27 November 2017, Climate Home News. Cleaner coolants fund gets $540m – and US backing. Rich countries will pay $540 million over three years into a fund to support a shift to cleaner coolants, under a deal agreed in Montreal on Saturday. Notably, the US is set to contribute $37m, despite the Trump administration’s hostility to multilateral environmental agreements. It comes as the 1987 Montreal Protocol pivots from its initial focus on the ozone layer to addressing the climate impact of chemicals used in fridges and air conditioners. State department official Judith Garber said the US was starting the process to ratify the Kigali Amendment to the protocol, which sets a phasedown path for HFCs, a group of potent warming gases produced by these appliances. In a speech on Thursday that did not mention climate change, she hailed the Kigali Amendment’s “pragmatic and balanced approach” to reducing HFCs’ “environmental impact”. US chemical companies like Honeywell and Dow support the deal, seeing an opportunity to sell climate-friendly alternatives. The Kigali Amendment will enter into force on 1 January 2019, after Sweden became the twentieth country to ratify it on 17 November. Developing countries like India made clear their backing for an HFC phasedown depended on finance to help their chemical manufacturers switch to substitutes. Gaby Drinkwater of Christian Aid said in a statement: “Developing nations are where the demand growth in air conditioning systems will come from as the planet gets hotter. No one wants to see this demand creating a vicious cycle of rising greenhouse gas emissions.” David Doniger of the Natural Resources Defense Council wrote in a blog that developing countries appeared “optimistic” the funds were adequate. Read More here
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21 November 2017, Climate News Network, The devil’s in the COP 23 detail. A key takeaway from this year’s United Nations climate change conference (COP 23) is that, when it comes to putting a practical foundation under the high-minded pronouncements in the Paris Agreement, the COP 23 detail matters more than the headlines. That means the Paris process has entered a potentially perilous moment when the urgency of the climate crisis is mounting by the day, public expectations are (quite rightly) high, the commitment to action extends far beyond national governments – yet negotiators have to focus on nuts-and-bolts issues that are numbingly technical for the large majority of us, but will still determine the success or failure of a crucially important global deal. It means negotiators get to celebrate incremental but hard-fought victories that push the Paris “rulebook” closer to completion, while setting the stage for more obviously significant dialogue at next year’s conference in Katowice, Poland. And it means the discussions that most immediately match up with the world-wide momentum for climate solutions take place at the margins of the main event, in the hundreds of side meetings that coincide with the official proceedings. Read More here
19 November 2017, Carbon Brief, COP23: Key outcomes agreed at the UN climate talks in Bonn. Climate change was again placed at the centre of global diplomacy over the past two weeks as diplomats and ministers gathered in Bonn, Germany, for the latest annual round of United Nations climate talks. COP23, the second “conference of the parties” since the Paris Agreement was struck in 2015, promised to be a somewhat technical affair as countries continued to negotiate the finer details of how the agreement will work from 2020 onwards. However, it was also the first set of negotiations since the US, under the presidency of Donald Trump, announced its intention earlier this year to withdraw from the Paris deal. And it was the first COP to be hosted by a small-island developing state with Fiji taking up the presidency, even though it was being held in Bonn. Carbon Brief covers all the summit’s key outcomes and talking points.Read More here
15 November 2017, Unfriend Coal, Our new scorecard was released today, finding that most insurers are still failing to take action on coal to prevent dangerous climate change. Leading insurance companies have pulled $20 billion out of investments in coal and a growing number are refusing to underwrite new coal projects, reveals a new scorecard on the industry from the Unfriend Coal campaign. Zurich announced this week that it will divest from and cease offering insurance to companies which depend on coal for more than 50% of their business. It now has some of the strongest policies on the scorecard, which rates 25 of the world’s biggest insurers on their action on coal and climate change. Swiss Re and Lloyd’s have also informed Unfriend Coal that they will announce new policies in the coming months. In all, 15 insurers with over $4 trillion in assets have now taken or are planning action on coal, divesting an estimated $20 billion in equities and bonds or ceasing to underwrite projects, finds Insuring Coal No More: An Insurance Scorecard on Coal and Climate Change. But although the shift away from coal is growing, these early movers still need to do more, and most insurers have yet to do anything to prevent the risk of dangerous climate change. The scorecard finds that no U.S. insurer has taken meaningful action, nor have major European companies such as Generali, Hannover Re, Chubb and Mapfre. Coal is the biggest single source of CO2 emissions and insurers are uniquely placed to support the Paris Agreement commitment to keep climate change well below 2 degrees Celsius. Peter Bosshard, Unfriend Coal coordinator, said: “Coal needs to become uninsurable. If insurers cease to cover the numerous natural, technical, commercial and political risks of coal projects, new coal mines and power plants cannot be built and existing operations will have to shut down. Insurers also manage $31 trillion of assets, and by shifting investments from coal to clean energy they can accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy. Read More here
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