WHAT:  Katz’s Deli Celebrates 125 Years

SPONSOR:  Katz’s Deli

WHEN:           Friday, May 31; 7 – 10 pm and Sunday, June 2; all day

WHERE: Katz’s, 205 East Houston Street, on the corner of Ludlow Street, Manhattan

PRESS RSVP: Iva Benson, 212-843-8271, ibenson@rubenstein.com

BACKGROUND:Katz’s Delicatessen, a New York City staple since 1888, will officially celebrate its 125th Anniversary with an exclusive “Shabbat Dinner” on Friday, May 31 and a community celebration on Sunday, June 2nd. 

Official welcome:                      

3 Encouraging Signs of Progress from the Bonn Climate Talks.

Submitted by Jennifer Morgan on May 3, 2013

Day 4 of the climate talks in Bonn, Germany. Photo credit: adopt a negotiator, Flickr

A slight breath of fresh air entered the UNFCCC climate negotiations this week in Bonn, Germany. Held in the old German parliament—which was designed to demonstrate transparency and light—the meeting took on a more open feel than the past several COPs and intersessionals.

Instead of arguing over the agenda, negotiators got down to work, discussing ways to ramp up countries’ emissions-reduction commitments now and move toward a 2015 international climate action agreement.

Reaching these two goals is imperative. It was encouraging to hear delegates make progress across three key issues involved in achieving them:

1) “Spectrum of Commitments”

This idea—put forward by the United States—is that every country should determine its own national “contribution” to curbing global climate change and present it to the international community.   A “spectrum” of various commitments would thus emerge, which could be included in some sort of formal agreement.

The idea opened up a much-needed conversation about the concept itself and how it would work in practice. Beyond the issues of ambition and equity noted below, the first question was whether there would be any guidance or templates for how countries put forward such commitments, or would it be a more “wild west” atmosphere. The second question was if and how the contributions would be reviewed, if at all.

The United States proposed a review up-front, but did not state whether that review would result in any change in the initial offer. Other questions included what kind of mechanism could be used to ratchet up ambition, and how developing countries could put forward contributions without knowing what kind of financial support might be provided. Clearly one key question is how to ensure that nationally offered commitments add up to a level of action that keeps global average temperature increase below 2 degrees C.

While the talks yielded more questions than answers, discussing new ideas like the spectrum of commitments represented good progress in the negotiating process.

2) Ambition

How to increase countries’ emissions-reduction commitments is clearly the key worry for just about everyone, as it should be. While in Bonn, atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide approached the 400 parts per million (ppm) threshold, putting the planet on an extremely dangerous trajectory.

Delegates struggled to think through ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions enough to prevent climate change’s worst impacts. They heard from cities, farmers, and business people about what they’re currently doing to shift to a low-carbon economy. But how does that all add up? And how does one create the benefits for countries to go faster and deeper in reducing emissions?

In the context of a spectrum of commitments, the key question asked was how to ensure that collective actions would get the world anywhere close to staying below 2 degrees C of temperature rise. Many noted that the current ambition gap exists because of the bottom-up pledge and a failed review system. Why would this situation be any different if we pursue a spectrum approach? The word “ratchet mechanism” was often heard, with delegates searching for new ideas and incentives to catalyze more action. This “ratchet up” process, which enables countries to increase their emissions-reduction pledges over time, may be combined with a periodic review and a robust set of accounting, measurement, reporting, and verification rules.

3) Equity

The issues of equity and climate justice blew through many of the sessions and dominated informal dinner table debates. Although the “e” word is not mentioned specifically in the Durban Platform, it is now abundantly clear that figuring out how to make the 2015 international climate agreement equitable is going to be one of the keys to its formation. Some asked whether an “equity reference framework” approach could work. A number of experts have been analyzing the different indicators that could help assess whether a national climate action plan is equitable. While negotiating this set of indicators within the UNFCCC process would likely prolong the negotiations, delegates acknowledged that there is value in finding evidence-based, pragmatic ways to integrate equity into the decision-making process.

It was an encouraging debate: After this intersessional, all subsequent UNFCCC discussions of equity will inevitably be taken more seriously.

WRI and the Mary Robinson Foundation-Climate Justice hosted a Climate Justice Dinner one night during the talks. Stories of climate change’s real world impacts—which people in places like Bangladesh are already facing—connected negotiators with what’s really at stake for communities around the globe.

These stories and the open feeling of the meeting were clearly needed to inspire delegates to roll up their sleeves and think hard about how to address ambition, equity, and other issues.

Negotiators made some progress and started asking the right questions. Now it’s time to start answering these questions to ensure that the 2015 agreement not only provides transparency, but drives a game change in the level of climate action that the world has seen to date.

• LEARN MORE: Visit WRI’s Climate Justice Dialogue webpage

As reported by Irith Jawetz from the UN in New York City:

Reception at the United Nations on the occasion of the 65th Anniversary
of the Independence  of the State of Israel.

On Monday, April 15th, 2013, which was actually the Day of Remembrance for the fallen soldiers
in Israel and one day before the actual Yom Haatzmaut, which is the Independence Day,
Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations – H.E. Mr. Ron Prosor – invited us to a reception at the
Ambassador River View Tent, United Nations Headquarters in New York City.

The weather was beautiful and the view from the tent overlooking the East River was magnificent.

The guests were mainly UN people, Ambassadors, staff members,media and  leaders of the Jewish
Community in New York.

The band was an Israeli band who has performed for the Ambassador in the past and the main attraction
was the famous Grammy winner Israeli singer and violinist Miri Ben Ari.

Ambassador Prosor gave a short welcoming address. He started by expressing condolences to the victims
of the terror attack in Boston, which has occurred only a few hours before and to the people of Boston.
He then welcomed all the guests and thanked them for coming to celebrate this important day for the State of Israel.

Ambassador Prosor is known for his sense of humor he quoted Sir Winston Churchill, who is his role model – who once said:
“The good thing about reaching your 65th birthday is that you know, when you wake up in the morning, that you can
always take a nap in the afternoon.”    He then went on to say that – as President Obama would testify after his
last visit to Israel -  this is a country that will never nap, even when reaching its 65th birthday.
He then continued to note Israel’s achievements in the last 65 years in, among others, the fields of technology, innovation,
art,  music and education.

As an example for Israel’s innovative skills he introduced an Israeli company “Woosh” whose motto is -
“Positive Drinking – on the Street”.     We thought this would interest our readers.

Woosh offers residents and tourists of major cities a revolutionary solution for purified and cool drinking water across the
city on the go. Designed water station will be located on cities streets, allowing passers-by to fill each empty bottle they
have with tasty water at the push of a button. In every Water Station, there is a patent pending state of the art purification
system which is based on a very powerful purifier that does not have any harmful side-effects on the environment.
Another central and unique Woosh feature is cleaning of the user’s personal re-usable bottle.  Think what this will
do to eliminate all the plastic bottles people keep buying. Woosh will contribute to a significant reduction in waste polluting the environment.

We took part at a demonstration of the Woosh water station and were presented with a bottle to take home.

It was a very successful reception, incorporating fun, food, drinks, music, friendships and also a lesson in the environment.|
A breath of fresh air and a taste of clean water in a tent – at a usually dreary looking UN complex of buildings.

