UN Envoy: Climate Change Talks Moving Forward

Speaking in Copenhagen, Yvo de Boer, the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change Executive Secretary, said the draft showed that climate negotiations are moving forward.

"Negotiators are beginning to turn their attention to the bigger picture and the ultimate outcome of this conference," he said.

De Boer described the document as a 'framework', which still needs to be fleshed out.

The document leaves open the issue of how much cash will be needed to help developing countries adapt to climate change.

But European countries announced Friday they will contribute over $10 billion over the next three years.

AP

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown (File)

Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the European Union was committed to major emissions reductions.

"Our aim is through an ambitious deal that the European Union commit to reduce its emissions by 30 percent by 2020. The agreement must include a financial framework that is for the short-term, medium-term, and long-term," he said.

The draft text also leaves open the exact target for limiting temperature rise. Small Islands and some poor countries have called for temperature rise to be capped at 1.5 degrees Celsius - lower than the two degree figure endorsed by major developing economies in July.

But the draft does call on developed nations to cut green house gas emissions by at least 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020 and by at least 50 percent by 2050. Greenhouse gases are the byproduct of fossil fuels, which scientists say are heating up the earth's atmosphere and bringing chaos to its climate system.

Scientist Stephan Harrison from Britain's University of Exeter says 50 percent-reduction targets are a good step, But he says, that reduction won't be enough to keep temperature rise below 2 degrees.

"People have said that 80 percent reduction is probably the minimum required, so 50 percent clearly wouldn't be enough," he said.

He says the United States needs to take the lead in curbing emissions.

"America has enormous influence -- it's enormously powerful politically, so what America decides to do will have absolute fantastic influence," he added.

The United States has so far refused to sign up for legally binding lower emissions targets.

Grace Akumu is climate change advisor to the Kenya government. Speaking from Copenhagen she said the US has to do more to match the European Union's commitment to limiting climate change.

"America also should join other developed countries who propose comparable emissions reductions targets and time frames," she said. "So that the EU does not feel boxed to the corner. Because now the European Union has been baring the burden alone and America -- the largest emitter -- has been on the side of the Kyoto protocol," she added.

AP

Police lines block a demonstration from advancing towards the center of Copenhagen, 11 Dec 2009

The conference in Copenhagen will continue until December 18. Early next week ministers will be arriving in Denmark's capital to join negotiations. Country leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama, are expected at the end of the week.

The goal is to reach a global deal on tackling climate change, which will come into effect in 2013.

Challenges For Obama’s Afghan Strategy

Mr. Obama’s plan calls for the withdrawal of troops by the summer of 2011. Critics on the left want the troops out now, saying the war in Afghanistan has already lasted eight years. Others, especially Mr. Obama’s conservative opposition, question the wisdom of announcing a specific exit date.

Given follow-up testimony before the U.S. Congress last week by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, it has become clear that the president’s timeline for a drawdown is less a commitment than an aspiration.

Gates vowed the U.S. partnership with the Afghan government and other countries in the region would not be fleeting. “Our government will not again turn our back on this country or this region,” he said. “We will fight by your side until the Afghan forces are strong enough to secure that nation on their own.”

Reaction in Afghanistan

Afghan President Hamid Karzai weighed in on Mr. Obama’s plan, indicating it may be five years before his army and police are ready to take on insurgents – and 15 to 20 years before his government can afford to pay for its own security.

Beyond Mr. Karzai, Afghans are split in their opinions about the Obama withdrawal plan. “People who analyze the Afghan situation think the deadline is good because in those 18 months probably both the U.S. coalition forces and the Afghan government will work hard to train the Afghan armed forces,” says Afghan analyst Alam Payind. “It will put pressure on the Karzai government to implement reforms and reduce the corruption.” he added. Payind is director of the Middle East Studies Center at the Ohio State University.

On the other hand, Payind says Afghans who oppose the deadline argue that it will embolden the insurgents. Even more important, he says, is the weakness of the Karzai government. “And that doesn’t even address the issues of opium production and trafficking, which fuel and criminalize the economy, and in which some ministers are involved,” says Payind.

Fear of Repeating Past Mistakes

“President Obama’s announcement ignored the contribution of America’s previous lack of sustained involvement in Afghanistan,” says Roy Gutman. Foreign editor of the McClatchy newspaper chain, Gutman is also the author of How We Missed the Story: Osama bin Laden, the Taliban, and the Hijacking of Afghanistan.

“If you go back to the period of the Russian invasion, which was 30 years ago this month, the United States played a huge role funding and arming the Afghan resistance,” Gutman recalls. But he also notes after the Soviets were forced to leave Afghanistan in 1989, the United States lost interest in the country. That interest in the region would be renewed in the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks against New York and Washington.

Pakistan’s Key Role Then and Now

“Our success in Afghanistan is inextricably linked to our partnership with Pakistan,” President Obama told the American people last week. But while Pakistanis fault the United States for helping to create the instability the region faces today, opinion there is split on what the U.S. role should be.

