Jason Anderson’s Posts

• Blowguns in Bali

  As climate conference kicks off, defenses are up 0

  Posted 1 year, 11 months ago

  When I visited Bali 20 years ago, the beaches teemed with people offering any manner of products and services, and the most abundant seemed to be blowguns. Lying in the sand with your eyes closed, you could just hear, above the rhythmic lapping of the waves, the repeated murmur of "Blowgun? Blowgun? Blowgun?" What the connection with Bali was, I couldn't make out, but I can't help but think they could come very much in handy to defend your own patch of beach over the coming two weeks as 20,000 people descend on the tranquil isle for the U.N.… Read More

• Party Time

  What to expect from the U.N. climate-change negotiations in Montreal 5

  Posted 3 years, 11 months ago

  "Conference of Parties" sounds like a contradiction in terms: conferences are dull talkfests punctuated by free booze, and parties are free boozefests punctuated by dull moments of trying to talk over loud music. More of the former than the latter is likely to go on later this month in Montreal, during the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

  

  Hey, wanna save the planet?

  The event is a typical U.N. phenomenon -- a regular meeting of signatory countries to an international agreement, meant to chart progress and… Read More

• Climate Hooligans

  Does the World Cup hold the key to climate policy? 0

  Posted 7 years, 4 months ago

  

  The Maritim Hotel.

  Photo: IISD.

  The Maritim Hotel in Bonn, Germany is the regular site of the bureaucrat-level United Nations climate change meetings that take place between the ministerial sessions known as Conferences of the Parties. The building has the air of the showpiece hotel in an impoverished third-world capital: a chandelier and mirror quotient that's off the charts, but leaves you feeling oppressed rather than impressed.

  In previous years, the intensity of the climate negotiations created a buzz that held people's attention through night after night of $8… Read More

• The Hole in the Ozone Policy

  Are higher temperatures the price of saving the ozone layer? 0

  Posted 7 years, 11 months ago

  After 15 years as the poster child for international environmental agreements, the Montreal Protocol has slipped into the relative anonymity of a well-functioning accord. As Kyoto Protocol negotiations grab headlines before even yielding a ratified deal, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are quietly on their way to oblivion, through unprecedented, concerted efforts worldwide.

  That was some of the reassuring news coming out of Montreal earlier this month, during the 10th anniversary meeting of the committee in charge of financing the phase out of ozone-depleting gases in developing countries. Among other things, the Multilateral Fund of the Montreal Protocol approved World Bank projects to… Read More

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