelling. Climate change is happening now, and humans are contributing to it. Multiple lines of evidence show a global warming trend over the past 100 years. Beyond this, melting ice in the Arctic, melting glaciers around the world, increasing ocean temperatures, rising sea levels, altered precipitation patterns, and shifting patterns of ecosystems and wildlife habitats all confirm that our climate is changing.

Response to Petitions

• Decision document: Pre-publication copy of FR Notice (PDF) (217 pp, 536K)
• Preface (PDF) (7 pp, 39K)
• Volume 1: Climate Science and Data Issues Raised by Petitioners (PDF) (166 pp, 1.2MB)
• Volume 2: Issues Raised by Petitioners on EPA's Use of IPCC (PDF) (84 pp, 368K)
• Volume 3: Process Issues Raised by Petitioners (PDF) (116 pp, 575K)

Resources

• Press release
• Fact sheet (PDF) (3 pp, 45K)
• Myths vs. Facts

Scientific Assessment Reports

• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report 
• National Academy of Sciences: America's Climate Choices 
• NOAA: State of the Climate in 2009
• U.S. Global Change Research Program: Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States

Recent inquiries and investigations of the CRU emails and IPCC

Recent investigations and inquiries into the emails by other organizations have all resulted in clearing the scientists of alleged wrong-doing.

• The Independent Climate Change E-mails Review (University of East Anglia) 
• Report of the International Panel set up by the University of East Anglia to examine the research of the Climatic Research Unit (University of East Anglia) 
• The disclosure of climate data from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia (U.K. House of Commons Science and Technology Committee) (PDF) (61 pp, 313K) 
• Assessing an IPCC assessment – An analysis of statements on projected regional impact in the 2007 report (Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency) (PDF) (100 pp, 1.9MB) 
• RA-10 Final Investigation Report Involving Dr. Michael E. Mann (Pennsylvania State University) (PDF) (19 pp, 779K) 

Petitions [LINK has amendments]

• Arthur Randol – Petition for Reconsideration (PDF) (12 pp, 169K)
• Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America – Petition for Reconsideration and for Stay Pending Reconsideration (PDF) (38 pp, 120K)
• Coalition for Responsible Regulation et al. – Petition for Reconsideration (PDF) (40 pp, 571K)
• Commonwealth of Virginia – Petition for Reconsideration (PDF) (5 pp, 273K)
• Competitive Enterprise Institute et al. – Petition for Reconsideration (PDF) (13 pp, 3.82MB)
  
• Ohio Coal Association – Petition for Reconsideration (PDF) (11 pp, 97K)
  
• Pacific Legal Foundation – Petition for Reconsideration (PDF) (58 pp, 461K)
• Peabody Energy Company – Petition for Reconsideration (PDF) (238 pp, 1.04MB)
• Southeastern Legal Foundation et al. – Petition for Reconsideration (PDF) (28 pp, 236K)
• State of Texas – Petition for Reconsideration (PDF) (38 pp, 1.28MB)

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Specifically, more than 1,100 counties -- one-third of all counties in the lower 48 -- will face higher risks of water shortages by mid-century as the result of global warming. More than 400 of these counties will face extremely high risks of water shortages.

Click HERE to get the report.

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HERE is an amazing "full comment" by Jonathan Kay in the right-wing National Post (Canada) that actually makes complete sense, entitled: 

Bad science: Global-warming deniers are a liability to the conservative cause

Here are some excerpts:

"

Have you heard about the “growing number” of eminent scientists who reject the theory that man-made greenhouse gases are increasing the earth’s temperature? ...Fine-sounding rhetoric — but all of it nonsense...Most climate-change deniers (or “skeptics,” or whatever term one prefers) tend to inhabit militantly right-wing blogs and other Internet echo chambers populated entirely by other deniers...

This is a phenomenon that should worry not only environmentalists, but also conservatives themselves: The conviction that global warming is some sort of giant intellectual fraud now has become a leading bullet point within mainstream North American conservatism; and so has come to bathe the whole movement in its increasingly crankish, conspiratorial glow...

In support of this paranoid approach, the denialists typically will rely on stray bits of discordant information — an incorrect reference in a UN report, a suspicious-seeming “climategate” email, some hypocrisy or other from a bien-pensant NGO type — to argue that the whole theory is an intellectual house of cards...

In simpler words, too many of us treat science as subjective — something we customize to reduce cognitive dissonance between what we think and how we live.

In the case of global warming, this dissonance is especially traumatic for many conservatives, because they have based their whole worldview on the idea that unfettered capitalism — and the asphalt-paved, gas-guzzling consumer culture it has spawned — is synonymous with both personal fulfillment and human advancement. The global-warming hypothesis challenges that fundamental dogma, perhaps fatally.

The appropriate intellectual response to that challenge — finding a way to balance human consumption with responsible environmental stewardship — is complicated and difficult. It will require developing new technologies, balancing carbon-abatement programs against other (more cost-effective) life-saving projects such as disease-prevention, and — yes — possibly increasing the economic cost of carbon-fuel usage through some form of direct or indirect taxation. It is one of the most important debates of our time. Yet many conservatives have made themselves irrelevant in it by simply cupping their hands over their ears and screaming out imprecations against Al Gore.

Rants and slogans may help conservatives deal with the emotional problem of cognitive dissonance. But they aren’t the building blocks of a serious ideological movement. And the impulse toward denialism must be fought if conservatism is to prosper in a century when environmental issues will assume an ever greater profile on this increasingly hot, parched, crowded planet. Otherwise, the movement will come to be defined — and discredited — by its noisiest cranks and conspiracists.

"

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From Stanford University:

Stephen Schneider, a leading climate expert, dead at 65

"Schneider was influential in the public debate over climate change and a lead scientist on the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore...Stanford climate researcher, Chris Field, described Schneider as "an inspiration to a whole generation... Steve clearly lit up any room he was in and you could always tell that wherever Steve was, there was going to be lively conversation, there was going to be sharp analysis and there was going to be a lot of intensity," said Field."

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From Ben Santer's eulogy on Realclimate:

"Stephen Schneider did more than any other individual on the planet to help us realize that human actions have led to global-scale changes in Earth’s climate. Steve was instrumental in focusing scientific, political, and public attention on one of the major challenges facing humanity – the problem of human-caused climate change.

We honor the memory of Steve Schneider by continuing to fight for the things he fought for – by continuing to seek clear understanding of the causes and impacts of climate change. We honor Steve by recognizing that communication is a vital part of our job. We honor Steve by taking the time to explain our research findings in plain English. By telling others what we do, why we do it, and why they should care about it. We honor Steve by raising our voices, and by speaking out when powerful “forces of unreason” seek to misrepresent our science. We honor Steve Schneider by caring about the strange and beautiful planet on which we live, by protecting its climate, and by ensuring that our policymakers do not fall asleep at the wheel."

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From the San Francisco Chronicle:

"In 1975, he founded the international science journal Climatic Change, and remained its editor in chief until his death...Dr. Schneider was a science consultant to every president, from Richard Nixon to Barack Obama and, in 1992, won a MacArthur Foundation "genius" award."

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From the New York Times:

"...He encouraged scientists to get out and communicate directly with the public, maintaining a Web page, “Mediarology,” describing the challenges attending such a move."

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HERE is Stephen Schneider's website.

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On a personal note, one of my first contacts with climate science was through Steve Schneider's website. I certainly admired him, and felt lucky to meet him briefly at the Copenhagen Climate Conference in December 2009. He was very friendly.

(Jan Dash)

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Here is a video of Schneider discussing his book: "Science as a Contact Sport: Inside the Battle to Save Earth's Climate" (National Geographic Books, 2009).

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Schneider, right, was a leader among the scientists whose climate research earned a Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, an honor they shared with former Vice President Al Gore, shown here with his wife, Tipper.

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What about the two degree C target in the  Copenhagen Climate Accord? "Our results suggest that limiting global warming to 2 degrees C above preindustrial conditions may not be sufficient to avoid serious increases in severely hot conditions" Diffenbaugh said.

The full article is HERE.

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What's the picture? It shows projected changes in heat extremes in the coming decades in the US. Details are in the article.

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Right on target, NOAA reports that globally, the half year Jan-June 2010 and the month of June 2010 were both the hottest on record. 

HERE is a graph of the US for June 2010 showing the temperature anomalies by region, from the National Climate Data Center:

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Women and children, especially in poor areas, are the most vulnerable to climate change and global warming. Chapter 17 of the 2007 IPCC report II (Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability) discusses "Gender aspects of vulnerability and adaptive capacity" on page 730.

HERE is a site dedicated to this issue, Global Gender and Climate Alliance GGCA. HERE are resources from GGCA.  

HERE is the NGO/CSW subcommittee on Women and Climate at the United Nations (nb: CSW is the UN Committee on the Status of Women. NGO means Non-Governmental Organization).