“The strange and interesting fact is that both Pakistanis and Afghans have been complaining for the last several decades about America walking away from Afghanistan and Pakistan after the Soviets left in the 1980s,” says former Pakistani diplomat Akbar Ahmed. At the same time, Ahmed says “one finds a great deal of anti-Americanism among Pakistanis today.” Ahmed, who chairs the Islamic Studies department at the American University in Washington, says part of that anger is fueled by the U.S. drone attacks in the tribal regions of Pakistan. Those attacks have been blamed for the deaths of an estimated 500 to 600 innocent civilians.

So, Ahmed concludes, there is a Pakistani paradox. “While Pakistanis may not be particularly happy about so many Americans being involved on this side of the border, at the same time they don’t want America to just pack up and leave,” he explains.

The Limited Options

“The immense task America now faces in the region is greatly aggravated by Afghanistan’s weak central government,” Gutman says. The Afghan government of Hamid Karzai hasn’t helped its own cause in that respect. Perceived corruption within the government, and especially during the president’s re-election, didn’t win Mr. Karzai much respect within his own country or the international community.

But Gutman warns that circumventing the Afghan President by turning to regional leaders would carry a greater risk – making Afghanistan so decentralized that it could become ungovernable. Gutman’s prediction: “It’s not going to be over in 18 months.” Akbar Ahmed, Roy Gutman, and Alam Payind were interviewed by VOA’s Judith Latham on the 10 December edition of International Press Club.

Some 1.6 billion people lack access to electricity

LUTW

Dave Irvine-Halliday works one house at a time in Mexico to install LED lighting

In 1996 Canadian professor David Irvine-Halliday was on a work trip in Nepal when his return flight was canceled. It would be weeks before he could catch another flight home, but the delay gave him time to hike the Annapurna Circuit, a 14-day trek through the Himalayas. One day, wandering past a school he heard children singing. He looked in the window and wondered how, without light, the kids could study. Sadly, he realized, these conditions are common in poor countries. Some 1.6 billion people in the world have no access to electricity.

LUTW

LEDs can replace expensive and polluting kerosene lamps

People who aren't connected to the electric grid often get their light from kerosene, candles or burning wood. But, the products are expensive, produce only dim light and generate polluting fumes that cause health and environmental problems. Responding to the need for safe, clean and affordable lighting, Irvine-Halliday set to work on a solution.

LEDs turn out to be a bright idea

Back in his laboratory at the University of Calgary, Alberta, he experimented with light emitting diodes, technology he was familiar with as a professor of renewable energy. "I knew that they were virtually indestructible. They lasted for decades because they were putting them under the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, and they were going to be there for years and years and years working for 24 hours a day," he says.

Irvine-Halliday settled on a one watt bright white light, a Japanese product he discovered on the Internet. Startled by the intense beam he generated when he rigged the diode to his bike generator, he recalls saying to his partner, "Good God, a child could read by the light of a single diode."

CAUSE Canada

Girls in Sierra Leone read by the light of a single watt LED

In 2000, Irvine-Halliday returned to Nepal to put the system in homes. He first used pedal power, then turned to hydro and finally turned to solar power generation. The single watt solar LED package works, Irvine-Halliday told Capitol Hill staffers at a recent meeting in Washington, because it is affordable, clean and easy to set up and maintain. "The one-time cost of our system - which consists of a small solar panel, a little motorcycle-sized battery and a couple of LED lamps, is less than one hundred dollars," he says. He adds that's about the same as the cost of kerosene for a year.

Some 1.6 billion people lack access to electricity

LUTW

Dave Irvine-Halliday works one house at a time in Mexico to install LED lighting

In 1996 Canadian professor David Irvine-Halliday was on a work trip in Nepal when his return flight was canceled. It would be weeks before he could catch another flight home, but the delay gave him time to hike the Annapurna Circuit, a 14-day trek through the Himalayas. One day, wandering past a school he heard children singing. He looked in the window and wondered how, without light, the kids could study. Sadly, he realized, these conditions are common in poor countries. Some 1.6 billion people in the world have no access to electricity.

LUTW

LEDs can replace expensive and polluting kerosene lamps

People who aren't connected to the electric grid often get their light from kerosene, candles or burning wood. But, the products are expensive, produce only dim light and generate polluting fumes that cause health and environmental problems. Responding to the need for safe, clean and affordable lighting, Irvine-Halliday set to work on a solution.

LEDs turn out to be a bright idea

Back in his laboratory at the University of Calgary, Alberta, he experimented with light emitting diodes, technology he was familiar with as a professor of renewable energy. "I knew that they were virtually indestructible. They lasted for decades because they were putting them under the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, and they were going to be there for years and years and years working for 24 hours a day," he says.

Irvine-Halliday settled on a one watt bright white light, a Japanese product he discovered on the Internet. Startled by the intense beam he generated when he rigged the diode to his bike generator, he recalls saying to his partner, "Good God, a child could read by the light of a single diode."