Search Results

1. News for Did a Saudi judge order paralysis ?

   
   
   1. Saudi judge orders man surgically paralyzed to pay for childhood stabbing

      New York Daily News ?- 1 day ago

      A Saudi court has ordered that 24-year-old Ali Al-Khawahir be surgically … I think about my son’s fate and that he will have to be paralyzed.” …
   1. Eye for Eye Punishment: Saudi Judge Orders Man Paralyzed for Stabbing

      KSEE? – 6 hours ago
   2. Saudi court orders man to be paralyzed as an Islamic punishment

      NBCNews.com (blog)? – 1 day ago
2. Saudi court orders man to be paralyzed as an Islamic punishment …

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   1 day ago – A young Saudi man faces being forcibly paralyzed as a punishment under … she did not have even a fraction of this money, meaning the court …

3. Saudi Arabian court orders man to be surgically paralysed in ‘eye for …

   www.independent.co.uk › … › World › Middle East

   by Robert Williams – in 25 Google+ circles – More by Robert Williams 2 days ago – A Saudi Arabian court has ruled that a man should be paralysed as punishment for … but your IP address will be logged to prevent abuse of this feature. … Amnesty claims that the paralysis sentence would contravene the UN …

4. Saudi court orders criminal to be surgically paralyzed – The Globe …

   www.theglobeandmail.com › News › World

   2 days ago – Saudi court orders criminal to be surgically paralyzed Add to . … A government-approved Saudi human rights group did not respond to requests …

5. Saudi judge orders man surgically paralyzed to pay – Mixed Martial …

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   1 day ago – A Saudi court has ordered that 24-year-old Ali Al-Khawahir be surgically paralyzed as … A decade later and he will now be paralyzed for life.

6. Surgical Paralysis Ordered in Saudi Arabia as Punishment for …

   www.usnews.com › News › Newsgram

   by Steven Nelson – in 59 Google+ circles – More by Steven Nelson 1 day ago – Surgical Paralysis Ordered in Saudi Arabia as Punishment for … Ali Al-Khawahir, 24, is awaiting court-ordered surgical paralysis in Saudi Arabia for an … and said the defendants did not have legal representation during court …

7. Saudi court sentences man to paralysis

   www.philly.com/…/20130404_Saudis_sentence_man_to_paral…

   1 day ago – Unless he can quickly raise $270,000, a Saudi man will soon face court-ordered surgical paralysis from the waist down, Amnesty International …

8. Britain ‘concerned’ after Saudi Arabia ‘orders man to be paralysed …

   www.telegraph.co.uk › … › Middle East › Saudi Arabia

   1 day ago – Saudi Arabian court ‘orders man to be paralysed’ … has sentenced a man to be paralysed in retribution for causing the paralysis of a friend when he was fourteen years old. … John Kerry: US will ‘empower’ Syria opposition …

9. Saudi judge orders man surgically paralyzed to … – Contacto Latino

   contacto-latino.com/…/saudi-judge-orders-man-surgically-para…

   Saudi judge orders man surgically paralyzed to pay for childhood stabbing. By NY Daily News Latino | Published: 2013-04-04 19:47:21 UTC | Read more, click …

10. Saudi judge orders man surgically paralyzed to … – One News Page

    www.onenewspage.us › US

    1 day ago – Saudi judge orders man surgically paralyzed to pay for childhood … his friend in the back and paralyzing him will be surgically paralyzed …

Reports of Saudi Paralysis Sentence (Taken Question)

Taken Question

Office of the Spokesperson

Washington, DC

Question Taken at the APRIL 5, 2013 Daily Press Briefing at US Department of State

April 5, 2013

---

Question: What is the U.S. response to reports that a Saudi judge gave a court order for a prisoner to be surgically paralyzed?

Answer: If these reports are true, they would be incredibly disturbing. We expect the Saudi Government to respect international human rights norms. We regularly make this point as part of our bilateral dialogue.

PRN: 2013/0374

—————————————————————-

Texas Refinery Is Saudi Foothold in U.S. Market.

By CLIFFORD KRAUSS

The Motiva refinery in Port Arthur, the largest in the United States, ensures a bigger market for Saudi crude and a stronger global voice for the kingdom.

 

==================================

www.timesofisrael.com/report-shell-to-dump-firm-over-its-ties-to-israel/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=004fe980fe-2013_04_05&utm_medium=email

 

This can now be seen in context!

 

Jewish Times // The Times of Israel

‘Shell to dump energy firm over its ties to Israel’

Australia’s Woodside Petroleum has a 30-percent interest in Israel’s Leviathan natural gas field

April 5, 2013, 3:28 pm 2

 

Related Topics

• Royal Dutch Shell
• divestment
• Commonwealth Bank of Australia

THE HAGUE (JTA) – Royal Dutch Shell declined to comment on reports that it will divest its stake in an Australian energy firm because of that firm’s investment in Israel’s gas fields.

According to the RTL Dutch television network, a spokesperson for Shell said on Wednesday that he had no comment on a report by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia which said Shell would likely dump its 23.1-percent stake in Australia’s Woodside Petroleum.

The report said Shell planned the move to avoid the risk of boycott by Arab countries following Woodside’s agreement to purchase a 30-percent interest in Israel’s Leviathan natural gas field. RTL reported that Shell’s stake in Woodside is worth more then $7 billion.

Last year, Shell said that involvement with Woodside was “incompatible” with Shell’s “long-term plans.”

IPU E-BULLETIN  N°21, 28 March 2013

IPU Calls for Greater International Support for Syrian Refugees – In the second resolution on Syria at an IPU Assembly in 12 months, IPU has urged all parties in the country to end violence immediately. It has also called on international and regional parties to help find ways to end the conflict peacefully whilst safeguarding Syria’s territorial integrity and sovereignty as well as the security and human rights of its citizens. The resolution, which followed an emergency debate at the 128^th IPU Assembly, focused particularly on the growing refugee crisis involving more than one million Syrians in neighbouring countries. IPU members have expressed concern that some countries may be forced to close their borders to new influxes of refugees. The organization is urging donor countries to fulfill pledges to provide US$ 1.5 billion to fund humanitarian assistance given only US$200 million has been received so far. In a separate development, the IPU Committee on International Humanitarian Law decided to send an urgent assessment mission to Jordan where many of the refugees have found shelter.

Parliaments Must Intensify Efforts to Protect Civilians - Parliaments must do everything they can to safeguard the lives of civilians in conflict, paying particular attention to women and children. A resolution on peace and security adopted on the closing day of the 128^th IPU Assembly in Quito calls on parliaments to ensure governments protect their people against genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and crimes against humanity through legislation, the ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and by overseeing government action to combat terrorism. If national authorities fail to safeguard their population, then collective action should be applied in a timely and decisive manner through the UN Security Council on a case-by-case basis. The resolution also stresses the need for sustained peace-building assistance to post-conflict situations and urges parliamentarians to make sure their governments commit the necessary funds to the reconstruction of countries emerging from crisis.

Democratic Governance a Must-Have Goal for Post-2015 Development Targets – MPs from 121 countries participating at the 128^th IPU Assembly have called for democratic governance to be included as a stand-alone goal in a new development agenda to replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) when they expire in 2015. Defining participation, transparency and accountability as the core of democratic governance, they argued that true prosperity could not exist in any society without respect for the universal values of democracy, rule of law and human rights. Democratic governance should also underpin other future goals. The message came out loud and clear both in statements on the general theme of the Assembly “From unrelenting growth to purposeful development “Buen Vivir”: New Approaches, New Solutions, and from a survey carried out among MPs on the issue. IPU’s membership declared it was more important than ever for parliaments to assert their legitimate place in the decision-making process at national and international levels and for parliaments to be strengthened across the world to allow greater oversight and legislative authority.

