IN 2020, the Future Fund will be Australia's biggest property landlord as the $67 billion listed property trust sector cedes its dominance to big sovereign wealth funds and super fund investors.

Among other big trends, the property industry will be grappling with population growth, an ageing population, climate change and the challenge to supply infrastructure.

In Australia, the annual population growth rate doubled in the past 10 years to 443,000 in the year to June.

At the same time, the country attracted 290,000 migrants in net terms.

“I don’t think that will significantly ease up,” demographer Bernard Salt says.

This month, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced state governments and local councils will have to agree to better standards of planning in capital cities to qualify for future federal infrastructure funding to ensure they can properly handle growth, with the population set to reach 35 million by 2049.

In the corporate world, analysts expect big superannuation funds and the increasingly dominant sovereign wealth funds to become landlords of much more property. The race is already on for Australian property companies to snag these big-ticket investors as partners.

Lend Lease chief executive Steve McCann and his team are in the box seat as retail property fund manager for Australia’s $64 billion Future Fund with a joint bid to take over ING’s unlisted $1.4bn retail fund.

As the population expands, so will shopping centre giant Westfield — in the past decade its expansion was described as”breathtaking and relentless”.

Listed residential developers Stockland, Lend Lease, Australand and A V Jennings will respond to the demand by providing more high-density homes in urban areas.

At its annual general meeting in October, Lend Lease highlighted that over about 40 years, 27 per cent of the world’s population will be older than 65, and so this trend will create a large source of revenue for the property giant through its retirement arm.

And as the population expands, superannuation funds will grow. Australian superannuation funds under management are expected to triple to $2.8 trillion by 2020.

Sovereign wealth funds are forecast to triple in investment to $US10 trillion ($11.4 trillion) by 2015, so players such as Barry Brakey of the Future Fund will be highly influential, as he makes decisions over how to spend the billions it will allocate to property.

Global private equity players such as Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management, which owns Australian construction giant Multiplex, will also move to capitalise on the growing amount of superannuation money looking for a home.

This year, Brookfield Properties launched a new vulture fund worth $US5bn ($5.72bn).

From 2011, baby boomers will exit the workforce, taking with them skills and tax.

Government tenants will continue to relocate to green buildings.

Mandatory carbon trading schemes are being implemented from 2011.

This could mean older buildings become obsolete a lot more quickly and will need to be upgraded.

Tax reform will have a major impact and there will be more regulations, more mandatory disclosure of things such as energy use.

Boring smile? Not yet, not yet…

Well, well, well, here is my favorite topic for the last year or so that I am thinking over and it’s now time to share the thoughts and see if there is any rationality to this.

Let’s go through a series of assumptions and simple logical conclusions to arrive at the final destination: boring future! And we might arrive at it sooner than we thought.

As we are getting more and more tech developed and have many gadgets caring with us all the time, one of the very useful one (and the scariest at the same time) is the GPS modules. We have it in our cars in the navigation systems, we have it in our mobile phones now. And since I am up for the solution of having the “mobile phone” integrated into the human body sooner or later (I have a bet it will happen by 2015), there will be a gps module integrated into the body as well, either along with the phone or separately. Sure it will be a great way for any person to instantly know where he/she is and where/how to get get somewhere from point A to point B with some fun along the way. That’s a good part.

Now, talking about the “side effects”… since we can see that later on every human will be having his own chip implanted into the body that has at least the gps module, it will be a task completed for the government to finally have the full systems in place to follow and know everything about any single person at any given moment. Yes, there is a huge positive side of it since the most important part of it will be focused on the prevention of crime! Yes, there will be almost no crime or any crime would be very quickly solved and the initiator will be found and prosecuted. That’s great! No questions asked.

However, along with that great feature, we’ll have the society that will be controlled fully (well, at least monitored) by the government or higher agencies, and every single “kinda wrong” move from a person will be punished, like even being late for work for couple minutes or crossing the street at red light. That will lead the whole society behaving perfectly at some time after the full monitoring would be initiated and performed along with the execution of punishment.

Would people have fun in such a society? No… every single move will be monitored and nobody will have any willingness to do anything even slightly off the rules written by the “government” on how people should move around and do things on the planet. And the society will become dull like robots with its creativity lost forever.

Do we want such a boring future? Not me, not me…

Nevertheless, assumption is that such a verge of the society will happen by 2020.

Having successfully navigated his way to Oprah, Michael Schofield has now predictably gotten his book deal. It will be titled, January First: One Child’s Battle with Schizophrenia. In addition , 20/20 is rumored to be  covering the story. Given the even handed way ABC addressed mental illness last time and the fact that Michael has had a good chance to whittle down the “facts,”  it should prove to be that perfect blend of misinformation and fluff we’ve come to expect from major corporate media.

On Michael’s new blog, he makes a good attempt at backpedaling regarding Jani’s abuse.

Most of the attacks against me have come as a result of me being overly dramatic in my writing (the “starving” and “hitting her as hard as we could” are the two most egregious examples). Such writing is unfortunately a legacy of my training as a writer, which occurred long before Jani, as well as my own tendencies developed from my favorite writers over the years. Such writing captures the emotions of what I feel, or in those cases felt (powerless to affect any change in Jani’s behavior) but is not appropriate in cases such as this where no drama is necessary. I don’t intentionally try to pump up the story. I am just writing what I feel, and what I feel is often worse than the real situation. It is has been a hard habit to break and I am still working on it.

And what a legacy it is. I find it interesting how pliable a thing “truth” is to him. If you can claim to have abused your child for dramatic effect, couldn’t you even more easily deny it for the sake of appearance? Maybe the truth is something no one will know outside of the family but what seems painfully obvious is that in either case, it’s secondary to selling a story. It really seems as though he grooms the story to suit his audience and it makes me wonder what other grooming is going on — which brings me to the next creepy turn of events.

