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USA scores own goal by moving the goal posts

Nathan Thanki August 8, 2012 1 Comment
by nathan thanki There was quite a stink created this week when US Special Envoy for Climate Change (the big-shot who shows up late to the UN climate talks and gets interrupted by his constituents for not truly speaking for them) made a "remark" to his old College, Dartmouth. There was widespread condemnation of the apparent u-turn on US climate policy, which had previously agreed...

Has US given up on keeping warming below 2 degrees?

Nathan Thanki August 7, 2012 0 Comments
As we are now only 3 weeks away from crucial climate change negotiations in Bangkok (which will set the stage for this years 18th Conference of the Parties, in Doha), US Special Envoy on climate change - Todd Stern - has dropped a bit of a bomb during a speech at Dartmouth. Rather than stick to what the science demands, and limit global warming to 2 degrees celcius, Mr Stern is advocating for a...

The Arms Trade Treaty has come to its end but states parties fail to adopt an agreement.

Angeline Annesteus July 27, 2012 0 Comments
By Angeline Annesteus The UN conference on the Arms Trade Treaty comes to its end but as always a lot can happen in the last minutes of the negotiations. Yesterday, the chair of the negotiations released a new draft text but it is full of potential loopholes. Many different areas of the text would need to be reconsidered in order for the treaty to meet its overall goal and objective: a robust,...

The Arms Trade Treaty and the P5’s dilemma

Angeline Annesteus July 26, 2012 0 Comments
By Angeline Annesteus   With one day left to conclude the first ever Arms Trade Treaty, the African states, CARICOM, NGOS, and other delegations urge the P5 to close the remaining gaps in the treaty text that is now under negotiations. The whole point is that nobody is supposed to be making profit by transferring arms to governments or any armed group that will use them to attack civilians....

The Arms Trade Treaty’s running behind schedule and under serious threats!

Angeline Annesteus July 25, 2012 0 Comments
By Angeline Annesteus   The opening week of the Arms Trade Treaty was characterized by procedural matters and wrangling because the Arab Group (Egypt) asked for Palestine to be recognized as a state, which Israel obviously refused. The past three weeks, states got down to some important discussions but did not have the basis for negotiations on most of the key elements of the treaty. As...