Ahead of climate talks in Doha, Qatar next week, the UN Environmental Programme has released the third Emissions Gap Report. Climate Interactive Co-Director Beth Sawin is once again one of the report’s authors. Like the World Bank report released last week, this report reminds us that reducing our emissions is paramount. Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on […]
Copenhagen Goal Within Reach, But Only With Global Action Far Beyond Today’s Most Ambitious Actions
Even if the world also has sustained success eliminating deforestation, reducing emissions of non-CO2 greenhouse gasses and improving energy efficiency, new investment in fossil fuel infrastructure can’t occur much beyond 2015 in order to maintain a 50% chance of limiting temperature increase to 2°C in 2100. Having a higher probability of achieving the 2°C goal or keeping […]
Seeing a Bigger Picture in the Great Lakes: Systems Mapping for Powerful Insights
By Beth Sawin A team from Climate Interactive recently used systems thinking tools to steer a group of Great Lakes leaders through these powerful questions on the health of the lakes: How do the interconnected challenges of climate change, invasive species, and nutrient run-off impact the ecological and social health of the North American Great […]
UNFCCC Submissions Due February 28th: C-ROADS Assistance Available!
In anticipation of the Feb. 28th deadline, modeling and simulation analysis is available from Climate Interactive to support parties and observers who are preparing submissions with suggestions for increasing the level of ambition of the global climate negotiations. Last December when the Durban Platform was agreed to at COP-17 it included a call for negotiating […]
Cheap Natural Gas Has the Potential to Weaken a Critical Feedback Loop Needed for the Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy
Early adoption of renewable energy helps jump start the transition to a low-carbon economy via a reinforcing feedback loop. Anything that diminishes early adoption of renewable energy – including competition from ultra-cheap fossil fuels – slows down this transition. Recent reports that unusually low natural gas prices in the US may be weakening homeowner’s enthusiasm for […]
Transparent, Real-Time Analysis Works
Climate Interactive is a small team with big goals. One of our founding goals was to offer rapid turnaround analysis of the most important climate and energy issues, and to make that analysis available ‘open source’. In doing so, we reasoned, we’d be boosting the effectiveness of the many, many parties –- from negotiators to […]
Durban Talks Open the Door to a Future Global Legal Agreement, But Produce No Immediate Strengthening of Pledges
With the close of COP-17, parties to the UNFCCC maintained the same inadequate emissions reduction pledges, thus committing the world to a more costly and risky path forward than is needed given the immediate availability of cost-effective measures to reduce emissions and begin the transition to a low-carbon economy. As our previous analysis showed, postponing […]
To Avoid Expensive and Disruptive Rates of Emissions Reduction In Coming Decades Parties Must Increase the Ambition of 2020 Pledges Today
To see a reposting on Joe Romm’s Climate Progress blog, click here. And a corroborating report by ClimateWorks Foundation here plus another by Climate Analytics here. Postponing commitment to ambitious targets until after 2020 would commit countries to rates of CO2 emissions reductions in decades beyond 2020 that exceed those typically seen in the current generation […]
There Doesn’t Have to be an Emissions Gap
Following on last year’s Emissions Gap report which was influential in the Cancun COP-16 climate negotiations, Climate Interactive Co-Director, Beth Sawin, again this year contributed to a UNEP/European Climate Foundation assessment, Bridging the Emissions Gap, which was released in advance of COP-17. As with last year’s report, the Bridging the Gap Report looks across various […]
Tropical Storm Irene Hits Close to Home
Climate Interactive Co-Director Beth Sawin (who is coping with life in newly flooded Vermont – she and family are okay BTW) posted a timely perspective on this week’s Irene disaster on Romm’s Climate Progress blog and Burlington Free Press. We’re sharing it here as well. My daughter, Jenna, will miss her first day of high […]