The Schofields have enlisted the services of Steve Truitt — a talent coach, media trainer, life coach and hypnotherapist. I think if one were to write a book about a child’s emotional state being exploited in a situation where truth is already a hazy commodity, the talent coach/hypnotherapist would probably be introduced some time around chapter three and the outcome would be predictably bad simply by his being there. That’s fine for a novel but we’re talking about a life story. A more glaring and potentially damaging conflict of interest might be hard to find, lending itself all to well to a child being groomed in the interest of personal gain and it all makes me wonder what’s more important here — Jani’s health or Jani’s story? In fairness, I don’t know to what extent or in what capacity Truitt is working for them as he’s simply listed on their website as Media: Steve Truitt but it’s a frightening addition to an already volatile mix.

NEWS

UNITED NATIONS

FRAMEWORK CONVENTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE – Secretariat

PRESS RELEASE

Copenhagen United Nations Climate Change Conference ends with political agreement to cap temperature rise, reduce emissions and raise finance

(Copenhagen, 19 December 2009) The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen ended today with an agreement by countries to cap the global temperature rise by committing to significant emission reductions, and to raise finance to kickstart action in the developing world to deal with climate change.

At the meeting, world leaders agreed the ‘Copenhagen Accord’, which was supported by a majority of countries, including amongst them the biggest and the richest, and the smallest and most vulnerable.
“

We have sealed the deal,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said. “This accord cannot be everything that everyone hoped for, but it is an essential beginning,” he said.

The Copenhagen Accord recognizes the scientific view that an increase in global temperature below 2 degrees is required to stave off the worst effects of climate change.

In order to achieve this goal, the accord specifies that industrialised countries will commit to implement, individually or jointly, quantified economy-wide emissions targets from 2020, to be listed in the accord before 31 January 2010.

A number of developing countries, including major emerging economies, agreed to communicate their efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions every two years, also listing their voluntary pledges before the 31 January 2010.

Nationally appropriate mitigation actions seeking international support are to be recorded in a registry along with relevant technology, finance and capacity building support from industrialised nations.

“We must be honest about what we have got,” said UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer. “The world walks away from Copenhagen with a deal. But clearly ambitions to reduce emissions must be raised significantly if we are to hold the world to 2 degrees,” he added.

Because the pledges listed by developed and developing countries may, according to science, be found insufficient to keep the global temperature rise below 2 degrees or less, leaders called for a review of the accord, to be completed by 2015.

The review would include a consideration of the long-term goal to limit the global average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees.

Heads of state and government also intend to unleash prompt action on mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology, reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries and capacity-building.

To this effect, they intend to establish the “Copenhagen Green Climate Fund” to support immediate action on climate change. The collective commitment towards the fund by developed countries over the next three years will approach 30 billion US dollars.

For long-term finance, developed countries agreed to support a goal of jointly mobilizing 100 billion dollars a year by 2020 to address the needs of developing countries.

In order to step up action on the development and transfer of technology, governments intend to establish a new technology mechanism to accelerate development and transfer in support of action on adaptation and mitigation.
119 world leaders attended the meeting, the largest gathering of heads of state and government in the history of the UN. “Climate change is the permanent leadership challenge of our time,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. “I therefore urge world leaders to remain engaged,” he said.

“We now have a package to work with and begin immediate action,” said UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer. “However, we need to be clear that it is a letter of intent and is not precise about what needs to be done in legal terms. So the challenge is now to turn what we have agreed politically in Copenhagen into something real, measurable and verifiable,” he added.

The next annual UN Climate Change Conference will take place towards the end of 2010 in Mexico City, preceded by a major two week negotiating session in Bonn, Germany, scheduled 31 May to 11 June.

About the UNFCCC
With 194 Parties, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has near universal membership and is the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol has been ratified by 190 of the UNFCCC Parties. Under the Protocol, 37 States, consisting of highly industrialized countries and countries undergoing the process of transition to a market economy, have legally binding emission limitation and reduction commitments. The ultimate objective of both treaties is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system.

Note to journalists
For further information, please contact:
Mr. Eric Hall, Spokesperson/Manager of Communications and Media
Tel.: (+49-228) 815-1398; mobile: (+49-172) 259-0443; e-mail: ehall@unfccc.int
Mr. John Hay, Media Information Officer
Tel.: (+49-228) 815-1404; mobile: (+49-172) 258-6944; e-mail: jhay@unfccc.int

Mailing Address: CLIMATE CHANGE SECRETARIAT (UNFCCC), P.O. Box 260 124,  D-53153 Bonn, Germany
Office Location: Haus Carstanjen, Martin-Luther-King-Strasse 8,  D-53175 Bonn, Germany
Media Information Office: (+49-228) 815-1005  Fax: (+49-228) 815-1999
Email: press@unfccc.int  Web: http://unfccc.int

NEWS

COP 15  Closing press briefing  December 19, 2009

Briefing the press at the end of the two-week conference, Yvo de Boer said an accord has been reached that has significant elements, but that is not legally binding.

He described the accord as “politically important,” demonstrating a willingness to move forward. It brings together a diversity of countries that have put in place a letter of intent with the ingredients of an architecture for a response to climate change.

The key points of the accord include the objective to keep the maximum temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius; the commitment to list developed country emission reduction targets and mitigation action by developing countries for 2020; USD 30 billion short-term funding for immediate action till 2012 and USD 100 billion annually by 2020 in long-term financing, as well as mechanisms to support technology transfer and forestry.

