There’s a useful and interesting new site from the good folks at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change:  their Newsroom.  What they’ve done is create a clearing house for news from all over the world in five general categories:  Financial Flows, Green Urban, Clean Energy, Nature’s Role, and Action to Adapt.  There are, of course, also updates on important meetings including the upcoming Climate Summit in New York in September.I am one of those who think that there’s a tremendous amount of progress being made – and to be made – outside the UN process.  I don’t think that the Framework Convention ever could be the alpha and the omega for successfully confronting the climate crisis.  Two very knowledgeable American policy makers, Tim Wirth and Tom Daschle, even posit that because the self-interest of individual nations has so often thwarted the best efforts of the international community, working within the Framework Convention, we need to stop chasing after a binding international treaty.  They propose a “race to the top” in their very thoughtful piece from this past spring:  A Blueprint to End Paralysis Over Global Action on Climate.

The parties to the UNFCCC have greatly advanced the cause, to be sure.  The work of the Executive Secretary and the staff at the Secretariat has been laudable over the past 22 years since the Earth Summit.  They will continue to produce useful resources like the Newsroom, and, more importantly, to provide conditions for us to collectively further the critical work of mitigating greenhouse gases and adapting to the impacts of climate change.  Here’s Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, introducing the Newsroom..