Parliaments Urged to Take Tougher Action on Sexual Violence – Parliaments across the world have been urged to take a much tougher approach to sexual violence, in particular to rape. In a statement at the closing session of the 128^th Assembly, Fernando Cordero, the President of the Assembly, expressed deep concern at the widespread crime with rape cases increasingly making the headlines in recent months. He called upon parliaments to scrutinize existing laws to ensure tougher punishment for sexual violence crimes, the enforcement of laws, the protection of victims as well as the provision of adequate resources to address the issue. Highlighting a common practice of punishing victims, President Cordero demanded the training of law enforcers so that the response to rape and other forms of sexual violence does not punish or stigmatize women.

Too Many MPs Under Attack and in Danger the World Over - Too many MPs in the world are being targeted, intimidated and harassed as an attack on democracy itself, according to IPU. Countries such as Afghanistan and Maldives are witnessing concerted direct violence against parliamentarians and at times also their families. As the 128^th IPU Assembly concluded in Quito, Ecuador, IPU’s Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians expressed concern at the recent suicide bombing attack on the family of the Speaker of the Lower House of parliament in Afghanistan. As part of a series of resolutions on cases on the human rights abuses of MPs around the world, IPU also voiced serious concern at the level of confrontation between the government and parliament of Maldives. The Indian Ocean Island nation has been in political crisis since February 2012. Significant intimidation and harassment of MPs has led to the IPU Committee following 21 cases of human rights abuses of parliamentarians, including that of Afrasheem Ali who was assassinated last October.  IPU has stated its deep concern that despite evidence, no-one has been held accountable for attacks on the MPs and at allegations that MPs may no longer be receiving the security protection they need. The IPU Committee examined the cases of 147 MPs in 24 countries during its latest session, pronouncing resolutions on cases involving 86 MPs in 17 countries.

Colombian Prosecutors committed to resolving murders of Patriotic Union MPs - A mission by IPU’s Committee on Human Rights of Parliamentarians to Colombia this month witnessed new efforts to shed light on the cases of 6 members of parliament from the Unión Patriótica (Patriotic Union) murdered between 1986 and 1994, as well as the death threats which forced fellow MP Hernán Motta into exile in October 1997. Colombia’s Chief Prosecutor and the Attorney General revealed the cases are now a priority with new methodology for gathering evidence developed. The Committee also learnt that the murder of one of the six Patriotic Union MPs, Manuel Cepeda, has been declared a crime against humanity in Colombia. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights concluded in May 2010 that the Colombian State bore responsibility for his murder. The IPU Committee has asked for detailed information from the Colombian authorities as to the exact steps being taken to find the perpetrators of all the crimes. It has called upon members of Congress to do their utmost to help in pursuing the cases.

IPU and Parliaments Should Play Pivotal Role in Advocating Fair Trade – Parliamentarians and IPU are being urged to take the lead in advocating fair trade as a means of ensuring sustainable development. A resolution submitted by the Standing Committee on Sustainable Development, Finance and Trade at the 128^th IPU Assembly, appeals to governments and MPs to support fair trade and to include it as an integral component of post-2015 sustainable development goals. In addition, it says parliaments and governments should explore more innovative, open and transparent financing mechanisms to allow for more effective funding of fair-trade projects. The Committee also appeals to governments to do more to combat corruption and to join forces in the fight against tax evasion, crucial to achieving increases in domestic revenue.

Record Number of Women MPs Attend 128^th IPU Assembly – A record number of women MPs attended the 128^th IPU Assembly in Quito, Ecuador, breaking the 200 mark for the first time ever. The 210 women MPs at the Assembly represented 33 per cent of all MPs attending. It was the first time the proportion of women MPs had been as high. The Quito gathering also witnessed a growing trend of better balanced delegations in terms of gender representation.  The trend in women’s representation at IPU assemblies echoed global parliamentary figures which in 2012 saw the highest percentage of women MPs in national parliaments. For the first time, the global average of women MPs broke the 20 per cent to reach 20.3 per cent. The Quito gathering also marked the first time women parliamentarians from Saudi Arabia participated at an IPU event with two newly-appointed women representatives from the Shura Council.

Using Social Media to Enhance Citizen Engagement and Democracy – Delegates to IPU’s 128^th Assembly have adopted a resolution that calls on parliaments to both use social media to better inform and engage with their citizens but also to protect the right to freedom of expression on and off-line. The resolution also underscored that a free, open and accessible internet is both a fundamental human right and a tool for citizen engagement. Parliamentarians also needed to take on the responsibility for ensuring citizens’ access to free and secure online communications. The resolution followed IPU’s release of its first ever social media guidelines for MPs and parliamentary staff. Available freely online, it aims to encourage the more widespread and effective use of social media by parliaments and politicians, as well as provide guidance to those responsible for managing social media channels. The guidelines help to define the scope and purpose of social media for parliaments whilst also providing a benchmark for good practice in citizen engagement. The World e-Parliament Report identified that by the end of 2012, a third of all parliaments were already using social media with another third planning to.

====================================================================================================

INTER-PARLIAMENTARY UNION

NEWS RELEASE

Intensify Efforts to Protect Civilians in Conflict Including Syria, Urges IPU

Quito/Geneva 27 March 2013 – The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) has called for a set of actions enforcing the responsibility to protect civilian lives during conflict on the closing day of its 128^th Assembly in the Ecuadoran capital, Quito.

Adopting resolutions on the Syrian refugee crisis and on the role of parliaments in safeguarding civilian lives, the IPU Assembly urged parliaments to ensure governments protected their people from genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and crimes against humanity through legislation, the ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and by overseeing government action to combat terrorism.

If national authorities fail to safeguard their population, then collective action should be applied in a timely and decisive manner through the Security Council on a case-by- case basis.   

Particular focus was put on the need for laws and measures to protect women and children, prevent and criminalize sexual violence and to provide redress for survivors in conflict.

Parliaments should also ensure they support governments in peace-building efforts through the allocation of necessary funds.

In the second resolution on the conflict in Syria in 12 months, IPU called for an immediate end to the violence there. Concerned by the displacement crisis which has left more than one million Syrian refugees seeking shelter and protection in neighbouring countries and stretching resources and capacity there, the Organization is urging donor countries to fulfil pledges to provide US$1.5 billion for humanitarian aid. So far, only $US200 million has so far been received.

IPU’s Committee on International Humanitarian Law in session during the 128^th Assembly will send an urgent assessment mission to Jordan which hosts a large number of Syrian refugees.

The Quito Assembly, which brought together more than 1,250 delegates, including nearly 630 MPs from 121 countries, also called for a radically new way of tackling economic growth and sustainable development as the world begins work on an agenda to replace the Millennium Development Goals.

Aiming for human well-being, IPU members highlighted the need for more attention to be paid to the nature of growth, the distribution of its benefits, prioritizing action on youth unemployment and job creation, better management of the world’s resources and eradicating gender inequalities once and for all.

As a result, IPU has called for democratic governance to be included as a stand-alone goal in a new set of sustainable development targets post 2015.

Defining participation, transparency and accountability as the core of democratic governance, the Organization’s membership declared that it was more important than ever for parliaments to be strengthened in their oversight and legislative functions and to assert their place in decision-making processes at national and international levels.

The 128^th IPU Assembly also adopted resolutions on the promotion of fair trade and innovative mechanisms for sustainable development and on the use of social media to enhance citizen engagement and democracy.  

