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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on November 12th, 2008 From: emma.barnes at earthscan.co.uk Calling for Submissions from Climate Policy Specialists on Climate Change and Environmental Hazards for Earthscan’s new journal: ‘Environmental Hazards: Human and Policy Dimensions’ Earthscan is pleased to announce the addition of ‘Environmental Hazards: Human and Policy Dimensions’ www.earthscan.co.uk/journals/ehaz to the Earthscan journals programme for 2009. Submissions For more information on the journal, please visit www.earthscan.co.uk/journals/ehaz Many Thanks Emma Barnes Dunstan House, Earthscan is pleased to announce the addition of ‘Environmental Hazards: Human and Policy Dimensions’ www.earthscan.co.uk/journals/ehaz to the Earthscan journals programme for 2009. Submissions For more information on the journal, please visit www.earthscan.co.uk/journals/ehaz Many Thanks Emma Barnes Dunstan House, Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on November 12th, 2008
The ‘Road to Copenhagen’ project, which Robinson and Wallström are spearheading along with former Norwegian prime minister and UN special envoy on climate change, Gro Harlem Brundtland, was created to give the general public, industry, politicians and NGOs a say in the UN climate negotiations.
—————– Unless postponed until the change in US Administration, Poznan will end up in a ditch and better to postpone it then let it derail the following Copenhagen meeting. The Road to Copenhagen is a very bright idea if there is a productive Poznan meeting - otherwise Copenhagen will turn naturally into Poznan II and not into a Kyoto II as the UN professionals hope, or a Copenhagen I as an agreement between the US, China, India, Brazil would entail. Poznan is thus a make or brake event on the road to Copenhagen, and a US represented by Paula Dobriansky will just push the rest of those present into the ditch. Barak Obama cannot speak up before January 20, and obviously cannot have his negotiator vetted by US Congress before he takes over as US President. He said clearly that he works under the rules of the US Constitution that says there is only one President at a given time. Pushing for keeping the Poznan date under these conditions is rather like saying that it is imperative for those opposing the notion that the world must be kept addicted to petroleum and other fossil carbons in their self-interest must have the day. Barak Obama could appoint his Climate Change negotiator on January 20, 2009, right there at his inaugural speech, and Congress could approve his selection, the speediest, within a month - so, a Poznan meeting in March 2009 is the earliest it makes sense to hold this meeting if you are positively inclined to do something about climate change. We keep saying so for over a year, this even before we had an inkling of who might be next US President. We kept pouring cold water on the UN euphoria with their debate time-line. We are afraid that UN talk is very expensive - it allows people to fly around freely but is not intended to come up with results. Statements by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, on how much he wants to see results from the climate change negotiations, and rosy pronunciations from the Executive of the UNFCCC, Yvo de Boer, cannot change the reality that in the end - it is the US President that holds the keys for a positive outcome of the Climate Change negotiations. It is in the promise of the US and the response from the Brazil, China, India, that an effective plan will be born.
See please also: The Columbia University World Leaders Forum, September 26, 2008, Became The Podium For Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen of Denmark To Make Known A Roadmap To The December 2009 Climate Change Meeting in Copenhagen. The Prime Minister Is Keenly Interested That The Copenhagen Event Becomes The Turnaround Point From Our Present Descent Towards Global Environmental Disaster, and He Negotiated This Week A Roadmap With The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and The Two Candidates For The US Presidency. We Wished Him All The Luck He Needs; Nevertheless We Expressed Some Skepticism. Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on September 27th, 2008
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on November 8th, 2008 Friends, Wow! What an amazing few days. We’re pleased to offer our congratulations to President-elect Obama and remind him that one of his victory prizes (a trip to Poland!) is still waiting for him. With excitement for the road ahead, The 350.org team Welcome to Reality, Mr. President-Elect Our eight-year interlude from reality draws to a close, and the job of cleaning up begins. The trouble is, we’re not just cleaning up after a failed US presidency. We’re cleaning up after a two-century binge. Barack Obama won an historic victory this week, and with it the right to take office under the most difficult circumstances since Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression. Maybe more difficult, because while both FDR and Obama had financial meltdowns to deal with, Obama also faces the meltdown meltdown - the rapid disintegration of the planet’s climate system that threatens to challenge the very foundations of our civilization. The world is meeting in Copenhagen in December of 2009 to come up with a successor to the Kyoto treaty, the modest first international effort that George W. Bush walked away from weeks after taking office. If Hansen and others are even close to right, this will represent the last legitimate shot the world has at putting itself on a new carbon regime in time to make any difference. Any hope of succeeding will require Obama to grasp, deep in his guts, the fact that climate, energy, food, and the economy are now hopelessly intertwined, and that trying to solve any one of these problems without taking on the others simply makes all of them worse. More, he needs to understand, again viscerally, the single stark fact of our time: No matter how many votes, no matter how much lobbying, no matter how much pressure you apply, you can’t