Live from Copenhagen: Follow us at the Climate Talks

December 11, 2009 By David Moulton

David Moulton
Director of Climate Change Policy, The Wilderness Society

Greetings from Copenhagen. As the Wilderness Society’s Director of Climate Change Policy, I’m here at the U.N. climate change negotiations hoping to see wild land issues find their proper place in the talks.

Being here is an exciting end to a year of work to protect our public lands, communities and economy from the effects of global warming. This summit in Copenhagen now has the world talking about preventing the degradation and deforestation of forests and wildlands and we have much to learn from what is already being tried in other countries.

We are very close to an historic global agreement that will kickstart whole new industries and businesses. But none of the discussions taking place this week can result in a binding agreement until the United States passes a comprehensive clean energy and climate policy. So the spotlight on the U.S. Senate is about to become very bright, and the fight for each Senate vote is about to become white hot.

There will be plenty of news coming out of these talks during coming week. My posts from Copenhagen will be found here and you can follow The Wilderness Society on Twitter to get more immediate updates and insights. 

Live from Copenhagen

Interpreting Copenhagen

December 21, 2009: What happened in Copenhagen? Was it unprecedented progress (Barack Obama) or a disappointing failure (Gordon Brown)? Let’s break it down...read more.

Can Obama make dominoes fall at Copenhagen?

December 18, 2009: With the arrival of President Obama, the Copenhagen climate talks approach a dramatic climax. On Thursday Secretary of State Clinton breathed new life into the talks by joining with other developed countries...read more.

Will climate talks yield climate action?

December 16, 2009: Today the U.S. delegation here in Copenhagen continued with a sustained and impressive charm offensive as ministers and heads of state began arriving. Tomorrow, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled make it to the Bella Center, followed on Friday by President Obama himself. More than any other factor at work here in Denmark, it is the imminent presence of over 100 prime ministers, presidents and other country leaders that keeps optimism alive even as the agreement text remains bracketed with placeholder language...read more.

New emphasis on protecting old forests in Copenhagen

December 15, 2009: Here at the Copenhagen Summit the building is a maze of forest of data, side events, booths and actual negotiations over...forests. Forests are part of solving the climate crisis — through both storing carbon and helping ecosystems and communities adapt in a changing world...read more.

Global warming science stands strong despite "climate-gate"

December 14, 2009: Today Rajendra Pachauri, leader of the Nobel- prize winning UN climate science process, spoke in Copenhagen with confidence in the bedrock of science on which our understanding of global warming rests. Meanwhile the opposition continues to try to squeeze the last few drops of doubt out of a few email lemons stolen from East Anglia University. ...read more.

Protect forests in the tropics...and in the United States

December 10, 2009: Here's a simple question for our climate negotiators in Copenhagen: As we seek to highlight the need to preserve the carbon in the vast but shrinking forests in other countries, how are we doing here at home? Secretary Salazar addressed Copenhagen on Thursday and noted that U.S. scientists have now calculated...read more.