Picture Editors can access photos from the Assembly from:

www.flickr.com/uip128ecuador

For further information, please contact:

IPU Press Office

Jemini Pandya, Tel: + 593 99 763 9725 or + 41 79 217 3374 or Email: jep@ipu.org

Leonie Guguen, Email: lg@ipu.org

Ecuadoran Parliament Press Office

Julia Ortega, Tel: +593 99 811 3863 or Email: julia.ortega@asambleanacional.gob.ec

Carolina Granda, Tel: +593 998 118 923 or Email: granda.carolina@gmail.com

UNION INTERPARLEMENTAIRE

COMMUNIQUE DE PRESSE

L’UIP demande que l’on protège davantage les civils pris dans les conflits, notamment en Syrie

Quito/Genève, 27 mars 2013 – A la clôture de sa 128^ème Assemblée, qui s’est tenue à Quito, capitale de l’Equateur, l’Union interparlementaire (UIP) a appelé à une série de mesures destinées à faire respecter la responsabilité de protéger la vie des civils pendant les conflits.

L’Assemblée de l’UIP, qui a adopté des résolutions au sujet de la crise des réfugiés syriens et du rôle des parlements dans la protection des civils, demande instamment aux parlements de veiller à ce que leur gouvernement protège la population contre le génocide, le nettoyage ethnique, les crimes de guerre et les crimes contre l’humanité, en adoptant des lois, en ratifiant le Statut de Rome de la Cour pénale internationale et en contrôlant l’action menée par le gouvernement pour combattre le terrorisme.

L’Assemblée dit aussi que si les autorités nationales manquent à leur obligation de protéger leur population, la communauté internationale se doit  d’engager en temps voulu une action collective résolue, par le truchement du Conseil de sécurité et, ce, au cas par cas.

L’Assemblée insiste en particulier sur le fait qu’il faut des lois et des mesures pour protéger les femmes et les enfants, prévenir et criminaliser la violence sexuelle et assurer réparation aux victimes des conflits.

Elle appelle en outre les parlements à accompagner les gouvernements dans leurs efforts de consolidation de la paix, en votant les crédits nécessaires.

Par ailleurs, dans sa deuxième résolution en 12 mois sur le conflit syrien, l’UIP appelle à une cessation immédiate de la violence dans ce pays. Préoccupée par les déplacements massifs qui ont fait plus d’un million de réfugiés cherchant asile et protection dans les pays voisins et mettant à rude épreuve les moyens disponibles, l’Organisation engage les pays donateurs à tenir leurs engagements et à fournir 1,5 milliard de dollars E.-U. pour financer l’aide humanitaire. A ce jour, seuls 200 millions de dollars ont été reçus.

Le Comité de l’UIP chargé de promouvoir le respect du droit international humanitaire, qui s’est réuni à l’occasion de la 128^ème Assemblée, va dépêcher d’urgence une mission d’évaluation de la situation en Jordanie, où se trouvent actuellement un grand nombre de réfugiés.

L’Assemblée de Quito, à laquelle ont participé plus de 1 250 délégués, dont près de 630 parlementaires de 121 pays, souhaite également que l’on trouve une toute nouvelle façon d’envisager la croissance économique et le développement durable, alors que la communauté internationale s’attèle à l’élaboration d’un programme destiné à succéder aux Objectifs du Millénaire pour le développement.

Ayant à l’esprit le bien-être de l’humanité, les Membres de l’UIP ont insisté sur la nécessité de se soucier davantage de la nature de la croissance, de la répartition de ses bienfaits, de donner la priorité à la création d’emplois et à l’emploi des jeunes, de mieux administrer les ressources de la planète et de mettre fin une bonne fois pour toutes aux inégalités entre hommes et femmes.

Forte de ces convictions, l’UIP décidé de demander que la gouvernance démocratique soit intégrée, comme un objectif à part entière, dans le nouveau programme de développement durable pour l’après-2015.

Les Membres de l’UIP, pour qui la participation, la transparence et la reddition de comptes sont les piliers de la gouvernance démocratique, ont déclaré qu’il était plus important que jamais de renforcer les fonctions législative et de contrôle des parlement et d’associer davantage les législateurs aux processus de prise de décision aux échelons national et international.

La 128^ème Assemblée de l’UIP a également adopté des résolutions sur la promotion du commerce équitable et de mécanismes novateurs de développement durable, ainsi que sur l’utilisation des médias sociaux pour accroître la participation des citoyens et renforcer la démocratie.

Les secrétaires de rédaction iconographie peuvent accéder aux photos de l’Assemblée sur :

www.flickr.com/uip128ecuador

Pour plus ample information, prière de contacter :

Service presse de l’UIP

Jemini Pandya, Tél. : + 593 99 763 9725 or + 41 79 217 3374 ou Courriel : jep@ipu.org

Leonie Guguen, Courriel : lg@ipu.org

Service de presse du Parlement équatorien

Julia Ortega, Tél. : +593 99 811 3863 ou Courriel : julia.ortega@asambleanacional.gob.ec

Carolina Granda, Tél. : +593 998 118 923 ou Courriel : granda.carolina@gmail.com

The University of Salento (Lecce-Italy) announces the second edition of
the International Summer School “Life-Cycle Approaches to Sustainable
Regional Development”, which will take place in Santa Maria di Leuca (LE)
from July 8th to July 12th 2013.
The focus of the school will be on LCA, Carbon Footprint, Water Footprint
and Integrated Reporting.
For all the details please see: www.lcss.unisalento.it/

THE ISRAELI MISSION MAKES HISTORY AT THE UN WITH A CONCERT BY ISRAELI POP ICON RITA, SINGING IN BOTH PERSIAN AND HEBREW FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER IN THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY HALL.

by Irith Jawetz, reporting from the UN Headquarters in New York.

On March 5, 2013 the Permanent Mission of Israel to the UN has hosted a special event and first of its kind in the UN General Assembly hall – a concert by the world-renowned Israeli-Iranian singer Rita Yahan-Farouz. The performance was titled “Tunes for Peace” .

Among the attendees were Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, General Assembly President Vuk Jeremic, ambassadors, celebrities, and Jewish and Iranian community leaders.

The stage, which usually serves as a podium for the top diplomats conducting world affairs was transformed into a full fledged “Music Hall” with music instruments, amplifiers, lights and two big screen TVs.

H.E. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon was the first to speak and he started his speech by greeting everybody with the Hebrew word “Shalom”. He said there is no room like this one and it serves to seek peace among nations, preserve Human rights, but sometimes also for concerts. He praised Rita for her desire to reach many cultures through her music, connect people and he hopes this concert will inspire people to strive for peace, justice and Human rights. He thanked the Government of Israel and especially Ambassador Rom Prosor for enabling this important event.

The next speaker was H.E. Mr. Vuk Jeremic, President of the 67th Session of the UN General Assembly. He also thanked Ambassador Prosor and mentioned his personal special friendship with the Ambassador. He announced that he will be going to Israel soon and will be visiting Yad Vashem, since a few members of his family, who saved Jews during the Holocaust will be honored as righteous among Nations. This announcement brought a huge applause from the audience. He  mentioned that music has a very important tool for connecting people and nations since biblical times. Music is a universal language and he shares Rita’s hopes that it will bring cooperation between nations.

H.E. Ambassador Ron Proser, Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, thanked Secretary General and Mrs. Ban for hosting this important event and said that although Mr, Ban is sometimes soft spoken his voice is being heard around the Globe.
He continued by saying that the events in this hall are not always harmonious, but today Rita will make sure her music will bring everybody together, and he was proud to be her “opening act.”  In conclusion he said that there are usually many rules in this Hall, but not tonight. The audience may get up and sing along and shake the room. His speech brought the audience to their feet.