The challenge now is to turn what is agreed into something that is legally binding in Mexico one year from now.

NEWS

U.N. chief: Climate change deal reached

Ban Ki-Moon: "The deal is backed by money and the means to deliver it."

Copenhagen, Denmark (CNN) — U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said Saturday a “deal has been reached” that could be the framework for a binding global climate change treaty.

“Finally we sealed the deal and it is a real deal. Bringing world leaders to the table paid off,” Ban said, according to CNN affiliate TV2 Denmark. “The Copenhagen Accord may not be everything that everyone hoped for but this decision of the conference of parties is a beginning, an essential beginning.”

Moon said the non-binding deal called for all countries to limit global temperature rise to below two degrees Celsius.

He said the deal was a step toward creating a legally binding treaty.

“The deal is backed by money and the means to deliver it. Up to $30 billion has been pledged for adaptations and mitigation,” Ban said.

Critics of the U.N. Climate Change Conference have said that without specific commitments from the leaders to actually cut carbon emissions it would be difficult to reach any target.

Environmental group Greenpeace released a statement criticizing the deal.

“Don’t believe the hype, there is nothing fair, ambitious or legally binding about this deal,” Greenpeace said. “The job of world leaders is not done. Today they shamefully failed to save us all from the effects of catastrophic climate change.”

U.S. President Barack Obama praised the deal Friday before leaving the conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.

“For the first time in history, all major economies have come together to accept their responsibility to take action to confront the threat of climate change,” Obama told reporters.

The president said he met with leaders from India, China, Brazil and South Africa, and “that’s where we agreed … to set a mitigation target to limit warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius.”

It’s a nonbinding goal, and the emissions targets “will not be by themselves sufficient to get to where we need to get by 2050,” Obama said. However, he added that it is a first step, and that for many countries “this is going to be the first time in which even voluntary they offered up mitigation targets.”

“I think that it was important to essentially get that shift in orientation moving,” Obama said.

The president said he believes it’s necessary that the countries get to a legally binding treaty, but said, “If we just waited for that, we would not make any progress.”

The deal calls on nations to submit their “concrete commitments” into an appendix attached to the agreement to specifically lay out each country’s intentions for climate change, Obama said. Those commitments will be subjected to an international “consultation and analysis” that will help foster accountability among the nations.

“It will not be legally binding, but what it will do is allow for each country to show to the world what they’re doing,” Obama said, “and there will be a sense on the part of each country that we’re in this together, and we’ll know who is meeting and who is not meeting, the mutual obligations that have been set forth.”

Another senior administration official had said the precise details of the agreement were still in some flux, so it was unclear whether the final version would include language that was in earlier drafts aimed at forcing nations to set legally binding targets for reducing emissions.

The president worked behind the scenes on getting a vote among key nations — including China and India — to approve the agreement before taking it to the wider group for a vote, according to the official.

© 2009 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.

.

NEWS

Obama: We are running short on time for climate deal

Copenhagen, Denmark (CNN) — Delegates at the U.N. Climate Change Conference are “running short on time” to reach agreement on a deal, U.S. President Barack Obama told them Friday.

“There is no time to waste,” he said. “Now I believe it’s the time for the nations and the people of the world to come behind a common purpose. We are ready to get this done today, but there has to be movement on all sides.”

Obama sounded impatient with the progress of the two-week conference so far, saying the scope of climate change discussions over the years have produced little more than talk.

“These international discussions have essentially taken place now for almost two decades, and we have very little to show for it other than an increased acceleration of the climate change phenomenon,” Obama said. “The time for talk is over.”

The president said that the “pieces” of an accord have become clearer in the past fortnight in Copenhagen, but that countries must now decide to sign on, even if they feel the framework is imperfect.

“No country will get everything that it wants,” he said.

Without mentioning China specifically, the president challenged that country’s reluctance to allow transparency in international review.

“I don’t know how you have an international agreement where we all are not sharing information and ensuring that we are meeting our commitments,” Obama said. “That doesn’t make sense. It would be a hollow victory.”

Amid signs that climate talks could be falling apart at the critical stage, Obama arrived in the Danish capital Friday morning and immediately ripped up his planned schedule in a desperate attempt to salvage a global deal to cut carbon emissions.

He abruptly canceled a ceremonial one-on-one meeting with the Danish prime minister in order to jump into an emergency meeting with almost 20 key leaders — including representatives from China, Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and India.

China’s involvement is critical because it has been holding up a climate deal over whether the United States and other wealthy nations should pay to help developing countries deal with the cost of global warming.

Obama met with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao for 55 minutes Friday, a White House official said.

The meeting was a “constructive discussion that touched upon all of the key issues,” the official said, including the three major points Obama touched on in his speech: mitigation, transparency, and financing.

Obama and Wen directed their negotiators to work on a bilateral basis and with negotiators from other countries to see whether an agreement could be reached in Copenhagen, the official said. It means the U.S. negotiators have now split in two, divided between the Chinese negotiations and the ongoing multilateral negotiations, the official said.

The meeting between Obama and Wen was a “step forward,” the official said, without providing details.

Speaking at the plenary session ahead of Obama, Wen sought to reassure delegates that China takes the issue of climate change seriously.

“It is with a sense of responsibility to the Chinese people and the whole (of) mankind that the Chinese government has set the target for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions,” he said. “This is a voluntary action China has taken. … We have not attached any condition to the target, nor have we linked it to the target of any other country. We will honor our word with action.”

He said it was unacceptable to “turn a blind eye to historical responsibilities” or undermine the efforts of developing countries to work their way out of poverty and deal with climate change.

