If you read the mainstream press, environmental blogs or my own favorite trailing indicator – the rolling Facebook wall of the politico-commercial climate elite – the pleasant surprise of finding agreement at the Cancun COP re-affirms both the relevance and utility of the UN climate negotiating process. The success is generally attributed to the negotiating [...]
In my last set of observations (see Kill Bill V2 and the Cancun COP), I tried to make the case that the 20 year old UN system that manages intergovernmental climate affairs is increasingly archaic. Rather than just complain and wander off muttering under my breath, these next blog blasts represent a few ideas might [...]
Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, Volume 2 is one of my favorite movies. It penultimate scene – a final confrontation of vengeance from the wronged Beatrice Kiddo (aka, The Bride, aka, Black Mamba, aka Uma Thurman) and the evil, yet oddly amiable and ambiguous, title character (aka, the great David Carradine) is perhaps the finest in [...]
A couple weeks ago, I took the liberty on this blog to write a open letter in support of my good friend, Christiana Figueres to be the next Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC. While that selection process is ongoing for another couple weeks it appears, it’s been inspiring in its own right to see the [...]
So, with recent changes in my professional life, my family and I made the decision to relocate to the Bay Area. There were a lot of reasons, but the main one is my general perception that my world (carbon trading) and their world (cleantech and information technology) rarely meet. Indeed, the maestro of this blog, [...]
Avoiding tropical deforestation – or REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) in the parlance of the emerging policy dynamic – is the most mind twistingly complex endeavor in the carbon game. The fact is that REDD involves scientific uncertainties, technical challenges, heterogeneous non-contiguous asset classes, multi-decade performance guarantees, local land tenure issues, brutal potential [...]
“The Clean Development Mechanism [the offset part of the Kyoto Protocol], which provides about 95% of the offsets used in the European market, is clearly broken and should be quickly phased out.” Fred Krupp, President EDF, Wall Street Journal Environmental Capital blog, 20 March, 2009 My first reaction to reading that parting statement in what [...]
“To illustrate the difference [between carbon offsets and allowances], consider two people trying to lose weight. One person decides to meticulously count the calories of the foods he eats, with the goal of reducing his intake each day. The second person, however, counts the calories of the foods he thinks he would have eaten that [...]
This past week, the Energy and Environment Subcommittee of the new US Congress held its first hearing on the use of offsets within a future carbon regime, presumably within the cap and trade variety of such a regime. As anybody should be able to surmise from reading my byline, my past blogs, or doing a [...]
I spent two days last week overlapping the two of the least sustainable parts of the American experience – Las Vegas and NASCAR. Now I like a good Vegas juxtaposition as much as the next guy – heck, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was pretty much my sophomore year bible. But attending a clean [...]
By Marc Stuart Secretary Clinton’s weeklong trip to Asia was notable for a number of firsts. The first time a new Secretary of State of a new administration has opened her tenure by flying west, rather than east. Well, George Schultz apparently went south, as the exception that proves the rule. It’s also the first [...]
By Marc Stuart One of my favorite quotes of all time I heard attributed to Barry Diller, the guy who worked for Rupert Murdoch long enough to get the Fox Network up and running, thereby kick starting The Simpson’s and many family moments of mirth in the Stuart household. At some point, Barry purportedly said [...]
The Address on Climate Policy I’d Like from President Obama July 2009 My fellow Americans: When I took office six months ago, I made it clear that my highest priority would be addressing the financial crisis that overcame us in 2008. As you well know, all indicators now point to the beginning of a slow—but [...]
