Copenhagen: Reports from the 2009 Climate Summit

Reports for North Dakota from the Climate Summit in Copenhagen

In 2009, governments, companies, and organizations meet in Copenhagen to produce a new climate treaty. Copenhagen is teeming with people hoping to make a difference. A small country hoping the new treaty won’t constrain their development, a large country trying for their best result, a power company arguing for ways to keep burning coal, an environmental group pushing for biodiversity — and on and on. Click here for the conference agenda.

Some of the big issues will have big effects in North Dakota — agriculture and energy will face new constraints and new opportunities.

CLICK on the bold links below to listen. Note that these are unedited.

Merrill Piepkorn interviews Robert Carlson, President of the North Dakota Farmers Union, following the major “Ag Day” at the conference.

Bill Thomas talks with Roger Platt, Sr. VP of the Green Building Council of the US, about LEED certification and the role of buildings in energy saving.

Franzjoseph Schafhausen interviewed by Bill Thomas. He is deputy director general for energy and the environment at the Federal Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in Berlin. He is a key player globally on climate policy. He negotiated the development of European Union’s cap and trade program for Germany and was recently the lead German official in development of his country’s national carbon capture and storage act.

Dave Thompson with Soren Korsholm, Head of Bioresources, Climate and Energy Policy, Danish Agriculture and Food Council.

Dave Thompson with Robert Carlson and Doug Sombke — presidents of the North and South Dakota Farmers Unions, about efforts to have agriculture recognized formally as a means of climate mitigation.

Todd McDonald talks to Australian Cattle Producers. Do they have hints for North Dakota Ranchers?

Todd McDonald talks to the Vice President of American Electric Power, about their new transmission line to North Dakota for electricity from renewable sources.

Merrill Piepkorn interviews Brad Crabtree about the Summit.

Bill Thomas interviews Svend Soeyland of Bellona, a Norway based environmental group that was unusual in their early support for techniques to capture and store carbon from burning coal (most similar groups simply pushed for ceasing the use of coal).

NDSU biochemistry student Megan Constans is blogging from Copenhagen.

Thanks to the Great Plains Institute for supporting our coverage of these issues, and to GPI’s Brad Crabtree for taking some of our special equipment to Copenhagen and working there to facilitate our interviews (click here to see their own reports).

The U.S. “Booth”

The U.S. has a “Center” at the Copenhagen conference
(we think that’s like the term for a glorified booth with rooms and
lots of hi-tech gadgets). It has a meeting room where they’ll
be running different climate change-related panels. The panels stream live online, too –
https://statedept.connectsolutions.com/uscenter?launcher=false.

Explanation of the Center: http://cop15.state.gov/uscenter/index.htm

Events schedule, with detailed descriptions, for panels in the
Center’s Meeting Room:
http://cop15.state.gov/uscenter/meetingroom/index.htm