After the speeches the General Assembly Hall transformed completely and the concert began. Rita came on stage and the audience welcomed her with huge applause. She has a terrific personality and projected it throughout the whole evening.
Rita and her nine-piece band performed her popular hits in both Hebrew and Persian from Rita’s latest album, “My Joys.”

She sang one song in English which was called “Time for Peace.”

The album, which has received widespread international acclaim, interweaves the Iranian melodies of Rita’s childhood with the rich tapestry of contemporary Israeli music. She introduced herself by saying that she was born in Tehran and emigrated with her parents at the age of eight. She credited her mother for her remarkable singing career by telling us that her mother used to sing the whole day long, even while cooking or doing chores around the house.

Rita mentioned that she hopes that her UN concert, “Tunes for Peace,” will build bridges, foster inter-cultural dialogue, and connect people to people – the very foundations upon which the United Nations was established.

The concert lasted about an hour and brought the hall to its feet.  The audience definitely following Ambassador Proser’s closing words in his speech  ”Let’s Rock the Hall”.

Let us all hope that politicians will follow Rita’s example!

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Some of our older postings on RITA in NEW YORK:

SustainabiliTank: UPDATED: RITA – the Iranian-Israeli cultural …

Feb 22, 2013 – Matthew writes: Israel Plans UN Concert by Iranian-Born Singer Rita, … the Viva Vox choir, invited to perform a concert at the UN by General …

SustainabiliTank: RITA from Israel, last Sunday night at the Town …

Nov 14, 2012 – RITA from Israel, last Sunday night at the Town Hall in New York City, … Such as In 2006, Rita put on a show called One (in English) which ran …

Though in favor of the Sunday Washington rally and demonstration to show support for a Presidential Clean Energy policy, it is a letter from Dr. James E. Hansen that helps us formulate what we instinctively found structurally wrong in the way the issue was presented at the rally.

It seemed to us that the rally – booked as a CLIMATE PRESIDENTIAL event – was effectively just an anti Keystone Pipeline and anti Fracking event – thus putting in front, in the eyes of many in the crowd,  the main issues of the day. But the deep issues are CLIMATE CHANGE, AIR POLLUTION, WATER POLLUTION, LAND DEGRADATION, and the hold the fossil fuels industries have on our government.

What should have been stressed was rather those issues, and the need of the Administration to address those issues, and saying that the two operative technologies that the business as usual crowd want to use, and that we abhor, are like going the wrong way at a moment that we have reached A FORK IN THE ROAD - the image used by Jim Hansen (Dr. James E. Hansen.  ( www.columbia.edu/~jeh1 )

The speeches at the Rally should have thus started by stressing that FORK IN THE ROAD – The one that has positives for the economy, and that we want the President to take, and the other that continues us on the road to doomsday. We do not want those two technologies mentioned above because they take us down the wrong path, but we want the President to lead the country out of the economy debacle by using the right way out of the fork  in the road – and he has our backing if he leads in the right way. The truth is that the main media – the TV channels – did not cover the event because it presented mainly the negatives – the “anti” action, and it did not show the positives – the suggested technologies AND TAXES TO HELP – that could put us on the right path from this moment’s FORK IN THE ROAD.

We continue here by posting excerpts from the content of Dr. Hansen’s e-mail – in a reorganized way to help us make above point. And please – let us remember – we are the FOSSIL FUEL FOOLS – if we do not advocate the carbon tax to help us get out from the fake illusion that extending the carbon-age with new carbon technologies does anything but accelerate our voyage to a doomsday destiny. (by the way – that is why I wore that yellow fools’ nose at the Washington rally as mentioned in our reporting.)

The economics is crystal clear. We are all better off if fossil fuels are made to pay their honest costs to society. We must collect a gradually rising fee from fossil fuel companies at the source, the domestic mine or port of entry, distributing the funds to the public on a per capita basis. This approach will provide the business community and entrepreneurs the incentives to develop clean energy and energy-efficient products, and the public will have the resources to make changes.

This approach is transparent, built on conservative principles. Not one dime to the government.
The alternative is to slake fossil fuel addiction, forcing the public to continue to subsidize fossil fuels. And hammer the public with more pollution. The public must pay the medical costs for all pollution effects. The public will pay costs caused by climate change. Fossil fuel moguls get richer, we get poorer. Our children are screwed. Our well-oiled coal-fired government pretends to not understand.

We stand at a fork in the road.

Conventional oil and gas supplies are limited. We can move down the path of dirtier more carbon-intensive unconventional fossil-fuels, digging up the dirtiest tar sands and tar shales, hydrofracking for gas, continued mountain-top removal and mechanized destructive long-wall coal mining. Or we can choose the alternative path of clean energies and energy efficiency.

Transition to a post-fossil fuel world of clean energies will not occur as long as fossil fuels are the cheapest energy.

Fossil fuels are cheap only because they are subsidized and do not pay their costs to society. Air and water pollution from fossil fuel extraction and use have high costs in human health, food production, and natural ecosystems, with costs borne by the public. Costs of climate change and ocean acidification also are borne by the public, especially young people and future generations.

Thus the essential underlying policy, albeit not sufficient, is for emissions of CO2 to come with a price that allows these costs to be internalized within the economics of energy use. Because so much energy is used through expensive capital stock, the price should rise in a predictable way to enable people and businesses to efficiently adjust lifestyles and investments to minimize costs.

An economic analysis indicates that a tax beginning at $15/tCO2 and rising $10/tCO2 each year would reduce emissions in the U.S. by 30% within 10 years. Such a reduction is more than 10 times as great as the carbon content of tar sands oil carried by the proposed Keystone XL pipeline (830,000 barrels/day). Reduced oil demand would be nearly six times the pipeline capacity, thus rendering it superfluous.

If a rising price is placed on carbon, the tar sands will be left in the ground where they belong. And the remarkable life and landscape of the original North American people will be preserved.

The climate science is crystal clear. We cannot go down the path of the dirty fuels without guaranteeing that the climate system passes tipping points, leaving our children and grandchildren a situation out of their control, a situation of our making. Unstable ice sheets will lead to continually rising seas and devastation of coastal cities worldwide. A large fraction of Earth’s species will be driven to extinction by the combination of shifting climate zones and other stresses. Summer heat waves, scorching droughts, and intense wildfires will become more frequent and extreme. At other times and places, the warmer water bodies and increased evaporation will power stronger storms, heavier rains, greater floods.

Statement by Ambassador/Mootaz Ahmadein khalil Permanent Representative of Egypt to the United NationsBefore the Arria Formula Meeting on Security Dimension of Climate Change.

(These irregularities in the title are in the original that seems to be guarded from us being able to correct it)

Source:   Permanent Representative of Egypt to the United Nations
Fourm Name:  the Arria Formula Meeting on Security Dimension of Climate Change

New York,15 February 2013

I would like to thank the distinguished Permanent Representatives of Pakistan and the United Kingdom for organizing this informal meeting of the Security Council to discuss the security dimensions of climate change. I would like to thank the panelists for their presentations and commend the Secretary General for his commitment to engage the United Nations in the global adaptation and mitigation effort against climate change.

Now I would like to stress a few points:

1-Climate change is a clear and present danger. Climate change is a reality. It leads to sea level rise that threatens the very existence of nations that are members of this organization. It leads to extreme weather events that have affected us here at the headquarters of the United Nations. Hurricane Sandy was a vivid example of what many Carribean and Pacific states endure every single year.

2-Climate change is an issue of vulnerability, equity, responsibility, accountability, sustainability, development, and therefore security. It has devastating implications that may trigger conflicts or exacerbate them. It has a very particular nature since those responsible for it are not necessary the ones who are mostly affected by it.

