CA's cap and trade program accelerates

The carbon scheme would cap emissions of large emitters including power plants, refineries, cement plants and other big factories at 15 percent below today’s levels by 2020, and allow companies to buy and sell emissions allowances to meet their goal, according to the article. The scheme would also allow limited use of high-quality offsets outside of capped sectors to cover a portion of the overall emissions reductions, according to CARB.

Obama to Copenhagen b4 Oslo.

President Obama will travel to Copenhagen Dec. 9, a day before accepting the Nobel Peace Price in Oslo, to help launch a U.N.-sponsored global climate change summit, a White House official said.

U.S. Will Propose Near-Term Emissions Cuts in...Days

By JOHN M. BRODER
Published: November 23, 2009

WASHINGTON — The United States will propose a near-term target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions before the United Nations climate change meeting in Copenhagen next month, a senior administration official said Monday. President Obama, the official said, will announce the specific target “in coming days.”

Ethiopia PM: World Not Serious On Climate Change

Aid workers say a five-year drought, worsened by climate change, is afflicting some 23 million people in seven east African nations, with Ethiopia worst affected.

Meles has become Africa's most outspoken leader on climate change and has argued that European pollution may have caused his country's ruinous 1984 famine.

Reuters, Author: Barry Malone

Yvo de Boer says Copenhagen deal unlikely

EDF's A Day in the Life of a Carbon Credit for Reduced Deforestation

An interesting story (hyperlinked in blog title) by Environmental Defense Fund on what a hypothetical REDD credit could look like in Brazil.

Reuters article- REDD credibility Hinges On 10-Words

Amazing Grist article on US climate change policy

This is absolutely essential reading for anyone, domestic or otherwise, that wants to understand how our country now works. If you want climate or any type of legislation, you need 60 senators - an extremely high bar given the polarization of our politics in the past few decades.






Graph: The American

Aceh's Governor Irwandi birthday surprise visit

As far as birthday surprises go, my 40th birthday couldn't have been more exciting. One of my heroes in this world, Governor Yusuf Irwandi of Aceh Indonesia, is an icon in conservation, democracy and human rights.

Governor Irwandi and some of his senior staff (Wibi, Yakob, Rafli, and others) popped by unexpected to share some food, play with kids, and toast to a new year. TFG is looking forward to staying engaged in Aceh forest conservation and sustainable livelihood efforts in the coming months and years.

You can read a 2007 article about Yusuf Irwandi (that I wrote when I was still in the private sector) here:

http://ecosystemmarketplace.com/pages/article.opinion.php?component_id=5358&component_version_id=7777&language_id=12