Stories: International Cooperation on Climate & Energy

Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived in the United States yesterday to be presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, coming shortly after her announcement that Germany plans to phase out nuclear energy by 2022 and accelerate the transition to a clean energy system largely built on renewable energy and energy efficiency. Jennifer Morgan analyzes the steps the country is taking to move to a low-carbon, non-nuclear future.

More progress on substantive issues is needed to keep the climate talks headed in the right direction.

Recently, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a comprehensive study on renewable energy, entitled Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation. The report finds that by 2050, nearly 80 percent of the world’s energy supply could be provided by renewable energy sources. WRI Analyst Lutz Weischer, who works on renewable energy policies, sat down to talk about the report’s implications.

As the reporting deadline for 2010 looms, developed countries will need to prove that they are honestly meeting their modest $30 billion commitment.

Today, the government of the United Kingdom took a significant step to shift to a low-carbon economy, providing clear signals to investors that the UK wants to host large-scale clean energy projects moving forward.

On 2-3 February 2011, the World Resources Institute and Climate Analytics hosted an informal meeting of climate finance negotiators in New York City.

Tough issues remain as climate change negotiators chart the year’s work in Bangkok.

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The UNFCCC Cancun Agreements of December 2010 marked an important step forward for transparency of country actions to respond to climate change. In addition to creating a new standard for the way countries report on their national climate commitments and actions, the agreements mandated advances in the reporting and review of countries’ climate finance contributions.

Developed countries have collectively pledged USD 30 billion from 2010-2012 to support developing countries’ climate efforts. This pledge, known as “fast-start finance,” was initially made in Copenhagen in 2009, and reiterated in the 2010 Cancun Agreements.

Negotiators are now figuring out the details that will turn the Cancun Agreements into something that makes a difference on the ground.