posted by Dr. Amber Jenkins By Dr. Erika Podest, NASA Jet
Propulsion Laboratory From the UN conference on climate change,
Durban, South Africa The second week of the United Nations
conference on climate change, COP17, is focused mostly on
negotiating how solutions to climate change will be implemented.
The first week (last week) was taken up with technical meetings
and position papers. I arrived early on Monday morning and am
impressed by the rivers of people lining up to enter the
conference. As I look around, I see people young and old from
all races and cultures. Every country on Earth is represented
here and I hear that around 15,000 people are attending. It
seems like everyone that is related to climate change is here.
An Earth scientist’s treasure trove of contacts! The goal of
COP17 is commitments. Commitments to policy action. Countries
need to ensure that they can follow through with previous
commitments on agreements by implementing actions at home. It is
fitting that COP17 is being hosted in Africa