Links from GGCA:

Resource Guide on Gender and Climate Change
UNDP 2009

Fact Sheet on Gender and Climate Change
IUCN Office of the Senior Gender Advisor 2007

CEDAW and Climate Change
International Alliance of Women

Gender Perspectives: Integrating Disaster Risk Reduction into Climate Change Adaptation
ISDR (International Strategy for Disaster Reduction)

Gender, Water and Climate Change
Gender and Water Alliance

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The exhaustive Sir Muir Russell report has emerged after six months of inquiry, clearing scientists in the Climategate affair. HERE is the full report. The professional climate website RealClimate has a description. HERE is a report from the Guardian UK, which says in part:

"The climate scientists at the centre of a media storm were today cleared of accusations that they fudged their results and silenced critics to bolster the case for man-made global warming.

Sir Muir Russell, the senior civil servant who led a six-month inquiry into the affair, said the "rigour and honesty" of the scientists at the world-leading Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia (UEA) are not in doubt. They did not subvert the peer review process to censor criticism as alleged, the panel found, while key data needed to reproduce their findings was freely available to any "competent" researcher."

One of the remaining issues regards excessive "Freedom of Information FOI" requests that have no merit and distract real science from getting done. RealClimate says: "...the obvious bad faith of many of the requesters indicates that actual information about the functioning of public bodies is not the primary goal in making these requests..."

The picture above shows Sir Muir Russell second from left.

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Right on cue, the "director of energy and global warming policy" Myron Ebell at the  right-wing Competitive Enterprise Institute labeled the exhaustive report a "professional whitewash".

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This essay covers climate contrarians or deniers, sometimes called climate skeptics. The sections are:

• Who are the contrarians?
  
• What is the contrarian agenda?
  
• What do contrarians say about global warming? [The four trenches]
  
• What about real scientific skepticism and contrarians?
  
• What are some contrarian tactics and fallacies?
  
• What do contrarians misunderstand about climate risk management?
• What are some disturbing elements regarding contrarians?
  
• What about the emails?
  
• What about the IPCC?
• What did Kerry Emanuel say about "Climategate"?
• Why do we hear so much from the contrarians?
  
• What about media inaccuracy?
  
• Are the scientists hitting back against the contrarians?
  
• What is the psychology used by contrarians?
  
• Where do contrarians get FUNDING?
• What about a Contrarian Quote? 
  
• What is "Cargo-Cult Science"?
  
• Where can I get more information and references on contrarians?
• Bottom Line: Quacks, Tobacco, Right-Wing Think Tanks, and Contrarians
• What's the Picture? (Answer: An instructive contrarian fallacy).
  
• Here is a video.
  
• Here is a presentation.
  
• Finally, what about a little humor, even a Comic Strip (Bush era).
  

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The "contrarians" or "climate-change deniers" are a loud vocal minority. They include some practicing scientists, who however with rare exceptions are not professional practicing climatologists. HERE is evidence that contrarians in general have far less expertise in climate science than mainstream climatologists.

What is the Contrarian Agenda?
The agenda for at least some contrarians is to derail meaningful discussion and action on global warming by sowing confusion and influencing public opinion. Contrarians have achieved some success in the U.S. using this tactic. Other contrarians do not have an overt political agenda but rather have an incomplete understanding of the relevant science.

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What do Contrarians say about Global Warming? [The four trenches]
Various contrarians hold mutually inconsistent beliefs and positions. There are four categories, rather like four trenches.

1. Some contrarians deny that recent global warming exists (they distort the meaning of global warming, which is a globally-averaged upward temperature trend seen in the data since 1975, and instead invoke irrelevant fluctuations).

2. Other contrarians do admit that recent global warming exists but claim it is not largely caused by humans (they ignore or distort the attribution provided by climate models, and they emphasize irrelevant ancient data).

3. Other contrarians admit both that recent global warming exists and that it is largely caused by humans, but deny harmful impacts (they ignore current data and expert forecasts).

4. Finally some contrarians admit that global warming exists, is caused by humans, and indeed has harmful effects, but assert that it is too expensive to try to mitigate global warming (they use hand-picked economic scenarios that ignore benefits of new technologies, and they ignore the immense potentially devastating economic costs of unbridled global warming). 

Contrarians have largely changed tactics from arguing about economic costs/benefits of mitigation (#4) to attacking the actual science (#1).

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What about Real Scientific Skepticism and Contrarians? 
It is worthwhile noting that scientists, by nature, are skeptics. It takes a long time, with evidence from many sources, with peer-reviewed journals as a filter, for scientists to become convinced. However, once a scientific result becomes established, contrary claims are treated with with the same skepticism. Contrarians misinterpret this fundamental aspect of science. They misrepresent scientific standards by complaining that their ideas are suppressed by a "scientific establishment". 

What are some Contrarian Tactics and Fallacies?
The contrarian product often resembles Feynman's "Cargo Cult Science". Sometimes this is because of an incomplete understanding of the relevant science. Indeed, some contrarians seem to misunderstand the very nature of science, which consists of a web of facts and theory, different from a mathematical "proof". Other contrarians seem politically or financially motivated.

What do Contrarians Misunderstand about Climate Risk Management?

What are some Disturbing Elements regarding Contrarians?
This is from ClimateScienceWatch: "Senator James Inhofe, ranking Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, has gone a step beyond promoting his long-notorious global warming denialist propaganda. He is now using the resources of the Senate committee to seek opportunities to criminalize the actions of 17 leading scientists who have been associated with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment reports."  Inhofe believes that global warming is a "hoax".

What about the Hacked Emails?
The recent hacked email incident, without content scientifically, is being distorted by right-wing media in a destructive frontal attack on climate science and climate scientists. Prof. Phil Jones, at the center of the controversy,was  exonerated by the Science and Technology Committee of the British House of Commons; see HERE.

The definitive rebuke to the attempt by right-wing contrarians to exploit this incident was provided in the exhaustive Sir Muir Russell report, which emerged after six months of inquiry, clearing scientists in the Climategate affair. HERE is the full report. The professional climate website RealClimate has a description. HERE is a report from the Guardian UK, which says in part:

"The climate scientists at the centre of a media storm were today cleared of accusations that they fudged their results and silenced critics to bolster the case for man-made global warming.

Sir Muir Russell, the senior civil servant who led a six-month inquiry into the affair, said the "rigour and honesty" of the scientists at the world-leading Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia (UEA) are not in doubt. They did not subvert the peer review process to censor criticism as alleged, the panel found, while key data needed to reproduce their findings was freely available to any "competent" researcher."

Why do we hear So Much from the Contrarians?
While the history of science is littered with discarded or crank ideas, contrarians producing such ideas today have the unprecedented advantage of being supported notably by powerful energy and right-wing libertarian interests. The media, in order to "present both sides", gives the contrarians unwarranted coverage. In addition there are contrarian Internet bloggers, right-wing politicians, and some influential newspaper editors and TV “news” shows that present only contrarian arguments. 

What about Media Inaccuracy?
The right-wing media chronically and blatantly distort climate science. However, media inaccuracy on climate has been moving into the mainstream. Here is a RealClimate article discussing a recent example of misleading media, through incompetence or intent or both; see also "Whatevergate". 

HERE is a paper by William R. Freudenburg , UC Santa Barbara, which discusses the "... growing realization that media coverage of supposed debates has been strongly skewed by a tactic so widespread that it has its own name -- "Scientific Certainty" Argumentation Methods, or SCAMS ".

HERE is a paper "Exaggerating Denialism: Media Representations of Outlier Views on Climate Change" by  Maxwell T. Boykoff , U.  Colorado.

Are the Scientists Hitting Back  against the Contrarians?
Yes. HERE is an extraordinary letter published in the journal Science, signed by 255 members of the US National Academy of Sciences, including 11 Nobel Prize laureates. It says: "Many recent assaults on climate science and, more disturbingly,on climate scientists by climate change deniers are typicallydriven by special interests or dogma, not by an honest effortto provide an alternative theory that credibly satisfies the evidence."

What is the Psychology Employed by Contrarians? 
Fallacious tactics used by contrarians constitute a deliberate psychological agenda to influence the public. 

HERE is an excellent essay that says: "People are only too happy to accept a message of denial: you do not need to change, it will all be fine".

One problem is "Confirmation bias" which hampers people from changing beliefs if they first hear contrarian disinformation - cf: Persistence of discredited beliefs and Preference for early information. Confirmation biases contribute to overconfidence in personal beliefs and can maintain or strengthen beliefs in the face of contrary evidence. Hence they can lead to disastrous decisions, especially in organizational, military, political and social contexts.  

Where can I get More Information on Contrarians?
The most complete resource is RealClimate's Wiki, which is “an index for debunking of various popular media occurrences of climate-related nonsense”.  HERE is the list of responses to common contrarian arguments at RealClimate. RealClimate is the go-to scientifically accurate website run by professional climatologists. 

What about a Contrarian Quote?
To give an idea of the rampant distortion of climate science by contrarian media, HERE is a popular right-wing blog that states:  "Another global warming myth comes crashing down. No warming since at least 1995, no melting glaciers and now no rising sea levels. Basically this leaves the warmers with no credibility..." All these assertions are simply wrong.

Cargo Cult Science Reference 

See Prof. Richard Feynman's famous talk, "Cargo Cult Science". 

What's the Picture? An instructive contrarian fallacy

The notorious contrarian comparison in the misleading picture above with two graphs exhibits confusion manufactured by contrarians and provides an instructive example of contrarian fallacy. Contrarians use an apples-and-oranges comparison of the two graphs, which correspond to entirely different geographical regions, in a fraudulent argument that the current global warming over the last 30 years is not caused by humans.

