South Africa, the birthplace of the policy of racial oppression and exploitation called apartheid, was a perfect destination for a conference designed to consolidate a new regime of climate-based inequality. Despite press reports heralding the success of the “Durban Platform,” the 17th meeting of the United Nations Conference of Parties (aka COP17) in South Africa [...]

South Africa is responsible for 70 percent of Africa’s carbon emissions. As the host of the two-week U.N. climate talks, which ended on Dec. 11, the country has been eager to demonstrate its commitment to low-carbon technology. The government has committed to producing 10,000 gigawatt hours of electricity through renewable energy by 2013, and solar [...]

In our new book, Durban’s Climate Gamble: Trading Carbon, Betting the Earth, critical researchers show why emissions markets are as comatose as the Kyoto Protocol. Only a Suncoast Casino drunkard would put money – much less the planet – on the odds of a death-bed resurrection. For more on this story, visit: After Durban » [...]

Russia supports Canada’s decision to pull out of the Kyoto protocol, says its foreign ministry, reaffirming Friday that Moscow will not take on new commitments. Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told Friday’s briefing that the treaty does not cover all major polluters, and thus cannot help solve the climate crisis. For more on this story, visit: [...]

Canada has been condemned at home and abroad as “irresponsible” and “reckless” for pulling out of the Kyoto climate treaty, just a day after committing to a future legally binding deal at a major UN climate summit. “I regret Canada’s withdrawal and am surprised over its timing,” said the UN climate chief Christiana Figueres. “Canada [...]

The race to keep the rise in global temperatures below 2C is still winnable if there is a big change in the pace, but a 3-4C rise looks the most likely outcome. And the longer it goes on, the harder it gets. Bold unilateral moves like the Australian carbon tax, due to take effect from [...]

The Durban climate conference may have agreed a deal – or at least a deal to agree a deal – but the scale of the work that still needs to be done became plain today. Although talks are supposed to start immediately, America’s special envoy for climate change, Todd Stern, infuriated the EU by warning [...]

DURBAN, 13 December 2011 (IRIN) – The UN talks in Durban, South Africa, got adaptation and the response to climate change “approximately right”, which is better than “being precisely wrong”, a tired Naderev Sano, Philippines’ chief climate change negotiator, said as he emerged from two consecutive emotionally charged all-night sessions. Poor countries and NGOs, which [...]

The world is on track for a comprehensive global treaty on climate change for the first time after agreement was reached at talks in Durban, South Africa in the early hours of Sunday morning.

As Nelson Mandela famously said: “It always seems impossible, until we are done.” That is exactly how it seemed at the United Nations COP-17 climate negotations over the past two weeks – extremely difficult (and even impossible at times). The negotiations lastest more than than 36 hours after they were supposed to end. They culminated [...]