3-Africa, the continent to which Egypt belongs, is the continent that has less contributed to global climate change. Yet it is the most vulnerable to its adverse implications. It is not a coincidence that Africa occupies more than 70% of the Security Council agenda. It is the only continent where one of its worst conflicts has been directly linked to climate change. I am speaking about Darfur, where the Security Council has sent one of its biggest Peace keeping operations. The increasing drought and desertification is definitely exacerbating the causes of conflict in the Sahel. The Middle East, the other region to which Egypt belongs, is the most water scarce place in earth. Studies have predicted that future wars in these two regions would be water wars. The persistent practices of the occupying Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied State of Palestine include a systematic effort to dominate water resources and drive the Palestinians out of their arable land. These are all real conflicts that cause real loss of life and property.

4-Climate change is a disaster, yet it is man-made. The reasons behind it are well known. It is a very special phenomenon, since it hits more the ones that have not participated in causing it. This is why it needs special solutions. The special solution has been developed by the international community in a universal legally binding framework: the United Nations framework Convention on Climate Change.

5-This legal framework contains the agreed principles that address the special nature of climate change. These include the principles of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities; historical responsibility and equity in the distribution of atmospheric space, the priority of development for developing countries. The Kyoto Protocol with its “Clean Development Mechanism” is an attempt to implement some of these principles.

6-This legal framework has passed through a number of important milestones in the last four years. The Copenhagen Accord that failed to convince the vast majority of countries that were not consulted during its negotiation. The Cancun Agreements that salvaged the valid points of the Copenhagen Accord, including the Green Fund that is supposed to gather 100 billion US$ a year by 2020 to adapt to and mitigate, climate change effects. The Durban Platform that aims at developing an additional legal instrument by 2015. The Doha Outcome that included the extension of the Kyoto Protocol.

7-This legal framework aims to redress the imbalance between those responsible for the bulk of climate change provoking emissions and those affected by it. This was a historical breakthrough that attempted to resolve sustainability and equity issues, compared to other frameworks that just formalize the status quo. We hope that the instrument that will be reached in 2015 does not divert from the “redressing approach”.

8-This legal framework has a compliance mechanism that has not worked properly so far. Despite the fact that the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol are the only legal framework available to address climate change in a collective manner, the international community did not exert enough efforts to ensure the universality of the Kyoto Protocol. It did not react to non-compliance with its provisions. It did not react to the withdrawal of one country from the Protocol in 2010. This encouraged others to follow suit.

9-Now we are in a situation where small island states face an existential threat. Where in Africa, the Middle East, and all other continents, conflicts are exacerbated and natural disasters are proliferating, while the international community is still thinking about the shape of the new agreement in 2015, while we all know but do not want to say, that the pledges of the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol will not be enough to stop the global increase in emissions and global warmth, and that the financial cost of adaptation and mitigation exceeds by far the targeted 100 US$ a year by 2020, if the target is reached at all.

HERE THE EGYPTIANS HAD A COUNTING PROBLEM – OR AN EDITING PROBLEM WITH THE INTRODUCTION OF TWO ADDED POINTS THAT BRING THEIR TOTAL TO 11. THESE LAST TWO POINTS TELL US THAT EGYPT SPEAKS FOR THE DEFENDERS OF OIL AND NOT FOR TRULY IMPOVERISHED AFRICANS. THE TRUE ISSUE IS THAT WHEN FIGHTING FOR BOMBASTIC MULTILATERAL AGREEMENTS THIS DOES NOT BRING RESULTS, BUT JUST KICKS THE SOLUTION FURTHER DOWN THE ROAD. THE SOLUTION IS IN SUSTAINABLE ENERGY AND HIS PRESENTATION IS RATHER ONE OF POLITICAL FIGHTING AND NOT SOLUTION FINDING. BRINGING THE TOPIC TO THE SECURITY COUNCIL IS AN EFFORT TO BREAK THE LOGJAM THAT HE SEEMS TO FAVOR. The positive presenter at the meeting was the New Zealand lady, Ms. Stephanie Lee, who simply asked those in the room to listen to the affected countries and to deal with their needs.
(These are our editorial comments – the SustainabiliTank.info editor)

9-The danger of climate change might not be as visible as that of a potential nuclear war. Yet it is definitely more imminent as it is affecting all of us today. We are enduring the impact of the climate war in our daily lives in the form of food insecurity, water scarcity, conflicts over natural resources, increasing costs of energy and the status of the global economy; this in addition to the brutal effects of natural disasters. Yet, in many cases we are looking the other way. The countries that have both the financial and technological capability to lead the global efforts to contain climate change are distracted by trade and competitiveness wars that prevent them from focusing on the real danger that is affecting us all. This is a situation similar to the one that failed to prevent world wars in the past century.

10-Finally, I would like to stress that the Security Council is not the United Nations Organ that is most relevant in addressing the issues of sustainable development including climate change. The main responsibility lies more with the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council. We are aware that the Security Council itself is struggling to reach the necessary consensus among its members on a number of ongoing conflicts that are causing dramatic loss of life and property. Yet, we are confident that this informal discussion will at least raise the profile of climate change. It should complement the work of the General Assembly and the ECOSOC. It should contribute to mobilize the political will to act now before it is too late.

Thank you for your attention.

Top

The President’s New Federal Energy Efficiency Executive Order

On June 3, 1999, President Clinton issued Executive Order 13123 that will help meet the challenge of global warming by requiring each Federal agency to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from energy use in buildings by 30 percent below 1990 levels by 2010. This will reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by 2.4 million metric tons of carbon equivalent (MMTCE) — the equivalent of taking 1.7 million cars off the road — and save U.S. taxpayers more than $750 million a year. The order also will expand markets for renewable technologies, reduce air pollution, and serve as a powerful example to U.S. businesses and consumers who can reap substantial benefits from energy improvements.
Prior Federal Energy Efficiency Efforts

The President’s June 1999 Executive Order builds upon previous efforts to improve Federal energy efficiency. The Energy Policy Act of 1992 established the goal of improving energy efficiency in Federal office buildings by 20 per-cent on an energy-per-square-foot basis by the year 2000, compared with a baseline year of 1985. In March 1994, President Clinton issued Executive Order 12902, which extended the energy efficiency goal to 30 percent below 1985 levels by 2005. The latest order extends these goals still further, while also tightening provisions on exempted facilities and setting forth the first-ever Federal goal tied specifically to greenhouse gas reductions.
Aggressive New Goals

The Federal government is the largest energy consumer in the United States. Its annual energy bill runs more than $8 billion, including $4 billion to heat, cool, and power 500,000 buildings. Federal agencies already have reduced energy consumption 17 percent per square foot relative to 1985 levels. The Executive Order builds on that progress, extending current energy efficiency goals and set-ting new targets for greenhouse gas reductions, renewable energy use, and water conservation.

New Greenhouse Gas Reduction Goal. The order requires each Federal agency to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that result from energy use in its buildings by 30 percent below 1990 levels by 2010. This is the Federal government’s first-ever goal tied to greenhouse gas reductions.

New Energy Efficiency Goal for Facilities. The Executive Order requires each Federal agency to improve energy efficiency in its buildings by 35 percent relative to 1985 levels by 2010.

New Energy Efficiency Goal for Industrial and Laboratory Facilities. The order requires each Federal agency to improve its energy efficiency in industrial and laboratory facilities by 25 percent relative to 1990 by 2010.

Expanded Use of Renewable Energy. Building on the President’s commitment to install 20,000 Federal solar energy systems by 2010, the order calls for Federal agencies to expand their investments in renewable energy through applications of solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass technologies at Federal facilities and through the purchase of electricity from renewable energy sources.