Current global average temperatures are actually the hottest in 1,000 years and the current temperature trend is UP. Besides, there was no pronounced global "medieval warming period", contrary to the implication of the bottom graph. HERE are relevant data. A great video is HERE.

 

Actually this contrarian argument, besides being wrong, is a red herring.

 

Attribution of the observed global warming trend over the last 30 years to human activity is done completely differently and has nothing to do with irrelevant old data, as explained HERE.

 

Details: The upper "hockey stick" scientific graph of the above picture shows temperatures over the last thousand years averaged over the entire Northern Hemisphere (although this essential fact is deliberately not in the upper graph's label), and this upper graph shows the recent observed global warming since around 1970. The upper graph is simplified but is essentially correct (the real graph is pasted below, see HERE, from the work of many groups of professional climatologists). The lower graph in the above picture is wrong and is moreover used in a fraudulent manner, because it does NOT correspond to the entire Northern Hemisphere as does the upper graph. The lower graph in the above picture is based on a  graph from an old 1990 IPCC report that contained a temperature estimate in medieval times only from a few places that happened to be warm (mostly England; a few other places like Greenland were also warm). The old 1990 graph was then incorrectly extended to 2000 by a German high school teacher (analyzed HERE). Since this graph does not include data from medieval cold places which largely cancel out the warm places, there is not a big bump in Northern-hemisphere medieval temperature, thus there was no pronounced global "medieval warming period". The above fraudulent picture has been and continues to be widely disseminated in right-wing newspapers and contrarian blogs.

CORRECT GRAPH FROM CLIMATOLOGISTS:

 

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FILM on contrarians, Canadian perspective: 

 

Humor?

Comic Strip (Bush era)

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Here is the Penn State official news release, along with the conclusion from the full report:

Investigation of climate scientist at Penn State complete

Thursday, July 1, 2010

University Park, Pa. — A panel of leading scholars has cleared a well-known Penn State climate scientist of research misconduct, following a four-month internal investigation by the University.

Penn State Professor Michael Mann has been cleared of any wrongdoing, according to a report of the investigation that was released today (July 1). Mann was under investigation for allegations of research impropriety that surfaced last year after thousands of stolen e-mails were published online. The e-mails were obtained from computer servers at the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in England, one of the main repositories of information about climate change.

The panel of leading scholars from various research fields, all tenured professors at Penn State, began its work on March 4 to look at whether Mann had "engaged in, directly or indirectly, any actions that seriously deviated from accepted practices within the academic community for proposing, conducting or reporting research or other scholarly activities." Mann is one of the leading researchers studying climate change.

A full report on the findings of the committee can be viewed at "Final Investigation Report Involving Dr. Michael E. Mann."

Conclusion of the Investigatory Committee as to whether research misconduct occurred:

The Investigatory Committee, after careful review of all available evidence, determined that there is no substance to the allegation against Dr. Michael E. Mann, Professor, Department of Meteorology, The Pennsylvania State University.

More specifically, the Investigatory Committee determined that Dr. Michael E. Mann did not engage in, nor did he participate in, directly or indirectly, any actions that seriously deviated from accepted practices within the academic community for proposing, conducting, or reporting research, or other scholarly activities.

The decision of the Investigatory Committee was unanimous.

Letter from Henry C. Foley, Vice President for Research, Penn State
to Graham B. Spanier, President, Penn State

Here is a significant study showing that the contrarians or 'doubters' of climate change on the whole have far less expertise in climate science than mainstream climate scientists, as measured by published work. See HERE for more information about contrarians. The following article is reproduced verbatim from the Stanford News Service release on June 25, 2010:

Scientific expertise lacking among 'doubters' of climate change, according to analysis by Stanford researchers

Comment:

William Anderegg, Department of Biology: anderegg@stanford.edu

Stephen Schneider, Department of Biology: shs@stanford.edu

Sarah Jo Chadwick, Department of Biology, will direct phone calls to Anderegg and Schneider: sarahjo@stanford.edu, (650) 725-1296, (650) 725-9978

Related Information:

• 'Expert credibility in climate change,' Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, June 21, 2010

Monckton made an online reply to Abraham's presentation, see also HERE (where Monckton says that Abraham "looks like an overcooked prawn"). John Abraham chose to reply to Monckton's reply, in turn, which is printed below. Abraham's response was also posted HERE on skepticalscience.com and HERE on Climate Denial Crock of the Week.

In further developments, SkepticalScience reports HERE that Monckton is trying to censor John Abraham by pressure on the University of St. Thomas to remove Abraham's presentation. Another website "Hot Topic" is gathering support HERE to defend Abraham. And HERE is a Facebook page "Prawngate: Support John Abraham against Monckton's bullying".

See HERE for a press article giving further details, and this AP News Report.  

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Who is Christopher Monckton?

Monckton has no scientific degrees (his degrees are in classics and journalism).  For a great video debunking Monckton, go HERE. Since Monckton says he was "Special Advisor" to Margaret Thatcher, it is interesting to watch Margaret Thatcher saying: "The danger of global warming is as yet unseen, but real enough for us to make changes and sacrifices" in the video HERE (at 8:44).  Wikipedia's biography says that Monckton has asserted that he is a member of the House of Lords, but the House of Lords has stated that "Christopher Monckton is not and has never been a Member of the House of Lords". Monckton has officially complained about some reporting critical of him, but the complaint was not upheld. The BBC reported that, at a Heartland Institute Conference, Monckton said American "political masters are surrendering to the global socialist tyranny of global warming". 

A great compendium on Monckton has just been posted called "Lord Monckton's Rap Sheet" on the site Anti-Climate Change Extremism in Utah run by Prof. Barry Bickmore.

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For general information on climate contrarians, click HERE; a detailed essay with references is HERE.

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The presentation at the CUC ACM was not recorded, however HERE is a conversation of Michael Byers with prominent Canadian journalist Allan Gregg. The subject is "Who owns the Arctic - and why it matters to the global environment".

Here is a synopsis:
Global warming and the resulting melting of the ice has high environmental impacts. Melting ice exposes energy-absorbing dark water, which then leads to more global warming. The melting of the ice also exposes oil reserves for potential oil drilling and encourages increased transport of goods, with various risk levels.

Speaking on June 23, 2010,  at the 2010 Annual Conference and Meeting of the Canadian Unitarian Council (CUC ACM) in Victoria B.C., prominent Canadian expert on international law, Dr. Michael Byers, explained that sovereignty claims of the Canadian North West Passage and strong international cooperation of the entire Arctic region are important for the health of the very fragile arctic environment, and at the same time is significant for changes in global climate.

Watch the video with Dr. Byers, learn and then contact your federal government representatives to voice your desire for the protection of the Arctic through international agreements on economic activities and on commitments to significant global reductions of greenhouse gas emissions to reduce the global rise in temperatures.

Commentary by Katrin Nagelschmitz, UU-UNO

HERE is the Kerry-Lieberman Senate bill released today, 12 May 2010. It is called the American Power Act. From Senator Kerry's website, here is information on the bill:

For a look at the details of the legislation and related bills in the Senate, please download any of these PDF documents:

Read the bill.

Read a short summary of the bill.

Read a section by section summary of the bill.

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For information on the previous House energy/climate bill, see HERE.

These cities have signed the Covenant of Mayors which is a commitment by signatory towns and cities to go beyond the objectives of EU energy policy in terms of reduction in CO₂ emissions through enhanced energy efficiency and cleaner energy production and use.

The European Union (EU) is leading the global fight against climate change, and has made it a top priority. Its ambitious targets are spelt out in the EU Climate Action and Energy Package , which commits Member States to curb their CO₂ emissions by at least 20% by 2020. Signatories of the Covenant of Mayors contribute to these policy objectives through a formal commitment to go beyond this target through the implementation of their Sustainable Energy Action Plan. The list of these cities is HERE.

Here is the RSS feed from the United Nations Environmental Programme:

The BBC News reports the exoneration of scientists regarding the so-called "Climategate" email incident HERE with excerpts below:

'No malpractice' by climate unit

There was no scientific malpractice at the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit, which was at the centre of the "Climategate" affair.

This is according to an independent panel chaired by Lord Oxburgh, which was convened to examine the research published by the unit.

It began its review after e-mails from CRU scientists were published online...

UEA's vice chancellor Edward Acton said he welcomed the report.

"It is especially important that, despite a deluge of allegations and smears against the CRU, this independent group of utterly reputable scientists have concluded that there was no evidence of any scientific malpractice," he said.

HERE is a news flash from the UK Guardian, 12 April 2010:

Confidential document reveals Obama's hardline US climate talk strategy

Document outlines key messages the Obama administration wants to convey in the run-up to UN climate talks in Mexico in November...

Text of the leaked document:

Strategic communications objectives

1) Reinforce the perception that the US is constructively engaged in UN negotiations in an effort to produce a global regime to combat climate change. This includes support for a symmetrical and legally binding treaty.

2) Manage expectations for Cancun – Without owning the message, advance the narrative that while a symmetrical legally binding treaty in Mexico is unlikely, solid progress can be made on the six or so main elements.

3) Create a clear understanding of the CA's standing and the importance of operationalising ALL elements.

