Meetings – Mid-November 08 Edition
There are always all sorts of meetings, conferences, conventions and other gatherings ongoing. Here are a few worthy of note.
Governors’ Global Climate Summit – The Governator, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, will host US governors and some top international policymakers on climate change and energy in LA next week. Governors taking part in this event include Charlie Crist from Florida, Jim Doyle from Wisconsin, Rod Blagojevich from Illinois, and Kathleen Sebelius from Kansas. Schwarzenegger, not incidentally, has been mentioned as a possible Obama administration Energy Secretary and Sebelius has been mentioned for EPA. This looks to be an exciting conference. It’s being webcast by UCTV so if you can’t make it out to LA, tune in here or visit later for archival video.
By the way, the Foreign Policy Association’s sister organization, the World Affairs Councils of America, is helping get the word out.
G20 – Tomorrow in Washington, world leaders will start to gather for meetings to address the global economic crisis. See Many Seats, Agendas At Global Roundtable from the “Washington Post.” President-Elect Obama, although invited, will not be there. What the meetings hope to achieve, I’m not really certain, even though it’s being billed as “Bretton Woods II.” I doubt anybody really thinks it’s going to be quite that. In any event, see some comprehensive coverage here from the “FT.”
As far as the climate change crisis goes, you should check out this excellent piece from the Worldwatch Institute - Opinion: Building A Green Economy. Here’s a capsule of their view: “The perfect storm of today’s economic, environmental, and social ravages requires a robust, multi-pronged response. Indeed, the challenge for global political leadership, including U.S. President-elect Obama, is not merely to kickstart the global economy, but to do so in a way that creates jobs and stabilizes climate, increases food output using less water and pesticides, and generates prosperity with greater equality of incomes.”
Carbon Market Insights Americas 2008 – This is a terrific conference going on in Washington this week. It’s being coordinated by Point Carbon and the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, both superb organizations in the forefront of the action. (I would’ve loved to have made this conference, but I had other cats to whip, as the French say so disarmingly.)
The Point Carbon folks have two reports which you can get from them: Carbon Markets and the Incoming US Leadership and Business Opportunities in the Carbon Market. Regarding the former, they say they “…expect Obama’s presidency to bring with it increased momentum toward the establishment of mandatory carbon markets in the US.”
Here is some of their thinking behind the second report: “Regional programs across North America would potentially create markets with a volume close to 900 million tons by 2012 – almost half the size of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). At a conservative price of $10 per ton of carbon dioxide, this would open up billions of dollars worth of transactions and considerable business opportunities.”
As Everett Dirksen said, “A billion here, a billion there. Pretty soon you start talking about real money!”