Ahead of his arrival, Obama sent Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the conference to reveal that the United States will pay into a $100 billion-plus global fund to help poorer nations.

But the money comes with two big caveats: The nearly 200 nations gathered here must sign on to a global deal to cut emissions, and China must provide more transparency to show it is complying with the new commitment.

Wen urged the conference to “pay attention to the practicality of the targets” they set. A long-term perspective is important, he said, but so is a focus on the present.

“It is necessary to set a direction for our long-term efforts, but it’s even more important to reach near-term targets,” he said.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez objected to Obama’s arrival only on the last day of the summit, calling him “the emperor who comes in the middle of the night, in the darkness in an anti-democratic way, and cooks up a document. … We will never accept it.”

Chavez complained that he had been waiting several days to take the floor but that Obama had turned up, been invited to speak immediately, and then left.

“We don’t have first-category presidents and second-category presidents,” Chavez said. “We are all equal here.”

Chavez also criticized Obama for spending so much money to bail out failing banks when he could have spent some of that money on the environment.

“If the climate was a bank, it would have been saved already,” he said.

Environmental lobbyists close to the talks, who had been optimistic about a deal Thursday, said Friday the negotiations got “rocky” after key officials met through the night and made very little progress.

The state of play may best be summed up by a White House official who told reporters: “Everything’s fluid.”

In his speech, Obama laid out the quandary that nations find themselves in at the conference.

“There are those developing countries that want aid with no strings attached, and no obligations with respect to transparency,” he said. “They think that the most advanced nations should pay a higher price. I understand that.

“There are those advanced nations who think that developing countries either cannot absorb this assistance, or that they will not be held accountable, effectively, and that the world’s fastest-growing emitters should bear a greater share of the burden.”

But America is already on board with a global deal, Obama said, and he laid responsibility for signing it at the feet of his fellow world leaders.

“We have made our commitments, we will do what we say,” he said. “Now, I believe that it’s the time for the nations and the people of the world to come together behind a common purpose.”

Obama arrives in Copenhagen

President Obama arrives in Copenhagen, Denmark, for the U.N. climate conference. December 18, 2009

– CNN’s Ed Henry contributed to this report.

© 2009 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.

NEWS

Obama, Wen offer no new emissions cuts at summit
By Michael Casey and Seth Borenstein
Associated Press Writers

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks on the podium during the plenary session at the climate summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, Friday, Dec. 18, 2009. President Obama says that the world’s will to address climate change “hangs in the balance” and insists any deal must include transparency among nations. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

COPENHAGEN (AP) — President Barack Obama and other world leaders took stalled climate talks into their own hands Friday, holding an emergency meeting to come up with a political agreement to salvage a conference marked by deep divisions between rich and poor countries.

But neither Obama nor Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao offered any new commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions as they addressed the U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen. And Wen skipped the high-level meeting, sending an envoy instead.

With the talks in disarray Friday, many delegates had been looking toward China and the U.S. – the world’s two largest carbon polluters – to deepen their pledges to cut emissions to salvage a deal in Copenhagen.

“We are ready to get this done today but there has to be movement on all sides to recognize that is better for us to act rather than talk,” Obama said, insisting on a transparent way to monitor each nation’s pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Wen told delegates that China’s voluntary targets of reducing its carbon intensity by 40 to 45 percent will require “tremendous efforts.”

“We will honor our word with real action,” Wen said.

China has been criticized at the two-week summit for not offering stronger carbon emissions targets and for resisting international monitoring of its actions. After the impromptu high-level meeting, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said progress in the climate talks was being held back by China.

An early draft of the climate agreement, obtained by The Associated Press, called for rich countries to mobilize $30 billion over the next three years to help poor countries cope with the effects of global warming, scaling up to $100 billion a year by 2020.

But it called for continued negotiations on targets for emission cuts, with a deadline of a climate conference in Mexico City in December next year.

The lack of progress meant Obama changed the word “agreement” from his prepared speech to negotiators to “framework I just outlined.”

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon told climate negotiators that “the finishing line is in sight,” reminding them that “the world is watching.”

And Brazilian president Luiz Lula da Silva told the joint session of negotiators how frustrated he was that the job was left to heads of state after talks ran into the wee hours Friday.

“I am not sure if such an angel or wise man will come down to this plenary and put in our minds the intelligence that we lacked,” Lula said. “I believe in God. I believe in miracles.”

To move the talks forward, Lula said Brazil, a developing country, would give money to help other developing countries cope with the costs of global warming.

Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said the U.S. president met with world leaders Friday from wealthy nations like Australia, the United Kingdom, France and Germany and developing countries like Ethiopia, Bangladesh and Colombia.

China and Russia, both seen as key participants in climate change discussions, also were at the meeting with Obama.

Delegates earlier were blaming both the U.S. and China for the lack of a political agreement that more than 110 world leaders were supposed to sign within hours.

The conference has been plagued by growing distrust between rich and poor nations. Both sides blamed the other for failing to take ambitions actions to tackle climate change. At one point, African delegates staged a partial boycott of the talks.

World leaders handed off a three-page draft text about 3 a.m. time to their ministers and they continued to work on it through the night. But by 5 a.m., negotiators from Mexico and the G-77 plus China said they were nowhere near agreement on the final document.

“It is now up to world leaders to decide,” said Swedish Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren.

Carlgren, negotiating on behalf of the 27-nation European Union, blamed the morning’s impasse on the Chinese for “blocking again and again,” and on the U.S. for coming too late with an improved offer, a long-range climate aid program announced Thursday by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

A leading African delegate, meanwhile, complained bitterly about the proposed declaration.

