Panel Discussions - Monday, June 21, 2010
Progress on Climate Talks: “A Marathon, Not a Sprint”
Acknowledging the disappointment that many people felt after United Nations climate talks in Copenhagen in December, but urging people not to let temporary setbacks undermine faith in long range success, Harvard University Professor Robert Stavins described the development of climate policy as “a marathon and not a sprint.’” For his part, Columbia University Professor Scott Barrett called current methods of addressing the climate problem “a massive failure.”
This frank discussion, which took place on June 21 during an IPI policy forum, reinforced the complexities and challenges facing climate negotiators as they prepare for the next climate summit in Cancún, Mexico at the end of the year.
Professor Barrett and fellow panelist Mohammed Reza Salamat, Senior Program Officer in the Secretary-General’s Climate Change Support Team, agreed that an essential component to the negotiations is to win the support of the general public, especially in the United States.
Referring to a participant’s comment on this subject, Mr. Salamat said, “In my view, we need to promote some value-based messages so that we can encourage American people and other nations to care for their children, for the planet, and for the next generation, articulating the fact that we are all living, as you rightly said, in one planet, and we are—we will sink together if we are going to sink.”
Though Professor Barrett discussed some avenues for progress, most of his remarks were a stark assessment of the process so far. “If you want to stabilize atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases at any level… you basically have to bring, relatively quickly, net emissions worldwide towards zero,” he said. “So the ambition, I think, we’re asking for in climate policy is huge, and where we’ve gotten to so far is nowhere near it.”
Said Mr. Salamat, “Those who have been involved in climate negotiations for a long time say every global issue is easy, except climate change.”
The event, titled, “International Climate Negotiations: Options for a Way Forward,” was moderated by Warren Hoge, IPI Vice President for External Relations.
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The Global Observatory
Interview with John Prendergast, Co-Founder, Enough Project
Mr. Prendergast discusses the international justice system and the new ground forged by Invisible Children's Kony2012 campaign.
Key Global Events to Watch in May
A list of key upcoming meetings and events with implications for global affairs.
The Global Observatory is a new website by IPI, providing timely analysis on peace and security issues, interviews with leading policymakers, interactive maps, and more.
Recent Events
May 10, 2012
Arbour: What the Rule of Law Means
“In my understanding of the rule of law, fundamentally, what the rule of law means is that it embraces the principle of equality before the law,” Louise Arbour, president of the International Crisis Group (ICG), told an IPI audience on May 10, 2012. Ms. Arbour outlined that this means that no one is above the law and everyone has both equal protection and equal benefit of the law. 
May 03, 2012
Shachtman: Cyber Threats Akin to South Bronx, Not Pearl Harbor
“There’s not a danger of a cyber Pearl Harbor… it’s more like the South Bronx circa 1999, where there’s a danger that it becomes such a tough neighborhood that no one wants to set up shop there and people move out,” Noah Shachtman, editor of the Danger Room blog at Wired magazine and non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institution, told an IPI audience at a panel on cyber security on May 3, 2011.
April 27, 2012
Preventing Conflicts in Africa: The Role of Early Warning and Response Systems
An April 27th roundtable discussion at IPI titled “Preventing Conflicts in Africa: The Role of Early Warning and Response Systems” examined the progress, prospects and challenges of regional and international early warning and response mechanisms to monitor, anticipate, and mitigate potential conflict situations in Africa.