amend the laws of physics and chemistry. They aren’t like the laws that politicians are used to dealing with. They will be obeyed, like it or not. 350 is now the most important number on the planet, the red line that defines reality reality. It doesn’t define political reality, however. The political reality goes like this: George W. Bush was so terrible on this issue that the bar has been set incredibly low - Obama will get all the political points he needs with fairly minimal effort. Doing what actually needs to be done will be politically…unpopular isn’t even the word. He has spoken of both new politics and sacrifice, and both are required of him to see his part of this thing through. My guess, from the outside, is that all Obama’s instincts are centrist, though his sophistication and engagement have grown during the campaign, which is a good sign. A better sign is simply that, by every testimony, he’s one of the smartest men ever to assume high political office in this country. Not just smarter than Bush. Really smart. Smart enough, if he sits down to really understand the scale of the problem he faces, that he might decide to take the gambles that the situation requires. He said, not long ago, “under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket” - which is a sign of someone who is aware there may be a reality to come to grips with. First sign to watch for: Does he go to Poland next month for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, and in so doing electrify the international talks over carbon? All of us, you and I and all our partners, have been hard at work to collect over 44,000 invitations for President-elect Obama to attend that meeting. We have heard him say he’s interested and will, at the least, send a high level representative next month. Obama, and the rest of us, have a lot more to fear than fear itself. We’ve got carbon, and right now that’s the most frightening stuff on earth. Nonetheless, we’re feeling inspired and hopeful about the new possibilities that exist after this election - for the US and for the world. It’s now up to us to make sure the steps for Obama and for our global movement are laid out in rapid succession. The next step is in Poland: www.350.org We’re in this together, Bill McKibben P.S. Thought this was worth a read? Send it on to 5 friends and help build this movement. P.P.S. The original version of Bill’s essay appeared in Yale Environment 360 and The Guardian. Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on November 6th, 2008 http://www.truthout.org t r u t h o u t | 11.06.2008 Steve Weissman | Obama Won, Greenspan Shrugged, but Capitalists Tool On —– What Obama’s Election Means Abroad —– Obama Considering Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for EPA Further: Caroline Kennedy, who helped Obama lead his vice presidential search, is being considered for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, although some Obama officials doubt she would take the post. Obama is indebted to the Kennedy family for a hearty endorsement at a crucial point in the Democratic primaries. The EPA enforces clean air and clear water laws. Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and son of the late senator and attorney general Robert F. Kennedy, has long championed a cleaner water supply for New York City. ———————— Making sure that at least one Kennedy gets appointed is very important, Making sure that two Republicans are part of the new Administration would be a shrewd move - Colin Powell at Education would be thus an excellent choice, for Secretary of Defense, keeping on Secretary Robert Gates, would be a great move that while showing a modicum of continuity in matters of National Security, this will also be a continuation of change in respect to the move - out of Iraq and a different sort of involvement in the Pakistan-Afghanistan arena. To Back up keeping on Robert Gates, we found the following article from “Tikun Olam” Magazine of August 14th 2008: http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_… Georgia: Thank God Gates is Defense Secretary, Not Rumsfeld. You remember that tiresome evangelical favorite: “What would Jesus do?” Well, here’s a version I’m glad I don’t have to think about, concerning the current Georgia crisis: What would Don do? ————- We find the idea of Colin Powell at Education, the great administrative finale for a man who was Security Adviser, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, Served under a variety of Presidents, and knows that real security of a country comes from the education level of its citizens. Further - Powell and Gates - could be the best moves of inclusion to the defeated Party in these last elections. Powell, without changing parties, even backed Obama when he saw how deep of a change this country needs, and he is ready to help lead the GOP out of its present self created desert. What better position then a improved education system that makes sure that modern ideas, and not adherance to old dogma and ignorance, is what can help the GOP out of its self imposed state of underdevelopment. Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on November 5th, 2008 Subject: Mr. President Elect - Now The Bad News - You Won! The Whole World Expects You To Perform A Transformational Miracle - Something Like Walking On Water. Bravo America - We can say this now with certainty - it was not a mirage - Barak Hussein Obama’s Color was fading as the election time was nearing. The good Americans know that a name does not make a man. They also feel that they were taken by the moneyed class and that much of the above-the-table anti-Obama arguments were contrived. Like their fathers or grandfathers generation when the best were “commies” and the worst were the “McCartyites, there was nothing wrong with having now casual association with folks that tried to ration differently their way at a time that the leadership of the country failed them. This is clear about the reformed Ayres & Dohrn couple, and I am now also more lenient about Wright, who it turns out was not even on the list of direct enemies compounded by the Anti-Defamation League. The outgoing White