My Diaries

The Worst EU Lobbying Awards were elected! Yeah!!!

So concerning the Worst EU Lobbying Award, the happy winners are… BMW, Daimler and Porsche – nominated together. They gained more than 30 percent of the votes. Their joint lobbying offensive designed to water-down and delay the mandatory CO2 emission reduction targets proposed by the Commission after voluntary targets were not met was deemed to be the worst and most deceptive by voters across Europe.

And the special greenwash prize for the most audacious attempts to gain unjustifiable green credentials was awarded to : the German Atomic Forum, which received more than a third of votes cast. It was nominated for its campaign aimed at improving the image of nuclear energy. Under the slogan “Germany’s unloved climate protectionists” it featured images of nuclear power plants placed in unpolluted and unspoilt natural environments.

More info at : www.worstlobby.eu/2007/winners_en

In the 2 weeks to come, I’ll be following for you the very important conference taking place in Bali between all countries that are part of the climate change mitigation effort. I hope I’ll be able to outline the main points of progress and I’ll try to make it so you can read only the text in bold, in order to make this big political talk a little bit more concrete and understandable for all of us, ordinary humans!

Coping strategies for the South (click to go to the article)

Describing progress so far, UNFCCC Executive Secretary, Yvo de Boer, said that things are “looking good.” He pointed to the first meeting this afternoon of the contact group, an initiative of Conference President Rachmat Witoelar, which will discuss ways of reaching a future climate change agreement and how this agreement should be structured. In this context, Mr. de Boer stressed once again the fact that the Bali Conference will not finalize a post-2012 climate deal, but can ”put in place a two-year process to work towards such a deal.”

While there is major focus at the Conference on the future, Mr. de Boer highlighted the importance of maintaining a balance between future and current issues. (more…)

Starting yesterday, and lasting 2 weeks, the largest and most media covered Conference of Parties is being held right now in Bali, Indonesia.

As explained by Yvo de Boer, the Conference Executive Secretary, the objective of the conference is not to reach an agreement on the next round of targets for Green House Gases world emissions — two weeks of negotiations is too short to reach such an agreement, but rather, to get an answer to this question : “Ministers, what is your political answer to what the scientific community is telling you so very clearly?“

Watch the youtube video here to know more (2 minutes) :

And to those who wonder why Yvo de Boer is opening the conference in such an extravagant (and really not my taste!) patterned shirt instead of the classical black suit and tie, read my last post!

The following was read on the home page for the United Nations Climate Change Conference holding place in Bali, Indonesia, from 3 to 14 of December 2007. The Conference of Parties set on Bali this december aims at discussing about what measures should be taken to mitigate climate change, especially after 2012, end of the Kyoto Protocol. It is reassuring to see that all the participants are completely dedicated to the cause they are working for, so much so that they question the dress etiquette! (more…)

This morning reading the latest post from the IDEO blog, I discovered with delight the “Worst EU Lobbying Awards” website. The website is organized by Corporate Europe Observatory, Friends of the Earth Europe, LobbyControl and Spinwatch and every year has to vote in order to award the worst lobbyists in the European Union, as well as the worst Green Wash. The candidates are selected by the organizers who then put the full case online, with supporting documents. (more…)