Reports from Bali
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| Louisville Climate Action Network |
This page was most
recently updated on
13 Dec 07.
recently updated on
13 Dec 07.
Art Williams, the director of Louisville's Air Pollution Control
District, is in Bali, Indonesia, representing the National
Association of Clean Air Agencies (NACAA) at the United
Nations conference for constructing efforts to build upon the
Kyoto Protocol. Read Art's second report below:
District, is in Bali, Indonesia, representing the National
Association of Clean Air Agencies (NACAA) at the United
Nations conference for constructing efforts to build upon the
Kyoto Protocol. Read Art's second report below:
Monday
one of the UN security guards as having been at Kyoto and the other UN
Conferences I've attended. So, it was nice to see a familiar face.
Conferences I've attended. So, it was nice to see a familiar face.
For this Conference, the large plenary halls, most of the information/display booths
of the many organizations and the computer center (from which I'm writing) are
located in the main hall, but the locale of most of the side events are a 5-minute
shuttle from here. I headed there for the rest of Monday.
I spent most of the day at the first of a two-day ICLEI program. ICLEI--the Int'l Council
for Local Environmental Initiatives--is a long-time fixture at these UN conferences and
they planned two full days of excellent presentations around local initiatives. NACAA
has had several years of a very good relationship with ICLCEI; we've partnered with
them, in particular, on the development of a software tool for estimating emissions
and selecting strategies.
ICLEI has now developed a partnership with the Clinton (as in the former President)
Climate Initiative and in the first quarter of 2008 that partnership will roll out an
on-line zero emissions calculator that anyone, especially cities, can use to calculate
various things about GHG emission reductions. Sounds like it will be a cool tool.
A key theme of many of the ICLEI events yesterday was that cities are a major player
in CC. I think we all know that. Cities are where most of the people are and where
most of the energy is used.
I broke away from the ICLEI program to attend a couple of other events, both
standing room only. (I have my little digital camera with me and am taking pics that
I can share later but I'm not sure how to download/upload them from here).
The first event was a panel of key US Congressional staffers; represented on the
panel was top staff from Lieberman, Warner, Waxman, Sensennbrenner, Carper and
Craig---yes--Sen. Larry Craig. He's very concerned about the effects of CC on the
forest industry. A lively and informative presentation/discussion was had on the
Lieberman-Warner bill (SB 2191 I think) that just passed out of committee last week.
Most of the discussion was predictable: what they're hoping to accomplish, timetables
for possible passage. Some predicted an effort to pass it out of the Senate in the
Feb./March time-frame, but others said not before there's a new President. One
observation: after listening to the two prior days on adaptation issues--all on effects
on people--the first mention of adaptation in this congressional event was by a
staffer who said that her boss' key focus on adaptation was on the effects in the US
on fish and wildlife--a groan was heard from the developing countries......
Another interesting area of discussion focused on offsets and to what extent
companies in the US should be able to achieve their target emission reduction
obligations by buying offsets. It seems there are likely to be limits, for example, no
more than 50% of the obligation, and that offsets may be limited to domestic offsets.
Thus, off shore protection of forests might not be eligible. This led to an interesting
discussion, with a strong intervention by Craig's staffer suggesting that protecting
forests wasn't all that good a thing. (The timber industry needs the wood, and we
shouldn't set up a system that keeps folks in other countries from cutting down
forests if they need to plant crops, etc. Frankly, I have a hard time buying into that
line of argument; seems not very subtly designed to maintain stocks of timber for the
industry.
Perhaps the most interesting and relevant (for NACAA) area of discussion was on
preemption. The issue was joined by the long time counsel for the United Mine
Workers Gene Trussco (sp?) who posed the question as the risk to the coal industry
of double carbon taxation of states were allowed to add costs on to whatever costs
come from a federal cap and trade system. He cited Illinois as an example of a state
that might do that. Warner's staff responded that Warner believes in state's rights (in
the absence of federal limits) seems to give with one hand and take away with the
other. In general, the consensus seemed to be that states would be allowed to be
additional to and more stringent than a federal program but not less stringent. This is
a very important area for state and local agencies as we know.
Another interesting area: provisions that would add a tax//fee/surcharge to imported
products from countries not addressing CC (how ironic). The EU proposed this
and the US administration loudly protested . . . Lieberman's staff acknowledged it
as a difficult issue, but noted that "Sen. Lieberman doesn't want the US to shoot itself
in the head." That got a good laugh from the crowd.