House saw the world in Black & White. The New White House will see the world in shades of gray - and perhaps, after a while, some intellectual will stand up, and declare for all to hear, that time has come to change the name of that carbon clad building (this thanks to the insistence to be fossil fuels addicted, of the outgoing residents of the building) and call it rather the Gray House in recognition that policy is the art of compromise in a very varied world. So, Mr. President Elect, we hope someone will show you these notes, and you feel then that you are not alone - that many people, even though they did not say this earlier, feel for you and like you. Those are the real good news! The real bad news are that out of the Bushes you get a world that is short of trees and it is now for you to start planting the needed ideas, and the needed majestic trees, of all kind, that eventually will make the country truly great again, and help the whole world - because America does not stand-alone. As we said earlier today - Europe is waiting to renew its special relationship with a USA leader, and much of the rest of the world will love to see the rising of a benevolent leadership in what is still the major power of the world, though brought down to its knees - as beggars - because of the misdeeds of that above mentioned moneyed class. ——— Watching the TV pundits at election time, we know that 62% of the voters thought that the main problem now is the economy - then in highly decreased figures follow Iraq (10%), terrorism (9%), health care (9%), and energy policy (7%). We trust that you will take the topics of energy policy, including all what revolves on climate change issues, and the health care topic, and use the opportunity given to you to turn those areas into the lever that will help straighten out the economy. This is the essence of your mandate and we are ready to bet that you will be using your great gift of possessing such great gray matter, and finally unwind the country, and the world, from the addiction to oil that was imposed on all of us by your predecessors. This will also help make great strides in solving the remaining main issues - that of terrorism and that of Iraq. And remember - 93% of those that voted for you showed optimism that under you the economy will improve - only 6% felt that nothing will change. Further, remember - somewhere above 72% of the first time voters voted for you. When only the young first time voters were noted - the figure was even higher. While 78% of the voters said that age was an important factor in the way they voted, when it comes to the question of race the results are even more interesting: From among those that said that race was an important part of their decision-making, in for whom to vote, it was 55% that decided to vote for you; on the other hand, from among those that stated that they were color blind and race was not important in deciding to vote for you - the figure was 53%. This leads to the clear conclusion that many whites, specifically in the first group, actually voted for you as a statement that they had it with the thinking of previous generations - they wanted to see change, and race is reintroduced by them in a positive way - right there - on purpose. Also, what strengthens further your position is the reaction overseas. Not just the great happiness and pride shown in Kogelo, Kisumu, Kenya - but all over the world. To see on TV the people of Beijing saying OBAMA - they never went out of their way chanting BUSH - brings the point home that there is goodwill out there to work with you. They will honor you for who you are as long as you allow a modicum of respect for them also - The world is hungry for an American President that is open to consider all interests rather then being a hunter for natural resources, and show of disrespect for the havoc this drive for resources causes to the local folks “over there.” Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on November 4th, 2008 A New Kind of Pride. by: Eugene Robinson, The Washington Post Washington - Whoever wins this election, I understand what Barack Obama meant when he said his faith in the American people had been “vindicated” by his campaign’s success. I understand what Michelle Obama meant, months ago, when she said she was “proud of my country” for the first time in her adult life. Why should they be immune to the astonishment and vertigo that so many other African-Americans are experiencing? Why shouldn’t they have to pinch themselves to make sure they aren’t dreaming, the way that I do? I know there’s a possibility that the polls are wrong. I know there’s a possibility that white Americans, when push comes to shove, won’t be able to bring themselves to elect a black man as president of the United States. But the spread in the polls is so great that the Bradley effect wouldn’t be enough to make Obama lose; it would take a kind of “Dr. Strangelove effect” in which voters’ hands developed a will of their own. I’m being facetious but not unserious. In my gut, I know there’s a chance that the first African-American to make a serious run for the presidency will lose. But that is precisely what’s new, and, in a sense, unsettling: I’m talking about possibility, not inevitability. For African-Americans, at least those of us old enough to have lived through the civil rights movement, this is nothing short of mind-blowing. It’s disorienting, and it makes me see this nation in a different light. You see, I remember a time of separate and unequal schools, restrooms and water fountains - a time when black people were officially second-class citizens. I remember moments when African-Americans were hopeful and excited about the political process, and I remember other moments when most of us were depressed and disillusioned. But I can’t think of a single moment, before this year, when I thought it was within the realm of remote possibility that a black man could be nominated for president by one of the major parties - let alone that he would go into Election Day with a better-than-even chance of winning. Let me clarify: It’s not that I would have calculated the odds of an