“It’s weak. There’s nothing ambitious in this text,” Lumumba Di-Aping of Sudan, a leader of the developing nations bloc, said Friday.

Any agreement was expected, at best, to envision emissions-cutting targets for rich nations and billions in climate aid for poor countries, but fall well short of the goal of a legally binding pact. If the political deal is done, it would still be seen by many as a setback, following two years of intense negotiations to agree on new emissions reductions and financial support for poorer nations.

China and the U.S had sought to give the negotiations a boost on Thursday with an announcement and a concession.

Clinton said Washington would press the world to come up with a climate aid fund amounting to $100 billion a year by 2020, a move that was quickly followed by an offer from China to open its reporting on actions to reduce carbon emissions to international review.

That issue – money to help poor nations cope with climate change and shift to clean energy – seemed to be where negotiators at the 193-nation conference could claim most success.

Pollution cuts and the best way to monitor those actions remained unresolved. And negotiators also didn’t come to an agreement on an important procedural issue – just what legal form a future deal would take.

Yvo de Boer, the U.N.’s top climate official, said early Friday that a political declaration needed to include a deadline for agreeing on a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol, whose modest emission cuts for 37 industrialized nations expire in 2012. The U.S. rejects Kyoto and would be covered by a separate eventual agreement.

“You can reach an agreement here that sets out major political contours, a long-term goal, targets for industrialized countries, engagement by major developing countries, financing,” he told The Associated Press. “But people will want to see a clear deadline that turns that into a legally binding instrument.”

Delegates filtering out of the predawn discussions Friday sounded disappointed.

“It’s a political statement, but it isn’t a lot,” said Chinese delegate Li Junhua.

“It would be a major disappointment. A political declaration would not guarantee our survival,” said Selwin Hart, a delegate from Barbados speaking for the Alliance of Small Island States, many of which are threatened by seas rising form global warming.

Clinton’s announcement on funding was widely praised. Yoshiko Kijima, a senior Japanese negotiator, said it sent a strong signal by Obama “that he will persuade his own people that we need to show something to developing countries. I really respect that.”

But none of the leaders at the summit offered to increase their emissions targets, which the United Nations has concluded would fall far short of what is needed to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

Sudan’s Lumumba said the agreement that was being worked on included a goal of keeping temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees C above preindustrial levels, a ceiling a half-degree warmer than developing nations demand.

Carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere have already increased global temperatures by 0.7 degrees C (1.3 degrees F) since the Industrial Age.

A U.N.-sponsored scientific panel says any further rise to above 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F) more than preindustrial temperatures could lead to a catastrophic sea-level rise threatening islands and coastal cities, the die-off of many animal and plant species, and damaging storms and drought.

An internal U.N. calculation, obtained by The Associated Press, said pledges made so far by both industrial and developing countries would mean a 3-degree Celsius (4.8-degree Fahrenheit) temperature rise over preindustrial levels.

President Barack Obama walks off of Air Force One at Copenhagen Airport , Kastrup, Friday, Dec. 18, 2009 to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

NEWS

Finale: Obama: I came here to act
“Our ability to take collective action is in doubt,” President Barack Obama warned the plenary.
By Rie Jerichow

As the fifth speaker, President Barack Obama took the floor in the plenary. He stressed  that he did not come to talk, but to act.

Being the world largest economy and second largest emitter of greenhouse gases, America has a responsibility, he said, and added that America would continue to move toward a green economy – “but we will be stronger if we act together,” he said.

He told the heads of state and governments that it is imperative with a “mechanism to review whether we are keeping our commitments, and to exchange this information in a transparent manner.” Without such accountability, any agreement would be “empty words on a page”.

“Mitigation. Transparency. And financing. It is a clear formula – one that embraces the principle of common but differentiated responses and respective capabilities. And it adds up to a significant accord – one that takes us further than we have ever gone before as an international community”, Obama said in his address.

Finally he urged world leaders to “choose action over inaction; the future over the past – with courage and faith, let us meet our responsibility to our people and to the future of our planet”.

NEWS

US aid offer boosts deal at UN climate talks
By Arthur Max
Associated Press Writer

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gestures during a press briefing at the climate summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, Thursday, Dec. 17, 2009. Clinton announced that the United States is prepared to join other rich countries in raising $100 billion in yearly climate financing for poor countries by 2020. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

COPENHAGEN (AP) — Large pieces of a climate deal fell into place Thursday with new offers from the U.S. and China, but other tough issues remained before President Barack Obama and other leaders can sign off on a political accord to contain the threat of an overheated world.

An announcement by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that the United States would contribute to a climate change fund amounting to $100 billion a year by 2020 was quickly followed by an offer from China to open its books on carbon emissions to international review.

The U.S. delegation did not immediately react to the offer by Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei. But it went a long way toward the U.S. demand that China report on its actions to limit the growth of Beijing’s carbon emissions and allow experts to go over its data.

The sudden concessions on the eve of Friday’s final session lifted hopes that the 193-nation conference could reach a framework agreement that could be refined into a legal accord next year on limiting greenhouse gas emissions and fighting climate change.

Obama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao were to join more than 110 world leaders for the last scheduled day of the conference, which for most of its two weeks was embroiled in angry exchanges, a partial boycott by African countries and another entire day wasted in procedural wrangling. It’s also possible that once the world leaders depart, the talks could continue at the ministerial level and stretch late into the night and early Saturday.