My next session was a panel presentation by Harvard-related policy wonks (their
work is on the Harvard web site; the lead guy has his work posted at www.stavis.com)
on the possible types of "policy architecture" for the post-Kyoto time-frame. The
major paradigm choices are top down (like the Kyoto Protocol) or bottom up, like the
many UN-related regional trade agreements. It was interesting stuff, but was quite
intellectual and academic in nature. Their work is being funded by the Doris Duke
Foundation.
I wrapped up the day back at the ICLEI room where it launched a new "Global
Alliance for EcoMobility" an effort focused on promoting low and no carbon forms of
transportation in urban areas. One speaker noted that the evolution of cities has
taken as from tribes to villages, to towns, to cities to mega-cities to impossible cities
which are becoming unlivable. (That talk could be juxtaposed by a nice presentation
from the mayor of Delhi, a city of 16 million, who went through a litany of ways in
which Delhi is a "Green" city). As part of the launch, we were treated to a
performance by a young woman introduced as an Indonesian pop singer superstar.
She sang about four American standard jazz tunes and did quite nicely. Then the
evening finished up with a dinner hosted by ICLEI at the palace of the Bali Governor
in Denpassar, the capital city of Bali, about a half an hour's drive from the
conference center. It was a very nice outdoor dinner and while we ate we were
entertained with about two hours of traditional Bali dance performances. A good
time was had by all. I sat with a delightful contingent from the South Korean city of
Suwon, which is considering ICLEI membership. I sat next to the person who is
Suwon's director of its air pollution agency and we exchanged information about our
respective agencies and programs.
Before I left for the conference this morning, I caught Al Gore and the lead IPCC
scientist on a CNN broadcast, live from Oslo where the Nobel Peace prize is to be
awarded to them later today. From there, Gore is scheduled to head here. Rumor
has it that the top celebs of the conference will be staying where I am. Besides Gore,
that includes Leo DeCaprio, Governor Arnold (the Terminator) and Bianca Jagger.
On the official COP side of things, there are a few open sessions later today of the
subsidiary bodies, where I hope to get up to speed on where some of the official UN
items stand. But, the general scuttlebutt is that things are going slowly on the
diplomatic/policy side of things. Things there will likely pick up as the top ministers
begin to arrive today and tomorrow for the high level sessions scheduled for
Wednesday and Thursday.
one of the UN security guards as having been at Kyoto and the other UN
Conferences I've attended. So, it was nice to see a familiar face.
Conferences I've attended. So, it was nice to see a familiar face.
For this Conference, the large plenary halls, most of the information/display booths
of the many organizations and the computer center (from which I'm writing) are
located in the main hall, but the locale of most of the side events are a 5-minute
shuttle from here. I headed there for the rest of Monday.
I spent most of the day at the first of a two-day ICLEI program. ICLEI--the Int'l Council
for Local Environmental Initiatives--is a long-time fixture at these UN conferences and
they planned two full days of excellent presentations around local initiatives. NACAA
has had several years of a very good relationship with ICLCEI; we've partnered with
them, in particular, on the development of a software tool for estimating emissions
and selecting strategies.
ICLEI has now developed a partnership with the Clinton (as in the former President)
Climate Initiative and in the first quarter of 2008 that partnership will roll out an
on-line zero emissions calculator that anyone, especially cities, can use to calculate
various things about GHG emission reductions. Sounds like it will be a cool tool.
A key theme of many of the ICLEI events yesterday was that cities are a major player
in CC. I think we all know that. Cities are where most of the people are and where
most of the energy is used.
I broke away from the ICLEI program to attend a couple of other events, both
standing room only. (I have my little digital camera with me and am taking pics that
I can share later but I'm not sure how to download/upload them from here).
The first event was a panel of key US Congressional staffers; represented on the
panel was top staff from Lieberman, Warner, Waxman, Sensennbrenner, Carper and
Craig---yes--Sen. Larry Craig. He's very concerned about the effects of CC on the
forest industry. A lively and informative presentation/discussion was had on the
Lieberman-Warner bill (SB 2191 I think) that just passed out of committee last week.