Water Conservation. The order calls for Federal agencies to improve their efficiency in the use of water in order to reduce water consumption and associated energy use. The order requires the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) to work with other Federal agencies to develop water consumption baselines and then set appropriate goals for water conservation.

Fewer Exempt Facilities. Prior to the President’s new Executive Order, a large number of facilities (accounting for 17 percent of energy use in buildings) were exempt from meeting Federal energy goals. Now all facilities are subject to those goals and requirements unless they meet new exemption criteria to be developed by DOE. In addition, each agency must report all exempt facilities in its annual report to the President and explain the rationale behind excluding them from Federal energy goals.
Cutting-Edge Tools and Strategies

The Executive Order calls for agencies to use a wide range of energy management tools and strategies to fulfill the new energy efficiency, renewable energy, and greenhouse gas reduction goals.

Alternative Financing. Financing options such as Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPCs) and utility energy efficiency service contracts offer Federal agencies powerful tools for leveraging private sector financing to fund cost-saving energy improvements at no net cost to taxpayers. Under ESPCs, private sector energy service companies finance the up-front cost of purchasing and installing new energy efficient equipment. The Federal government uses a portion of the savings it accrues through reduced energy bills to repay the energy service company over the life of the contract. Contractors then receive a predetermined share of the value of the energy savings generated by their efforts and may be paid only if actual savings result from the reduced energy use. All additional savings go to the Federal government. The government benefits from new equipment, reduced energy costs, improved energy efficiency, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and conservation of nonrenewable fuels.

To date, DOE and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) have made more than $8 billion in ESPC contract authority available for all Federal agencies to fund energy improvements. In addition, many of these contracts are “Super ESPCs” that rely on the same principles as regular ESPCs but offer an umbrella contract to allow expedited service. The Executive Order calls for agencies to maximize their use of ESPCs and utility energy efficiency service contracts to realize energy and cost savings.

Life-Cycle Cost Analysis. Federal agencies need to consider the full cost of their investments, including energy, operation, and maintenance costs, not simply the purchase cost of projects or products. By taking all costs into account, agencies can save money and reduce energy use. To that end, the order requires agencies to consider life-cycle costs-that is, investment, capital, installation, energy, operating, maintenance, and disposal costs-over the life of the project or product.

ENERGY STAR ® Labels and Other Energy Efficient Products. The order calls for agencies to purchase energy efficient products such as those with the ENERGY STAR label. Purchasing compact fluorescent light bulbs, highly efficient boilers, and other energy efficient products can save Federal agencies hundreds of millions of dollars.

ENERGY STAR Building SM Label. Agencies shall strive to meet the ENERGY STAR Building criteria in their eligible facilities to the maximum extent practicable by the end of 2002. The label signifies that the building is in the top 25 percent of similar buildings with regard to energy efficiency.

Electricity from Renewable Energy and Energy Efficient Sources. Given that more than 70 percent of the Federal government’s costs for energy used in buildings comes from electricity, the Executive Order requires agencies to consider the source of their electricity and opt for cleaner, more efficient electricity generation. Specifically, agencies shall strive to minimize the greenhouse gas intensity of purchased electricity. In addition, agencies should adopt policies to increase the use of electricity from renewable energy sources.

Highly Efficient Energy Systems. The Executive Order calls for agencies to make greater use of highly efficient energy systems, including combined heat and power systems that use “waste” heat from industrial processes to supply power to other needs. These systems can offer tremendous energy and cost savings, as well as significant environmental benefits.

Off-Grid Electricity Generation. The Executive Order requires agencies to consider off-grid electricity opportunities that often provide energy and environ-mental benefits, while allowing agencies to avoid the costs of building new transmission lines or digging up existing lines. Off-grid options can be particularly effective in remote locations such as some U.S. national parks. Technologies range from solar outdoor lighting to small wind turbines and fuel cells.

Sustainable Building Design. In July 1998, a number of Federal agencies committed to constructing sustainably designed buildings. The June 1999 Executive Order requires all Federal agencies to apply sustainable design principles to the siting, design, and construction of new facilities, thereby saving energy and taxpayer dollars, and reducing pollution.
Strengthening Agency Accountability

The Executive Order provides a frame-work to hold agencies accountable for their progress in Federal energy management. The following new management strategies and reporting requirements will help ensure that all Federal agencies manage energy use wisely, reaping substantial fiscal and environmental benefits for years to come.

Annual Reports to the President and Annual Score Cards. Under the Executive Order, each Federal agency must submit an annual report to the President describing the agency’s progress in meeting the goals. In addition, the Deputy Director for Management of the Office of Management Budget will evaluate each agency’s performance and submit agency score cards to the President.

President’s Management Council. The President’s Management Council, which generally consists of deputy secretaries from all agencies, will monitor agency progress on Federal energy management and provide a high-level forum for identifying ways to accelerate improvements.

Agency Energy Teams. The Executive Order requires each agency to form a technical energy support team to ensure that energy management strategies are implemented across all facilities. The energy teams bring together legal, procurement, and other essential agency representatives to overcome barriers to realizing energy and cost savings.

New Public-Private Advisory Committee. The order calls for DOE to organize an advisory committee to bring together private and public sector experts who can advise agencies on ways to improve their energy management practices.
Concrete Steps, Concrete Savings

In conjunction with the signing of a new Executive Order to promote energy efficiency, President Clinton announced the Pentagon’s intent to award the Federal government’s largest-ever Energy Saving Performance Contract (ESPC). Under this award, Viron Energy Services and Pepco Energy Services will upgrade the energy performance of 837 Federal buildings at no up-front cost to taxpayers. The 18-year service contract, covering five military installations in the Washington, DC, area, will reduce annual energy consumption by 17 percent. The reductions will reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by 24,000 metric tons of carbon equivalent (MTCE) — equivalent to taking more than 19,000 cars off the road — and will save DoD more than $219 million in energy and related costs. Other examples of energy-saving actions that the Executive Order is designed to promote include:

Energy Efficient Procurement. The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), which supplies almost 20 percent of all light bulbs purchased by the Federal government, teamed up with DOE to offer half-price compact fluorescent light bulbs to any Federal purchaser.

Last year, the DLA supplied 1.5 million bulbs to Federal purchasers. If the bulbs had all been compact fluorescents, savings over the life of the bulbs would have totaled $7.5 million. Recently, DOE added compact fluorescents to the ENERGY STAR product-rating program, providing consumers with quality assurance when they purchase the bulbs. A compact fluorescent bulb can last up to five years, saving $67 over its lifetime.

Renewable Energy Projects. Some 18 Federal agencies — from the departments of Agriculture, Interior, and Transportation to the Smithsonian Institution and the U.S. Postal Service — recently received a combined $1.5 million in DOE funding for more than 100 cost-effective renew-able energy projects at government sites. The technologies include more than 50 new or renovated solar water heating systems, large and small photovoltaic (PV) systems, PV-powered lights, wind power, and “solar walls” that preheat outside air for interior heating.

Buying Renewable Power. EPA’s Richmond, California, laboratory became the first major Federal facility to use 100 percent renewable energy. Initially, 60 percent of the power supplied will come from geo-thermal sources, and 40 percent will come from biomass. This green power purchase will produce environmental benefits equivalent to eliminating more than two million passenger car miles driven in California each year.

