The impacts of global warming are already being felt. If we don’t act now, the climate crisis will become much worse, dramatically impacting people around the world and causing irreversible damage to the environment. Friends of the Earth believes we can and must solve this crisis and do so in an equitable and responsible way, but the path ahead is not easy. It will require bold leadership and a broad transformation of our society.
Friends of the Earth is working for aggressive legislation in the United States that quickly reduces -- and eventually ends -- our country's emissions of heat-trapping gasses. We are also participating in Friends of the Earth International's efforts to bring the international community together behind a strong global climate agreement, without which this problem cannot be solved.
Read the latest news and updates from our Global Warming campaign:
Negotiations continued today, largely behind closed doors, with technology transfer for developing countries at the top of the agenda. Rumors are that some agreement has been reached, at least on technology transfer, but it?s unclear whether the final proposal will truly bring things forward towards addressing climate change and the needs of developing countries or whether the meaning has been taken out of the agreement and developing countries have given up fighting. But it now looks like agreement may well be reached tomorrow.
The intensity level kicked up a notch today. More people, more security, two separate entry lines for "heads of state" and "participants." The high level segment has started with a series of speeches from country representatives today and tomorrow. But while the ministers speak, the negotiations are still ongoing behind closed doors. The high level representatives who have just arrived have their work cut out for them to reach an agreement.
The Bush administration is once again holding things up in the international climate negotiations. In fact, the United States won the Fossil of the Day award today - a daily award given by the NGO community for doing really stupid things during the UN negotiations. Today's award went to the United States for...
Senator Kerry arrived in Bali today, trumpeting the Lieberman-Warner climate bill as an indication that the United States is ready to take a lead on climate change internationally. Although the bill is an indication that the United States is changing course on climate change, in the context of these negotiations, the bill does not go far enough.
One of the big items being discussed in Bali is an Adaptation Fund that would help developing countries deal with problems arising from climate change - severe weather events, droughts, flooding, impacts on food and water, and other development challenges that will be made worse as a result of global warming.
Friends of the Earth is focusing not only on what is going on inside the talks in Bali, but is also working closely with social movements and others outside the negotiations to build a movement to demand climate justice. WALHI/Friends of the Earth Indonesia, which is a network of 400 local organizations in Indonesia, is one of Friends of the Earth's largest member groups. They have been fantastic in supporting our international Friends of the Earth team here in Bali (which is about 30 strong), and they have also done substantial work to raise awareness in Indonesia around climate change - an issue that is relatively new to many people in the country.
REDD stands for Reduced Emissions from Deforestation in Developing Countries. It is a big issue at the UN negotiations, because deforestation accounts for as much as 25 percent of annual greenhouse gas emissions globally.
The World Bank is one of the most well known providers of financing to developing countries for "development" projects. But over the years, the Bank has shown time and again that it sees development finance as being more about helping large multinational corporations set up shop in developing countries than it is about helping people out of poverty.
UN climate conferences are a bit overwhelming. The negotiations, which are divided into several tracks that go on simultaneously throughout the two weeks, are awash in a sea of acronyms (SBSTA, SBI, AWG, etc.) and issue areas (adaptation, deforestation, technology transfer, clean development mechanism). Beyond the actual discussions between governments, there are numerous press conferences, side events, and even protests and demonstrations going on outside.
Australia has now ratified the Kyoto Protocol and the United States is left as the only major country refusing to join the agreement. A recent change in government in Australia means that the US is now truly by itself in refusing to commit to this initial step towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
