tcktcktck's Fresh Air Brief: Thur Feb 16

Welcome to the Fresh Air Brief, a weekly overview of upcoming meetings, events and issues that our tcktcktck partners & peers are tracking. Fresh right now:

* A new international climate agreement targets short-lived climate pollutants
* Advanced emerging economies unite against airlines' inclusion in EU ETS
* Corporate funders distance themselves from climate denial think tank after documents leaked
* New report predicts costs of environmental impacts from business to double every 14 years

Recent developments

New International Climate Agreement ignores CO2

New International Climate Agreement aimed at reducing short-lived climate pollutants was announced by the US State Department Thursday. WWF and a number of other organizations are welcoming the announcement, but caution that the agreement, which focuses on pollutants like black carbon (soot), "...shifts the focus to developing countries and continues the U.S. and Canadian trend of doing very little to reduce CO2 emissions."

BASIC meeting concluded earlier this week

Environment minsters from Brazil, South Africa, India and China (known as the BASIC block) just wrapped a meeting to assess the last round of climate talks and forge a new strategy. They released this joint statement and made headline news by blasting Canada for it's Kyoto withdrawal and taking a unified stand against airline's inclusion in the EU ETS.

Asia Pacific on track to triple emissions by 2050

Alertnet is reporting on a new study by the Asian Development Bank & UN reports that the Asia Pacific region is among the world's largest and least efficient resource user. The study, published in anticipation of Rio+20, suggests that "...more efficient resource use, reduced reliance on fossil fuels, investment in low-carbon technology and infrastructure and changing lifestyles could make Asia Pacific a world leader in sustainable development."

EU green energy sector powers through one million jobs mark

BusinessGreen is reporting on the latest figures from the European Commision, which reveal more than 1.14 million Europeans were working in green energy in 2010, a 25% increase of 2009 numbers. Meanwhile, revenue for the sector soared by 15 per cent year-on-year to €127bn. Separate reports suggest that the sector continued to grow in 2011.

Obama 2013 budget increases climate and energy funding

Before #noKXL and #denialgate stole North American climatico's attention, many eyes were cast upon Obama's 2013 budget. While the upcoming election and divided congress make the budget little more than a political declaration, the proposed budget emphasized climate change and clean energy and a gradual phase-out of fossil fuel subsidies. Political declarations haven't yet proved enough to win back supporters after the administrations lack of leadership on climate issues thus far.

What our partners are focused on now

Keystone XL: oil industry brings a knife to a gunfight
It's the pipeline that won't die. Last weekend, activists caught wind of Republican plans to force approval of the Keystone XL pipeline though US Congress. By Monday morning, many of our US partners (350.org, Climate Reality Project, Greenpeace and NRDC among them) agreed to collaborate in a blitz petition drive to stop the bill. In just 7 hours, the goal of half-a-million signatures was reached and then exceeded. And by Tuesday, Obama was publicly threatening to veto the legislation, in part because of the Keystone approval provision. While efforts to build the pipeline continue, responding to those efforts has re-energized environmentalists and clean energy supporters and spurred unprecedented new collaborations in the United States.

Heartland Institute plans to undermine climate science exposed

A day after the energetic Keystone XL action, bloggers exposed an effort by the Heartland Institute to undermine the US school curriculum on climate science and continue their spread of misinformation about climate change. Desmog Blog broke the story February 14th after Heartland mistakenly released confidential budget and strategy documents, and it quickly spread to other blogs and mainstream media around the world. The Guardian published an excellent summary of the “clear intent of language used [that] will certainly act to shine a much stronger spotlight on how climate skeptics, particularly in the US, operate and collude.” And the story continues to spread as individuals, scientists and organizations upset by the revelation make their frustrations public and reach out to Heartland's funders, some of which are publicly distancing themselves in response.

Keeping tar sands out of the EU.
Ahead of the February 23rd EU vote on the European Fuel Quality Directive, which could effectively ban Canada's tar sands from EU, the heat is on UK Prime Minister David Cameron to vote in favor of keeping dirty fuels out of Europe. Our partners UKYCC and Greenpeace UK have joined with other organizations in a petition effort to lobby the UK government. Even Archbishop Desmond Tutu is piling on. Other countries who are being targeted by environmentalists' over the issue are: Poland, France, Italy, Hungary, Spain, and Estonia. We'll be watching for action from our partners focused on those governments' leaders as the fight heats up in the coming days.

Resources and opportunities

Upcoming Meetings

On reducing emissions:

16 Feb - South Korea's national Legislation and Judiciary Committee, and then a parliamentary plenary session could vote the planned 2015 ETS into law
23rd Feb - EU Fuel Quality Directive vote in Brussels, which could effectively ban Canadian & Venezuelan tar sands from the European Union

We're watching for news on climate finance:

21 Feb - Opponents of the EUs expected $500 million airline carbon pollution levee meet in Moscow to chart next steps
24-26 Feb - G20 Finance Deputies, Ministers and Central Bank Governers will gather for a big meeting in Mexico City

New report predicts costs of environmental impacts to double every 14 years

According to ex-UNFCCC head, Yvo de Boer, "Companies should expect increases in external environmental costs which today are mostly off balance sheet". This according to a new KPMG report released to coincide with a business focused Rio+20 preparatory meeting.

Do lawyers hold the key to tackling climate change?

Our partner One World Group is putting on this Climate Justice Webinar to explore an alternative route to international climate solutions. Lawyers from around the world are developing legal strategies to hold polluters accountable and compensate climate victims. The webinar takes place February 21st at 14:00 GMT.

tcktcktck launching Rio Prize

You may have just missed the chance to go to Rio with UNEP and Treehugger, but there are new opportunities on the horizon. The tcktcktck campaign is launching their own Rio Prize in a matter of days. Email me (joshua.wiese@tcktcktck.org) if you'd like to be among the first to know when the contest is live.

Connect you with our partners in the trenches

As always, if you're looking to dig into any of these issues and want to connect with our partners in the trenches, Fresh Air is here to help. Email me and I'll help make it happen.

That's all for this week's Fresh Air Brief. We're eager to learn how to make this as useful as possible, so all feedback is welcome. We're also eager to accept suggestions for leads, content and opportunities you'd like to promote. Get in touch.

Til next time.

By Joshua Wiese

(joshua.wiese@tcktcktck.org)