Word: summiteer
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
That being said, the Poznan summit is only a waypoint on the road to negotiating a new Kyoto Protocol; it's not the final event. Kyoto, which mandated greenhouse-gas reductions for developed nations (except the U.S., which never ratified the treaty), will expire in 2012. And last year, at the contentious Bali summit, delegates managed to paper over disputes - including those among the U.S., which under the Bush Administration has generally played the spoiler at these talks; the European Union, which has routinely argued for the most stringent carbon reductions; and the big developing nations, like India and China...
...midst of a leadership vacuum on climate change (see below), progress out of Poznan will likely be slow and more about process than measurable targets. "Poznan was never going to be a conference where a spectacular outcome was to be expected," said French climate ambassador Brice Lalonde at the summit. "We hope for a spectacular outcome in Copenhagen next year. You can't expect a mouse to give birth to a mountain - it will only give birth to a mouse." (Translation: Small town, small summit, small expectations...
...longer has the power to bring talks to a standstill, as it has in past years (other countries are now treating the Bush team like an annoying houseguest that has overstayed his welcome), Obama can't be anything but vague for now. Although he sent observers to the summit, many greens wish he had deployed a high-level representative - like Vice President-elect Joseph Biden - to focus the world's attention on Poznan. As it is, the U.S. vacuum is the perfect excuse to justify the generally slow progress of the talks. Yet once Obama takes over...
European nations have a deserved reputation as the world's greenest, with firm carbon caps and a commitment to renewable energy. But that's not the whole story. Eastern European nations, like summit host Poland, remain dependent on heavy industries and polluting power like coal. And lately, given the severe economic downturn, Europe has edged away from its leadership on climate change. On Dec. 11, even as the U.N. summit has begun to heat up, the E.U. will meet in Brussels to vote on its ambitious 20-20-20 plan, which aims to reduce greenhouse gases continent-wide...
...real accomplishments of last year's U.N. summit in Bali was an agreement to move forward on avoided deforestation, a system that would pay rain-forest nations to protect their trees in exchange for carbon credits. (Deforestation is responsible for at least 20% of global carbon emissions.) But at Poznan, negotiations have gotten muddy. Thus far, no one can agree on what the rights of indigenous people who actually live among the trees should be in a forestry carbon market, while Brazil - home to 40% of the world's remaining rain forests - seems against the entire idea of avoided deforestation...