Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesTodd D. Stern, the top United States negotiator, on Sunday at the climate conference in Durban.
The senior American climate change envoy, Todd D. Stern, is back in Washington from the double-overtime United Nations negotiations in Durban, South Africa, and has declared himself pretty well satisfied with the result, although closing the deal wasn’t easy.
“I think this has ended up being quite a significant agreement and very much along the lines of what we’ve been pushing,” Mr. Stern said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. “That was not fully expected when we went in.”
He said the United States team arrived in Durban with two goals. The first was to deepen the agreements reached at the two previous United Nations climate conferences, in Copenhagen and Cancún, Mexico. That meant establishing the terms for a fund to help poor nations adapt to climate change, strengthening programs to monitor emissions reductions and setting up a center to develop and spread clean energy technology.
There were, as always, disagreements about how countries report progress toward their emissions reductions goals and what sort of international verification regime is acceptable. Negotiators ultimately resolved these questions or agreed to deal with them later. Read more…
Associated PressProtesters in the building where climate talks are nearing an end in Durban, South Africa.
The European Union warns that unless China, the United States and India agree to commit themselves to setting a legally binding target next year for restricting emissions, United Nations climate talks could collapse. [Reuters]
A bill to block a “farm dust” regulation that the federal government never proposed passes the House. Its Republican supporters say they acted because they worried that someday the Environmental Protection Agency might consider such a rule. [The Huffington Post]
The invasive Asian carp appears to have breached a crucial barrier in the Mississippi River: the Coon Rapids Dam, which is upstream from Minneapolis, Minnesota environmental officials say, citing DNA testing. (So far no live Asian carp have been caught there.) [Associated Press]
Three out of four Americans who consider themselves religious say they believe that caring for the environment is part of their duty to be good stewards of God’s creation, a new poll indicates.Two out of three say that backing environmental regulations is part of that responsibility. [UPI]
A Middlebury College junior confronts the chief American envoy at the global climate change conference in Durban, South Africa, demanding an “urgent path” to a legally binding treaty. She draws a standing ovation but is then ejected from the room. [The New York Times]
The four nations deliberating on whether to green-light a controversial dam across the Mekong River in Laos delay a decision, saying they will wait until Japan completes a study on the project’s environmental impact. [Reuters]
The Supreme Court hears arguments on a legal battle between a power company and the state of Montana over who owns the riverbeds beneath 10 dams sitting on three Montana rivers. The state says the company owes it more than $50 million in back rent and interest; the court’s conclusion could affect property rights and wildlife management in other states. [Associated Press]
The operator of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says it is considering dumping water treated for radiation contamination into the ocean as early as March. Fishing groups and some nuclear experts object to the move. [The Guardian]
ReutersA coal-fired power plant on the outskirts of Wuhai in China’s Inner Mongolia region.
For the first time, a Chinese official suggests that Beijing is “likely” to agree to a target for limiting its greenhouse gas emissions after 2020. But that depends on the outcome of international climate change negotiations in Durban, South Africa, he says. [China Daily]
Nongovernmental organizations attending the climate conference in Durban release a list of the world’s top “climate-killing” banks, based on the institutions’ lending to the coal industry. [BankTrack]
The Fish and Wildlife Service announces a six-month delay in its decision on whether to list the dunes sagebrush lizard as an endangered species, saying that it needs more information. The oil and gas industries and politicians from oil-producing states have fought the designation, saying that it could impede exploration. [The Houston Chronicle]
Even if plentiful rainfall were to materialize, Texas groundwater will take months or longer to recharge after the state’s prolonged drought, NASA scientists say, citing maps generated this week from gravity field data. [NASA]
Molten nuclear fuel in the No. 1 reactor at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant burned through a steel pressure vessel and three-quarters of the surrounding concrete containment vessel, the reactor’s last substantial internal barrier, a report released by the plant’s operator and the Japanese government says. [The Australian]
In talks in Durban, South Africa, the United States, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela challenge the structure of a proposed United Nations mechanism that would channel up to $100 billion a year in aid to developing nations to combat climate change. [The Financial Post]
Hundreds of pounds of worms will soon be munching travelers’ trash at the Charlotte/Douglas International Airport in North Carolina. The airport plans to spread the worms’ waste as fertilizer on its 6,000 acres and package and sell the excess. [The Charlotte Observer]
The La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles have been identified as the source of oily wastewater that lends a multicolored sheen to Ballona Creek and then flows into the Pacific, county officials say. [The Los Angeles Times]