The House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming is a select committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. It was established March 8, 2007 through adoption of a resolution by a 269–150 vote of the full House. As a select committee, it will cease to operate at the end of the current 110th Congress.
Controversy
Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced plans to create the select committee on January 18, 2007, which immediately drew objections from many House Republicans as well as some House Democrats, particularly Chairman John Dingell of the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee, which has primary jurisdiction over environmental and climate change issues and Chairman Charles Rangel of the Ways and Means Committee. Pelosi was able to reach a compromise with Chairman Dingell, wherein the committee will be advisory in nature, without the legislative authority granted to standing committees. Several Republican leaders, including Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Joe Barton continue to object to the committee calling it a "platform for some members to grandstand."
The committee also is controversial because it received funding at the expense of the House Ethics Committee.
Jurisidiction
The Select committee will conduct hearings on energy independence and climate change issues. The committee lacks the authority to draft legislation, but will work with the House standing committees with jurisdiction over climate change issues and develop recommendations on legislative proposals. Speaker Pelosi has indicated she would like committees with jurisdiction over energy, environment and technology policy to report legislation on these issues to the full House by July 4, 2007.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/
Kamis, 08 Oktober 2009
Kamis, 10 September 2009
UK Youth Climate Coalition
The UK Youth Climate Coalition (UKYCC) is a youth organisation in the United Kingdom. The coalition consists of several other youth organisations, which includes the National Union of Students, the National Trust's You, Me & The Climate (YOMAC) and the UK Youth Parliament. The charity aims to encourage young people to take action on climate change. Internationally, the coalition is part of the Global Youth Climate Movement.
History
In June 2008, the United Kingdom ambassadors to the WWF's Voyage for the Future programme, Emma Biermann and Casper ter Kuile, returned from the Arctic to found the UK Youth Climate Coalition (UKYCC).
Campaigns
In December 2008, the coalition participated in the National Climate March organised by the Campaign against Climate Change, with a campaign called "Our time is now" to raise awareness amongst young people.
In 2008, the Coalition organised a youth delegation to the 2008 United Nations Climate Change Conference to advocate on behalf of young people. At the event, the delegation coordinated the 'Call Gordon' project, a viral telephone campaign asking Prime Minister Gordon Brown to pursue a tougher agreement on climate change at the talks. Similarly in December 2009, the organisation will send a second youth delegation to the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference along with other members of the Youth Climate Movement.
On the 9th-12th October 2009, the UK version of Power Shift will be held at the Institute of Education in London. The event is a summit that intends to develop the youth climate movement. The event is modelled on a similar event to one organised by the Australian Youth Climate Coalition and carries the same name as the Energy Action Coalition event in the USA.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/
Rabu, 09 September 2009
U.S. Climate Action Partnership
The U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), formed January 22, 2007 is a co-operative group of businesses and leading environmental organizations. The group's primary purpose is to call on the U.S. government to require significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
"A Call For Action"
USCAP's principles and goals are summarized in their brochure "A Call For Action":
We, the members of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, pledge to work with the President, the Congress, and all other stakeholders to enact an environmentally effective, economically sustainable, and fair climate change program consistent with our principles at the earliest practicable date.
Targets
The USCAP Blueprint calls for the United States to act quickly to establish a mandatory, national economy-wide climate protection program that includes emission reduction targets for total U.S. emissions and for capped sectors that are::
— 97%-102% of 2005 levels by 2012;
— 80%-86% of 2005 levels by 2020;
— 58% of 2005 levels by 2030; and
— 20% of 2005 levels by 2050.
These targets do not comply with the IPCC proposed target reductions of 25 to 40% by 2020 and 80 to 95% by 2050 for Annex 1 (developed) countries under Scenario A to limit Greenhouse gases to 450ppm
USCAP Members
This list is complete as of July 3, 2007
The 14 founding members of USCAP are:
Alcoa, BP America, Caterpillar Inc., Duke Energy, DuPont,
Environmental Defense, FPL Group, General Electric, Lehman Brothers
Natural Resources Defense Council, Pew Center on Global Climate Change
PG&E Corporation, PNM Resources, and World Resources Institute.
In April, 2007 oil giant ConocoPhillips and insurer AIG joined USCAP.
The following groups and companies joined in June 2007:
American International Group (AIG), Alcan, Boston Scientific, ConocoPhillips
Deere & Company, The Dow Chemical Company, General Motors Corp.,
Johnson & Johnson, Marsh, PepsiCo, Shell,
Siemens, The Nature Conservancy, The National Wildlife Federation
In July, 2007, two major U.S. automakers joined:
Chrysler, Ford Motor Company
Organizational structure
Journalist Timothy P. Carney, writing for the conservative think tank Capital Research Center, says that USCAP has no in-house staff. He says that, like other lobbying coalitions, it manages its affairs through outside organizations to function and coordinate the activities of its members. He further asserts that USCAP contracts with the Meridian Institute, Lighthouse Consulting, and government relations firm Powell Tate Weber Shandwick to carry out its day to day operations.