4) Build and maintain outside support for the administration's commitment to meeting the climate and clean energy challenge despite an increasingly difficult political environment to pass legislation.

5) Deepen support and understanding from the developing world that advanced developing countries must be part of any meaningful solution to climate change including taking responsibilities under a legally binding treaty.

Media outreach

• Continue to conduct interviews with print, TV and radio outlets driving the climate change story.

• Increase use of off-the-record conversations.

• Strengthen presence in international media markets during trips abroad. Focus efforts on radio and television markets.

• Take greater advantage of new media opportunities such as podcasts to advance US position in the field bypassing traditional media outlets.

• Consider a series of policy speeches/public forums during trips abroad to make our case directly to the developing world.

Key outreach efforts

• Comprehensive and early outreach to policy makers, key stakeholders and validators is critical to broadening support for our positions in the coming year.

• Prior to the 9-11 April meeting in Bonn it would be good for Todd to meet with leading NGOs. This should come in the form of 1:1s and small group sessions.

• Larger group sessions, similar to the one held at CAP prior to Copenhagen, will be useful down the line, but more intimate meetings in the spring are essential to building the foundation of support. Or at the very least, disarming some of the harsher critics.

Links to the Seminar presentations will be posted as they become available

Featured Speaker 4/8/10

Dr. Tony Broccoli

Panel 4/8/10 Afternoon (moderator Dr. Jan Dash)

Dr. Graciela Chichilnisky

Dr. Alan Robock

Dr. Jan Dash

Panel 4/9/10 Morning (moderator Pamela V'Combe)

Lynn Dash

Panel 4/9/10 Afternoon (moderator Rev. Eric Cherry)

Reena Kondo

Robin Nelson

Here is a picture of the panel on 4/8/10 that was held at the UN. Dr. Chichilnisky is on the left, Dr. Robock is in the center, and Dr. Dash is on the right. Photo taken by Jess Ansel, Seminar co-chair.

HERE is the UU-UNO Window on the World publication; the Spring Seminar is on pages 6, 7. Also an essay on the Gulf oil spill and lessons for global warming is on page 15.

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Window on the World: Spring 2010

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Economics of mitigating and adapting to climate change

Go to "What You Can Do" to see how to help mitigate climate change and global warming.

Below are some resources for the economics of mitigation and adaptation. 

• IPCC Mitigation 2007 Report

• Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change

• Johns Hopkins / Center for Climate Strategies Report

• Paul Krugman article

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IPCC Mitigation 2007 Report

• Summary for Policymakers

• Technical Summary

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Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change

Background (Wikipedia)

• Full text of the Stern Review, from HM Treasury

• The UK Government's Treasury web pages about the Stern review

• The Economics of Climate Change - The Stern Review

Summary of the Review's main conclusions:

• The benefits of strong, early action on climate change outweigh the costs.

• The scientific evidence points to increasing risks of serious, irreversible impacts from climate change associated with business-as-usual (BAU) paths for emissions.

• Climate change threatens the basic elements of life for people around the world — access to water, food production, health, and use of land and the environment.

• The impacts of climate change are not evenly distributed — the poorest countries and people will suffer earliest and most. And if and when the damages appear it will be too late to reverse the process. Thus we are forced to look a long way ahead.

• Climate change may initially have small positive effects for a few developed countries, but it is likely to be very damaging for the much higher temperature increases expected by mid-to-late century under BAU scenarios.

• Integrated assessment modelling provides a tool for estimating the total impact on the economy; our estimates suggest that this is likely to be higher than previously suggested.

• Emissions have been, and continue to be, driven by economic growth; yet stabilisation of greenhouse gasconcentration in the atmosphere is feasible and consistent with continued growth.

• Central estimates of the annual costs of achieving stabilisation between 500 and 550ppm CO2e are around 1% of global GDP, if we start to take strong action now. [...] It would already be very difficult and costly to aim to stabilise at 450ppm CO2e. If we delay, the opportunity to stabilise at 500-550ppm CO2e may slip away.'

• The transition to a low-carbon economy will bring challenges for competitiveness but also opportunities for growth. Policies to support the development of a range of low-carbon and high-efficiency technologies are required urgently.

• Establishing a carbon price, through tax, trading or regulation, is an essential foundation for climate change policy. Creating a broadly similar carbon price signal around the world, and using carbon finance to accelerate action in developing countries, are urgent priorities for international cooperation.

• Adaptation policy is crucial for dealing with the unavoidable impacts of climate change, but it has been under-emphasised in many countries.

• An effective response to climate change will depend on creating the conditions for international collective action.

• There is still time to avoid the worst impacts of climate change if strong collective action starts now.

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Johns Hopkins / Center for Climate Strategies Report

Washington, DC, July 22, 2010 — New greenhouse gas emissions and energy policies at the federal level could generate as many as 2.5 million new jobs and $134 billion in economic activity in the U.S. while keeping energy costs down, according to a new report from the Center for Climate Strategies, published with Johns Hopkins University...

This report can be viewed in full at http://energypolicyreport.jhu.edu

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Building a Green Economy

By PAUL KRUGMAN; Published: April 5, 2010, NY Times

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The World Health Organization WHO has estimated that there are currently 150,000 deaths annually from effects of climate change. That estimate includes deaths as a result of extreme weather conditions, which may be occurring with increased frequency. Changes in temperature and rainfall conditions also may influence transmission patterns for many diseases, including water-related diseases, such as diarrhoea, and vector-borne infections, including malaria. Finally, climate change may affect patterns of food production, which in turn can have health impacts in terms of rates of malnutrition. There is further evidence that unmitigated greenhouse gas emissions would increase disease burdens in the coming decades. The risks are concentrated in the poorest populations, who have contributed the least to the problem of greenhouse gas emissions.

The graphic below gives the geographical distribution:

Rajendra Pachauri, head of the United Nation's IPCC Climate Change panel, who was under scrutiny for allegedly receiving payments from private companies, has been cleared of the allegations by an independently conducted review conducted by KPMG, announced on 30 Mar 2010. See HERE. 

HERE is a recent event on Climate Change Policy. The talks are available on the site; here is the description: 

 Implementing Climate Change Policy:

Looking Forward to the Hard Part

Co-Sponsored by: 
Columbia University Law School
Environmental Law Institute
University of Virginia Law School
Vanderbilt University Law School

The United States is poised to adopt comprehensive climate change legislation. It will likely be one of the longest and most complex federal statutes passed in decades, and will affect almost every corner of the economy. Until then, EPA and perhaps other agencies may adopt numerous regulations.

Implementing the new regulatory scheme will be a massive and difficult undertaking. Billions of dollars will hinge on each of numerous implementation decisions. This one- and one-half day conference brought together leading government officials, academics, NGOs and private practitioners to explore these issues:

• The dozens of rulemakings required of EPA, DOE, and other agencies
• Creating the machinery for markets and offsets
• Managing the transition for key sectors (fossil and renewable energy, agriculture, forestry)
• Linkages to the international climate and trade systems
• State and local roles
• Affecting individual and corporate behavior
• Equity and environmental justice issues

Prof. Phil Jones has been exonerated by the Science and Technology Committee of the British House of Commons. HERE is a summary, HERE is discussion at RealClimate.org, and HERE is the full report. Prof. Jones, the director of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, was embroiled in controversy following the theft of internal emails and documents from the University’s servers in November 2009. Here are some quotes from the full report:

We believe that the focus on CRU and Professor Phil Jones, Director of CRU, in particular, has largely been misplaced...

In the context of the sharing of data and methodologies, we consider that Professor Jones’s actions were in line with common practice in the climate science community...

We are content that the phrases such as “trick” or “hiding the decline” were colloquial terms used in private e-mails and the balance of evidence is that they were not part of a systematic attempt to mislead. Likewise the evidence that we have seen does not suggest that Professor Jones was trying to subvert the peer review process. Academics should not be criticised for making informal comments on academic papers.

51. Even if the data that CRU used were not publicly available—which they mostly are—or the methods not published—which they have been—its published results would still be credible: the results from CRU agree with those drawn from other international data sets; in other words, the analyses have been repeated and the conclusions have been verified.

54. It is not standard practice in climate science and many other fields to publish the raw data and the computer code in academic papers...

60. Critics of CRU have suggested that Professor Jones’s use of the word “trick” is evidence that he was part of a conspiracy to hide evidence that did not fit his view that recent global warming is predominately caused by human activity. The balance of evidence patently fails to support this view. It appears to be a colloquialism for a “neat” method of handling data.

66. Critics of CRU have suggested that Professor Jones’s use of the words “hide the decline” is evidence that he was part of a conspiracy to hide evidence that did not fit his view that recent global warming is predominantly caused by human activity. That he has published papers—including a paper in Nature—dealing with this aspect of the science clearly refutes this allegation. In our view, it was shorthand for the practice of discarding data known to be erroneous. We expect that this is a matter the Scientific Appraisal Panel will address.

73. The evidence that we have seen does not suggest that Professor Jones was trying to subvert the peer review process. Academics should not be criticised for making informal comments on academic papers. The Independent Climate Change Email Review should look in detail at all of these claims.

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The report does call for more transparency, and there will be two more reviews. The bold font in the quotes above is for emphasis.