African-American being elected president and concluded that this was unlikely, it’s that I wouldn’t even have thought about such a thing. African-Americans’ love of country is deep, intense and abiding, but necessarily complicated. At its hour of its birth, the nation was already stained by the Original Sin of slavery. Only in that past several decades has legal racism been outlawed and casual racism made unacceptable, at least in polite company. Millions of black Americans have managed to pull themselves up into mainstream, middle-class affluence, but millions of others remain mired in poverty and dysfunction. A few black Americans broke through into the highest echelons of American society. Oprah Winfrey became the most powerful woman in the entertainment industry by appealing to an audience that is mostly white. Richard Parsons, Stanley O’Neal and others became alpha males in the lily-white world of Wall Street. Through superhuman skill and unbending will, Tiger Woods came to dominate a sport long seen as emblematic of white privilege. Along came Barack Obama, a young man with an unassailable resume and a message of post-racial transformation. Initially, a big majority of African-Americans lined up behind his major opponent in the Democratic primaries, Hillary Clinton. The reason was simple: In the final analysis, white Americans weren’t going to vote for the black guy. Better to go with the safe alternative. But an amazing thing happened. In the Iowa caucuses, white Americans voted for the black guy. That’s the moment Obama was referring to when he said his faith in the American people was vindicated. For me, it was the moment when the utterly impossible became merely unlikely. That’s a huge, fundamental change, and it launched a sequence of events over the subsequent months that made me realize that some things I “knew” about America were apparently wrong. Even if John McCain somehow prevails, that won’t change the fact that Obama won all those primaries, or that he won the nomination, or that he raised more money than any candidate in history, or that he rewrote the book on how to run a presidential campaign. Nothing can change the fact that so many white Americans entrusted a black American with their hopes and dreams. We can all have a new kind of pride in our country. —————– Why We Vote. This past week, a flier of unknown origin was circulated in Hampton Roads, Virginia, bearing the seal of the state Board of Elections and instructing Democrats that, because of an emergency order of the state General Assembly, they were to vote on November 5 … the day after election day. Across the country GOP lawyers are working overtime to erect barriers to keep people from voting, and the McCain campaign and its surrogates have spent weeks smearing ACORN for engaging in the audacious and outrageous act of … registering poor people. That the group submitted 400,000 registrations that were flawed - making the total more like 900,000 than the oft-cited 1.3 million - should not overshadow the fact that it has been part of a much larger and apparently effective drive to expand the electorate. So as we (finally) approach election day, we find ourselves in a familiar situation: the left wants the maximum number of eligible citizens to vote, and the right does not. Progressives have long stood for a wider franchise that includes the propertyless, women, African-Americans and young adults. The same is not true of conservatives: from Edmund Burke, who worried about the “cruel oppressions” the many have-nots might visit upon the few haves, to activist Paul Weyrich, who admitted in 1980 that “I don’t want everybody to vote…. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections, quite candidly, goes up as the voting populace goes down.” For several decades, starting around 1964, conservatives were winning this battle. Turnout declined from 63 percent in 1960 to just over 51 percent in 2000. Last election we witnessed enough of an increase to detect the rumblings of a reawakening. Now we appear to be in the midst of a full-fledged democratic renaissance. By every measure - from the number of small donors and volunteers to the number of those who cast their votes early - participation is at its highest level in a generation. Particularly poignant is the role black voters are poised to play as they head to the polls. All across the South, men and women once barred from the ballot - forced to brave dogs, insults and terrorism simply to add their names to the voting rolls - will, on November 4, be able to cast their ballot for an African-American man to be president of the United States. Imagine the emotion of 109-year-old Amanda Jones, whose father was born into slavery, when she voted early this year in Texas. Along with the ugliness, this election has produced a tremendous number of grace notes: the recent report of employees at an Indiana call center walking out rather than read anti-Obama talking points; the McCain supporters who confronted and shunned an Islamophobe outside a rally (captured on YouTube); and the story (reported on Politico) of how a McCain backer in line to vote early in Hamilton County, Ohio, lent his NASCAR jacket to three elderly Jewish women after overhearing that they would not be allowed to enter the polling place wearing their Obama gear. While chatting with the women, who spoke of the alliance of Jews and blacks during the civil rights struggle, the man was seized with the desire to be on the right side of history; when it was time for him to cast his ballot, he voted for Obama as well. This last story gets at something profound about why we go to the trouble of voting. We vote in order to change the country, to exercise our rights, to make our voices heard and a hundred other clichés as shopworn as they are true. But we also vote because it places us in direct fellowship with other citizens; we vote because it is a secular sacrament, an act of civic solidarity. Because it is the ultimate declaration that we are, indeed, all in this together. Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on November 3rd, 2008 Investing in doing good can be good risk management.
