Move ball forward at Cancun climate talks

(CNN) -- The next round of international climate meetings begin Monday in Cancun, Mexico, and they will likely determine the future for global action on climate change -- including whether the United Nations will remain at the core of an international regime.
It's been nearly a year since the Copenhagen, Denmark, climate summit, and negotiations over implementation of the climate change deal it produced have dragged on with little to show.
They've been slowed by the failure of a climate bill in the U.S. Senate, the global economic recession and increasing gridlock between the United States and China. Around the world, heads of state have been reluctant to provide crucial leadership needed for a breakthrough.
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We need a significant turnaround to show that real progress is possible. In football terms, it's the two-minute warning, and we just got the ball on our opponent's 20-yard line.
There is ever-mounting evidence that our climate is changing. Leading authorities, including the National Academy of Sciences (the top scientific academy in the United States) have reconfirmed the risks of climate change, and the role of man-made greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide, in altering our atmosphere.
Against this backdrop, negotiators in Cancun must get in the game.
Why does it matter what a bunch of diplomats do at a Mexican beach resort?

Working for a climate treaty

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Emissions are global and their effects are global. Left unchecked, global warming will affect countries from low-lying island nations, such as the Maldives, to arid countries in sub-Saharan Africa, to industrial leaders, such as the United States. Just think of the raging wildfires in Russia, massive flooding in Pakistan, droughts in the Amazon and the record heat waves along the Eastern United States.
Competition for clean energy markets is also global. In 2009, China became the world's leader in energy consumption. The United States is now second. While India, with a population of 1.17 billion people, ranks fourth.
www.undpi.org
Demand for energy will continue to grow, and with it increased pressure and new markets for cheaper, cleaner energy sources. In this arena, the United States is falling behind as other countries, such as China, charge ahead.
The picture is clear and action is necessary. Yet the path forward has been mired in the economic downturn and political gamesmanship.
Following are four keys to the upcoming climate meetings:
• U.S.-China dynamics. These two countries, the world's two largest carbon emitters, must find a way to work together toward progress. The United States and other developed countries have called on China to demonstrate greater transparency.
While China has been proceeding with its plan to slow its carbon emissions -- that is, to reduce its carbon intensity (its carbon emissions per unit of gross domestic product) by 40 percent to 45 percent by 2020 compared with the 2005 level -- countries are looking to ensure these actions are internationally verifiable.
For its part, China has called on the U.S. to increase its emissions reduction commitments. The United States has stated it will reduce its emissions by 17 percent by 2020, compared with 2005 levels, yet it is not clear whether the U.S. is serious about meeting this target since comprehensive climate and energy legislation died in the Senate this year.
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Neither side will get all that it wants, but they must move toward common ground and finding solutions, or else there is no hope for getting other key countries on board.
• Major emerging economies and the European Union. South Africa and Brazil will host upcoming major climate conferences and should have a strong interest in making a breakthrough happen. Similarly, countries in the EU already have played leadership roles and can be influential.
These countries in particular should play a more assertive role and take risks. Over the past months, these countries have been locked in their positions when they should be coming forward to work on a common set of solutions.
• Meeting financial commitments. One of the most positive developments from Copenhagen was the agreement that developed countries would provide "fast start" financial support to developing countries to help them in cutting their emissions and adapting to climate change.
Developed countries committed $30 billion at Copenhagen. These commitments have not been fully realized, including those of the United States. Countries need to follow through on their financial commitments and to develop the mechanism -- including a common accounting system and greater transparency -- to ensure that these funds are available to the countries that need them.
• U.S. domestic action. With climate legislation stalled in Congress, the world is wondering if the United States is serious about cutting its carbon pollution. Analysis by the World Resources Institute shows the United States can move forward with reducing its emissions, mostly through the existing authority of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and state action.
billionaires.forbes.com
As a demonstration of its commitment, President Obama should reconfirm that the United States will meet its declared goal of reducing its carbon emissions by 17 percent by 2020.
Together, these steps would jump-start action and show that world leaders are serious about tackling this issue. The clock is ticking. We need to start moving the ball forward.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jonathan Lash.

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South Korea buries marines killed by N Korea attack

The two marines were killed when North Korea fired dozens of artillery shells at Yeonpyeong Island

Telegraph.co.uk

South Korea has held funerals for the two marines killed when North Korea fired artillery shells at the South's Yeonpyeong island earlier this week.

In a service broadcast nationwide, the marines' commander vowed "thousand-fold revenge" for the attack.
Two civilians also died in the incident - one of the worst clashes since the end of the Korean War.
Tension is high, with the North calling planned US-Southern military drills on Sunday an "unpardonable provocation".
The US has called on China to increase its pressure on Pyongyang to prevent further incidents.
China has said its "top priority" is to keep the situation under control. Beijing has begun a series of talks with Washington, Seoul and Pyongyang in an attempt to ease the tensions.
Flag burned
www.bbc.co.uk 
The funeral for marines Seo Jeong-woo and Moon Kwang-wook was held at a military hospital in Seongnam, close to the capital, Seoul.