Coal and CCS - Carbon Capture and Storage (or Sequestration)

Future use of coal will be inevitably wrapped up with sequestration, or carbon capture and storage CCS technology at the plant that burns the coal. There are also alternative capture and sequestration methods.

Go to:

Background (EPA)

Do We Really Need Sequestration?

BUT there is a Big Caveat

What does Jim Hansen say?

More Information

Agriculture and Forestry Sequestration

What about Biochar?

Carbon Dioxide Air Capture and Storage

And What About China's Use of Coal?

References

Videos on CCS and coal plants

Background (EPA)

According to scientists, atmospheric build-up of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases as a result of human activities is changing the composition of the Earth's atmosphere and tending to warm the planet. Scientific studies link these changes to shrinking glaciers, sea level rise, changes in plant and animal habitats, and other global impacts. One possible way to avoid the negative impacts of higher atmospheric concentrations of CO2 is to avoid emitting the CO2 into the air in the first place.

Carbon dioxide can be captured at stationary sources and injected underground for long-term storage in a process called geologic sequestration (GS) (Video – WMV, 8 min.). In its Special Report on Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) identified CO2 capture and geologic sequestration as one of several options (including energy efficiency and renewable energy) that have the potential to reduce climate change mitigation costs and increase flexibility in achieving greenhouse gas emission reductions. The IPCC estimates that there is enough capacity worldwide to permanently store as much as 1,100 gigatons of CO2 underground (for reference, worldwide emissions of CO2 from large stationary sources is approximately 13 gigatons per year) (IPCC, 2005).

Confidence in this technology is supported by the knowledge that CO2 produced through natural processes has been retained in geologic formations for hundreds of millions of years (IPCC, 2005).  The presence of multiple trapping mechanisms will reduce the mobility of CO2 underground over time, decreasing the risk of CO2 leaking to the surface (IPCC, 2005).  It is likely that well-selected, well-designed, and well-managed GS sites can sequester CO2 for long periods of time.

Approximately 95% of the largest stationary sources of CO2 emissions (e.g., coal-fired power plants) in the United States are within 50 miles of a candidate GS site (GTSP, 2006). Considering the large storage capacity in the United States, GS has the potential to contribute significantly toward meeting the goals of the nation's climate policy. To help realize these goals, the federal government is conducting a wide range of GS-related activities.

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Do we REALLY need Sequestration? Yes. Why?

The atmosphere today contains almost 400 ppm of CO2 (equivalent), which is not only increasing rapidly but is already near or maybe even above the concentration where unacceptably large negative impacts of the global warming trend of climate change will occur. Because neither the transition to renewable energies nor reduction in demand can happen overnight, fossil fuels (notably coal) will continue to play an important, even if diminishing, role in the energy portfolio for some time. We cannot allow coal consumption to increase atmospheric CO2 without unacceptable risk. Hence we have to get rid of this CO2 to stop it going into the atmosphere, i.e. store it underground and/or in plants and trees. We can also remove existing CO2 from the atmosphere and store it underground. Such removal of CO2 is what sequestration means.

There are some sequestration facilities that exist today, though none of them at the required large scale with demonstrated acceptable risk. There will clearly be a tradeoff between the risks of carbon sequestration and the risks of global warming impacts.

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BUT there is a Big Caveat

Sequestration, should it eventually prove technologically feasible at a large scale, should NOT be used as a convenient excuse to continue "Business as Usual BAU" and avoid mitigation, as detailed in the 2007 IPCC Mitigation Report - notably avoiding a wholesale transfer from fossil fuels to better energy sources (solar, wind, geothermal, fusion), reducing energy demand etc.

As with any geoengineering concept (which sequestration is), there is a dangerous risk that BAU will remain. In that case, a good analogy would be a "Global Drug". The cessation of taking the drug of sequestration in a BAU state, or the appearance of large unexpected failures and leaks, could result in a disastrous "Drug Withdrawal Pain", which would be quick reversal to disastrous global warming. Even at a low probability level, the resulting huge impacts would make BAU unacceptable from a risk management standpoint.

Thus, mitigation must remain the major focus. Nonetheless, sequestration can be a valuable tool in the portfolio of actions against global warming.

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What does Jim Hansen say about CO2 sequestration?

HERE is a letter from James Hansen; see also HERE and HERE. Hansen is the outspoken NASA scientist whose research led to "350". This refers to the "safe" level of CO2 of 350ppm, below today's level. Notably, Hansen says:

Coal caused fully half of the fossil fuel increase of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air today, and on the long run coal has the potential to be an even greater source of CO2. Due to the dominant role of coal, solution to global warming must include phase-out of coal except for uses where the CO2 is captured and sequestered.

A practical global strategy almost surely requires a rising global price on CO2 emissions and phase-out of coal use except for cases where the CO2 is captured and sequestered.

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More information for point carbon capture and storage

Wikipedia summary.

Here is information on carbon sequestration methods from the National Academy of Engineering, including a short video by Calestous Juma, member of the NAE Committee on Engineering's Grand Challenges.

HERE are excerpts from "Coal and Global Warming FAQ" from the Union of Concerned Scientists: ...CCS technology faces many barriers, including its currently very high cost and unanswered questions about the feasibility and safety of long-term, large-scale geologic storage...Despite these challenges, CCS has the potential to play a useful role in the fight against global warming, warranting further investment of commercial-scale demonstration projects. In the meantime, new coal plants that do not capture carbon emissions should not be built...The United States has 500 or so large, operating coal plants, and more than 100 plants are currently proposed to be built. None of the existing plants capture their carbon emissions...While the risks posed by the potential expansion of the U.S. coal plant fleet are high, so too are those posed by the widespread expansion of coal-fired power plants in the emerging economies, especially in China and India. China is reportedly building the equivalent of two new 500 MW conventional coal plants per week, and the country already consumes far more coal than the United States...

HERE is the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum CSLF that has resources, including the CSLF inFocus Papers on Carbon Capture and Storage Technology. The CSLF has developed a series of short educational papers (1-6 pages in length) answering some of the most common questions surrounding carbon capture and storage technology.

• Why Carbon Capture and Storage? (795kb pdf)
• Is Geologic CO2 Storage Safe? (756kb pdf)
• Underground CO2 Storage: A Reality? (877kb pdf)
• CO2 Capture: Does it Work? (616kb pdf)
• CO2 Transportation: Is it Safe and Reliable? (1.2mb pdf)
• 10 Facts About CCS (3.4mb pdf)

HERE is a comprehensive report from the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate entitled "Technology Action Plan - Capture, Use and Storage".

HERE is another report from the International Energy Agency, called "Technology Roadmap: Carbon Capture and Storage".

HERE is a real-life example of CCS in North Dakota, "Basin Electric aims to capture carbon emissions from coal-fired power plant". This is notable because it discusses retrofitting an existing plant: "At Basin Electric’s Antelope Valley coal-based power plant, a facility with twin towers capable of producing 450 megawatts each of electricity, researchers hope to retrofit carbon capture technology to existing infrastructure".

HERE is an article in Nature Geoscience by Gary Shaffer on "Long-term effectiveness and consequences of carbon dioxide sequestration" warning about leakage of CO2 and ocean acidification.

HERE is an article on basalt storage.

HERE is an article on a new CO₂ scrubbing technique pioneered by Siemens. In August, the Siemens process will be put to the test at a pilot facility built by Siemens and the energy company E.ON: the Staudinger coal-fired plant, near Frankfurt. The plant will be adapted so that part of its exhaust gases are fed into a chimney containing a 25-meter-high column that gives off a solvent mist that reacts with CO₂ under pressure. As the flue gases pass through the mist, the CO₂ is chemically absorbed, leaving residual gases to pass out of the chimney. The CO₂ can then be separated from the solvent, which can be reused. The goal is 90% removal of CO₂. The design is in this diagram:

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Agriculture and Forestry Carbon Sequestration

Besides point-source removal discussed so far, CO2 can be removed from the atmosphere in a variety of other ways. Here is the EPA discussion of Carbon Sequestration in Agriculture and Forestry. For the US, the EPA says:

U.S. forests and croplands currently sequester over 600 teragrams (Tg) of CO₂ equivalent (about 170 Tg or million metric tons of carbon equivalent), after accounting for both gains and losses in carbon. This current amount of sequestration in forests and croplands offsets approximately 12% of total U.S. CO₂ emissions from the energy, transportation and industrial sectors.

Additional land-use and management changes can maintain and enhance these carbon sequestration levels in the U.S., reduce emissions of other greenhouse gases, and thus help address the climate change problem.

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What about Biochar?

Making biochar is essentially an inverse coal process - humans make a coal-like material and store it in the ground, thus sequestering CO2.

Biochar is charcoal created by pyrolysis of biomass, and differs from charcoal only in the sense that its primary use is not for fuel, but for biosequestration or atmospheric carbon capture and storage. Charcoal is a stable solid rich in carbon content, and thus, can be used to lock carbon in the soil. Biochar is of increasing interest because of concerns about climate change caused by emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and other greenhouse gases (GHG). See Wikipedia and Biochar.org for more information. 

HERE and HERE are two great biochar VIDEOS.