Controversy
Questions have been raised about the same companies sponsoring both the partnership and lobbying groups which oppose its goals.
Many of the members of USCAP were previously involved with the Global Climate Coalition, whose intention was to block or minimize the effectiveness of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's demands for GHG curbing legislation. After ceasing official operation in 1997 GCC was victorious in having pressured the US into refusing to ratify the Kyoto Protocols to any meaningful extent.
Although many of these corporations have now become interested in halting climate change by 2050 through USCAP, both Yvo de Boer, UN Climate Chief and the EU have heavily criticized this long term plan for reductions as offering no short or mid-term solutions to the immediate problems of climate change.
According to Reuters, Robert Murray, chairman and chief executive of Murray Energy Corp., branded more than 20 major corporations that make up the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) "un-American" for allying with environmental groups he calls "enemies of coal."
From http://en.wikipedia.org/
"A Call For Action"
USCAP's principles and goals are summarized in their brochure "A Call For Action":
We, the members of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, pledge to work with the President, the Congress, and all other stakeholders to enact an environmentally effective, economically sustainable, and fair climate change program consistent with our principles at the earliest practicable date.
Targets
The USCAP Blueprint calls for the United States to act quickly to establish a mandatory, national economy-wide climate protection program that includes emission reduction targets for total U.S. emissions and for capped sectors that are::
— 97%-102% of 2005 levels by 2012;
— 80%-86% of 2005 levels by 2020;
— 58% of 2005 levels by 2030; and
— 20% of 2005 levels by 2050.
These targets do not comply with the IPCC proposed target reductions of 25 to 40% by 2020 and 80 to 95% by 2050 for Annex 1 (developed) countries under Scenario A to limit Greenhouse gases to 450ppm
USCAP Members
This list is complete as of July 3, 2007
The 14 founding members of USCAP are:
Alcoa, BP America, Caterpillar Inc., Duke Energy, DuPont,
Environmental Defense, FPL Group, General Electric, Lehman Brothers
Natural Resources Defense Council, Pew Center on Global Climate Change
PG&E Corporation, PNM Resources, and World Resources Institute.
In April, 2007 oil giant ConocoPhillips and insurer AIG joined USCAP.
The following groups and companies joined in June 2007:
American International Group (AIG), Alcan, Boston Scientific, ConocoPhillips
Deere & Company, The Dow Chemical Company, General Motors Corp.,
Johnson & Johnson, Marsh, PepsiCo, Shell,
Siemens, The Nature Conservancy, The National Wildlife Federation
In July, 2007, two major U.S. automakers joined:
Chrysler, Ford Motor Company
Organizational structure
Journalist Timothy P. Carney, writing for the conservative think tank Capital Research Center, says that USCAP has no in-house staff. He says that, like other lobbying coalitions, it manages its affairs through outside organizations to function and coordinate the activities of its members. He further asserts that USCAP contracts with the Meridian Institute, Lighthouse Consulting, and government relations firm Powell Tate Weber Shandwick to carry out its day to day operations.
Controversy
Questions have been raised about the same companies sponsoring both the partnership and lobbying groups which oppose its goals.
Many of the members of USCAP were previously involved with the Global Climate Coalition, whose intention was to block or minimize the effectiveness of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's demands for GHG curbing legislation. After ceasing official operation in 1997 GCC was victorious in having pressured the US into refusing to ratify the Kyoto Protocols to any meaningful extent.
Although many of these corporations have now become interested in halting climate change by 2050 through USCAP, both Yvo de Boer, UN Climate Chief and the EU have heavily criticized this long term plan for reductions as offering no short or mid-term solutions to the immediate problems of climate change.
According to Reuters, Robert Murray, chairman and chief executive of Murray Energy Corp., branded more than 20 major corporations that make up the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) "un-American" for allying with environmental groups he calls "enemies of coal."
From http://en.wikipedia.org/
Senin, 07 September 2009
Twisted, The Distorted Mathematics of Greenhouse Denial
Twisted, The Distorted Mathematics of Greenhouse Denial is a 2007 book by Ian G. Enting, who is the Professorial Research Fellow in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Mathematics and Statistics of Complex Systems (MASCOS) based at the University of Melbourne.
The book analyses the arguments of greenhouse sceptics and the use and presentation of statistics. Enting contends there are contradictions in the various arguments of the climate change sceptics.
The author also presents calculations of the actual emission levels that would be required to stabilise CO2 concentrations. This is an update of calculations that he contributed to the pre-Kyoto IPCC report on Radiative Forcing of Climate.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/
The book analyses the arguments of greenhouse sceptics and the use and presentation of statistics. Enting contends there are contradictions in the various arguments of the climate change sceptics.
The author also presents calculations of the actual emission levels that would be required to stabilise CO2 concentrations. This is an update of calculations that he contributed to the pre-Kyoto IPCC report on Radiative Forcing of Climate.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/
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