Military veterans protested in Seoul, demanding revenge on the North

Hundreds of government and military officials, politicians, religious leaders, activists and civilians attended.
Among them were Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik and Maj Gen You Nak-jun, the head of the marine corps.
"We'll certainly repay North Korea a thousand-fold for killing and harming our marines," said Gen You.
"South Korean active-duty marines and all reserve forces will engrave this anger and hostility in our bones and we will make sure we take revenge on North Korea."
timeszambiapost.com
Officials and relatives placed white flowers on the two coffins draped in the South Korean flag. Marines sang as the coffins were carried out.
Elsewhere in Seoul, 1,000 South Korean military veterans protested, burning the North Korean flag and portraits of Pyongyang's leaders. The protesters shouted slogans demanding revenge and condemning the North's "atrocity".
'Uncontrollable'
www.manchesterwired.co.uk 
The four South Koreans died on Tuesday when the North launched a sudden barrage of shells at Yeonpyeong island, close to the maritime border between the two countries.

The attack led to the South replacing its defence minister and evacuating most of the island's civilian population.
The new Defence Minister Kim Kwan-jin said on Saturday that tougher action was needed against the North.
"We need to deal with North Korea's provocations strongly. We need to hit back multiple times as hard."
Pyongyang said it had been provoked by the South's military exercises, which were being carried out close to Yeonpyeong.
www.english.rfi.fr
By-BBC

Save the tigers

www.savethetigerfund.org
(CNN) -- How much would it cost to save tigers from extinction in the wild? Thirty-five million more dollars a year.
Some perspective on this amount: Thirty-five million dollars is less than soccer star David Beckham earns annually. Surely, a world that sustains great athletes with princely sums can also afford to save this princely beast.
It's zero hour for tigers. In the past century, the world's wild tiger population has fallen by a staggering 97 percent -- from an estimated 100,000 to an all-time low of 3,200 animals. Of these, only 1,000 are breeding females.
Tigers are threatened across their entire range, from India to the Russian Far East. They face a triple threat: Poachers kill them for their pelts and body parts, hunters kill their prey, and development encroaches on their habitat.
tigers.mlb.com
Tiger extinction would be the stuff of great tragedy. But hopes for averting such disaster may emerge from a summit happening this week in St. Petersburg, Russia. Called together by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, conservationists, donors and leaders of all 13 tiger range states may decide the fate of tigers in the wild.
The Wildlife Conservation Society and its partners in big cat conservation have devised a strategy that offers the summit a practical plan of action to reverse the decline of tigers and put the population on a course for recovery. (This is where the $35 million comes in; more on that in a moment.)
www.saveourtigers.com
This fall, the Wildlife Conservation Society published a peer-reviewed study identifying 42 "source sites" across the natural range of tigers in Asia, where viable populations of breeding tigers now exist.
The paper was co-authored by conservationists from organizations including the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the Global Environment Facility, Panthera, the World Bank and numerous other partners. The study suggests that managing and financing activities like law enforcement and training in these breeding areas will protect tiger populations and allow them to repopulate larger landscapes.
Implementing this plan would be straightforward. Instead of spreading conservation efforts thinly across large landscapes, the focus would shift to source sites. These are where 70 percent of the world's tigers live in just 6 percent of their current range. For example, there are 18 source sites in India, eight in Indonesia, six in Russia, three in both Malaysia and Nepal, two in Thailand and one in both Laos and Bangladesh. Protecting these sites would halt the decline in tigers and allow populations to recover.
www.savechinastigers.org
Can it be done? In fact, something similar is being done in southwest India in one of the most densely populated places on earth. In the Western Ghats of Karnataka sits Nagarahole National Park, where the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Indian government and local communities have worked together for 20 years, joining first-rate science to public action.
Trained enforcement teams have deployed to protect both tigers and their prey from such threats as poaching and habitat loss. Voluntary resettlement to shift people away from protected areas and the cooperation of those who live in local villages have meant a 400 percent increase in tiger numbers from fewer than 20 to nearly 70.
Evidence of range state commitment to the strategy on the table at the summit is clear. More than half the $82 million that would be required for the effort each year is already committed by governments, international donors and non-governmental organizations.
But there is still a $35 million annual shortfall, and this is all that stands between the tiger and its two possible futures: extinction or robust survival across Asia.
www.elvidge.com
The hopes and risks could not be clearer at the St. Petersburg summit. Putin and other world leaders can leave a great legacy. In our collective role as stewards of our planet, we cannot fail.