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Carbon Dioxide Air Capture and Storage

Another general method of carbon sequestration is carbon dioxide capture from the air, with subsequent storage. The novel part is the capture, with storage issues as above. HERE is the Wikipedia article on carbon dioxide air capture, which reads in part:

Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) or Carbon dioxide air capture... removes carbon dioxide from ambient air by carbon dioxide scrubbing. It is a different approach to removing CO₂ from the stack emissions of large point sources, such as fossil fuel fired power stations... CDR methods are notably supported by IPCC chief Rajendra Pachauri, see HERE...

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And What About China's Use of Coal?

Even if the US and other developed countries completely capture and sequester CO2 from all coal-fired plants, the enormous current and increasing use of coal in China and other countries without sequestration will overwhelm the earth's CO2 budget. HERE is a Bloomberg article on the current and projected coal use in China.

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References

LINKS to sequestration sites from BNA

GTSP 2006. Carbon Dioxide Capture and Geologic Storage: A Core Element of A Global Energy Technology Strategy to Address Climate Change. Global Energy Technology Strategy Program.

IPCC 2005. Special Report on Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage. Prepared by working group III of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Metz, B., O.Davidson, H. C. de Coninck, M. Loos, and L.A. Meyer (eds.). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 442 pp. Available in full at www.ipcc.ch (PDF - 22.8MB)

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VIDEOS ON COAL AND CCS

HERE is a general information video on coal, including carbon capture and storage, by Climate Central, called Georgia: Coal and Carbon.

HERE is a video against carbon capture and storage, notably for a proposed plant in Linden NJ called PurGen:

HERE is a video against a proposed coal plant in Virginia from the Chesapeake Climate Action Network CCAN.

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The picture at the top of the page is from the Pithead Baths coal mine museum in Wales.

"World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth"

A climate conference independent of the UNFCCC was held in Cochabamba, Bolivia on April 19-22. Bolivia opposes the Copenhagen Accord. Here is the home page for the conference, here is the program, and here is the press release, which reads in part:

(AFP) LA PAZ — An alternative “people’s conference” on climate change in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba in April will seek to advance an international global warming referendum, organizers said Tuesday.

“The only thing that can save mankind from a [climate] tragedy is the exercise of global democracy,” said Bolivia’s United Nations Ambassador Pablo Solon, a key organizer of the summit.

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HERE is the full program for the conference.

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HERE is a report of the conclusions of the conference, from the Third World Network TWN.

Meetings for the two tracks of the UNFCCC negotiations AWG-KP and AWG-LCA meetings took place in Bonn in April 2010.  HERE is a preliminary account.

 Below is descriptive information:

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UNFCCC Bonn Apr2010 Information_note_20100224

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Scientists Call to Action 2010 UCS

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This is your chance to post comments on this Youth Blog for action on climate change and global warming, under the Youth Column. To do so, you first have to become a member of this site, the UU-UNO Climate Portal.

What's the picture? It's the jet stream, a weather phenomenon whose consequences are often confused with climate. Learn the difference between weather and climate. 

 Here is the Time Magazine RSS Feed for Science (and Health):

A significant measurement with disturbing potential climate consequences has recently been announced. The measurement shows that a huge amount of methane is leaking from the Arctic seabed, coming up through melting permafrost. Methane is a greenhouse gas enormously more powerful than carbon dioxide. HERE and HERE is further commentary. Here is a video from University of Alaska Fairbanks scientist Natalia Shakhova explaining the situation.

Here is a larger version of the graphic from the National Science Foundation:

Here is the Environmental News Network RSS Feed:

Here is the Climate Central RSS Feed:

Here is an interesting Climate Change Timeline with great graphics from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (icon pictured): 

A JOURNEY THROUGH CLIMATE HISTORY

Introduction

This timeline has been developed to show key events in the climatic history of the planet, alongside events in human history.

As our own existence is momentary in comparison with the Earth's, in this interactive the measure of time has been separated into epochs to help navigate and differentiate the enormously lengthy periods between the formation of Earth, around 4.5 billion years ago, through to the present day.

When the timeline first loads, you will be dropped in at 2009, looking back in time. To move through an epoch, click and drag the time arrow. To move from one epoch to another, simply click on their titles.

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This is the National Wildlife Federation RSS Feed 

Here is the PHYSorg Earth Sciences News RSS Feed:

 This is the Yale Environment 360 RSS Feed:

Here is the Pew Center on Global Climate Change RSS Feed:

Here is the link to the NOAA Climate Services Portal. This new site has lots of information, including student-oriented educational material. Go have a look!

Here is the front page. To make the text bigger, click on "Fullscreen" and/or "Zoom + " at the bottom of the page.

Education

Here is a list of quick one-line rebuttals to over 100 fallacious claims by contrarians/skeptics on the popular Skeptical Science website. They rebuttals are not intended to be complete, but simply to enable the respondent to "bat the ball back over the net" in an informal encounter with someone quoting a contrarian claim. As described HERE, most of these one-liners were written by Dr. Jan Dash, Director of the UU-UNO Climate Initiative, with some editing by John Cook, author of Skeptical Science. Details on the science at Skeptical Science are obtained by clicking on the one-line responses.

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In THIS document of some historical interest (online HERE), the first line in a response labeled JWD is the one-liner summarizing the science by Jan Dash. The next lines labeled JC are the summary responses by John Cook, which he replaced with the one-liners.

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Note: This feed has started to deteriorate without environmental information, in spite of the name. If this continues, the feed will be deleted.

Here is a flagrant example of climate contrarians repeatedly attacking a scientist, Sir John Houghton (picture), falsely attributing a non-existent statement to him via his 1994 book not containing the statement. Houghton is important - he was the Co-Chair of the 2001 IPCC Science report. He is a distinguished scientist, was president of the Royal Meteorological Society and won the "Albert Einstein" World Award of Science.

He also wrote a scathing critique of the inaccurate contrarian "Global Warming Swindle" film.

For general information on contrarians, click HERE. Below are a few quotes from a recent news article HERE and HERE; see also Wikipedia.

What is the Clean Development Mechanism CDM? 

Clean Development Mechanism 

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From the Carbon Finance Unit at the World Bank: Methodologies for CDM projects:

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Below is a video of a CDM natural gas project replacing coal in Mongolia.

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Here are more CDM Videos.

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Below is an AUDIO FILE of CDM project developers; other CDM audio files are available HERE. 

CDM project developers

play mp3 play wma What are they looking for? - Leo Perkowski, Project Developer Forum

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Here is the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) RSS Feed:

Here are three excerpts:

"Climate change and energy are two key issues that will play a significant role in shaping the future security environment. Although they produce distinct types of challenges, climate change, energy security, and economic stability are inextricably linked." (page 84)

"Assessments conducted by the intelligence community indicate that climate change could have significant geopolitical impacts around the world, contributing to poverty, environmental degradation, and the further weakening of fragile governments. Climate change will contribute to food and water scarcity, will increase the spread of disease, and may spur or exacerbate mass migration. "(page 85)

"Managing the national security effects of climate change will require DoD to work collaboratively, through a whole-of-government approach, with both traditional allies and new partners." (page 86 - 87)

The results of the recent inquiry of Prof. Michael Mann by Penn State University completely exonerates him on three counts related to the infamous hacked emails stolen from the Climate Research Unit at East Anglia University. These emails, without content scientifically, have been used by right-wing media and politicians to launch a full-scale attack on climate science and climate scientists, and in particular on Michael Mann. These scurrilous attacks are without merit. Michael Mann is a front-line active climate researcher with numerous scientific accomplishments.

Here are the details of the investigation results:

Allegation 1: Did you engage in, or participate in, directly or indirectly, any actions with the intent to suppress or falsify data?

Decision 1. As there is no substance to this allegation, there is no basis for further examination of this allegation...

Allegation 2: Did you engage in, or participate in, directly or indirectly, any actions with the intent to delete, conceal or otherwise destroy emails, information and/or data, related to AR4, as suggested by Phil Jones?

Decision 2. As there is no substance to this allegation, there is no basis for further examination of this allegation...

Allegation 3: Did you engage in, or participate in, directly or indirectly, any misuse of privileged or confidential information available to you in your capacity as an academic scholar?

Decision 3. As there is no substance to this allegation, there is no basis for further examination of this allegation...

A fourth allegation will be the subject of further investigation.

HERE is a recent analysis.

Here is the top of the list from the Nature Magazine RSS feed. To get the whole list, click HERE.

Dr. Mary Jean Buerer

IPCC Newsletter 2010 Issue 1

This is the American Institute of Physics Science Policy RSS feed:

CLICK HERE for 100  PLACES  TO REMEMBER BEFORE THEY DISAPPEAR. This site features 100 unique photographs from one hundred places in the world all in risk of disappearing or being seriously threatened by climate change. The pictures are taken by some of the best photographers in the world.

Here is Chad Tolman's Climate Change News feed, a monthly summary of articles about energy and climate change science and policy. 

The picture is of a panel at the Klimaforum in Copenhagen in December 2009.

Fordham Talk Climate Change & Global Warming 2010 DASH Final

Click HERE, enter the data, and hit the Run Simulation button.

