G20Voice

So now that everything is back to normal, what did the G20 actually accomplish and what did it not (from the Green perspective)?

Young activists from the Avaaz Action Factory joined the mass “People’s March” into downtown Pittsburgh on Friday afternoon, not far from the site of the G20 Summit, after holding their own climate-focused march in the morning. Their Twitter-friendly slogan is “G20 Climate FAIL,” criticizing what they say has been a lack of action toward a global climate treaty.

On Friday afternoon, President Barack Obama formally announced that the world’s 20 major developed and developing nations had agreed to gradually eliminate fossil-fuel subsidies. It was the only climate-specific policy directive to come out of the Group of 20 (G20) Summit in Pittsburgh, and it fell far short in the view of climate activists, who were hoping for a firm proposal on “climate finance”—G20 aid to poor nations for help in adapting to and mitigating climate change.

Climate activists were underwhelmed by what came out of this week’s Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh in the way of formal climate change commitments.
True, the heads of state of the 20 leading developed and developing economies agreed to phase out fossil fuel subsidies “in the medium term.” But they couldn’t come to a consensus on climate finance — aid from richer nations to poorer, directed at adapting to and mitigating the impacts of global warming.

What do Brazil, Mexico, China, India, and South Africa have in common? They’re all developing countries meeting in Pittsburgh this week that have plans for addressing their emissions and dealing with Climate Change.

Actor Djimon Hounsou is just as snacky in real life as he was on the big screen in Blood Diamond, The Island, and Gladiator. Better yet, he’s also a climate activist and humanitarian. As a global ambassador for the aid and development group Oxfam, Hounsou has traveled in sub-Saharan Africa and seen the direct links between climate change and human suffering.

The world’s most upstanding corporate citizens, like Halliburton, Monsanto, and ExxonMobil, take climate change seriously. It’s a serious opportunity for profit. That’s why, in addition to spending millions to perpetuate the energy, environmental, and subsidy policies that sustain their ongoing operations, they’ve created this “gated community for one” — the SurvivaBall.

The U.S. was given a starring role at the United Nations Climate Summit on Tuesday, but China stole the show.

Last night at Pittsburgh’s Andy Warhol Museum, Teresa Heinz read a message from her husband, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), that set the gala crowd to cheering: He and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) will introduce a climate bill in the Senate next Wednesday.

Friday marked the beginning of a 100-day countdown to Copenhagen, where the world’s governments will meet in December 2009 to hammer out a new agreement to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Before Denmark however, comes the last ’stop’ on the road, the next G20 in Pittsburgh. Read the rest >>