Most of the discussion was predictable: what they're hoping to accomplish, timetables
for possible passage. Some predicted an effort to pass it out of the Senate in the
Feb./March time-frame, but others said not before there's a new President. One
observation: after listening to the two prior days on adaptation issues--all on effects
on people--the first mention of adaptation in this congressional event was by a
staffer who said that her boss' key focus on adaptation was on the effects in the US
on fish and wildlife--a groan was heard from the developing countries......
Another interesting area of discussion focused on offsets and to what extent
companies in the US should be able to achieve their target emission reduction
obligations by buying offsets. It seems there are likely to be limits, for example, no
more than 50% of the obligation, and that offsets may be limited to domestic offsets.
Thus, off shore protection of forests might not be eligible. This led to an interesting
discussion, with a strong intervention by Craig's staffer suggesting that protecting
forests wasn't all that good a thing. (The timber industry needs the wood, and we
shouldn't set up a system that keeps folks in other countries from cutting down
forests if they need to plant crops, etc. Frankly, I have a hard time buying into that
line of argument; seems not very subtly designed to maintain stocks of timber for the
industry.
Perhaps the most interesting and relevant (for NACAA) area of discussion was on
preemption. The issue was joined by the long time counsel for the United Mine
Workers Gene Trussco (sp?) who posed the question as the risk to the coal industry
of double carbon taxation of states were allowed to add costs on to whatever costs
come from a federal cap and trade system. He cited Illinois as an example of a state
that might do that. Warner's staff responded that Warner believes in state's rights (in
the absence of federal limits) seems to give with one hand and take away with the
other. In general, the consensus seemed to be that states would be allowed to be
additional to and more stringent than a federal program but not less stringent. This is
a very important area for state and local agencies as we know.
Another interesting area: provisions that would add a tax//fee/surcharge to imported
products from countries not addressing CC (how ironic). The EU proposed this
and the US administration loudly protested . . . Lieberman's staff acknowledged it
as a difficult issue, but noted that "Sen. Lieberman doesn't want the US to shoot itself
in the head." That got a good laugh from the crowd.
My next session was a panel presentation by Harvard-related policy wonks (their
work is on the Harvard web site; the lead guy has his work posted at www.stavis.com)
on the possible types of "policy architecture" for the post-Kyoto time-frame. The
major paradigm choices are top down (like the Kyoto Protocol) or bottom up, like the
many UN-related regional trade agreements. It was interesting stuff, but was quite
intellectual and academic in nature. Their work is being funded by the Doris Duke
Foundation.
I wrapped up the day back at the ICLEI room where it launched a new "Global
Alliance for EcoMobility" an effort focused on promoting low and no carbon forms of
transportation in urban areas. One speaker noted that the evolution of cities has
taken as from tribes to villages, to towns, to cities to mega-cities to impossible cities
which are becoming unlivable. (That talk could be juxtaposed by a nice presentation
from the mayor of Delhi, a city of 16 million, who went through a litany of ways in
which Delhi is a "Green" city). As part of the launch, we were treated to a
performance by a young woman introduced as an Indonesian pop singer superstar.
She sang about four American standard jazz tunes and did quite nicely. Then the
evening finished up with a dinner hosted by ICLEI at the palace of the Bali Governor
in Denpassar, the capital city of Bali, about a half an hour's drive from the
conference center. It was a very nice outdoor dinner and while we ate we were
entertained with about two hours of traditional Bali dance performances. A good
time was had by all. I sat with a delightful contingent from the South Korean city of
Suwon, which is considering ICLEI membership. I sat next to the person who is
Suwon's director of its air pollution agency and we exchanged information about our
respective agencies and programs.
Before I left for the conference this morning, I caught Al Gore and the lead IPCC
scientist on a CNN broadcast, live from Oslo where the Nobel Peace prize is to be
awarded to them later today. From there, Gore is scheduled to head here. Rumor
has it that the top celebs of the conference will be staying where I am. Besides Gore,
that includes Leo DeCaprio, Governor Arnold (the Terminator) and Bianca Jagger.
On the official COP side of things, there are a few open sessions later today of the
subsidiary bodies, where I hope to get up to speed on where some of the official UN
items stand. But, the general scuttlebutt is that things are going slowly on the
diplomatic/policy side of things. Things there will likely pick up as the top ministers
begin to arrive today and tomorrow for the high level sessions scheduled for
Wednesday and Thursday.
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