Category Archives: Global Action Inaction

PLEA Network

5 October 2016, Renew Economy: Australia on the outer again as Paris climate treaty comes into force. Australia will find itself again on the outer in global climate change efforts, excluded from key decision-making processes because it is one of a minority of major polluters that has yet to ratify the Paris climate accord. The European Union on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to ratify the Paris treaty, a day after India announced it would also do the same thing. The ratification is expected to be formally voted by ministers later this week, taking the total well past the trigger point of 55 countries and 55 per cent of total global emissions. The speed of the ratification – less than a year after the Paris treaty was voted to general acclimation last year – compares with the eight years it took to get its predecessor, the Kyoto Protocol, into force after it was adopted in 1997. The move will impact Australia in two ways. Firstly, only those countries who have ratified the treaty can vote in negotiations for the next step in the treaty’s implementation. That means Australia will be excluded from these processes, although it may have observer status. It also means that Australia will reinforce its status as a climate outlier, a reputation it earned when former prime minister Tony Abbott and former Canadian prime minister Steven Harper were branded “climate villains” because of their opposition to action on climate change. Read More here

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5 October 2016, Energy Post, What’s holding Russia back from ratifying the Paris Climate Agreement. Russia is now the largest greenhouse gas emitter not to have ratified the Paris Climate Agreement and it is unlikely to do so this year. The country is still deeply divided on climate policy, explains Angelina Davydova, Senior Lecturer at St Petersburg State University, in a fascinating article highlighting the forces in Russian society that are working against and in favour of the Paris Agreement. Courtesy of The Conversation. Now that India and the EU this week ratified the Paris Agreement, the Agreement looks very likely to become legally binding by the end of the year. But one important player is still missing. Russia, the world’s fifth-largest greenhouse gas emitter is unlikely to ratify by the end of the year. Following a special climate event at the 2016 United Nations General Assembly, Alexander Bedtritsky, special adviser on climate to Vladimir Putin, confirmed that “Russia will not artificially speed up the ratification process”. Russian representatives have said they need more time to evaluate the effects of the Paris agreement on the Russian economy, which is heavily dependent on fossil fuels. The government wants to draft a low-carbon development strategy before deciding to ratify. So far, the plan is to work out an analysis of the socio-economic effects of the ratification by mid-December, and to later draft a strategy for low-carbon development. No certain deadline for ratification, which is due to take place by passing a corresponding legal act within Russia, has been set. Read more here

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21 September 2016, Climate News Network, Dire climate impacts go unheeded. New scientific studies address lack of awareness of the adverse economic, social and biodiversity effects that climate change is already having. The social and economic impacts of climate change have already begun to take their toll – but most people do not yet know this. Politicians and economists have yet to work out how and when it would be best to adapt to change. And biologists say they cannot even begin to measure climate change’s effect on biodiversity because there is not enough information. Two studies in Science journal address the future. The first points out that historical temperature increases depress maize crop yields in the US by 48% and have already driven up the rates of civil conflict in sub-Saharan Africa by 11%. Economic growth Hot weather in future could slow global economic growth rates by nearly 0.30 percentage points per year. Almost as surprising, according to Solomon Hsiang, principal investigator in the Global Policy Lab at the University of California, Berkeley, is that nobody seems to be aware of these facts. “People get so used to hot days, since they happen all the time, that they never stop to consider that those days are costing them,” Professor Hsiang says. “But if people used different technologies or organised their lives differently to adapt to their climate, then we might be able to do dramatically better.” Read More here

 

PLEA Network

20 September 2016, The Guardian, Global trade deal threatens Paris climate goals, leaked documents show. Controversial Trade in Services Agreement (Tisa) could make it harder for governments to favour clean energy over fossil fuels as part of efforts to keep temperature rises to 1.5C. A far-reaching global trade deal being negotiated in secret could threaten the goals of the Paris climate deal by making it harder for governments to favour clean energy over fossil fuels, a leak of the latest negotiating text shows. The controversial Trade in Services Agreement (Tisa) aims to liberalise trade between the EU and 22 countries across the global services sector, which employs tens of millions in Europe alone. But a new EU text seen by the Guardian would oblige signatories to work towards “energy neutrality” between renewable energy and fossil fuel power, although amendments proposed by the EU would exempt nuclear power from this rule. The document, marked “limited distribution – for Tisa participants only”, would also force member states to legislate against “anti-competitive conduct” and “market distortions” in energy-related services. This is viewed by campaigners as code for state support for clean power sectors, such as wind and solar. A right to regulate is explicitly mentioned in the paper, but governments would first have to prove the necessity for regulations that legally constrain multinationals. The same clause was used in the World Trade Organisation’s Gatt and Gats treaties which entered into force in 1995, and led to 44 complaints by multinationals via their governments. Of these, 43 were upheld. Read More here