Alexander White tackles two issues that seem too hard for our political system to handle: China and climate change. China’s response to climate change has shaped the course of climate negotiations. They were accused of stymieing negotiations at Copenhagen, and conservatives have used China’s reticence to adopt binding carbon reduction targets as an excuse for taking no action at all. But as China becomes the world’s largest carbon polluter, it is also on track to become the largest global producer of renewable energy. t’s a catch-22 for the Chinese Government – continued growth is essential to reduce domestic poverty, while the effects of climate change threaten its national security. more
Articles tagged: climate change
Coming Waves: the new environmental refugees
Simon Meyer looks at the failure of the international community to recognise the problem of climate change refugees more
Where to from here on climate change…
The CPD team reflect on better processes for making complex climate change decisions. more
Difficult, but not diabolical
Miriam Lyons, CPD’s Executive Director, looks at the role of faith and visions of change in moving beyond our current impasse. more
Cooperation, Community and Climate Change
Rob Salter reflects on the deeper implications of responding to climate change for the way we organise our society, in his new paper that explains why better relationships are the key to successful action on climate change more
Time to prepare for the One Degree War
Paul Gilding, climate activist and writer revisits a paper he co-wrote with Jorgen Randers, shouting out above the drone of the day to day political negotiations that what we are facing is nothing short of a global emergency. He contends it’s not too late (yet!) – if we have the political will to mobilise resources and human ingenuity – to keep temperatures below a 1oC rise by reducing CO2 concentrations below 350ppm. more
The Australian Government is undermining climate action.
Mark Diesendorf, Deputy Director of the Institute of Environmental Studies, UNSW exposes the gap between rhetoric and reality in Rudd’s climate change policies. more
Act now, or the planet pays later.
CPD Fellow, Ben Eltham asks, can the world really face up to the full challenge of climate change? Right now, he writes, you’d have to say no. more
Just Transition not yet a priority at Copenhagen
Peter Colley, national research director at the CFMEU, a union whose members will be at the frontline of any transition to a carbon-neutral economy, was in Copenhagen as part of a four person CFMEU delegation, and as one of about 316 union representatives. more