This simulation is called C-Learn. C-Learn is the 3-region, simplified version of the policy-maker-oriented C-ROADS (Climate Rapid Overview and Decision Support Simulator) simulator, which has been used in United Nations proceedings, the U.S. Congress, by top European Environment Officials, and undergone an external scientific review.

To find out more, click HERE. 

EXAMPLE

Here is what the simulation looks like for one particular scenario. It is very aggressive, calling for an 80% reduction in emissions by developed countries and 50% reduction by developing countries by 2050, with respect to 2005 levels, with reductions starting in 2012. Maximal afforestation sequestration and minimal deforestation is assumed. The temperature change by 2100 is 2.4 degrees C. 

Less aggressive scenarios will lead to higher rises in temperature.

 The following graphic was pasted from the C-LEARN site. Not all quantities show up in the graphic.

Main Control Panel

Change sliders or values below and then click "Run Simulation". See the graphical representations of your decisions below and explore climate impacts in the graphs to the right and using the menu options above.

Fossil Fuel
Emissions from:

%
Change

Refer- 
ence
Year

Start
Year

Target
Year

Developed Countries

Developing Countries A

Developing Countries B

(0-1 index between high and low values)

Emissions from Deforestation

Sequestration from Afforestation

Goal for CO2 in the Atmosphere

parts per million

Change scenario name(s) 

 

Reset Inputs Clear Runs

Impacts

hi

CO2

hi

BAU CO2

hi

Goal

CO2 in 2100: 412 ppm

Gap closing %: 90

hi

Temperature

hi

BAU Temperature

HERE is the SciAm RSS feed for energy and sustainability.

Other RSS feeds from Scientific American can be accessed HERE. 

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Pres. Obama took the lead in a series of direct negotiations at Copenhagen with China, India, and others, which lead to the compromise "Copenhagen Accord". Without his intervention, no accord would have been reached.

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Original text follows:

President Obama will visit the Copenhagen COP15 Conference on Dec 9, the White House has announced. His speech will contain target reductions for US greenhouse gas emissions by amounts consistent with current legislation. Further details will be added to this article as they become available. 

From the WhiteHouse.gov website:

The White House also announced that, in the context of an overall deal in Copenhagen that includes robust mitigation contributions from China and the other emerging economies, the President is prepared to put on the table a U.S. emissions reduction target in the range of 17% below 2005 levels in 2020 and ultimately in line with final U.S. energy and climate legislation.  In light of the President’s goal to reduce emissions 83% by 2050, the expected pathway set forth in this pending legislation would entail a 30% reduction below 2005 levels in 2025 and a 42% reduction below 2005 in 2030.  This provisional target is in line with current legislation in both chambers of Congress and demonstrates a significant contribution to a problem that the U.S. has neglected for too long.  With less than two weeks to go until the beginning of the Copenhagen conference, it is essential that the countries of the world, led by the major economies, do what it takes to produce a strong, operational agreement that will both launch us on a concerted effort to combat climate change and serve as a stepping stone to a legally binding treaty.  The President is working closely with Congress to pass energy and climate legislation as soon as possible.

The new evidence to have emerged includes:

• Satellite and direct measurements now demonstrate that both the Greenland and Antarctic ice-sheets are losing mass and contributing to sea level rise at an increasing rate. Sea level has risen ... about 80% higher than IPCC projections from 2001. Accounting for ice-sheets and glaciers, global sea-level rise may exceed 1 meter by 2100, with a rise of up to 2 meters considered an upper limit by this time.  
• In 2008 carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels were ~40% higher than those in 1990. Even if emissions do not grow beyond today’s levels, within just 20 years the world will have used up the allowable emissions to have a reasonable chance of limiting warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius.

The report concludes that global emissions must peak then decline rapidly within the next five to ten years for the world to have a reasonable chance of avoiding the very worst impacts of climate change.

To stabilize climate, global emissions of carbon dioxide and other long-lived greenhouse gases need to reach near-zero well within this century, the report states.

Please email NGO support to: climatechangepaper@gmail.com. The paper is on the CoNGO website, reprinted below.

Climate Change: Summary and Recommendations to Governments^[i]

 CoNGO ^[ii] Committee on Sustainable Development (New York)

 The human-caused global-warming trend of climate change is scientifically established ^[iii]. Human beings are not distinct from nature, but are part of nature, and are now affecting nature in an alarmingly negative way. Impacts from global warming are now being felt and will soon become far worse. All countries will be increasingly affected in a myriad of severe, adverse ways: economically, environmentally, militarily, politically, medically, and psychologically. Global stability is threatened. There is no safe haven.

 Humane effective responses to global warming with an ethical and moral foundation require difficult equitable resolutions of conflicting national situations generated by different per-capita emissions (historical, current, and future), economic development, and energy requirements. Nevertheless the interests of all are intertwined. We need to become globally earth-centered, with respect for global human rights, reverence and compassion for living beings, with a light carbon footprint. We need dedicated, clear, decisive leadership and action to beneficially counter global warming by governments, NGOs ^[iv], corporations, and individuals. There is no alternative. Let not future generations, impacted by global warming, say of us, "They knew but did not act". 

 Recommendations to Governments for Action on Climate Change ^[v]

 1. Recognize that unmitigated global warming will produce widespread conflicts over food, water and resources, with consequent population displacements and other devastating effects.

 2. Adopt binding, verifiable, ambitious accords at COP15 ^[vi] reducing greenhouse gas emissions to achieve sustainable safe cumulative levels, incorporating equitably differentiated responsibilities for developed and developing countries, and substantial penalties for excessive emissions.

 3. Adopt the risk-management mitigation and adaptation strategies in the IPCC reports, with adequate increased funding for non fossil-fuel energy (solar, wind, geothermal, fusion).

 4. Adopt adequate, equitable, and binding financial and technical commitments by developed countries to developing countries for mitigation and adaptation, with effective distribution of aid, and joint cooperative responsibility.  Priority goals are:

• Security (peace and avoiding armed conflicts, avoiding mass migrations),
• Social Justice and Environment Preservation (achieving the Millennium Development Goals with food, water, and energy security; sustainable economic development; non-intensive agriculture; education on climate change and environment to inform and change behavior; public health; mental health; support for small-scale farmers, women and children; rights of small-island and coastal peoples; sustainable forestry; conservation; humane treatment of animals, avoiding species extinction, maintaining biodiversity).

Date: 12/9/09 2:13 AM, File: CSD_CoNGO Climate Change Paper FINAL 9Dec09.doc

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COVER LETTER

This is the cover letter for a recent paper "Climate Change: Summary and Recommendations to Governments" by the CoNGO Committee on Sustainable Development (New York). CoNGO is the Conference of Non-governmental Organizations in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations. The paper is attached as a pdf file.

"Environmental, social and economic development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

17 November 2009

Dear NGO Leader,

The CoNGO Committee for Sustainable Development is pleased to present the attached Climate Change Paper, containing recommendations to Governments on four critical issues: (1) the dangers of unmitigated climate change impacts; (2) reaching accord on climate change at COP15; (3) risk-management mitigation and adaptation strategies; and (4) assistance to developing countries. The Committee urges your NGO to encourage all nations to act clearly and decisively on these issues, as equitable, humane, ethical, and beneficial solutions are possible. Let not future generations say, of us: “They knew, but did not act”.

Please add the voice of your NGO to this message by signing on to this paper with an email to: climatechangepaper@gmail.com

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Ann Braudis Co-Chair, Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic, Inc.

Iryna Kurowyckyj Co-Chair, International Council of Women

Lily Schwabe Secretary, Temple of Understanding

Aaron Etra Treasurer, B’nai B’rith

Jan Dash Member at Large, Unitarian Universalist UN Office

Brad Jenkins Member at Large, Rotary International

Nana-Fosu Randall Member at Large, Voices of African Mothers

Larry Roeder Member at Large, World Society for the Protection of Animals

Patricia Scharlin Member at Large, World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts

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[Reuters conditions on RSS use]

Spring Seminar 2010

A Climate of Change: Head Heart and Hands Around the Planet

Spring Seminar 2010 Information 

What is Spring Seminar?

How Can I Get Involved?

Featured Speakers:

Dr. Tony Broccoli

Our keynote speaker, is director of the Rutgers Center for Environmental Protection and an experienced UU-UNO Scientific Advisor who will present work of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change).

Dr. Alan Robock

A climatologist studying the effects of human impacts on climate and the risks of geoengineering

top_of_information

PNAS paper indicates that changes since the middle of the 20th century are unprecedented

"The 20th century is the only period during the past 200 millennia in which aquatic indicators reflect increased warming, despite the declining effect of slow changes in the tilt of the Earth's axis which, under natural conditions, would lead to climatic cooling."

The Center for Climate Change Law (CCCL) at Columbia Law School develops new legal techniques to fight climate change and trains people in their use.  It does so in conjunction with the renowned scientists of Columbia University, and in close cooperation with the governmental and nongovernmental organizations that are grappling with the legal and policy issues raised by climate change.

Here is the CCCL blog.

[Links at the CCCL site include these]

Climate Regulation Tracking Service

"Coal-Fired Powerplants Dominate Climate Change Litigation"

October 5 Road to Copenhagen Panel Discussion video, click here

Transcript from EPA Public Hearing in Arlington VA on 5/18/09

Effects of climate change on health will affect most populations in the next decades and put the lives and wellbeing of billions of people at increased risk."

