As I head into a week of post-COP15 strategy discussions in Copenhagen and Oslo, I have just completed two weeks of meetings in Washington and New York, during which I was comparing notes with business leaders and policy experts about where we are. What struck me most was how clear the vast majority of business leaders are: it is long past time for passage of a climate bill - the market signals are needed so those businesses and investors can move forward and accelerate the building of a clean economy.

This past December at the climate talks in Copenhagen the world's leaders came together to agree on an accord that provides a pathway forward, and breaks new ground on climate change. It sets the world's nations to work to limit warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius above industrial levels, puts in place critical financing for clean technologies and to protect the most vulnerable nations from the impacts of climate, and ensures that our efforts will be verified to be providing the reductions that each nation has committed to undertake.

The plenary negotiations are suspended as nations work feverishly to find a way forward with 4 to 6 nations opposing the rest of the world, all of the other countries want to proceed with the deal to enable action. President Nasheed of the Maldives is passionately imploring others to come together in support of a deal. The countries in opposition: Sudan, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador -- with Tuvalu and Saudi Arabia apparently saying they want consensus -- oppose the process by which the draft accord was developed.

From Copenhagen --

The morning's plenary session was already a disappointment, mostly dry rehashing of the same statements, when it was capped off with what could not have been a worse note: President Chavez of Venezuela—the fifth largest exporter of oil—made fun of the accord being negotiated, railed against President Obama, the agreement 'he cooked up', stating it would not be accepted. What is most disappointing, however, was that Chavez made no effort whatsoever to speak to the issue of climate change, to what must be done to address it, what Venezuela might do...

Over the past months, and now as as we reach the deadline for governments to reach a global deal here at the climate talks in Copenhagen, I have been struck by the collaboration – across borders and oceans – occurring in so many places and in so many quarters. On an unprecedented scale, business leaders, faith leaders, mayors, governors, and NGOs are working together within their communities to take on the climate challenge. This gives me hope.

On this last day of the climate talks, we sit in our office at the Global Observatory overlooking beautiful snowy Kongens Nytorv square with its Christmas lights and climate change art and educational displays; we are watching the heads of state on television, making their speeches, as they and their teams continue to negotiate behind closed doors, working to find a way for a final deal to be possible.

At the Global Observatory -- CBO: US Climate Bill Creates $21bn in Savings Over Next 10 Years

http://www.takepart.com/news/2009/12/17/cbo-us-climate-bill-creates-21bn...

December 9, 2009 -- My guest blog on 1Sky as we begin the climate talks in Copenhagen.

A few days ago, a key group of ten senators sent a letter to President Obama presenting their advice to him as he prepares to travel to Copenhagen. Their advice is a very different message than the one note negative message of warning that the Clinton Gore Administration received from the Senate (95-0) prior to Kyoto, headlined by: don’t sign something that doesn’t include developing country commitments with the same compliance timeframe as developed countries.

As COP15 gets underway, the Global Observatory's work begins: opening up the climate issue to the world, to help illuminate what is happening and why it matters. GO founder (and former President of Costa Rica) Jose Maria Figueres is moderating the opening civil society event; President Figueres has been a long time climate leader, having signed the first bilateral agreement on climate change ever, with the United States in 1994, and instituted the first price on carbon ever in 1995.

Greenland Dispatches #1 -- "Ice Floes"
Over Greenland by Plane, Copenhagen to Washington’s Dulles Airport, July 3, 2009

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