Not even two months after the last federal election in Canada (Oct.14, 2008­) signs are strongly pointing towards the defeat of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s minority government, as early as Monday, Dec. 8, 2008. Opposition parties have signed a deal this week outlining their plan to form a coalition government following the predicted defeat of [...]

An important factor in gauging public opinion about an issue is identifying the “level of responsibility”, i.e. who should take control of tackling the issue. Generally, in global issues such as climate change these are individuals, corporations, national governments, and international institutions. Often polling on climate change focuses on one or two of these issues, [...]

The Statement from the Globe America’s Legislators Forum – a possible stepping stone for voluntary emissions reduction targets in Mexico. From November 21 to 23, GLOBE International brought together 70 high level legislators from across Latin America in a pre-Poznan meeting on climate change and the economic crisis in Mexico City. Although quiet, the resulting [...]

Confirming previous assessment that Poznan will be sandwiched between Bali and Copenhagen, Day 1′s press conference by the USA has illustrated that reaching a even a range of short-term GHG reduction targets at Poznan is extremely unlikely. Dr Harlan Watson–a prominent member of the USA delegation at COP13–today spoke at the first of the USA’s [...]

A key issue in the assessment of national climate policy is the accuracy of data and figures. Much of the analysis provided by the policy community is based upon the information available on what is happening on the ground in each country. However, as with all national comparisons, there is a problem: working out …

The UNFCCC conference in Poland begins tomorrow (Monday 1st December 2008). The size and complexity of the event means that almost all topics in international climate politics will be covered, with extensive discussions on the road to Copenhagen in 2009. However, as well as building momentum and tackling the timetabling for 2009, the Poznan conference [...]

One of the difficulties with governing on the scale of the E.U. is how to accurately assess public opinion. In light of these concerns, the E.U. has been remarkably proactive with pan-Europe opinion polls. In the next few posts I’ll try to give a digest of the recent results to see how public opinion in [...]

The UNFCCC Climate Change Conference is drawing ever closer (9 days at time of writing). But what are we expecting from this mass meeting? What is Poznan actually aiming at? The answers to these questions initially seem obvious: to prepare the ground for the near-legendary ‘Copenhagen Protocol’. However, dig any deeper than …

It’s not often that business executives are the focus of opinion polls, but a survey this year by Yougov highlights some truly surprising results. Yes, the sample size is small but the respondents are powerful. 200 business executives from FTSE 300 companies were polled on their attitudes to climate change in a business context, and [...]

On Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) appeals panel overturned a permit for a proposed coal-fired power station in Utah.  The panel ruled that the EPA’s Denver office had inadequately supported its decision to issue a permit to the plant without considering its carbon dioxide emissions. In October 2007, the Sierra Club and others filed [...]