G8+5 Climate Forum

US Capitol Dome

I received an invitation (from London, no less!) to attend the legislators’ forum for climate change in Washington, and went there in mid-February 2007. The two-day meeting was held in the same U.S. Senate Caucus room which held the Watergate and Army/McCarthy hearings, and an illustrious list of Senators participated – McCain, Lieberman, Kerry, Boxer, Bingaman, etc. The mood in Washington seems to have changed considerably, and the Senators were rather upbeat about the potential for future legislative action -- although more than one noted that that same Caucus Room also held the hearings about the Titanic. Sir Nicolas Stern, who recently issued a UK review about the economics of global climate change, served warning about the signicant costs of inaction, and the resulting Washington Statement proposes steps for the post-2012 Kyoto Protocol period.


Hong Kong

Christine Loh and I co-authored a report about emissions trading for CLSA, one of the leading brokerage and investment banking service firms in the Asia-Pacific marketplace. The Emissions Game: How Markets Can Help Save the Planet was prepared for CLSA-U (the firm’s executive education program), and I went to Hong Kong in late January for a series of presentations surrounding its release. The first two days of meetings were held with the company's analyst, fund manager and trading clientele; and I was then the guest speaker for Civic Exchange’s Third Energy Forum. An article in the next morning’s South China Morning Post cited the presentation, and called for Hong Kong’s leader Donald Tsang to forcefully utilize such market-based environmental policies.

On the last day of this trip, I went shopping in the electronic mall in Wanchai to buy some (much needed!) RAM for my laptop; visited the Maritime Museum in the historic Murray Building in Stanley; and wrapped up the day at an open-air Thai restaurant on the coast at Shek-O -- a very productive and enjoyable day (& trip)! [And speaking of Wanchai, I also picked up a copy of Richard Mason's The World of Suzie Wong. I'll let you know what I think in the next HK posting.]