Ref: "Managing the health effects of climate change" , Anthony Costello et. al

The graphic shows impacts, including health, as a function of global temperature change, from the 2007 IPCC.  

The report emphasizes risk of destabilizing effects and failed states, especially in developing countries.

Future mass migrations due to climate change impacts, including water shortages in many locations, will add to global tensions and impact national security worldwide.  

Report download

Graphic: Illustrates human migration in 2008.

Here is a recent DOD video on the subject, by Undersecretary of Defense Policy Michele Flournoy:

Apollo’s 2009 program priorities are to:

• Promote federal policies, within the framework of The New Apollo Program, to spur national economic recovery through strategic investment in America’s clean energy economy.

• Strengthen and build state and local Apollo coalitions to promote policies, implement programs to speed investment in clean energy and energy efficiency, and put people to work in well-paid, green-collar jobs.

This is the Apollo Alliance RSS feed:

The IISD Reporting Services (IISD RS) produced reports from the Bangkok meeting.

Further Pre-Copenhagen talks are being held in Barcelona on November 2-6. Here is the first Barcelona report. "The last negotiating session before the historic UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December kicked off Monday in Barcelona, Spain. The meeting in Barcelona (2 to 6 November) follows on the UN Climate Change Talks in Bangkok (28 September to 9 October), which saw increasing convergence, streamlining of negotiating text and narrowing down of options for a comprehensive, fair and effective international climate change deal."

Here is the IISD report for the Barcelona meeting.

Click HERE for a brief history of the climate negotations.

Here is the general IISD RSS feed (click HERE for the RSS link):

Here is the IISD Reporting Services RSS feed:

"World leaders must commit to 'sealing the deal' on new climate pact", says Ban

When world leaders gather at a United Nations climate change summit next week, they must publicly commit to ‘sealing the deal’ on a new agreement on curbing harmful greenhouse gas emissions, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today.Next week’s summit is intended to “build the bridge” to the conference in the Danish capital, he said.

“We want world leaders to show they understand the gravity of climate risks as well as the benefits of acting now,” the Secretary-General underscored.

"Mobilizing polical momentum for Copenhagen" document:

Mobilizing for Copenhagen Secy Genl 22Sept 2009

LONDON, Sept 22 (Reuters) - A coalition of more than 500 international companies on Tuesday urged rich countries to commit to "immediate and deep" cuts in greenhouse gas emissions at U.N. climate talks to help combat global warming…

…the coalition said economic development will be impossible without a stable climate.

The statement was issued by companies who back a campaign by Britain's Prince Charles, heir to the throne and environmental campaigner, to press for new government policies on climate change and "to grasp the business opportunities created by moving to a low climate-risk economy".

The business group urged nations to set aside their differences and confront climate change with the same urgent, joint approach they took during the economic crisis.

"Developed countries need to take on immediate and deep emission reduction commitments that are much higher than the global average," the statement added.

Ref: Forbes, Reuters, Sept. 21, 2009

 Below is the Yahoo Global Warming RSS feed.

"The times when the private sector was against determined action on climate change are over.

181 leading investors and financial institutions responsible for the fiduciary management of USD 13 trillion – the backbone of the global economic system - have today unveiled a Statement on the Urgent Need for a Global Agreement on Climate Change, to be agreed on in Copenhagen this year at the UN climate change conference (COP 15 of the UNFCCC).

Endorsed by developed and developing country investors, this landmark Statement specifies the elements that the upcoming climate change deal must feature so as to unlock institutional investment and finance sector skills - at the needed scale - into the development of a low-carbon and climate-change resilient global economy. Central to the Statement is the science-based demand for a global target for emission reductions of 50-85% by 2050, and developed country emission reductions targets of 80-95% by 2050.

More details available here.

• View the Statement
• View the Press Release

"

Photographer James Balog shares new image sequences from the Extreme Ice Survey, a network of time-lapse cameras recording glaciers receding at an alarming rate, some of the most vivid evidence yet of climate change.

About James Balog

James Balog's latest work, the Extreme Ice Survey, captures the twisting, soaring forms of threatened wild ice. Full bio and more links

From the action-oriented organization 350.org, here is the description of the 10/10/10 event that will take place October 10, 2010:

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Are You Ready To Get To Work?

Our 2010 climate action plan is all about getting to work on local climate solutions.

On 10/10/10, the Global Work Party, we'll start transforming our communities from the ground up. Through local climate action projects, we'll make our leaders wake up and lead on the climate crisis. It's a plan that may well break the logjam and get us moving.

Looking for some ideas for your local work party? We have collected some of our favorites here.  

Whatever you choose to do just remember to plan a time for taking an action photo that visibly displays the number 350 and people getting to work. That way, we can stitch together a global mosaic for our leaders and the media, and show them that people all over the world are ready to get to work on climate solutions.  This gigantic photo petition will show the world: people everywhere demand leadership on solutions to the climate crisis that will get the world back to 350.

If you're ready to register, you can do so here: http://www.350.org/oct10

The Top 10 Ideas For 10/10/10:

Have ideas to contribute to this list?  E-mail them to WorkIdeas@350.org

#1 Organize a Tree Planting

Planting trees is fun, friendly, and a great way to engage the community.  And each one you plant will be a little carbon-sequestering machine for years to come.  Try to shoot for planting 350 trees or more in one day!

#2 Go Solar

Working on a solar project is a great way to demonstrate the clean energy future right in your community.  Whether its installing a solar panel on a local school, building a solar cooker for your community, or putting a solar hot water heater on your house--it is a great way to work with the planet, not against it.

#3 Work on a Community Garden or an Organic Farm

To get to 350, we'll need to rethink the way we produce food on the planet--moving away from industrial agriculture powered by fossil fuels, and towards small-scale, local, organic farming. Think about using your work party as a day to model this new system--maybe you can break ground on a new community garden.  Or simply help out harvesting at a local farm. For more info, visit 350.org/foodandfarm
 

 
#4 Go For a Ride:

Biking is a great way to get out and be visible in your community. It also demonstrate the need for improved infrastructure for our alternative modes of transportation. Think about setting up a bike repair workshop, or painting bike lanes in your community.  Maybe an awareness ride of 350 miles (or kilometers) if you're feeling a bit more ambitious?

#5 Harness the Wind

A local wind project can show that you're serious about building the clean energy economy.  Putting up a turbine is a big project though, so you'll want to start planning this one early...

#6 Get Efficient:

Energy Efficiency is often considered "low hanging fruit" when it comes to reducing carbon emissions.  It's often easier and cheaper than installing renewable energy, so why not start here? Whether it's installing more efficient LED or CFL lightbulbs in your MPs office, insulating your basement, weatherizing your church or temple, or doing an energy audit on your school, efficiency can help get us on the path to 350 as soon as humanly possible.  (This is also likely one of the easiest ways to reduce emissions really fast -- like 10% in 2010 as our friends at the 10:10 campaign are helping folks to do).

#7 Start a Transition Town

"The Transition Towns" project is designed to equip communities for the dual challenges of climate change and peak oil. By raising awareness of sustainable living and building local resilience in the near future, making your community a "transition town" can provide a solid framework for sustained action at the local level. There is even a whole existing network of communities working as Transition towns that you can connect with to learn what they are doing: http://www.transitiontowns.org.
 

#8 Faith Work: Connections between the world's diverse religions and the issue of global warming are numerous and strike a strong moral chord. This is a great way to gather people together who already have a community in which they discuss the big questions -- now is the chance to add global warming to the list and harness the network to start working on the solutions.

#9 Trash Clean Up: Sadly, some of our iconic places aren’t as pristine as we’d like. Why not leave the place better than you found it?  By recycling the garbage you find, you can ensure that the embedded energy in the products gets reused--instead of decomposing over the years and sending a stready stream of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.

#10 Join the 10:10 Campaign: Our friends at 10:10 Global are working an ambitious project: uniting different sectors of society behind the simple idea that by working together we can achieve a 10% cut in carbon emissions in a single year, starting in 2010.  Their focus is on immediate, practical action--350.org's focus is on uniting local actions for systemic change on a global level.  350.org and 10:10 are working hand in hand in 2010, and we couldn't be happier about the partnerhsip--if you want to get plugged into the 10:10 Global Campaign, sign up by using the widget below:

The UN Sunday on 10/24/10 will have the UU-UNO suggested theme

Ethical Aspects of Climate Change

As a focused topic, the UU-UNO suggests  "Ethical Aspects of a Climate Treaty". Here is a one-page orientation paper:

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Ethical Aspects of a Climate Treaty UN Sunday

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Download the 2010 UN Sunday Resource Packet (PDF)

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What is COP16? This is the critical upcoming climate conference at the end of 2010, following Copenhagen, organized by the UNFCCC. From Wikipedia,

The 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference will be held in Cancún, Mexico, from 29 November 2010 to 10 December 2010. The conference is officially referred to as the 16th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 6th session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties (CMP6) to the Kyoto Protocol. In addition, the two permanent subsidiary bodies of the UNFCCC – the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) – are likely to hold their 33rd sessions. The 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference extended the mandates of the two temporary subsidiary bodies – the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP) and the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA) – so they are expected to meet as well.