A pair of Greenpeace activists crashed a Thursday night banquet hosted by Denmark’s Queen Margrethe for the world leaders already in town. The couple, dressed in formal wear, unfurled two banners reading “Politicians Talk, Leaders Act” as they walked on the red carpet reception line, and were dragged from the hall by security guards.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and more than a dozen other leaders returned to work from the banquet to forge a political declaration, and were expected to meet into the early hours of Friday. They were seeking to include a range of emissions targets for rich and developing nations and outline financial commitments, said several European diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity. It also may set deadlines for reaching a legal binding climate pact by the next U.N. conference in Mexico City next November, they said.

The conference seems likely to fall short of the goal set by many developing countries for a deal that would be legally binding on all parties and guarantee the kind of dramatic emissions reductions by the industrial world that threatened nations feel are necessary.

Yvo de Boer, the U.N.’s top climate official, said a political deal by the small group could be the key to unlocking the negotiating stalemate on a host of issues.

“Leaders came here to lead, and that’s what they’re doing. They’re trying to reach an understanding on the key political components – and that’s good,” de Boer told The Associated Press well after midnight. “If they can advance on that, it can help unstick a lot of other things in the process as well.”

But he cautioned that “people won’t accept … an endless process.”

Clinton’s announcement on funding was widely welcomed. Yoshiko Kijima, a senior Japanese negotiator, said it sent a strong signal by Obama “that he will persuade his own people that we need to show something to developing countries. … I really respect that.”

Swedish Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren said Clinton added “political momentum,” and India’s Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh called it “a good step forward.”

Independent agencies also praised the move. “I think we’re closer now than we have been in two years,” said Tom Brookes, an analyst for the European Climate Foundation.

“It shows that when the U.S. moves, China moves,” said Kim Carstensen, the climate director for the World Wildlife Fund.

The White House was lowering expectations ahead of Obama’s trip.

“Coming back with an empty agreement would be far worse than coming back empty-handed,” presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

Neither the U.S. nor China raised its commitment on emissions. Clinton repeated the U.S. would cut emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, and China said its voluntary emissions target was nonnegotiable. It announced last month it would cut its “carbon intensity,” or the amount of emissions in relation to production, by 40 to 45 percent.

An internal calculation by the United Nations, obtained by The Associated Press, said pledges made so far by both industrial and developing countries would mean a 3-degree Celsius (4.8-degree Fahrenheit) temperature rise. A panel of U.N. scientists has said that any rise above 2 degrees C (3.6-degree F) could lead to a catastrophic sea level rise threatening islands and coastal cities, kill off many species of animals and plants, and alter the agricultural economies of many countries.

But the U.S.-China moves could prompt the European Union to raise its emissions commitment to a 30 percent reduction by 2020 from 1990 levels, and similarly inspire Japan and Australia to lock into the upper end of their previously announced targets – 25 percent each.

Clinton said the U.S. agreement to the annual transfer of $100 billion to developing countries was contingent on reaching a broader agreement that covers the “transparency” of China’s measures to limit heat-trapping gases.

“We think this agreement has interlocking pieces, all of which must go together,” Clinton said, accusing China of backsliding on deals reached in closed meetings earlier this year. “It would be hard to imagine, speaking for the United States, that there could be the level of financial commitment that I have just announced in the absence of transparency from the second-biggest emitter – and now I guess the first-biggest emitter.”

He, the Chinese official who spoke in the same press room a few hours later, said Beijing had no legal obligation to verify its emissions actions, but was not afraid of supervision or responsibility.

“We will enhance and improve our national communication” to the U.N. on its emissions, He said. China also was willing to provide explanations and clarification on its reports.

“The purpose is to improve transparency,” He said, adding that Beijing was ready to take part in “dialogue and cooperation that is not intrusive and doesn’t infringe on China’s sovereignty.”

Negotiating committees worked through the day and were expected to continue late into the night on an agreement.

Yet to be decided was how the huge sums of money flowing from rich to poor countries would be handled, and whether a new multinational body should be created to distribute the funds. Dessima Williams of Grenada, who chairs an alliance of small island states, said Obama telephoned her prime minister Wednesday to discuss the governance of the bulging climate fund.

The White House officials said the biggest sticking point in the talks was the form of the final accord, and whether it will be legally binding on everyone.

Developing countries insist Kyoto be renewed and extended while a new pact is drawn up to include the U.S. and others. The U.S. does not want its emissions targets to be binding in an international treaty.

NEWS

U.S. backs $100 bln climate fund, world leaders meet
Gerard Wynn and Pete Harrison

United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announces pledge for tackling global climate change amidst final days of negotiation at the climate summit in Copenhagen.

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – U.S. backing for a $100 billion climate fund to help poor nations revived hopes for a deal to combat global warming on Thursday as world leaders met on the eve of a U.N. deadline for breaking deadlock.

Many leaders mentioned risks of failure at a two-day summit that started with a gala dinner for about 120 world leaders at Christiansborg Palace, hosted by Denmark’s Queen Margrethe.

“Time is against us, let’s stop posturing,” French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a speech to leaders. “A failure in Copenhagen would be a catastrophe for each and every one of us.”

Environment ministers planned to work late into the night on draft texts outlining curbs on greenhouse gas emissions as part of a 193-nation deal due on Friday to avert more floods, heatwaves, droughts and rising sea levels.

The United States, the number two emitter of greenhouse gases behind China, helped the mood by promising to back a $100 billion a year fund for poor nations from 2020. President Barack Obama will arrive early on Friday.

“The United States is prepared to work with other countries toward a goal of jointly mobilizing $100 billion a year by 2020 to address the climate change needs of developing countries,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a news conference.

Such funds would be more than all current aid flows to poor nations, a U.N. official said, and in line with demands put forward for African nations. “That’s very encouraging,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said of the U.S. pledge.

OBAMA

A U.S. official said Obama was unlikely to be more specific about U.S. commitments to help provide funds for poor countries.