CAUSE Canada

Girls in Sierra Leone read by the light of a single watt LED

In 2000, Irvine-Halliday returned to Nepal to put the system in homes. He first used pedal power, then turned to hydro and finally turned to solar power generation. The single watt solar LED package works, Irvine-Halliday told Capitol Hill staffers at a recent meeting in Washington, because it is affordable, clean and easy to set up and maintain. "The one-time cost of our system - which consists of a small solar panel, a little motorcycle-sized battery and a couple of LED lamps, is less than one hundred dollars," he says. He adds that's about the same as the cost of kerosene for a year.

Villagers get micro-loans to buy lighting systems

LUTW

Boys help assemble an LED system

What started as a family project has emerged as the Light Up the World Foundation, which has reached 25,000 people in 51 countries. Initially systems were given away. Today, growing numbers of villagers are purchasing and maintaining the equipment. "Our short term goal for the next couple of years is that 80 percent of all the systems that Light up the World is involved [with] will be via micro-credit," Irvine-Halliday says, "where the villager borrows from local micro-credit organizations and pays them back."

The organization has made a difference in people's lives beyond Irvine-Halliday's expectations.

Acquiring this simple and non-polluting form of electric light, he points out, promotes education, public health, economic security and a cleaner environment. In January, he will retire from his day job at the University of Calgary. He's also decided to give up leadership in Light up the World Foundation to start a company in India that will develop a more energy-efficient and cheaper lighting system that he hopes will bring even more light to the world's poor.

A Philippine official says the armed tribesmen holding 46 hostages in the country's

A Philippine official says the armed tribesmen holding 46 hostages in the country's south have agreed to surrender after the government promised to consider some of their demands.

A government crisis team spokesman, Alfredo Plaza, said the gunmen freed two more hostages on Saturday and agreed to free the remaining captives when they surrender early Sunday.

Armed tribesmen on the southern island of Mindanao, seized 75 people Thursday at a school and several neighboring homes in the town of Prosperidad.

The leader of the hostage-takers, Joebert "Ondo" Perez, demanded that murder charges against his gang be dropped and that police disarm a rival group. He blamed the rival clan, the Tubays, for the murders of six of his siblings.

The southern Philippines is plagued by banditry, tribal feuds, loosely supervised government-armed militias, and Muslim and communist insurgents.

Officials say many former militiamen have turned to banditry and extortion and that the government has made efforts to disarm them. A government official, Cerge Remonde, said Friday that so far more than 1,000 firearms and close to 600,000 rounds of ammunition and explosives have been confiscated or surrendered to authorities.

The kidnapping Thursday came as government forces continued searching for militiamen suspected of involvement in last month's massacre of 57 people in another part of Mindanao.

Contracts Awarded to Russian, Norwegian Firms on Last Day of Iraq Oil Auction

The Iraqi government expressed satisfaction with the outcome of major two-day oil auction, Saturday after awarding the prized West Qurna Phase Two oil field to both Russia's Lukoil and Norway's Statoil.

The winning bid by the two companies proposed to give Iraq a fee of $1.15 per barrel of crude extracted from the field. The companies also pledged to reach an output of 1.8 million barrels per day.

Friday, Iraq awarded contracts to exploit the Majnoon oil field to Royal Dutch Shell and Malaysia's Petronas, while granting another major contract to China's CNPC.

Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani declared that the results of the auction were "a victory," adding that Iraq would not waste the money from the oil deals "on wars," as former president Saddam Hussein "used to [do]." The money, he emphasized, will "go to the Iraqi people."

Shahristani also told Iraqi politicians that were opposed to the deals that commercial accords, such as the oil deals, were under the control of the government and did not need the approval of parliament.

He says that the constitution is clear that international accords and treaties signed by Iraq and any foreign country must go through parliament for approval, but that commercial agreements don't need to be legally approved by parliament, according to the Iraqi constitution, no matter how large the contract, or how long the duration.

Sunni opposition parties have criticized Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for going ahead with the deals, complaining that he was "giving away Iraq's natural resources."

Former oil minister Issam al-Jalabi insisted that the government was not following proper procedures and needs to submit the deals to parliament for approval.

He says that the government cannot just pick and choose which oil laws it wishes to follow. He insists that a 1967 law stipulates that a bill must go through parliament for each and every accord. Otherwise, he says, the agreements will be considered null and void.

Louis Hobeika, professor of economics at Lebanon's Notre Dame University, said that he's not sure if the Iraqi government should have gone ahead with the deals, given the unsettled political situation in the country.

"We all know that the Iraqi government and Iraqi institutions are weak and any contracts given under these circumstances, especially long-term contracts, for me is doubtful, and therefore, all of these contracts, especially long term contracts, are bad for Iraq. It will not be in the Iraqi's interest, it will be in the foreign firm's interest," he explained.

The oil deals will increase Iraq's production, according to government estimates, by over 4.7 million barrels per day in the coming years. Iraq now produces 2.5 million barrels per day. Many analysts, however, question if Iraq will be able to attain such lofty production levels.