1 December 2015, Business Green, Paris climate summit: Three sets of figures dominate Day One. Richard Black reflects on how money talked during the opening of COP21. Cynics have always said that money lies at the heart of the UN climate process. The first day of these potentially seminal Paris talks partially proved them right on the money; but not on the cynicism. Public and private sectors came to the party, with money pledged for both fundamental aims of the UN climate convention: reducing emissions, and helping poor nations prepare for impacts that are inevitable. For clean energy, a doubling in governments’ R&D spend to $20bn, and further research billions from private investors such as Bill Gates through an new initiative called the Break through Energy Coalition. And $500m from the World Bank and donor governments to create the Transformative Carbon Asset Facility, which will help developing countries implement schemes to incentivise emission cutting in areas such as transport and urban development. On the adaptation side, we saw $248m pledged from 11 donor nations to help the poorest countries prepare and adapt. And there’s a little more due on forests too, we hear. Read More here
Category Archives: Global Action Inaction
1 December 2015, Climate News Network, India highlights rich-poor climate split. COP21: Significant changes are being made by India to its energy and environment policies, but they may not be enough to ensure a successful outcome to the UN climate talks. Two of the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, India and China, are changing. But while hopes remain high at COP21 − the UN climate change conference − for an effective agreement to reduce emissions, two Indian analysts say there are bleaker realities to be faced. Their verdict is stark: “The 2015 COP is crucial because it can determine the direction to be taken by global energy generation systems after 2020. But, by current indications, this opportunity will at best lead to a . . . programme that will be too weak to combat climate change effectively.” In a briefing called Hot Air: Climate Negotiations and India, Joydeep Gupta and Tirthankar Mandal, of the India Climate Dialogue news and discussion forum, list some of the reasons they are apprehensive about what Paris can achieve. Ambitious plans First, they see a split between the emerging economies and the rest of the developing world over what the UN calls “common but differentiated responsibilities” – the fact that developed countries have been emitting greenhouse gases for centuries, unlike the poorer world, and should therefore do more to remedy the problem. They point out that the first priority for India, where more than 300 million people still have no access to electricity, is to ensure development. While it has ambitious plans to generate 40% of its electricity needs from renewable sources such as solar power by 2030, India insists that it must also expand coal-based power generation to achieve its development aims. Gupta and Mandal write: “The split has been encouraged by the US and some other rich countries, which point out that China and India are now the world’s largest and fourth largest emitters, but gloss over the fact that rich countries have placed almost all the greenhouse gases that have been accumulating in the Earth’s atmosphere from the start of the Industrial Age. Read More here
1 December 2015, The Conversation, New ‘vulnerable nations’ bloc looks set to redraw the climate politics map. Vulnerable states have featured prominently on the first day of Paris Climate talks. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon unveiled a new initiative to strengthen the resilience of the most vulnerable people and countries to the effects of climate change. But it is the emergence of a bloc of 44 vulnerable countries calling for much stronger climate action that may be the real game-changer in international climate politics. While the so-called North-South divide has long characterised international climate deliberations, there are signs it may be on its last legs in that forum. And that’s a good thing. Ending the North-South divide? The first major international environmental conference was the UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in 1972. By most accounts, the conference – already undermined by the status of environmental concerns as “fringe” global issues at the time – was devastated by the scale of a divide between rich and poor countries. Read More here
1 December 2015, Renew Economy, Malcolm Turnbull does a Kevin Rudd and ratifies Kyoto Protocol. PARIS: Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has followed in the footsteps of former Labor PM Kevin Rudd, and announced that Australia would ratify the Kyoto Protocol – a move we flagged yesterday and one that could increase pressure on Australia to lift its near-term targets. In both cases, the gesture came in the weeks after the two prime ministers were elevated to their position, and followed predecessors bitterly opposed to the ratification, John Howard and Tony Abbott respectively. In the case of Rudd in 2007, it was the first period of the Kyoto Protocol, and Australia had been a significant hold-out against the treaty. It earned him a standing ovation at the Bali conference, but little influence in Copenhagen. Turnbull has now decided to ratify the second period of the Kyoto Protocol, at Paris, several years after it signed the treaty. It doesn’t make a lot of difference in itself, but it was seen as an important gesture to developing nations while a new treaty that includes all countries is negotiated in Paris. And, in any case, it would be churlish not to, considering that Australia will use a heavy overhang of surplus credits from the first period of the Kyoto Protocol to meet its 2020 targets. And legal access to international credits may help Australia meet its targets.Read More here