And the U.S. official said he could not predict whether world leaders would reach a deal but said Obama would stay committed to working on the issue if talks were not successful.

A few Greenpeace activists carrying signs saying “Politicians talk, leaders Act” walked straight up the red carpet into Christiansborg Palace after arriving in a motorcade in front of Clinton, Greenpeace said. They were removed by guards.

Accord on finance is one part of a puzzle that also includes a host of other measures, such as saving rainforests, boosting carbon markets and stiffening global carbon emissions curbs.

“If each and everyone does a little bit more than we can do this,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said. She said the European Union was willing to do more but would not act alone.

But any deal will have to be agreed by unanimity. Some small island states and African nations — most vulnerable to climate change — insist they will not agree a weak deal.

“We are talking about the survival of our nation,” said Prime Minister Apisai Ielemia of the Pacific island state of Tuvalu of the talks that began two years ago in Bali, Indonesia.

The talks, deadlocked for 24 hours, resumed after Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen dropped plans to present his own compromise texts. His plan had been opposed by poor nations which insisted everyone should be involved.

The draft texts include possible goals such as halving world greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or obliging developed nations to cut their emissions by between 25 and 40 percent by 2020.

“We are moving out of the valley of death. We are beginning to see the outlines of a compromise, helped by the U.S. offer on finance,” said Kim Carstensen, head of the WWF environmental group’s global climate initiative.

Earlier on Thursday, prospects for a strong U.N. climate pact seemed remote as nations blamed leading emitters China and the United States for deadlock on carbon cuts. But ministers and leaders urged fresh urgency.

“Copenhagen is too important to fail,” China’s climate change ambassador Yu Qingtai said, adding that the presence of Premier Wen Jiabao, who arrived in Copenhagen on Wednesday evening, was testament to China’s commitment.

India’s environment minister Jairam Ramesh accused rich countries of planning a “propaganda campaign” to blame developing nations for any breakdown. Developing economies are expected to add almost all future growth in carbon emissions.

Clinton said a deal would fail unless developing nations, specifically China, committed to transparency on their emissions curbs.

(With extra reporting by Anna Ringstrom, David Fogarty, Richard Cowan, Emma Graham-Harrison, Krittivas Mukherjee, Karin Jensen; Writing by Gerard Wynn and Alister Doyle; Editing by Dominic Evans)

NEWS

Highlights of COP 15 press briefing 17 December

Briefing the media on the second last day of the conference, Yvo de Boer welcomed the statement of support by the United States for a USD 100 billion global annual climate protection fund by the year 2020, to come from a variety of sources.

Parties will now discuss whether this amount is adequate. Mr. Yvo de Boer said he looks forward to seeing what the contribution of the United States to that sum will be

The two groups under the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol have resumed their work to address outstanding political issues and will report back to the plenary with everyone present.

Mr. Yvo de Boer highlighted the clarity and transparency in the negotiating process, as well as clarity over the documents being used as a basis for  negotiation; namely, the two texts that have been forwarded by both working groups.

Today I attended a very interesting presentation on emissions from transport and how they might be covered by an international agreement. Domestic emissions from vehicles are relatively easily covered with each individual nation responsible for their own domestic emissions (e.g. cars).

However, emissions from air travel and shipping are much more complicated because they often occur in international waters. Combined, these emissions count for around 5% of total global emissions so its a significant issue.

The answer is relatively simple. These sectors will effectively be treated as a separate country with their own obligation. Lets consider shipping as an example. The International Maritime Organisation is currently the UN body responsible for overseeing global regulations in relation to shipping. This organisation is proposing that the UN provide it with the power to regulate emissions from shipping. It is a relatively straightforward solution but is yet to be implemented.

The implications for business in Australia are relatively straightforward. As an island economy located a fair distance from export markets, the costs of shipping are likely to rise (although by a relatively modest amount).

In December’s issue of Cosmopolitan there is a great article regarding the dangers of tanning beds. Cosmo teamed up with ABC News’ 20/20 program to expose the myths that tanning salons lead us all to believe. This is a great article for those of you that tan indoors thinking it’s a great source of Vitamin D and it’s hard-to-get other places or that tanning beds are safer than the sun and not strongly linked to melanoma.

Please check out the complete Cosmopolitan article by clicking on the link below: Scary Truths Tanning Salons Deny

I recommend staying away from indoor tanning beds. Consider spray tanning if you haven’t already. It’s instant gratification and safe in every way. If you are interested in starting your own mobile spray tan business contact me at info@boldbodybronzing.com.

(posted to Blog at 3pm)

Update on the queues for the main event: Graham Cook is still in the queue after more than five hours. I think the UN have lot to learn about organising a conference.

Scotland Day is quite interesting. The seminars feature speakers from Scotland and around the world. People are impressed with Scottish Act. They also appear to understand that this Act is strong because of the support of the full Scottish Parliament. As well as the “42% for 2020″ objective, they single out the provisions on Public Engagement and Public Duties. All of the issues that they highlighted favourably were areas promoted by Labour and other opposition parties, where the Scottish Government bowed to pressure or unsuccessfully opposed amendments.

I have never seen so many people from all parts of the world in one place. There are many hopes pinned on this conference. People are united on the need for change, but I guess they all know we are on an uphill journey.

We have been invited to the Scottish Government dinner tonight. Only about 30 people will be there, First Minister included. I will let you know how it goes …

27th November  2009

ICCA, IMEX and Fast Future Announce Launch of Ground Breaking Global Study on the Future of Meetings, Venues and Meeting Destinations

Futures research methods to be adopted to create a wake-up call, challenge old assumptions and drive new thinking across the industry

ICCA – The International Congress and Convention Association, the IMEX Group and Fast Future Research today announced the formal launch of Convention 2020 – a groundbreaking research study looking at the future of live events, venues and meeting destinations. All three organisations have become founder sponsors of the study. Discussions are underway with a number of other potential sponsors.