ENERGY STAR Buildings. EPA retrofitted GSA’s Foley Square Federal Office Building in New York City to qualify for the ENERGY STAR Buildings Label. The building, which opened in 1994, has 1.2 million square feet and houses offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service, and EPA. By deploying equipment and products that qualify the building for the ENERGY STAR label, Foley Square saves taxpayers $1.3 million annually in energy costs.

Click here for additional information on the President’s Federal Energy Efficiency Executive Order.

A New Manhattan Project

The Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) is currently calling for expressions of interest and an invitation to tender for three major knowledge management projects. Please respond if you are interested, or pass to others in your network who may be well placed to respond:

Call for expressions of interest: CDKN learning programme on climate compatible development at subnational level

CDKN is seeking a partner organisation to lead its new initiative to capture and synthesise learning from projects at the sub-national level.
Deadline for submissions of Expressions of Interest: 17.00 GMT 14 February 2013

Invitation to tender: National climate compatible development planning: learning from experiences in Africa

CDKN is seeking a partner organisation to lead its new initiative to capture, synthesise and share learning from national climate compatible development (CCD) planning in Africa.

Deadline for submissions of Invitation to Tender: 17:00 GMT 25 February 2013

Call for expressions of interest: CDKN inside stories on climate compatible development

CDKN is looking to commission a set of policy briefs on developing countries’ practical experiences in climate compatible development.
Deadline for submissions of Expressions of Interest: 18.00 GMT 28 February 2013

Any questions about these tenders should be addressed not to me, but to CDKN’s Procurement team on: cdknetwork.procurement@uk.pwc.com who will be pleased to respond.

————————————————-

KMAF-0014 – National climate compatible development planning: learning from experiences in Africa.

[Translate]

please see the link:

 www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2013/0…

 www.nytimes.com/2013/01/30/busine…

The problems are very real, but who will have the political courage to propose the right thing for the US?
Switzerland produces no oil or gas – imports them – and taxes them very hard – and the economy thrives because it adjusted – seems magic.

Economic Scene

In Energy Taxes, Tools to Help Tackle Climate Change.

By EDUARDO PORTER

Published by The New York Times on-line: January 29, 2013

She is concerned about the weather. The drought that parched the lower 48 states cut the harvest at her northern Iowa farm by about 40 bushels an acre. For the first time in memory, she says, she had to rely on the federally subsidized crop insurance program to stay afloat.

And yet Ms. Johnson’s main concern, and that of most other growers in the association, is not about how to deal with a changing climate — how to slow the pace of warming and how to adapt to a warmer world with more erratic weather.

Rather, growers worry that political support for crop insurance might flag after a year in which taxpayers paid billions in subsidies to farmers while virtually everybody else faced deep budget cuts.

“We are Americans before we are farmers,” Ms. Johnson said. “We know we have budget problems.” Still, she added: “For our farmers, crop insurance is the main concern. It helps keep us in business.”

The erratic weather across the country in the last couple of years seems to be softening Americans’ skepticism about global warming. Most New Yorkers say they believe big storms like Sandy and Irene were the result of a warming climate. Whether climate change is directly responsible or not, the odd weather patterns have underscored the risk that it poses to all of us.

What’s yet to be seen is whether this growing awareness of the risks will translate into sufficient political support to address climate change, especially after we figure out the costs we will have to bear to do so.

In his inaugural address, President Obama wove Hurricane Sandy and last year’s drought into a stirring plea to address climate change. “The failure to do so would betray our children and future generations,” the president said.

But even as he put global warming at the top of his agenda, he avoided dwelling on how much it would cost to address. And nowhere in his speech {President Obama} did he allude to the most powerful tool to address the problem: a tax on the use of energy.

Dealing with global warming will be expensive. The price tag last year for the drought was about $35 billion, according to the reinsurer Aon Benfield. Hurricane Sandy cost a further $65 billion. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that last year ranked as the second-costliest in terms of natural disasters since 1980 — lagging only 2005 when Hurricane Katrina swamped New Orleans.

And yet this is nothing compared with what the future will bring.

“The impact to date has been pretty small,” said William Nordhaus of Yale, one of the leading economists studying the impact of climate change.

Nicholas Stern of the London School of Economics, another expert on the costs of climate change, said: “What we are seeing is on the back of warming of only 0.8 degrees centigrade” since the second half of the 19th century. “What we risk is 4, 5, 6 degrees even by the end of this century.”

For all the damage wrought by Sandy and Katrina, weather disasters in recent years have cost us probably less than a tenth of 1 percent of our economic product. Yet, according to Professor Nordhaus, “Damages will rise more sharply than the temperature curve.”

The president’s speech notwithstanding, the cost of dealing with these looming disasters is not to be found in the budgets discussed by the White House and Congressional Republicans, which would shrink much of the government to its smallest share of the economy since the early 1960s.

Neither is the cost of steering the economy away from the fossil fuels that are to blame for a warming atmosphere. A report from the World Economic Forum estimated that would cost $700 billion a year in public and private investment.

The reluctance is not because we have no idea how to finance these efforts. We do. Top economists agree a tax on fuels and the carbon they spew into the atmosphere would be the cheapest way to combat climate change. Most advanced countries rely on some variant of this tax. The question is whether the prospect of more droughts and more powerful hurricanes will push Americans to embrace it, too.

Among the 34 industrialized nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, these taxes average about $68.4 per metric ton of carbon dioxide. The United States, by contrast, has a gas tax to pay for highway improvement, and that’s about it. Total federal taxes on energy amount to $6.30 per ton.

Some states add excise taxes — California has a gas tax equivalent to about $46.50 per ton of carbon dioxide and a $2.33-per-ton tax on jet kerosene. But, according to a review by the O.E.C.D., the federal government is unique in imposing no taxes on other energy use, from residential heating to power generation.

A tax on energy could single-handedly take on climate change. For starters, it would encourage people and businesses to burn less, reducing emissions at a stroke. One study found that a carbon tax of $15 per ton would reduce greenhouse emissions by 14 percent as people sought to save energy by driving less, insulating their homes and switching to renewable fuels, among other things.

What’s more, it would raise lots of money. Estimates reviewed in a report by the Tax Policy Center ranged from 0.6 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product — for a tax of $20 per ton of carbon dioxide — to 1.6 percent of G.D.P. for a tax of $41 per ton. Consider this: 1.6 percent of G.D.P. is $240 billion a year. And $41 per ton amounts to an extra 35 cents a gallon of gas.

By way of comparison, the Swiss economy does fairly well even while shouldering an effective carbon tax rate of more than $140 per ton.

Some of the money raised through more taxes on energy could be spent steeling communities to cope with more intense hurricanes and moving others out of harm’s way. It could even help ease the fiscal squeeze that so consumes our elected officials.

There are drawbacks. A carbon tax would fall more heavily on the poor — the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the poorest fifth of Americans spend 21.4 percent of their income on gas and utilities while the richest 20 percent spend only 6.8 percent. But economists at the budget office have pointed out that there are several ways to compensate lower-income Americans.

For all the merits of an energy tax, the United States seems a long way from embracing one. It was only three years ago that the corn growers and the rest of the farm lobby allied with energy producers and other corporations to derail President Obama’s first shot at climate change legislation, which would have set a limit on carbon emissions and required businesses to buy permits to emit.

As things stand, drought is unlikely to change their minds. Farmers are still covered by crop insurance, and they have powerful allies in Congress who will fight to keep the subsidies in place. They may see little reason to support legislation that would make energy or fertilizer more expensive.

“Farmers would be deeply affected by an energy tax,” Ms. Johnson said.

As things stand for them, it is probably cheaper to deal with the occasional drought.

E-mail:  eporter at nytimes.com;

She is concerned about the weather.

January 30, 2013