Diplomatic conferences
FT Climate Experts' Forum - 14 December
IPN Opinion article
IPN's Executive Director discusses the first week of the Copenhagen Conference
Obama at the Copenhagen Endgame
IPN Opinion article
Julian Morris blogs for FTEnergySource during COP15 in Copenhagen
Attacking patents halts progress
IPN Opinion article
The UN's latest climate talks, in Accra, heard much talk about waiving patents on 'green', low-carbon and renewable products which will, somehow, magically, help fight climate change. The real barrier to new technology in most developing countries, however, is high tariff barriers ñ and these barriers are generally higher the poorer the country. What is worse, countries that ignore intellectual property rights chase away the foreign investors so badly needed for growth and for the transfer of technology.
UN Climate Plans vs. The Poor
IPN Opinion article
Despite the breakdown of UN climate-change talks in Bali last December, the same themes were still being pushed at the late August week's meeting in Ghana--but now developing countries have begun to question the effects on the world's poorest. They must fight for greater realism in the climate debate: their livings and even their lives depend on it.
Adaptation not emissions cuts is policymakers' best approach
IPN Opinion article
Current climate change talks in Bali are focussing on a "Kyoto-2" with global caps on emissions of greenhouse gases. But such a treaty would harm the poor, hampering their adaptability to climate change, while doing little to prevent it.
