19 November 2015, Climate Home, France confirms UN climate summit will proceed, diplomats praise solidarity. French and UN officials say plans for the 2015 UN climate summit in Paris will continue, despite Friday night’s terror attacks that left over 130 dead and 300 injured. “Profound emotion receiving so strong support to maintain #COP21. Humanity, courage, solidarity winning over fear and terror,” tweeted the country’s top climate diplomat Laurence Tubiana. “Of course #COP21 proceeds as planned. Even more so now. #COP21 = respecting our differences & same time acting together collaboratively,” said the UN’s top climate official Christiana Figueres. Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was talked out of calling for the summit to be postponed, according to the AFP news agency, after a meeting with Francois Hollande. “He had questions about it on Saturday… he spoke about this with the president who gave him a full response. He will not ask for COP21 to be postponed,” a source told AFP. Read More here
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19 November 2015, Climate News Network, Paris attacks cast shadow over climate talks. Organising a climate change conference involving nearly 200 countries has been made considerably more difficult by the recent shootings in Paris. Heads of state, presidents, prime ministers, and royalty. Delegations from at least 190 countries. An estimated 3,000 journalists. Dozens of NGOs and assorted lobby groups. They are all due to converge on the beleaguered city of Paris in less than two weeks’ time. But the recent terrorist mayhem in the French capital – resulting in the deaths of at least 129 people and injuries to hundreds of others − has made it a Herculean task to stage the huge UN climate change conference that is seen as vital for heading off potentially catastrophic global warming. The climate talks – officially known as the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC) – constitute one of the world’s biggest and arguably most important conferences. It is being held at Le Bourget, a conference and airport complex about 10 kilometres north-east of the centre of Paris. The French government and UNFCCC have said the conference will go ahead, albeit amid what is described as “enhanced security”. Le Bourget is less than a 10-minute taxi ride from Stade de France, the sports stadium and site of one of the major explosions last Friday evening. Difficulties intensified With the whole of France currently in a state of emergency, security at the climate talks will be very tight. Any demonstrations by protesters against the causes of climate are likely to be closely controlled. Read More here
18 November 2015, Science Daily, Sea level rise from Antarctic collapse may be slower than suggested. A new study by scientists in the UK and France has found that Antarctic ice sheet collapse will have serious consequences for sea level rise over the next two hundred years, though not as much as some have suggested. This study, published today in the journal Nature, uses an ice-sheet model to predict the consequences of unstable retreat of the ice, which recent studies suggest has begun in West Antarctica. Scientists, led by Catherine Ritz from Université Grenoble Alpes in France and Tamsin Edwards from The Open University, predict that the contribution is most likely to be 10 cm of sea-level rise this century under a mid to high climate scenario, but is extremely unlikely to be higher than 30 cm. When combined with other contributions, that’s a significant challenge for adapting to future sea level rise. But it’s also far lower than some previous estimates, which were as high as one metre from Antarctica alone. The study’s central estimate raises the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) central prediction of 60 cm global sea-level rise by just a few centimetres under the mid to high scenario they used. But the UK and France team’s method allowed them to assess the likelihood of sea-level rise from substantial parts of the ice sheet collapsing, which the IPCC could not due to a lack of evidence. They predict there is a one in twenty chance that Antarctic collapse could contribute more than 30 cm sea-level rise by the end of the century and more than 72 cm by 2200. This does not rule out larger contributions on longer time scales. Read More here
18 November 2015, The Conversation, The state of emergency could thwart public demonstrations at the Paris climate talks. What impact will the attacks have on the Paris Climate Change Conference scheduled to begin in 12 days? While already complicated, the talks will now take place within a state of emergency that is threatening to limit public participation. Events in Paris continue to unfold at a dizzying pace. But in the coming days we will learn a lot by paying attention to how parties use (and abuse) the language of freedom and liberty. American philosopher Judith Butler underlined this point in a note from Paris written the night after the attacks: “One version of liberty is attacked by the enemy, another version is restricted by the state. The state defends the version of liberty attacked as the very heart of France, and yet suspends freedom of assembly (“the right to demonstrate”) in the midst of its mourning and prepares for an even more thorough militarization of the police.” State of emergency the night of the attacks President François Hollande declared a state of emergency. The legal basis for this declaration derives from Article 16of the French Constitution (1958) and Law Number 55-385 (1955). Hollande’s announcement was only the second time since World War II that a President has exercised this power on French soil. The last occasion was in November 2005 when riots broke out in response to the deaths of two teenage immigrants, Zyed Benna and Bouna Traoré. On that occasion, the emergency lasted until January 4 2006. The current state of emergency took effect after midnight on November 14 and is set to expire after 12 days. However, it is likely that Hollande will successfully extend the emergency period for three months and gain broader security powers. Read More here