*** Insight Investment, in partnership with world poverty action group Oxfam, is about to launch a year-long programme to promote discussion and research about the role of institutional investors in poverty alleviation and development. “Responsible investors benefit from better risk management, greater transparency, and an active engagement with companies to promote better management,” says Helena Vines Fiestas, a policy analyst for Oxfam. “Social, environmental and governance issues are also key features of their investment analysis. In this climate, responsible investors offer a real way forward.” Although Oxfam clearly has an agenda, it is making an effort to engage with investors who are concerned that their fiduciary duty to maximise returns overrides any interest in doing good. The first question to be asked, according to Ms Vines Fiestas, is what role, if any, investors have to play in poverty alleviation, but the second is how to measure their performance in this field. This is at least a sop to those critics of sustainable investing who claim it is too woolly to be meaningful. Proponents of the concept naturally reject this criticism. “If you invest in ways that don’t undermine the financial system [ie by having regard to the long term impact of your investment behaviour], that’s economically rational,” says Colin Melvin, chief executive of Hermes Equity Ownership Services, the corporate governance arm of the institutional fund manager owned by BT Pension Scheme. “That economic rationality has been absent for some time.” James Gifford, executive director of the UN’s Principles for Responsible Investing, says he is also seeing a surge in interest in these issues, and not just for woolly reasons. “As things become tougher, it’s the commercial fund managers who need to demonstrate to their clients that they have these things under control,” says Mr Gifford. *** “People don’t want any surprises these days,” says Mr Cronin. “The issues are not new, but an ESG framework helps you manage an aspect of risk.” Whether it is about better risk management, a clear conscience, better returns or good PR, more and more asset managers are jumping on the bandwagon.
Robeco itself has already demonstrated its commitment to responsible investment by signing up to the UNPRI and the Carbon Disclosure Project, as well as buying an 85 per cent share in Sustainable Asset Management, a Swiss based fund manager specialising in sustainable investment. Christian Werner, Sam’s chief investment officer, explains the thinking behind his investment philosophy as being driven by concerns around climate change and the environment. “If we don’t invest in these companies fast, we won’t get anywhere near the solution.” This is the argument that growth will have to come from these sectors if the future of humanity is to be secure, and therefore they provide an excellent investment opportunity. “It’s all about investment and asset allocation,” says Mr Werner. The asset allocation certainly seems to be running his way, as Sam has just picked up two new mandates from US institutional investors. *** Not to be outdone, HSBC has instituted a Climate Change Centre of Excellence, whose head, Nick Robins, has co-authored a book, Sustainable Investing: The Art of Long-Term Performance, with Cary Crosinski, vice president of Trucost, an environmental research organisation.
This is because much of it is about saving energy, which in turn saves costs. However, that is not the only way for property investment to be sustainable. Oxford Group has recently launched a closed ended fund investing in renewable energy sustainable property projects in Eastern Europe and Near Asia. Aiming to raise €50m (£39m, $64m), the fund promises to deliver a minimum of 25 per cent per annum over the three and a half year life of the fund. By investing in areas designated by local governments as regeneration targets, ensuring the planning process integrates developments into local infrastructure with a view to sustainable community building and ensuring the supply chain is also sustainable, Hadley Barrett, Oxford Group’s chief exeuctive, is confident he can meet this goal. Permalink | |