A lot of conflicting agendas are converging on the U.N. Climate Change Summit this week in Copenhagen, and reporter Mark Schapiro and producer Andres Cediel will be in the thick of the action. Throughout the next two weeks, they will be talking to diplomats, industry leaders, activists, economists, and many others with a stake in how the world proceeds from here.
Their coverage of this mother of all gatherings, which will set the course for new global emissions standards once the Kyoto protocol expires in 2012, is part of “Carbon Watch,” a joint reporting project of the Center for Investigative Reporting and FRONTLINE. We will be tracking the new currencies of global warming, in particular the multi-billion-dollar carbon market and all it entails.
What are the mechanisms behind this new economy, which the French finance minister calls “a regulatory vacuum,” and who stands to gain and lose as carbon’s currency rises? Plus what are the hidden agendas already at work among the world’s largest polluters?
We began the series with a video report from Brazil, home to the world’s largest carbon sink and an intricate player in a controversial plan by rich nations to pay poorer ones not to cut down their remaining forests. It’s a critical issue on the table at Copenhagen as deforestation is the single largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.
This being the international story of our time, our team will be posting regular updates and uploading video interviews throughout the summit and beyond. So stay with us.
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