The study is being conducted by Fast Future Research and will explore the underlying trends and drivers that could shape the industry over the next decade. The aim is to develop a range of models and scenarios for how live meetings might evolve over that time period. The study will centre on understanding the ‘meeting experience’ and the changing needs of live event attendees. These insights will help drive new thinking on event design, facilitate innovation in business models and highlight the strategic implications for venues, destinations and industry suppliers.

Martin Sirk, CEO of ICCA and Ray Bloom chairman of the IMEX Group – the founding sponsors of the study – explained that “We agreed to support Fast Future’s study because of their track record in doing high quality futures work, the innovative and comprehensive nature of the proposed study and their willingness to contribute their own funds to support a study for the benefit of the entire industry.”    Sirk went to say that  “the research programme is designed to answer very practical questions such as what will attendees want from live events, how will they maximise their learning and how can they ensure a worthwhile return on their investment of time and energy.  For event owners, venues and suppliers it will help them consider how events could be funded and the implications for the design, services, technology platforms and business models required for successful meetings and venues.  Finally it will help meeting destinations think through the strategic implications for developing and promoting themselves in a fast changing world.”

The study is also designed to ensure that the industry’s responds to the current downturn and future shocks in a strategic manner that ensures long term success.  Bloom explained that “The economic downturn has highlighted the importance of thinking ahead and preparing for an uncertain future. We all believe in the importance of live meetings – but belief is not a strategy. We need to challenge our assumptions, develop real insight into what the future may hold, and rethink our event designs and business models to help all members of the meetings industry prepare for the decade ahead and ensure they stay competitive.”

The study concepts were tested on attendees at the ICCA Congress in Florence on November 9^th and 10^th 2009. “The Response was phenomenal”, said Rohit Talwar– CEO of Fast Future Research – co-sponsors and research leaders of the project.  Talwar went on to add that “The interest in becoming a sponsor was overwhelming. Meetings companies, venues, destinations and industry suppliers from around the world all recognised the strategic value of the insights the study would provide. They could also see the benefits to their brand from being associated with such a comprehensive and forward-looking piece of work that would receive global distribution and widespread coverage.”

Sirk explained that “We are at a crucial turning point for the meetings industry. The sector faces major challenges and opportunities arising from changing political attitudes to the meetings sector, technological advances, economic power shifts, environmental pressures, a deepening understanding of how we learn and evolving social attitudes. The research is designed to kick start new thinking across the meetings industry and engage people at every level in coming up with strateiges, ideas and solutions that will work in their local markets.”   The study will have three main deliverables – a report on a global survey on the future of meetings to be published in February 2010, a report on the ‘Future Meeting Experience’ to be launched at IMEX in Frankfurt in May 2010 and a final report on ‘Tomorrow’s Convention Centre’ to be launched at the ICCA Congress in Hyderabad India in October 2010.

The study will provide a number of web-based mechanisms to encourage participation and a number of workshops and seminars will be held around the world to provide input. Expert input is also a critical component of the study design. Bloom explained “A key feature of the study is the involvement of a large number of the industry’s leading experts in helping to shape the study and ensure the outputs stretch the boundaries of our thinking. We felt it was critical that we combined ‘outside-in’ thinking with real engagement from professionals and the leading thinkers across the sector. We are delighted that those on the cutting edge of industry thinking in areas such as event design, learning, business models, technology, event strategy and sustainability have all given their full support and commitment to participate.”

The intention is to create a ‘living and growing’ online body of knowledge, case studies and ideas which will continue to expand and develop even after the study completes in October 2010. Talwar added that “The aim is to go beyond traditional forecasting and use a range of highly participative futures methods to engage both event attendees and those in the industry to think imaginatively about the future of the sector in a fast changing world. We will make full use of both traditional futures methods such as trend scanning, scenario planning and expert interviews along with new tools such as social media dialogues and crowdsourcing to generate ideas and stimulate new thinking. ”

Full details on the study and sponsorship opportunity are available from convention2020@fastfuture.com. The survey on the future of meetings can be found at http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB229QJ5L93BP .

Ends

Notes for Editors

Fast Future Research is a global research and consulting firm that specialises in studying the future of meetings, travel and the leisure industries.  ICCA is one of the world’s leading trade associations for the meetings industry, with 900 member companies and organisations in over 80 countries worldwide and covering all supplier sectors.  IMEX is the worldwide exhibition for incentive travel, meetings and events and is an award winning tradeshow which takes place annually in Messe Frankfurt, Germany. Organisers, the IMEX Group, also run the new IMEX America – America’s worldwide exhibition for incentive travel, meetings and events – which will be launched in Las Vegas, USA in October 2011.

IMEX 2010 takes place 25 – 27 May: www.imex-frankfurt.com

IMEX America take place 11 – 13 October 2011: www.imexamerica.com

For further details please contact

Rohit Talwar

CEO

Fast Future Research

Phone +44 20 8830 0766

Mobile +44 7973 405145

Fax +44 20 8830 4777

Email: rohit@fastfuture.com

Martin Sirk

CEO

ICCA – International Congress and Convention Association

Phone: +31 20 398 1919
Fax: +31 20 699 0781
Email: m.sirk@icca.nl

Carina Bauer

CEO

IMEX Group

Phone +44 1273 227311

Fax +44 1273 227312

carina.bauer@imex-frankfurt.com

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