24 Hours. That was all the time a fledgling organization, Living Forest, and the Mexican Ministry on the Environment had to create a full program promoting forest promotion and marketability. At their unique request, the University of Michigan Envoy was charged on Monday night with organizing, creating, and implementing an end-to-end communication strategy to promote …
Category: COP 16
UNFCCC Climate Change Conference, Cancun
UNFCCC COP 16 Executive Secretary Goes Blue!
Photo: Courtesy of Juan Cespedes, The University of Michigan COP 16 Envoy's guest photographer Today, the University of Michigan COP 16 Student Envoy proudly presented Christiana Figueres, the Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC COP 16, with a UMICH COP 16 T-shirt designed by our very own SNRE student Katie Pethan. Executive Secretary Figueres promptly cheered "Go …
Continue reading UNFCCC COP 16 Executive Secretary Goes Blue!
Adaptation Funding – A Real Need
From inside the UN Delegation Hall - 2:00 pm: Professor Thomas Gladwin, instructor for the University of Michigan's annual Erb Seminar, asked his students to debate the following statement: “Humanity will be able to limit global warming to no more than 1.5-2.0 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and will thus experience abrupt, irreversible, runaway and …
Hope in the world of Bubba Gump
As many will likely remember, Bubba Gump was a fictional character in a fairytale who's largely oblivious to his surroundings. Unfortunately, after one day in Cancun, I'm coming to the conclusion that sometimes a fictional character can represent reality much more closely than hope. The difference in setting could not be more stark between COP-15 …
Google Earth and Climate Change
A very cool set of videos over at Google Earth. Use Google Earth to learn about adaptation strategies that mitigate the effects of climate change. The Google Earth Outreach team and our partners have created this series of tours and videos. Fly over tree canopies in 3D, learn about how climate change affects our planet …
The End of the Honeymoon
Early this morning, I joined a hoard of honeymooners on a Delta flight to Cancun. Unfortunately, however, I wasn’t traveling to Cancun for 8 days of fun in the sun. In fact, I’d argue our collective honeymoon is already over. Don’t get me wrong: our best days can still before us, but my own personal …
Patents and Climate Change
Quick post - Over the past decade there has been a growth in patents that relate to climate change, mainly in clean energy technologies. The growth in such patents really started following the Kyoto Protocol. This afternoon I was fortunate to listen to a side event sponsored by the European Patent Office (EPO) entitled "Patents, …
Are Tropical Cyclones Changing?
Hello from Cancun and COP 16! This afternoon the U.S. Center sponsored a talk titled "Tropical Cyclones and Climate Change". The speakers included Tom Knutson (NOAA), Scott Braun (NASA) and William Putman (NASA). The discussion focused on improving our understanding of how future tropical cyclones may change due to global warming. Dr. Knutson presented the …
Thoughts from newly elected UNFCCC Executive Secretary
As doors open at today's convention, newly elected UNFCCC Executive Secretary, Christiana Figueres of Costa Rica, is already making headlines. Instead of focusing on promoting the hope of a long-standing legal accord, she has channeled her vision for the convention's success into these four areas of accomplishment:
Hello from UN COP 16!
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has finally arrived, and so has the University of Michigan Student Envoy! After managing through a lack of communication outlets, we are proud to finally be reporting from on site here in Cancun. Despite the initial sobering sentiment of little to no political advancement over the past …
Climate Blue 